Early Schools in Psychology

Question 1

Early Schools in Psychology (x5)

Answer 1

• Structuralism
• Functionalism
• Gestalt Psychology
• Psychoanalysis
• Individual differences / differential psychology

Question 2

How is Introspection related to the Early Schools in Psychology?

Answer 2

Introspection is defined & applied in different ways
-e.g. to Structuralism, Functionalism, etc

Question 3

What did Wundt say is needed?

Answer 3

The need of a “scientific use” of introspection

Question 4

How did Wundt define Psychology?

Answer 4

“The experimental study of consciousness”

Question 5

Wundt studied perception & apperception (consciousness) using what?

Answer 5

• Introspective reports
• Controlled conditions
• Replication
• Trained participants

Question 6

What weakness did Wundt recognise about his work?

Answer 6

Only some aspects of consciousness could be studied by experimental/introspective methods

Question 7

Limitations of Introspection

Answer 7

Often relies on language:
* language allows us to learn labels for experiences
-but does not allow us to know the exact properties of others’ subjective experiences

• depends on having a similar experience
  -recurrent experiences can be different

Question 8

Key Psychologist for Structuralism & Key Information about their Life

Answer 8

Titchener:
* Born in UK
* Studied philosophy at Oxford University
* Moved to Leipzig in 1890 to study with Wundt for a couple of years
* Opportunities for psychology were limited in the UK
* Moved to Cornell in 1892
* Established influential school of psychology

Question 9

Structuralism:
What did Titchener argue?

Answer 9

Titchener (1896):
‘An Outline of Psychology’
The aim of the psychologist is threefold:
He seeks to:
1.analyse concrete (actual) mental experience into its simplest elements
2.discover how these elements combine, what are the laws which govern their combination, and…
3.bring them into connection with their physiological (bodily) conditions
-hence, Structuralism

Question 10

Structuralism:
Titchener’s (1896) Argument: Example

Answer 10

The Stimulus Error:
* must describe conscious elements to understand how concepts (like Duck) are perceived from them
* describe the duck, don’t just say that it is a duck
-e.g. colour, shape, connection, context

Question 11

Structuralism:
Criticisms (x2)

Answer 11

-Approach criticised by the Würzburg school
-Some conclusions reached without a conscious trace

Question 12

How Functionalism Emerged

Answer 12

• Wundt and Titchener had a great influence on psychology in America
• but intellectual climate in USA was more pragmatic
• The Functionalist school developed at the same time as structuralism

Question 13

How is Functionalism Different to Structuralism?

Answer 13

Functionalism is concerned with practical functions of the mind, not its constituent parts
-different to Structuralism

Question 14

What theory influenced Functionalism?

Answer 14

Many were influenced by evolutionary theory
-functions of the mind for survival

Question 15

Key Psychologist for Functionalism & Key Information about their Life

Answer 15

James (1842-1910):
* defines Psychology as “the science of mental life”
* established first American Psych lab

Question 16

Functionalism:
James’ Main Contributions to Psychology

Answer 16

• Functionalism
• Pragmatism
• James-Lange Theory of Emotion
• Theory of Self
• Work on religious belief

Question 17

Functionalism:
James’ Book & Why It’s Better than Wundt’s Work

Answer 17

Principles of Psychology (1890):
* Clearer and more accessible (humorous) than Wundt’s effort
* Summarised 10 years of research and conjecture
* Textbook of choice across universities

Question 18

Functionalism:
James’ Experimental Research

Answer 18

• considered introspection the best available method
• did not favour exp research
• continued to taunt Wundt

Question 19

Gestalt Psychology:
Main Argument & How it’s Different to Structuralism

Answer 19

• Believes ‘the whole is other than the sum of its parts’
  -(different to Structuralism)
• cannot understand visual illusions or other psych processes using Structuralist approach

Question 20

Gestalt Psychology:
Main Psychologists (x2)

Answer 20

• Kurt Koffka
• Max Wertheimer

Question 21

Gestalt Psychology:
Example of Main Argument

Answer 21

The Kanizsa Triangle:
‘ The whole is other than the sum of its parts’

Question 22

Gestalt Psychology:
Main Contributions

Answer 22

• memory
• perception
• problem solving
• clinical psych
• methodological & theoretical framework

Question 23

Gestalt Psychology:
Principles of Perception

Answer 23

Wertheimer (1923):
* proximity
* similarity
* continuity
* connectedness

Question 24

Individual Differences:
Key Psychologist

Answer 24

Galton (1822-1911):
* favoured nature over nurture
* coined the term “eugenics”(1883)
-“the study of all agencies under human control which can improve or impair the racial quality of future generations”
* claimed the less intelligent were more fertile than the more intelligent
-encouraged incentives for breeding amongst the elite

Question 25

Individual Differences:
Pearson

Answer 25

• also a Eugenicist
• “My view – and I think it may be called the scientific view of a nation, is that of an organised whole, kept up to a high pitch of internal efficiency by insuring that its numbers are substantially recruited from the better stocks, and kept up to a high pitch of external efficiency by contest, chiefly by way of war with inferior races”

Question 26

Individual Differences:
Cattell

Answer 26

Cattell (1860-1944):
* studied with Wundt
* worked with Galton
* coined the term “mental test” (1890)
* developed tests
-reaction times, attention span, time estimation, memory for letters

Question 27

Individual Differences:
Spearman

Answer 27

Spearman (1863-1945):
* factor analysis
* general & specific intelligences
* Wechsler (1896-1981)
* WAIS

Question 28

Spearman (1863-1945):
Binet

Answer 28

Binet (1857-1911):
* involved in educational psych
* helped to classify ‘mentally retarded’ children
* used physical testing (but didn’t make much progress)
-e.g. visual acuity, strength, head size, breathing capacity
* developed the Binet-Simon Scale (1905)
-calculated scores for each age
-compared ‘mental age’ with ‘chronological age’

Question 29

Individual Differences:
What did Stern Add to Binet’s Work?

Answer 29

Stern (1911):
Intelligence Quotient (IQ) = (mental/chronological age) x 100

Question 30

Individual Differences:
How Binet Classified Children on Ability

Answer 30

Binet’s ‘Idiots’:
Mentally subnormal could then be identified and categorised as either:
* morons (mildly subnormal - max mental age of 11)
* imbeciles (severely subnormal – max mental age of 5)
* idiots (profoundly subnormal – max mental age of 2)

Question 31

Individual Differences:
How Binet’s Views Differed to Galton & Pearon

Answer 31

Binet believed that intelligence could be improved (unlike Galton & Pearson)
* designed programme of “mental orthopaedics” to improve IQ of subnormal

Question 32

History of Racism & Discrimination in Psych:

Answer 32

Termination & Sterilisation:
* Stanford Uni psychologist developed the Stanford-Binet Test (Terman, 1916)
* Terman was a Eugenicist
* believed IQ tests measured invariant trait that was innate

Question 33

What does this History Highlight the Importance of?

Answer 33

The Importance of the Nature/Nurture Debate
-because this history shows what can happen on the extreme ‘Nature’ side

Question 34

Discrimination & Statistics:

Answer 34

Ethnic Bell Curve
(Hermstein & Murray, 1994)

Question 35

History of Racism & Discrimination in Psych:
Which Act was Introducted?

Answer 35

The Sterilisation Act (1907):
* introduced in Indiana
* Washington Act in Supreme Court upheld (1912)
* 7500 compulsory sterilisations in Virginia between 1924-1972 (not consensual)

Question 36

Modern Eugenics:

Answer 36

For Germinal Choice:
* 1980-1999 in California
* Only Nobel prize winners and others with proven high IQ
* 230 children conceived

Question 37

Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) in Psychology:
Key People Represented

Answer 37

Summer (1895-1954):
* “Father of Black Psychology”
* first African American to receive a PhD in psych (1920)
Prosser (1895-1934):
* first African American woman to receive her doctoral degree in psych
Clark & Clark:
* couple who were influential

Question 38

Accounts, Evidence & Progress:

Answer 38

• APA task force (1995): Intelligence: Knowns and Unknowns
• “It is sometimes suggested that the Black/White differential in psychometric intelligence is partly due to genetic differences” (Jensen, 1972).
  -“There is not much direct evidence on this point, but what little there is fails to support the genetic hypothesis.”
• “There’s still no good reason to believe black-white IQ differences are due to genes”

Question 39

Women in Psychology:

Answer 39

• women were not allowed to graduate from American/German Unis
• James took sympathy on Mary Culkins & allowed her to study with him (unofficially)
• studied memory among other things
• became president of the APA (1905)