early psychology in Germany Flashcards
what did evolutionary theory mean for humans?
they are part of the natural world
what gave rise to psychophysics?
spinoza’s double aspectism
what did fechner say about psychophysics?
if thought and matter are attributes of the same substance, it must be possible to study relationship between mental and physical
how was the mind studied before fechner?
mind was not subjected to experimental/mathematical analysis
what was fechner’s innovation?
manipulate content of consciousness by controlling stimuli and quantify sensations
what did donders want to do with mental processing?
he wanted to apply reaction time studies to mental processing
what is mental chronometry?
if some tasks take longer in reaction time, mental processing is taking place
what is volkerpsychologie?
make inferences about the mind by investigating human products of culture e.g. mythological ideas, customs, language
what is the view of positivism?
authentic knowledge only comes from scientific method
what is the positivist method of studying experience?
observation and description of experience, explanation is to speculate
what is a criticism of positivism?
provides summaries rather than truths of nature
what was wundt’s view on experimental subjects?
willing subjects actively synthesise experiences from sensory elements, ‘physical individual’
what was kulpe’s view on experimental subjects?
emphasises body and physiology, ‘corporeal individual’
what did wurzburgers claim to discover?
imageless thought
what is imageless thought?
visual images in mind related to emotions
