Chapter 4: The New Psychology Lecture Flashcards
What did Wundt test in his lab?
Whether 1 person can receive two stimuli at the same moment- sound of a bell plus sight of a pendulum.
What did Wundt find with his test of stimuli?
That both stimuli register sequentially at about 1/8th of a second.
Who was Wilhelm Wundt?
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.
When was the first psych lab established and when was the first psych journal established?
1875 and 1881 respectively.
What is cultural psychology?
Deals with stages of human mental development through langauge, art, myths, social customs and laws- little impact on American Psychology.
What is the idea of voluntarism?
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.
What is the mediate experience?
Information about something outside the elements of experience- other sciences are based on this (measure something, record data)
What is the immediate experience?
We should study consciousness as it occurs- Wundt believed psych should be studied like this.
What is introspection?
The examination of one’s own mind to inspect/report on personal thoughts or feelings.
What is pure introspection?
Unstructured, self observation used by philosophers.
What is experimental introspection?
Lab techniques and devices that are used to make self-observation more precise.
What were the rules for Wundt’s observers?
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.
What are the goals of introspection?
Conscious processes into basic elements, discover how elements are synthesized and organized, determine laws of connection.
What are the 2 elements of conscious thought?
1) Sensations
2) Feelinga
What are sensations?
Aroused when the sense organs are stimulated and the resulting impulses reach the brain- categorized by modality (visual, oral, olfactory), intensity, and qualities.
What are feelings?
Subjective complements of sensations that do not arise from sensory organs.
What is the tridimensional theory of feeling?
Feeling states are based on 3 dimensions: 1) Pleasure/displeasure 2) Tension/relaxation, 3) Excitement/depression
What is apperception?
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.
What was Wundt’s influence on psych?
Spread rapidly, but had little long term effects- not appropriate for solving real world problems.
When did American psych start to become more popular?
1910.
What are some of the criticisms of Wundt?
Introspection does not always yield agreement- blamed the British for the 1st WW, Gestalt, psychoanalysis, functionalism and behaviourism dominated.
Who were some of Wundt’s descendants?
Cattell, Kulpe, Spearman, Musterberg, Angell, Titchener, Stanley Hall.
What did Hermann Ebbinghaus study?
First to experimentally study learning and memory as they occurred. Had a deep understanding of language.
What did Ebbinghaus believe?
That associationists had it backwards- associations are already formed.
What was Ebbinghaus’ nonsense syllables test?
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.
What was the Don Juan study?
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)
What was the idea of the forgetting curve?
Once memorized, how long can you hang onto it? More time decay= more loss of information.
What were some of Ebbignhaus’ contributions to psych?
Created new journal and textbook, made contributions to experimentation without students or a lab.
What were Franz Brentano’s ideas on psychology?
Disagreed with Wundt on how to study mental processes- psychology should be observational and not just experimental. Writings had important influences on Gestalt psych.
What is act psychology?
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.
What are the 2 ways we can study mental acts?
1) Memory
2) Imagination
Who was Carl Stumpf?
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.
What is phenomenology (Stumpf)
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.
What is experimental introspection (Kulpe)
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.
What is the idea of imageless thought?
Meaning in thought can occur without any sensory or imaginational components- introspection can reveal these thoughts (ex: searching, doubts, judgements).
What was the impact of German psychology?
German psychology began the movement towards psych no longer being a study of the soul but rather more scientific than philosophy.
