Chapter 2 Part 1: Ancient Greeks

Question 1

What were some of the main ideas that arose during the Bronze age?

Answer 1

Warriors with a warrior mentality, age of rule by semi-divine kings, conceptions of virtue and the good life (battlefield glory and fighting well- if you die, make sure you die virtuously)

Question 2

How was the psyche mentioned in Homer’s “the Illiad?”

Answer 2

Idea of the soul/conscious mind- soul-like entities.

Question 3

What are the 3 soul like entities described by Homer?

Answer 3

Phrenes: Action
Thumos: mind
Noos: perception and visual recognition

Question 4

Who was the first major philosopher?

Answer 4

Pythagoras.

Question 5

What does the term philosopher mean?

Answer 5

Lover of wisdom.

Question 6

What did the Pythagoreans believe (cult)

Answer 6

Believed math underlies all nature and can cleanse the mind- attune self to harmony of the universe.

Question 7

What was Pythagoras idea of opposites?

Answer 7

Suggested natural opposites exist in nature- unity only described through tendencies that contradict. There are 10 pairs of opposites.

Question 8

What are the 10 pairs of opposites?

Answer 8

1) Limited/unlimited
2) Odd/even
3) Unity/plurality
4) Right/left
5) Male/female
6) At rest/in motion
7) Straight/curved
8) Light/darkness
9) Good/evil
10) Square/oblong

Question 9

What is the most important pair of opposites?

Answer 9

Limited vs unlimited- as people, everything we experience is limited even if it is viewed as unlimited.

Question 10

What were Pythagoras’ two ideas on a dualistic world?

Answer 10

Physical and abstract worlds

Question 11

What is the physical world?

Answer 11

Known through the senses, can’t provide true knowledge. Contempt for physical pleasure corrupts thinking- due to this he outlawed excess and eating of flesh, strict puritanical living.

Question 12

What is the abstract world?

Answer 12

More permanent and knowable- focuses on our ability to reason rather than our senses. Believed to be an immortal world (soul, not body). Pre-cursor to mind body dualism.

Question 13

How did Alcmaeon use these ideas of opposites in medicine?

Answer 13

Health results from balance, among the first to use dissection.

Question 14

How did Alcmaeon contribute to psych?

Answer 14

Prior to him, the mind was believed to be in the heart and sensory information reached the brain via air channels.

Perception, cognition, memory, as well as founded epistemology.

Question 15

What did Hippocrates believe in?

Answer 15

The natural healing of the body, rest, fresh air, and baths work to heal

Question 16

What was Hippocrates known as?

Answer 16

The Father of Medicine- discovered medicine from superstition. Observe, diagnose, prognosis.

Question 17

What were Empedocles’ 4 humours?

Answer 17

Blood (sanguine), yellow bile (choleric), black bile (melancholic), and phlegm (phlegmatic). These are all seasonally based.

Question 18

What were Galen’s contributions to psychology?

Answer 18

Added temperament to the 4 humours- early version of personality theory.

Question 19

Who were the Sophists?

Answer 19

A group of teachers of rhetoric (art of persuasion), and logic (characterizing valid arguments). Xenophanes, Protogoras, Gorgias. Anything can be true if you are convinced, focus on what humans know and what they come to know.

Question 20

What was Socrates idea on induction?

Answer 20

A method to search for truth- examine common examples that are stable and knowable to find out the truth.

Question 21

Why did Socrates view himself as the “midwife of thought”

Answer 21

Helped others find their own ideas- knowledge acquired through reasoning from within and not through experiencing.

Question 22

How did Socrates influence psychology?

Answer 22

Views on knowlege influenced Plato, Kant and others. Innate trait ideas also influenced.

Question 23

What was Plato’s republic about?

Answer 23

Features Socrates talking to Athenian’s about the meaning of justice.

Question 24

What is Plato’s theory of forms?

Answer 24

Plato believed we inherently had knowledge- everything in our world represents a pure form (idea of an object). Form will always remain the same- things in the physical world as flawed perceptions of an ideal form.

Question 25

What is reminiscence theory?

Answer 25

Plato assumed the soul was immortal, so Is knowledge. Sensory information contaminates perception, all knowledge is obtained through introspection (we remember knowledge which already exists). Consistent with nativist viewpoints.

Question 26

What is the idea of the Tripartite soul?

Answer 26

Appetite, feeling, and reason.

Question 27

What is appetite?

Answer 27

Mortal and part of the body- physical (hunger, thirst, sex)

Question 28

What is feeling?

Answer 28

Also mortal and part of the body, emotions, fear, anger, love.

Question 29

What is reason?

Answer 29

Immortal- rational pursuits and introspection, inhibits gratification, goal of life is to be free from temptation.

Question 30

How did Plato influence psychology?

Answer 30

Furthered the discussion on mind body dualism, proposed early theories on human motivation, Tripartite soul as first nod to personality psychology, ideas also the root for cognitive psychology.

Question 31

What was the Lyceum?

Answer 31

Founded by Aristotle after Plato didn’t allow him to be president of his society, first structure that resembled a university.

Question 32

What is the idea of Peripatec school?

Answer 32

Aristotle was more open to sensory info and disagreed with plato on the theory of forms- he would go on walks and chat with his students, more emphasis on observation, less on math, more on underlying causes.

Question 33

What is teleology?

Answer 33

Every object in nature serves a purpose

Question 34

What are the 4 causes?

Answer 34

1) Material
2) Formal
3) Efficient
4) Final

Question 35

What is the material cause?

Answer 35

What the object is made out of

Question 36

What is the formal cause?

Answer 36

The essence of pattern of the object

Question 37

What is the efficient cause?

Answer 37

The energy that creates it’s pattern

Question 38

What is the final cause?

Answer 38

The purpose of the object.

Question 39

What is common sense?

Answer 39

A mental process which consolidates each piece of sensory information and interprets it.

Question 40

What is passive reason?

Answer 40

Using your own synthesized experiences to navigate the world.

Question 41

What is active reason?

Answer 41

Abstract thinking, highest form of cognition, form the concept of an object with our minds.

Question 42

What is the “golden mean” according to Aristotle?

Answer 42

Moderation as a key to living your best life- aiming for the mean or midpoint.

Question 43

What were Aristotles ideas on memory?

Answer 43

Memories as a chain of associations, remembering (spontaneous recollection), and recall (intentional search for remembered information)

Question 44

What are the 3 laws of association?

Answer 44

1) Association by similarity
2) Association by contrast
3) Association by contiguity

Question 45

What is association by similarity?

Answer 45

We remember the object by thinking of something else that is like it

Question 46

What is association by contrast?

Answer 46

We remember the object by thinking of it’s opposite

Question 47

What is association by contiguity?

Answer 47

We remember an object because it is paired with another object (ex: PB and J)

Question 48

What are mnemonics?

Answer 48

Based on imagination- techniques designed to help us remember lists of information

Question 49

What is the method of loci?

Answer 49

Memory technique which incorporates both loci (places), as well as images to help remember a list.

Question 50

What are the steps of the method of loci?

Answer 50

1) Learn places in a specific order
2) The path should be unique
3) The places on the path should be distanced
4) Every place should be distinct in your mind.

Question 51

How did Aristotle impact psychology?

Answer 51

Invented logic, introduced notion of empiricism, first systematic investigator of biology, introduced metaphysics (structure of reality), theories of motivation, memory, personality and different types of intelligences.