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PSYC 312 History > Chapter 4 Origins of Scientific Psychology in America > Flashcards

Chapter 4 Origins of Scientific Psychology in America Flashcards

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1
Q

what exhibit marked scientific psychology’s first attempt to display its new science to the general public

A
  • an exhibit at a fair with a room displaying scientific apparatus used in psychological experiments, and photos of subjects being tested
  • participants could move through stations and test out the apparatus
  • trying to draw attention away from mesmerism, spiritualism, etc.
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2
Q

who were the three main figures of American experimental psychology in the 19th century

A
  • William James, G. Stanley Hall, and James McKeen Cattell
  • Hall was James’s doctoral student
  • Cattell did his graduate work with Hall (and eventually finished it with Wundt)
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3
Q

describe the nature of William James’s family

A
  • they were well educated and well traveled
  • exposed to art, literature, music and architecture
  • James considered a career as a painter, brother was a novelist
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4
Q

describe William James’s education

A
  • earned medical degree from Harvard
  • hired at Harvard to teach physiology
  • established physiological lab to supplement his course (demonstrative, not for research)
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5
Q

what was the book William James wrote

A

The Principles of Psychology –> American version of Wundt’s Principles of Physiological Psychology

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6
Q

what topics did James’s book cover

A
  • consciousness, sensation, perception, association, memory, attention, imagination, reasoning, emotions and will
  • drew from work in neurophysiology, sensory physiology, etc.
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7
Q

what were the two key concepts of James’s book

A

the stream of consciousness and its linkage to selective attention –> study of the mind

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8
Q

what did James comment of Wundt’s psychology

A

argued that consciousness did not exist in bits/discrete units but rather it flowed like a stream –> thus elemental analyses of consciousness made no sense

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9
Q

who was James greatly influenced by

A
  • Darwin –> brought attention to concepts of adaptation and survival value
  • wanted to examine the role of consciousness in human survival –> how has it evolved, what are its functions?
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10
Q

describe James’s understanding of the role of selective attention in consciousness and the role of consciousness in human progress/survival

A
  • selection of some and suppression of the rest by reinforcing and inhibiting the agency of attention
  • highest mental products are those filtered
  • consciousness was about making choices (rather than relying on instincts) –> something had evolved to aid the species in making good choices important to survival
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11
Q

what was one of James’s most important chapters in his book

A
  • chapter on habit
  • habit was a key force in the maintenance of social order –> keeps everyone within the bounds of ordinance
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12
Q

according to James, how do habits become engrained

A
  • habits become engrained because of neural pathways that fire in appropriate situations
  • neurally based thus hard to change once established
  • emphasized importance of avoiding the establishment of bad habits and ensuring the development of good ones
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13
Q

what was one of James’s original theories

A
  • theory of emotion –> now known as the James-Lange theory of emotion
  • common view at time was that perception of a situation gave rise to a feeling that was followed by bodily changes
  • turned this idea around arguing that the bodily changes result from the perception of the situation, and that recognition of the bodily changes subsequently produces the subjective feeling of emotion
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14
Q

who was James’s student

A

Mary Whiton Calkins –> wasn’t allowed to officially enrol in Harvard because she was a woman, never granted a PhD although James and others petitioned on her behalf

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15
Q

describe some of Calkins’s accomplishments

A
  • first psychology laboratory founded by a woman
  • published four articles on memory
  • invented the paired associates method
  • work with primacy and recency effects
  • work on retroactive interference (principle cause of forgetting)
  • first female president of APA
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16
Q

what is the paired associates method

A
  • invented by Calkins
  • items are presented in pairs in the learning trials and then one item of the pair is used to cue the other in the memory trials
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17
Q

what did Calkins’s work show about the primacy and recency effects

A
  • recency effect could be reduced or eliminated by insertion of some kind of distractor task between presentation of the list and recall of the list
18
Q

describe Calkins’s approach to psychology

A
  • embraced both experimental psychology and mental/moral philosophy
  • introduced “self psychology”
  • argued psychology should be a science of selves not a science of consciousness or behaviour
  • introspectionist psychology
19
Q

describe Calkins’s self psychology

A
  • introspectionist
  • sought to study the self that doesn’t change, the self that changes, the unique self and the social self
20
Q

did James ever develop a career as an experimental psychologist

A
  • no, he wrote a book on the psychology of religion and the psychology of teaching –> most of work was in philosophy (specifically pragmatism)
  • did work on spiritualism and mind cure –> was ridiculed for this, but he wanted to eliminate human suffering
21
Q

who opened the first psychology lab in America

A
  • Hall
  • James also opened a lab, but it was not for research
22
Q

what were some of Hall’s contributions to psychology

A
  • founded first American psychology lab
  • founded first psychological journal in America
  • founded first professional organization for psychologists (APA)
  • began Child Study Movement (using psychology to enhance education)
  • started first journal in applied psychology and religious psychology
  • published NA’s first psychology journal (American journal of psychology)
23
Q

describe Hall’s work in laboratories

A

he founded two labs, but his productivity in them was modest –> preferred more administrative and entrepreneurial roles, good inspirational speaker, strong interest in education

24
Q

describe Hall’s role in the Child Study Movement

A
  • appointed leader
  • established new journal for research in this project to be published in
  • established new house to facilitate research
25
Q

what was the goal of the Child Study Movement

A
  • discover all that could be known about the child
  • sensory capabilities, physical characteristics, humour, play, memory, religious ideas, attention span
  • believed chief application of psychology was to education
26
Q

what was Hall’s preferred method of study

A
  • questionnaires
  • didn’t have a theory guiding the research, they could have questionnaires about anything
  • believed attaining enough information would help aggregation of information which would improve education
27
Q

what happened with the Child Study Movement

A

it was never successful. in fulfilling its ambitions –> more productive strategies to help education were employed and the data proved to be useless

28
Q

what were some positive outcomes of the Child Study Movement

A
  • spawned fields of developmental and educational psychology and made evident the need for physical, behavioural, social and intellectual norms for children
  • served noticed that psychology could be applied for the public good
29
Q

what were Hall’s greatest contributions as a psychologist

A
  • contributed to the field of education and development
  • made a book on adolescence that recognized it as a distinctive age in human development
  • wanted to book to be a handbook for educators and social workers
30
Q

why was Hall’s work on adolescence debated

A
  • discussions of adolescent sexuality were problematic for many
  • published a less sexual version
31
Q

what were some controversial topics that Hall defended in his book

A
  • corporal punishment
  • tolerance for male misbehaviour as natural/acceptable
  • separate educational curricula for women
  • opposition to coeducational high schools
  • unfortunate predominance of women as teachers
  • reserving education for the intelligent
  • need for education to include moral/religious training
32
Q

what was Hall’s system of psychology termed

A
  • genetic psychology –> heavily influenced by Darwin’s ideas
  • thought evolutionary developments in one’s animal ancestry are repeated in the development of the individual from conception through to adolescence –> “theory of recapitulation”
33
Q

what did Hall argue about sex education

A
  • believed sex education classes should be offered in schools
  • fascinated by Freud’s theories –> gave Freud a doctorate degree
34
Q

what was Hall’s least successful book

A

it was on the psychology of religion –> Jesus the Christ in the Light of Psychology

35
Q

what is Hall best remembered for today

A
  • establishment of components essential to a new discipline (journal, organization and doctoral programs)
  • promotion of applied psychology
  • number of doctoral students who had stellar careers
  • mentored first African American to get a PhD in psychology
36
Q

why did Cattell go to work with Wundt

A

he started his graduate studies with Hall but left after a dispute –> finished his studies with Wundt by studying speed of mental processes

37
Q

who was Cattell’s mentor

A
  • initially Hall
  • worked in Wundt’s lab
  • Galton was his official mentor (Darwin’s cousin) –> developed tests measuring human cognitive, sensory and motor abilities which attracted him
38
Q

describe Cattell’s mental tests

A
  • 10 test battery
  • included difference threshold for weights, two-point threshold test, RT for sounds, etc.
  • 3 psychophysical, 5 sensory measures, rest were psychomotor/cognitive
39
Q

what did Cattell describe were the purposes of his mental tests

A
  • to give useful indication of the progress, condition and aptitudes of the pupil
  • could show whether course of study was improving or blunting fundamental perception and mental processes
  • could show if girls were following the same course as boys
  • could identify those who were gifted
40
Q

what happened when Cattell tested all his incoming students with his mental tests

A

used the newly developed Pearson’s correlation coefficient which showed no relationship between performance on mental tests and performance in college courses –> caused him to abandon his career as an experimental psychologist, but influenced the development of intelligence tests

41
Q

what were some of Cattell’s important contributions to psychology

A
  • founded 2 psych laboratories
  • founded journals and the psychological corporation
  • mentored many important doctoral students
  • became editor of the journal Science, and others –> made it viable, welcomed publications from his colleagues, caused psychology to attain visibility

PSYC 312 History (9 decks)

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