Chapter 1 Study Questions

Question 1

1. Compare and contrast Stocking’s (1965) notions of presentism and historicism, and discuss the relative merits of each approach.

Answer 1

Presentism looks at history by tracing people, ideas and events that happened and following the string to what is important now. Historicism, focuses on studying the past without attempting to relate the past and present.

Question 2

2. What considerations are involved in deciding what to include in a history of psychology?

Answer 2

When determining what to include in the history of psychology we use the “great” individuals who are known as great due to them synthesizing existing ideas into a clear, forceful viewpoint, (Darwin being a prime example as he wasn’t the first to formulate evolutionary theory but he substantiated it and popularized it).

Question 3

3. Define a Zeitgeist, and explain its relationship to historical accounts.

Answer 3

The ‘spirit of the times’, the idea that a discovery is made due to it being the right time for that discovery to be made.

Question 4

4. Define both the great-person approach to history and the historical development approach.

Answer 4

The great-person approach follows history by tracking the ideas, concepts, and work of an individual. The historical development approach follows the changes made to an idea or concept by individuals or external factors throughout the years. Ralph Emerson supported the great person approach as he believed history could be boiled down to a few “stout and earnest people” while E.G. Boring supported the historical development approach, pointing out that new ideas have to be accepted by an environment that will assimilate it.

Question 5

5. What approach did Henley elect to use?

Answer 5

Henley uses the eclectic approach, acknowledging how the spirit of the times can produce great individuals while other times individuals shape the spirit of the times.

Question 6

6. Define and describe the three reasons the author cites for studying the history of psychology: (a) deeper understanding

Answer 6

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” – William James. We need to know the proper context and understand where old ideas came from to properly understand modern subject matter or else, we’ll accept old ideas as facts.

Question 7

7. Define and describe the three reasons the author cites for studying the history of psychology: (b) recognition of fads and fashions

Answer 7

Psychology viewpoints change depending on what is currently popular and thus other ideas get left behind, not for being incorrect, but being not popular. Currently a major emphasis in psychology is the cognitive processes and that emphasis is due, in part, to the advances in computer technology, but that doesn’t mean something like developmental isn’t still correct, just currently unpopular.

Question 8

8. Define and describe the three reasons the author cites for studying the history of psychology: (c) a source of valuable ideas

Answer 8

Oftentimes an idea is first discovered or realized but left behind, as the zeitgeist is simply not ready for the discovery’s additions, but later, conditions become better suited for it.

Question 9

9. Why did Galileo and Kant claim that psychology could never be a science?

Answer 9

They believed science came from objectivity in observation to answer questions. Examining nature without the influence of church dogma, past authorities, folk theories, or logical analysis alone. Because of this, psychology wasn’t a science as it was too subjective and operated in the hypothetical.

Question 10

10. What are the two major components of science?

Answer 10

Empirical observations, the direct observation of nature.
Theory, ideas asked from an observation that are then expanded upon.

Question 11

11. Define empirical observation and scientific theory, including its two functions, and describe their relation to rationalism and empiricism.

Answer 11

Empirical observation is the direct observation of nature, scientific theory is made up of two main functions, organizing empirical observations and acting as a guide for future observations to then generate confirmable propositions. Empiricism is the idea that the best source of knowledge comes from sensory observation. Rationalism is the idea that propositions can often best be determined by carefully applying the rules of logic, thus when a theory suggests a proposition it is tested experimentally. The proposition can then be confirmed through experimentation and gains or loses strength depending on if the proposition is confirmed or denied through this experimentation.

Question 12

12. What is public observation and why is it important?

Answer 12

Scientific claims must be verifiable by any interested person and no knowledge is kept secret only available to qualified authorities. Anyone in the public can verify them.

Question 13

13. Describe the two types of scientific laws and give an original example of each.

Answer 13

Correlational laws are events connected in some systematic way, allowing for prediction. I walk my cat which generates happiness, you can then predict that if I walk my cat, I will be happy.
Causal laws (a more powerful class of laws), specific how events are casually related, allowing for prediction and control. If I knew what caused my anxiety, I would predict and control it.

Question 14

14. Describe the difficulties in identifying causes.

Answer 14

Often events seldom ever have single causes and we cannot assume continuity proves causation.

Question 15

15. Describe Karl Popper’s (1902–1994) objections to the traditional view of scientific activity.

Answer 15

Popper didn’t like scientific activity starting with empirical observations as it implied scientists walk around observing various things then attempting to explain what they observed. He believed scientific activity starts with a problem and that problem determines what observations scientists will make, propose solutions to the problem (conjectures) and then attempt to find fault with the proposed solutions (refutations). Three stages: problems, theories (proposed solutions), and criticism.

Question 16

16. Define the principle of falsifiability and the concept of postdiction, describing their relevance to scientific theorizing.

Answer 16

What separates scientific theory from a non-scientific theory, all scientific theories must be refutable. A theory must use prediction rather than post diction. Conceivable observations made to agree with a theory makes a theory weak as the theories are vague so no matter what happens verification can be claimed; Freud and Alder were criticized because of this. A scientific theory should be able to precisely predict what should or should not happen based on the theories parameters, such as Einstein’s theory.

Question 17

17. Describe Popper’s views on theories.

Answer 17

Scientific progression is done as theories are meant to be proven false and replaced with more adequate theories, highest status a scientific theory can reach is not yet disconfirmed; nonscientific theories aren’t useless then as they often serve as originating points for actual scientific theories.

Question 18

18. Describe Thomas Kuhn’s (1922–1996) conception of scientific activity

Answer 18

Paradigm is a shared common set of assumptions and/or beliefs about a subject manner.

Question 19

19. Define Thomas Kuhn’s notions of normal science

Answer 19

Normal science, the “mopping up” of a paradigm, scientists explore the problems defined by the paradigm and utilize the methods suggested by the paradigm while exploring those problems.

Question 20

20. Define Thomas Kuhn’s puzzle solving

Answer 20

Puzzle solving, part of normal science where problems are worked on that are specified by a paradigm, the problems have guaranteed solutions and certain rules that must be followed in arriving to those solutions. It’s like an escape room, you can’t break an object or else you go against the rules of the establishment.

Question 21

21. Describe Thomas Kuhn’s (1922-1996) conception of anomalies

Answer 21

Anomalies are persistent observations that a current accepted paradigm cannot explain.

Question 22

22. Define Thomas Kuhn’s three stages of scientific development.

Answer 22

Paradigms take a long time to become the dominate science and over the course of three stages. The preparadigmatic stage is prior to a paradigm where several competing viewpoints exist, usually by rival camps or school until one school defeats the competitors and becomes the paradigm. The paradigm being accepted, and the normal science generated by it is called the paradigmatic stage. This goes on until the paradigm is displaced by a new one, which generates more normal science, this is called the revolutionary stage.

Question 23

23. According to Henley, at what stage of Kuhn’s scientific development is contemporary psychology?

Answer 23

Multiparadigmatic stage, where multiple paradigms exist at the same time.

Question 24

24. Describe Feyerabend’s analysis of the use of rules and methods in science.

Answer 24

Scientists should be anarchists and not follow any prescribed set of rules, by doing so, science would leap forward. Feyerabend disagreed with the existence of a scientific method and instead believed in the idea of opportunism where anything goes.

Question 25

25. Define and describe biological determinism

Answer 25

Biological determinism emphasizes the importance of the psychological condition or genetic predisposition in explaining behaviour, behaviour is explained as inherited from a long evolutionary past.

Question 26

26. Define and describe environmental determinism

Answer 26

Environmental determinism stresses the importance in environmental stimuli as determinants of behaviour, looking at the environmental factors that caused the behaviour rather than the behaviour itself.

Question 27

27. Define and describe sociocultural determinism

Answer 27

Sociocultural determinism emphasizes the cultural or societal rules, regulations, customs, and beliefs that have influence on behaviour.

Question 28

28. Define and describe physical and psychical determinism

Answer 28

Physical determinism relies on accessible and quantifiable explanations, such as genes, environmental stimuli, and cultural customs in explaining behaviour. Psychical determinism uses subjective cognitive and emotional experience, such as a person’s beliefs, emotions, sensations, perceptions, ideas, values, and goals to explain human behaviour,

Question 29

29. What did Freud mean when he said that much behaviour is overdetermined?

Answer 29

Overdetermined is the belief that behaviour is caused by a multitude of interacting events rather than a single or few events.

Question 30

30. Define Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle and describe its relevance to psychological research.

Answer 30

The cause of human behaviour cannot be measured. He determined this by observing electrons and finding that by merely observing an electron had an influence on the electron’s behaviour. By observing behaviour we change the behaviour, thus, the experimental setting may act as a confounding variable in the search of the cause of human behaviour. Specific causes of behaviour exist but cannot be known.
Spawned the non-scientific group of nondeterminisms, believing that behaviour is freely chosen and is independent of physical or psychical causes, called free will.

Question 31

31. Define William James’s notions of hard and soft determinism.

Answer 31

Hard determinism, personal responsibility is meaningless as human behaviour acts in an automatic manner without free will.
Soft determinism, human behaviour is deteremined but still responsible for their own actions, thus they have free will.

Question 32

32. What does Henley conclude regarding whether psychology is a science?

Answer 32

Some aspects of psychology are scientific, and some are not. Some concepts with long philosophical heritage are not ready to be treated scientifically. Some concepts are in their early stages of development, while others will never be amenable to scientific inquiry.

Question 33

33. How are the mind and body related?

Answer 33

Materialists or monists explain everything in physical terms, they believe that matter is the only realty and believe in only one type of reality. Idealists are a subset of monists who believe that the universe we exist is caused from a perceived idea.
The majority of psychologists are dualists, believing in both physical and mental events existing at the same time and the two governed by different principles.

Question 34

34. What is the difference between objective and subjective reality?

Answer 34

Some believe that what we experience physically is different from what we experience mentally as our brains miss details. Others believe in naïve realism, the idea that what we experience mentally is the same as what we experience physically. Reification is the concept of creating constructs for things that our brains then recongize. Giving a object a name would be making a construct. The problem then emerges when people commit a falacy by mistaking the construct for a real thing by assuming the construct has power rather than that power being given to it by individuals.

Question 35

35. Are the determinants of human behaviour rational causes or irrational ones?

Answer 35

Early thinkers believed human behaviour is rational, focusing on the idea that thought processes are logical, systematic, and intelligent without taking into account human emotion. Irrationalism, proposed by Freud and Jung, claims that behaviour isn’t caused from rational human thought but irrational unconscious emotions.

Question 36

36. To what extent are human features inherited or due to experience?

Answer 36

Nativists and empiricists debate about what human attributes are inherited and to what extent human attributes are determined by experience. Nativists emphasize the role of inheritance, believing human nature is good, bad, aggressive, etc., and human behaviour is instinctive. Empiricists believe human behaviour is largely based off experience. Modern psychologists know human behaviour and attributes are a combination of both nature and nurture.

Question 37

37. What is the origin of human knowledge?

Answer 37

The study of knowledge is called epistemology. The debate of the origin of human knowledge is around the passive mind, supported by empiricists who believe physical experiences are recorded as mental images, recollections and associations represented as patterns that will be recalled in that pattern by the brain.
Rationalism, views the brain as a mechanism for which physical reality is organized, pondered, understood and valued. They believe in the active mind, where our brains add something to our mental experiences and believe each individual views the physical world in their own way.

Question 38

38. What is the nature of the self?

Answer 38

The self is a separate entity that helps organize one’s experiences and provides us with a sense of continuity overtime and endowed with attributes such as instigating or evaluating actions. Includes feelings of intentionality or purpose in one’s thoughts and behaviour, the awareness of being aware, the ability to selectively direct one’s attention and moments of highly emotional insightful experience.

Question 39

39. How are humans related to non-human animals?

Answer 39

Behaviourism believes the difference between humans and animals is quantitative and heavily uses animal research as they believe animal studies provide ideas that can be applied generally to the human level as the same principles govern both.
Humanists believe the difference is qualitative and nothing important about us can be learned by studying nonhuman animals as humans are the only animals that freely chooses their course of actions and are morally responsible for those actions.

Question 40

40. What is the nature of universal versus relative truth?

Answer 40

Universalism is the idea of universal truths. It describes general laws, principles, or essences that govern the world and our perception of it. Our own perception of the world is only influenced by these universal truths.
Relativism ignores these universal truths believing that human perspective always influences what we observe.
Kuhn and Popper’s debate highlights the differences of these perspectives. Kuhn believed that scientific activity was guided through paradigms and the conception of the world changing with those paradigms, thus, no point in discussing truth outside a paradigm. Popper believed in the existence of a physical world with knowledge of that world being able to be acquired through some kind of science.