Chapter 5 The Early Schools of American Psychology

Question 1

what was one of the most prominent issues at the beginning of experimental psychology

Answer 1

the debate over “pure” science versus application –> “pure” is without any practical benefits (for knowledge’s sake), applied was sometimes seen as “tainted”

Question 2

what was the difference between Wundt and Hall’s psychology

Answer 2

Wundt’s psychology had nothing to do with application, Hall’s promoted application (e.g. child study work)

Question 3

who was Titchener

Answer 3

got his doctorate from Wundt and was head of a psychology lab –> labelled structural psychology, or “structuralism” (which he supported), and “functionalism” (which he did not support)

Question 4

what was “structuralism” to Titchener

Answer 4

its emphasis was on discovering the structure of consciousness

Question 5

what did Watson write about Titchener’s work

Answer 5

opposed his psychology as mentalism –> thought that psychology should discard any reference to consciousness

Question 6

how did Titchener distinguish between mind and consciousness

Answer 6

• mind = sum-total of mental processing occurring in the lifetime of an individual
• consciousness = sum-total of mental processes occurring now

Question 7

what problem did Titchener believe psychology was facing (along with all other sciences)

Answer 7

seeking to answer “what”, “how” and “why”

Question 8

what were the three aims of structuralism to Titchener

Answer 8

• identifying structure of consciousness by identifying its elements
• discovering how elements became grouped and arranged
• determine the causes of the particular arrangement of elements (and why this arrangement)

Question 9

what did Titchener believe were the three tasks of structuralism

Answer 9

• analysis and synthesis –> produce a purely descriptive science
• make connections between the elements of consciousness and the underlying physiological conditions

Question 10

what word did Titchener use to sum up the scientific method

Answer 10

observation

Question 11

to Titchener, what were the two components of observation

Answer 11

• attention to the phenomenon
• making a record of the phenomenon

Question 12

what word did Titchener use for the method of psychology

Answer 12

introspection – “looking within”

Question 13

what is another name of structuralisms

Answer 13

introspective psychology

Question 14

describe how introspection as a method was carried out

Answer 14

• participants asked to do a task (e.g. reading words)
• mental processes allowed to run their course and then the observer would describe the events in as much detail as possible
• observer can interrupt at any point to give an introspective report

Question 15

describe how Titchener trained his introspectors

Answer 15

• trained them to produce “introspective habit” –> allowed them to function automatically in making their inner observations without disrupting mental processes
• allowed observers to avoid stimulus error (confusing what is observed with the basic elements of a stimulus)

Question 16

what is stimulus error

Answer 16

confusing what is observed (e.g. a book) with the basic elements of a stimulus (e.g. colour, shape)

Question 17

what is the synthetic method

Answer 17

procedure made by Titchener in which elements of the original introspective analysis were created synthetically to determine if the original experience could be reproduced –> a “validity check”

Question 18

what were Titchener’s three elements of consciousness

Answer 18

sensations, images and feelings –> focussed on sensations

Question 19

what were the four attributes of sensations (Titchener)

Answer 19

• quality (cold, red, loud, salty)
• intensity (brighter/dimmer, louder/softer)
• clearness (distinct/indistinct, dominant/subordinate)
• duration (time course of the sensation)

note: some could have additional attributes, some didn’t have all four (e.g. feelings don’t have clearness)

Question 20

Describe Titchener’s idea of a periodic table of psychology

Answer 20

identified thousands of distinctive visual sensations and separate auditory sensations

Question 21

What did Titchener publish

Answer 21

four volumes of “experimental psychology” –> laboratory manuals, two for qualitative experiments, two for quantitative (in each pair one was for teacher and one was for student)

Question 22

what was the name of Titchener’s organization

Answer 22

the experimentalists –> met once a year, only men were permitted, by invitation only

Question 23

describe how Titchener’s organization was transformed after his death

Answer 23

society of experimental psychologists –> could invite women

Question 24

who was Titchener’s first doctoral student

Answer 24

Margaret Washburn –> also first American woman to receive a PhD in psychology, thesis was published in Wundt’s journal, second president of APA

Question 25

what were some of the topics that Margaret Washburn studied

Answer 25

• personal memory
• interaction of emotion and memory
• attention
• wrote “The Animal Mind”

Question 26

what is introspection by analogy

Answer 26

human observers of animal behaviour inferred the actions/motives of those animals by analogy to an awareness of their own mental processes –> Washburn wrote about this in her book

Question 27

describe the school of functionalism

Answer 27

• was never a coherent school
• never had a sole leader
• definition of psychology was broad
• diverse methods and subject matter
• not as “focussed” as structuralism

Question 28

what were some of the subjects of functionalism

Answer 28

• animal behaviour
• clinical psychology
• psychology of law
• learning
• intelligence testing

Question 29

what was the main aim of functionalism

Answer 29

what is the utility of consciousness

Question 30

what was the aim of functionalism in relation to Darwin’s natural selection

Answer 30

• study of individual differences and their role in adaptation
• understanding how consciousness enabled the organism to interact with and adapt to its environment

Question 31

which three individuals were antecedents to the birth of functionalism

Answer 31

• William James
• Stanley Hall (e.g. recapitulation theory)
• James McKeen Cattell (e.g. mental testing)

Question 32

describe the contribution of Dewey to the field of functionalism

Answer 32

his article on the reflex arc is typically seen as the official starting point to functional psychology –> argued the reflex should be viewed as a whole/circuit, and initiated the idea of top-up and bottom-down processing

Question 33

describe Angell’s contributions to functionalism

Answer 33

became chief spokesperson for functional psychology

Question 34

what did Angell identify as the three conceptions that described functionalism

Answer 34

• functionalism studies mental operations not mental elements
• functionalism seeks to identify the fundamental utilities for consciousness (how it helps organisms adapt)
• functionalism is a psychophysical psychology (acknowledges significance of the mind-body relationship in the service of adaptation)

Question 35

describe Woodworth’s approach to psychology

Answer 35

he avoided the “extreme” positions in psychology and considered his approach a “middle-of-the-road” psychology –> took issue with structuralism and behaviourism, mostly wanted to examine “what leads people to feel and act as they do” (i.e. motivation)

Question 36

describe Woodworth’s S-O-R psychology

Answer 36

Stimulus-Organismic variables-Response –> organismic variables are the emotions, motives, personality traits, prejudices, ambitions, attitudes etc.

Question 37

what did Woodworth introduce in his books

Answer 37

• popularized the terms of independent vs dependent variables
• provided a definition of what an experiment was (only was to determine causality)
• distinguished between experimental and correlational studies

Question 38

describe some common methods used in functionalism

Answer 38

• introspection (experimental self-observation, not Titchener’s introspection)
• questionnaires
• mental testing methods
• intelligence tests
• personality measures
• animal subjects

Question 39

what were some common topics in functionalism

Answer 39

sensation and perception, child development, intelligence, sex differences, motivation, abnormal behavior, animal behavior, personality (versus structuralists focus on sensation and perception) –> mainly study of learning (relates to adaptation and consciousness) –> later on clinical and forensic psychology

Question 40

describe the legacy of functionalism

Answer 40

The functionalists were responsible for the growth of applied psychology, which so dismayed Titchener. They pioneered work in many areas such as child psychology; abnormal psychology; mental testing, including intelligence and personality testing; clinical psychology; industrial and organizational psychology; and other fields as well.