Exam 1 Flashcards
Zeitgeist
Intellectual climate of the times (also the existing social, economic, and political factors)
Personalistic theory
View that progress and change in scientific history are attributable to the ideas of unique individuals
Naturalistic theory
Times make the person or makes possible the recognition for their ideas (Ex: Simultaneous discoveries)
Mechanism (& its time period)
Doctrine that natural processes are mechanically determined and capable of explanation by the laws of physics and chemistry (17th –>19thc)
Mechanism methods (3)
Observation, experimentation, and measurement
The clockwork universe
clock: “Mother of machines”/ Clocks made punctuality and orderliness very important, thus life became more predictable
Determinism
Belief that every act is determined or caused by past events
Reductionism
Doctrines that explains phenomena on one level (Ex: complex ideas) in terms of phenomena on another level (Ex: simple ideas)
Automata (& its pop century)
Popularized the notion that beings were just another kind of machine/ Pop. in EU during the 17th c.
People as machines (inspired by what 2 ideas/explain)
Clocks & automata/ Idea that human functioning and behavior were gov. by mechanical laws and thus could be measured experimentally & quantitatively
Empiricism
Pursuit of knowledge through obersvation and experimentation
___ (person) symbolized the transition the era of mod. psy
Descarte
Descarte on the mind and body problem
The question of the distinction between mental and physical qualities
D: Mind and body are ___ entities, mind ____ body and ___ ___
different, influences, vice versa
D: bc the ___ is composed of matter, it must possess those characteristics common to all matter
body
Reflex action theory and its theorist
Descarte: Idea that an external object (stimulus) can bring about an involuntary resp. (reflexes)
Innate ideas & its theorist
Descarte: Arise from the mind or consciousness/ independent of sensory experiences of external stimuli
Note worthy contributions from Descarte (5)
Mechanistic conception of the body/ theory of reflexes/ mind-body interaction/ localization of mental functions in the brain/ doctrine of innate ideas
Who’s essay marked the beginning of British empiricism?
John Locke’s understanding human behavior
Locke’s key ideas (7)
mind blank slate, sensation ideas, reflection,simple ideas, theory of association, primary and secondary qualities
Locke’s mind as blank slate
no innate ideas, instead, in terms of learning and habit experience
Sensation ideas
Derived from direct sensory input from physical objects (operate on the mind and the mind operates on the sensations, reflecting on them to form ideas)
Reflection
Based on impressions already experienced through the senses/ sensations are the forerunner/ in reflecting, we combine sensations and combine them to form abstractions and other high level ideas AKA reductionism
Simple ideas
Arise from both sensation and reflection and are received passively by the mind/ cannot be analyzed or reduced/ can be combined to form complex ideas
Complex ideas
can be analyzed or resolved into their simpler component
Theory of association & its theorist (& its significance)
Locke: Notion that human knowledge results from linking simple ideas to complex (significant in thinking of mind as machine)
Primary qualities
Exist in an object whether or not we perceive them (Ex: size, shape of building)
Secondary qualities
Depend on the experiencing person (Ex: color, odor, sound, and taste) (If we don’t bite into the apple, its taste does not exist)
Mentalism and its theorist
Berkley;empiricist: All known is a function of a mental phenomena and person (all experience is subjective) God is the perceiver
Berkley: ___ perception not a simple sensory experience, but an ___ of ideas that must be ___
depth, association, learned
When did physiology become an experimentally oriented discipline and under who’m?
1830’s/ Muller
Research on brain function: Mapping from the inside (3 methods)
Extirpation, clinical method, and electrical stimulation
Extirpation and practitioner
Flourens: Researcher attempts to determine the function of a given part of the brain by removing or destroying it and observing the changes in behavior
Clinical method and its practitioner
Broca: post humous examination of brain structures to detect damaged areas assumed to be resp. for behavioral conditions that existed before person died
Electrical stimulation & its practitioners
Fristsch and Hitzig: technique for exploring cerebral cortex with weak electric current to observe motor response
Research on brain functions, mapping from outside: (practitioner?) confirmed existence of __ and ___ matter in the brain, nerve fibers connecting each side of the brain to the ___ side of the spinal cord, and the fibers connecting both ___ of the brain
Gall: white, gray, opposite, halves
spirit of __ dominant in 19th c. physiology and 19th c phl
mechanismse
The beginnings of experimental psy (4 individuals)
Helmholtz, Weber, Fechner, and Wundt
Q: Why experimental psy in Germany? (Ax2)
The German approach to sci (inductive approach/ science defined broadly)/ reform movement in GR universities (academic freedom/ well equipped labs/well paid researchers
Helmholtz emphasized which two approaches?
mechanism/determinism
Helmholtz contributions to psy(4)
Yielded conduction speed of neural impulse, demonstrated thought and action don’t occur at same time, one of earliest experimentation and measurement for psychophysical processes, young-helmholtz theory of color vision
Weber and his contributions (2)
Two point thresholds, just noticeable difference
Two-point threshold
distance between 2 points that must be spanned before subjects report feeling 2 diff. sensations (1st systematic, experimental demonstration of the concept of threshold)
Just noticeable difference (JND)
Smallest difference that can be detected between 2 physical stimuli
Fechner and subject of interest
mind and body quantitative relationship
How did Fechner propose one measure the relat. bw mind and body?
measure the change in stimulation to measure changes in sensation
Fechner’s two proposed ways to measure sensatons
Determine whether a stimulus is present or absent/ sensed or NOT sensed & measure the stimulus in intensity at which subjects report the sensation to first occur
Absolute threshold (definition and theorist)
Fechner: measure the stimulus intensity at which subjects report feeling the sensation first occurs
Differential threshold (Theorist and definition
Fechner: point of sensitivity at which the least amount of change in a stimulus gives rise to a change in sensation *s=KlogR
Psychophysics (definition and experimenter)
Fechner: Relationship between mental and physical processes
William Wundt: 3 notable first
lab, academic journal, and began experimental psy as a science
Wundt investiaged 6 concepts
perception, sensation, attention, feeling, reaction, and association
Q: Why was Wundt considered psy. founder?
BC he integrated prior knowledge and both published and promoted the newly org. material
Wund proposed consciousess be studied by which two methods?
analysis and reduction (introspection)
Wundt believed the mind was ___ in organizing its own ___
active/content
Voluntarism (founder and definition)
Wundt: Idea that the mind has the capacity to org. mental contents into higher-level thought processes
How did Wundt’s ideas differ from British empiricist?
He believed mind was active in syntheiszing elements rather than associating them (passively)
Mediate experiences (definition and theorists)
Wundt: provide info, about something other than the elements of the experience “The rose is red” (primary interest is rose, not red)
Immediate experiences (definition and theorists)
Wundt: unbiased by interpretation (Concerned with flower itself)
Wundt’s method of introspection defined
Examining one’s own mind to inspect and report on personal thoughts and feelings
Wundt’s innovation
Application of precise experimental control over the conditions which introspection was performed
Wundt’s 3 goals
(analyze) conscious processes into their basic elements, (discover) how these elements are synthesized/organized, (determine) the laws of connection governing the organization of the elements
Wundt on sensations
Are aroused whenever a sense organ is sitmulated and the resulting impulses reach the brain
Wundt: Sensation may be classified by which 3 characteristics?
intensity, duration, and sense modality
Wundt on feelings
Subjective complements of sensations but don’t arise directly from sense organs
Wundt: ___ + ___= immediate experience
sensations, feelings
Tridimensional theory of feelings and its theorist
Wundt: Explanation for feelings states based on three dimensions: pleasure/displeasure, excitement/depression, tension/relaxation
Apperception and its theorist
Wundt: Process by which mental elements are organized (processes of creative synthesis)
Ebbinghaus experimented on ___ mental processes
higher
Ebbinghaus focused on __ and __ through which method?
learning and memory, nonsense syllabus
Nonesense syllabus and its theorist
Ebbinghaus: syllabus presented in a meaningless series to study memory processes
Franz Brentano performed more ___ than experimentation
empirical observational
Brentano proposed the study of mental ___
acts
Act psychology and its theorist
Brentano; system of psychology focused on mental activities (seeing) rather than what is seen content
Brentano advanced what two ways to study mental acts?
memory and imagination
Systematic experimental introspection and its theorists
Kulpe: Used introspective reports of subjects’ cognitive processes AFTER they had completed an experimental task
How was Kulpe method of introspection different from Wundt’s?
measured post-hoc and detailed
Titchener’s goal
Analyze consciousness into its component part and thus determine its structure
Stimulus error and its proponet
Titchener: confusing the mental process under study with the stimulus or object being observed
Was Titchener into applied psychology?`
NO
Titchener on introspection
DURING act of, not after
Titchener defined 3 elementary states of consciousness
affective states, sensations, images
Titchener added which two characteristics to Wundt’s pre-existing sensation conditions?`
duration and clearness
What are functionalist concerned with?
How the mind functions and how it helps the organism adapt to its environment
Why were scientist just now starting to seek an alternative answer other than creation for the universe?
-A: Scientist were learning more about other the other species and questioning how they all fit
in Noah’s ark
8. To scientist, the growing accumulation of these artifacts meant that living forms could no longer be seen as constant, as unchanged since the beginning of time, but father must be viewed as subject to modification and change
9. Industrial revolution was the social zeitgeist
10. Change was the order of the day (intellectual climate)
Scholars had thought about evo. but Darwin’s book supplied well-organized data that evo. theory couldn’t ignore
Summary of on the origin of species by Darwin?
Summary: If species cannot adapt, they cannot survive
4 influences Darwin had on psychology?
Focus on animal psych., which formed basis of comparative psychology
Emphasis on the functions rather than the structure of consciousness
Acceptance of methodology and data from many fields
focus on the description and measurement of individual differences
What was Francis Galton concerned with and how did it effect psychology?
Francis Galton’s work on mental inheritance and the individual diff. in humans effectively brought evo. to psych’s forefront
Conclusion of Galton’s Hereditary genius publication?
Eminent men have eminent sons –> Eugenics movement
Galton’s 3 stat. contributions/inventions
- Invented the mean and standard deviation concepts
- Inspired by Quetelet’s normal curve- 1888: Invented the correlation concept (+ tech. used for determining test validity/reliability
- Karl Pearson developed the correlation coefficient, “r”
Mental tests definition and its pioneer
Galton: Tests of motor skills, sensory capacities; intelligence tests use more complex measures of mental abilities
-pioneered by Galton, coined by James Cattell
Association of ideas and its pioneer
Galton: Diversity of associations of ideas Reaction time (time required to produce associations)
Galton’s investigation of mental images marks the first extensive use of the psychological ___
questionnaire
Herbet Spencer coined which term? definition
Social darwinism: Human character and social institutions are subject to evo as well
Spencer: IF the principle of survival of the fittest were allowed to operate __, then only the __ would survive. Human perfection was __ as long as no action was taken to interfere with the natural order of things
freely,best,inevitable
Synthethic philosophy
Herbert Spencer’s idea that knowledge and experience can be explained in terms of evo principles
Spencer: The mind exists in its present form because of past and continuing efforts to __ to various environments
adapt
The work of William James was a major precursor to __ psychology
functional
James is considered by so many scholars to be the greatest American psychologist bc of 3 reasons:
- Wrote with extreme clarity (rare in science)
- Opposed the analysis of consciousness into elements
- Offered view of mind compatible with Functionalism
William James emphasized the ___ aspect of consciousness
biological (brain)
stream of consciousness
William James’s idea that consciousness if a continuous flowing process and that any attempt to reduce it to elements will distort it
-bc of consciousness’s everchanging nature, we can never exp. the same thought or sensation more than once (differ bc the effect of intervening exp./ consciousness can be described as cumulative and not recurrent)
James-Lange theory of emotions
Role biology plays in emo: “Our feeling of the [bodily] changes as they occur is the emotion”
Variability hypothesis
Variability hypothesis: Notion that men show a wider range and variation of physical and mental development than women; women are seen as more average. (Based on Darwin’s theories)
Functionalism supported the variability hypothesis
Hall’s notable firsts
First: American Ph.D in Psy., First psy. lab in the U.S., American journal of psy., president of Clark University, organizer and president of the APA, one of first applied psy.
Angell’s contributions to psy
Molded Functionalist movement into a working school of thought/ Made psy. dept at University of Chicago the most influential of its day/trained many functionalist psychologist
3 Major themes of functionalism according to Angell
Functional psy is the psy of mental operations; task: discover how a mental process operates, what it accomplishes, and under what conditions it occurs
The psy. of the fundamental utilities of consciousness (and mental processes such as willing and judging)
The psy. of psychophysical relations (mind-body relations) and is concerned with the total relat. of the organism to its environment. Mind AND body, no distinctions.
Carr and functionalism in its final form
Presented functionalism when it no longer needed to crusade against structuralism (as in Angell’s time)
Carr’s psychology textbook presented functionalism in what two forms?
Carr defined subject matter of psy. as mental activity: processes such as memory, perception, feeling, imagination, judgement and will
Function of mental activity is to acquire. fixtate. retain, organize, and evaluate experiences and to use these to determine one’s actions. (“adaptive” or “adjustive” behavior)
criticisms of functionalism
Went against structuralism
Strayed from academia to real-world solutions
contributions of functionalism
Introduced animal behavior as a study
Introduced children developmental psy.
Supplemented the introspective method with data obtained from other methods
Left its imprint on mod. American psy. through its emphasis on the application of the methods and findings in psy. to the solution of practical problems
why did experimental psychology loose ground to applied psy in u.s. initially?
economic reasons;lack of university research joba
Cattell and mental tests
Tests of motor skills and sensory capacities; intelligence tests use more complex measures of mental abilities
description of cattell’s mental test (3)
Cattell’s test examined individual differences & dealt primarily with elementary sensorimotor measurements; including dynamometer pressure (rate of movement), 2-point skin sensitivity threshold, reaction time for sound etc.
3. Conclusion: test of this type not valid predictors of college achievement or by assumption, intellectual ability 4. Cattell’s order-of-merit ranking method
What did Binet intiate?
Binet initiated the era of modern intelligence testing
How did Binet measure intelligence?
- Believed it was best to measure imagination, memory , attention, and comprehension instead
- Test focused on judgement, comprehension, and reasoning
2 factors Terman used to measure intelligence
Mental age: The age at which children of average ability can perform certain task
4. Intelligence quotient (IQ): Number denoting a person’s intelligence, determined by the following
Witmer pioneered ___ psychology
clinical/ Interested in assessing and treating learning and behavioral problems in schoolchildren (now called school psychology, not clinical psy.)
scott’s contributions to psychology
First person to apply psychology to personnel selection, management, and advertising
First to hold title of applied psy. professor
Founder of the first psychological consulting co. and first psychologist to receive Distinguished Service Medal from U.S. Army
scott advertised human suggestibility by citing?
Scott cited emotion, sympathy, and sentimentality as factors that heighten consumer suggestibility
scott and employee selection
Scott devised rating scales and group tests to measure the characteristics of people who were already successful in occupations such as salespeople, business executives, and military personnel
Assessed groups, not individuals
Interested in determining how a person used his or her intelligence; how people processed info. and how intelligence operated in the everyday world
Scott defined intelligence as: judgement, quickness, and accuracy
Munsterberg and forensic psy
Particularly interested in eyewitness testimony (The fallibility of human perception in viewing a criminal event and subsequently describing it)
factors that led to applied psy (5)
- Darwin’s notion of adaptation and function
- Galton’s measurement of individual diff
- American intellectual focus on the practical and useful
- shift in academic research to functionalism (thanks to James, ANgell, and Woodsworth)
- Economic and Social factors and the forces of war
