Chapter 4 Origins of Scientific Psychology in America Flashcards
what exhibit marked scientific psychology’s first attempt to display its new science to the general public
- 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.
who were the three main figures of American experimental psychology in the 19th century
- 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)
describe the nature of William James’s family
- 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
describe William James’s education
- earned medical degree from Harvard
- hired at Harvard to teach physiology
- established physiological lab to supplement his course (demonstrative, not for research)
what was the book William James wrote
The Principles of Psychology –> American version of Wundt’s Principles of Physiological Psychology
what topics did James’s book cover
- consciousness, sensation, perception, association, memory, attention, imagination, reasoning, emotions and will
- drew from work in neurophysiology, sensory physiology, etc.
what were the two key concepts of James’s book
the stream of consciousness and its linkage to selective attention –> study of the mind
what did James comment of Wundt’s psychology
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
who was James greatly influenced by
- 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?
describe James’s understanding of the role of selective attention in consciousness and the role of consciousness in human progress/survival
- 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
what was one of James’s most important chapters in his book
- chapter on habit
- habit was a key force in the maintenance of social order –> keeps everyone within the bounds of ordinance
according to James, how do habits become engrained
- 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
what was one of James’s original theories
- 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
who was James’s student
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
describe some of Calkins’s accomplishments
- 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
what is the paired associates method
- 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
what did Calkins’s work show about the primacy and recency effects
- 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
describe Calkins’s approach to psychology
- 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
describe Calkins’s self psychology
- introspectionist
- sought to study the self that doesn’t change, the self that changes, the unique self and the social self
did James ever develop a career as an experimental psychologist
- 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
who opened the first psychology lab in America
- Hall
- James also opened a lab, but it was not for research
what were some of Hall’s contributions to psychology
- 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)
describe Hall’s work in laboratories
he founded two labs, but his productivity in them was modest –> preferred more administrative and entrepreneurial roles, good inspirational speaker, strong interest in education
describe Hall’s role in the Child Study Movement
- appointed leader
- established new journal for research in this project to be published in
- established new house to facilitate research
what was the goal of the Child Study Movement
- 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
what was Hall’s preferred method of study
- 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
what happened with the Child Study Movement
it was never successful. in fulfilling its ambitions –> more productive strategies to help education were employed and the data proved to be useless
what were some positive outcomes of the Child Study Movement
- 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
what were Hall’s greatest contributions as a psychologist
- 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
why was Hall’s work on adolescence debated
- discussions of adolescent sexuality were problematic for many
- published a less sexual version
what were some controversial topics that Hall defended in his book
- 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
what was Hall’s system of psychology termed
- 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”
what did Hall argue about sex education
- believed sex education classes should be offered in schools
- fascinated by Freud’s theories –> gave Freud a doctorate degree
what was Hall’s least successful book
it was on the psychology of religion –> Jesus the Christ in the Light of Psychology
what is Hall best remembered for today
- 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
why did Cattell go to work with Wundt
he started his graduate studies with Hall but left after a dispute –> finished his studies with Wundt by studying speed of mental processes
who was Cattell’s mentor
- 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
describe Cattell’s mental tests
- 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
what did Cattell describe were the purposes of his mental tests
- 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
what happened when Cattell tested all his incoming students with his mental tests
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
what were some of Cattell’s important contributions to psychology
- 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
