Chapter 4: The New Psychology Lecture

Question 1

What did Wundt test in his lab?

Answer 1

Whether 1 person can receive two stimuli at the same moment- sound of a bell plus sight of a pendulum.

Question 2

What did Wundt find with his test of stimuli?

Answer 2

That both stimuli register sequentially at about 1/8th of a second.

Question 3

Who was Wilhelm Wundt?

Answer 3

The first real psychologist- founder of modern psychology. Formalized ideas and began to perceive psych as it’s own discipline- introduced the term experimental psychology.

Question 4

When was the first psych lab established and when was the first psych journal established?

Answer 4

1875 and 1881 respectively.

Question 5

What is cultural psychology?

Answer 5

Deals with stages of human mental development through langauge, art, myths, social customs and laws- little impact on American Psychology.

Question 6

What is the idea of voluntarism?

Answer 6

The idea that the mind has capacity to organize mental contents into higher thoughts. Process of organization in the mind as key- elements are necessary for this to occur.

Question 7

What is the mediate experience?

Answer 7

Information about something outside the elements of experience- other sciences are based on this (measure something, record data)

Question 8

What is the immediate experience?

Answer 8

We should study consciousness as it occurs- Wundt believed psych should be studied like this.

Question 9

What is introspection?

Answer 9

The examination of one’s own mind to inspect/report on personal thoughts or feelings.

Question 10

What is pure introspection?

Answer 10

Unstructured, self observation used by philosophers.

Question 11

What is experimental introspection?

Answer 11

Lab techniques and devices that are used to make self-observation more precise.

Question 12

What were the rules for Wundt’s observers?

Answer 12

Must be able to determine when a process is introduced, must be in a state of readiness, repeat the observations and vary experimental conditions. No pause needed before providing an observation, must do 10000 observations.

Question 13

What are the goals of introspection?

Answer 13

Conscious processes into basic elements, discover how elements are synthesized and organized, determine laws of connection.

Question 14

What are the 2 elements of conscious thought?

Answer 14

1) Sensations

2) Feelinga

Question 15

What are sensations?

Answer 15

Aroused when the sense organs are stimulated and the resulting impulses reach the brain- categorized by modality (visual, oral, olfactory), intensity, and qualities.

Question 16

What are feelings?

Answer 16

Subjective complements of sensations that do not arise from sensory organs.

Question 17

What is the tridimensional theory of feeling?

Answer 17

Feeling states are based on 3 dimensions: 1) Pleasure/displeasure 2) Tension/relaxation, 3) Excitement/depression

Question 18

What is apperception?

Answer 18

The process by which mental elements are organized- new properties are created by combining elements and the mind acts on these elements to make up a whole.

Question 19

What was Wundt’s influence on psych?

Answer 19

Spread rapidly, but had little long term effects- not appropriate for solving real world problems.

Question 20

When did American psych start to become more popular?

Answer 20

1910.

Question 21

What are some of the criticisms of Wundt?

Answer 21

Introspection does not always yield agreement- blamed the British for the 1st WW, Gestalt, psychoanalysis, functionalism and behaviourism dominated.

Question 22

Who were some of Wundt’s descendants?

Answer 22

Cattell, Kulpe, Spearman, Musterberg, Angell, Titchener, Stanley Hall.

Question 23

What did Hermann Ebbinghaus study?

Answer 23

First to experimentally study learning and memory as they occurred. Had a deep understanding of language.

Question 24

What did Ebbinghaus believe?

Answer 24

That associationists had it backwards- associations are already formed.

Question 25

What was Ebbinghaus’ nonsense syllables test?

Answer 25

Syllables were presented in a meaningless series, as using words would have brought about already present associations. Used these to determine speed of memorization/forgetting.

Question 26

What was the Don Juan study?

Answer 26

Ebbinghaus memorized stanzas of Don Juan- each had 80 syllables and took 9 readings to memorize. Then he memorized 80 nonsense syllables which took 80 readings to memorize (9X harder than meaningful material)

Question 27

What was the idea of the forgetting curve?

Answer 27

Once memorized, how long can you hang onto it? More time decay= more loss of information.

Question 28

What were some of Ebbignhaus’ contributions to psych?

Answer 28

Created new journal and textbook, made contributions to experimentation without students or a lab.

Question 29

What were Franz Brentano’s ideas on psychology?

Answer 29

Disagreed with Wundt on how to study mental processes- psychology should be observational and not just experimental. Writings had important influences on Gestalt psych.

Question 30

What is act psychology?

Answer 30

Focused on mental activities rather than mental contents- difference between experience of content and experience as an activity. (ex: colour is the content of a flower, act of seeing it is the mental activity). Mental activity is not accessible through introspection.

Question 31

What are the 2 ways we can study mental acts?

Answer 31

1) Memory

2) Imagination

Question 32

Who was Carl Stumpf?

Answer 32

Rival of Wundt- had an interest in music and psychology of music. Created an institute to rival Wundt’s Leipzig- agreed with Brentano that mental events should be studied as a whole unit (mental phenomena). Pillar of Gestalt school.

Question 33

What is phenomenology (Stumpf)

Answer 33

Examined experience as it occurs and does not reduce experience to elementary components- approach is based on an unbiased description of immediate experience as it occurs.

Question 34

What is experimental introspection (Kulpe)

Answer 34

Ask participants to complete a complex lab task and then had them provide a retrospective analysis of what they were thinking about during the task (Wundt called this mock introspection), required more information than Wundt and asked participants to describe mental processes qualitatively.

Question 35

What is the idea of imageless thought?

Answer 35

Meaning in thought can occur without any sensory or imaginational components- introspection can reveal these thoughts (ex: searching, doubts, judgements).

Question 36

What was the impact of German psychology?

Answer 36

German psychology began the movement towards psych no longer being a study of the soul but rather more scientific than philosophy.