Famous People Flashcards
Kant
(1700/1800) Believed psychology is not a science. Says is there any sense in turning up the light to see what the darkness looks like.
Thales
600-500 BC. Involves in the intellectual revolution and was the first to say the world would be governed by natural rather than super natural principles which led to the study of the cosmos (universe). He looked for natural explanations, predicted storms, eclipses and was one of the first to mummify.
Heraclitus
500-400 BC. Known for saying it is impossible to step into the same river twice, the world is constantly changing, you can never experience the same thing twice.
Pythagoras
500 BC. Believed everything could be turned into numbers which influenced Plato. Developed the triangle theory but said it never works perfectly in real life because the lines are never truly perfect. The experiences of the flesh are inferior to those of the mind.
Empedocles
400 BC. Saw love and strife as the causal powers of the universe, that there was a constant battle between love and war. He also talked about natural selection and survival of the fittest and that you could have random elements driven by love and strife some of which made you more fit to survive.
Protagoras
400 BC. Example of a Sophist which is someone who turned philosophy into a business. In Athens, they would train people to argue well but since they were selling the skill of arguing, they didn’t care what side you were on they just wanted to help you win your argument. Made statements that reflect quite well the concepts of psychology for example: not the ultimate reality that determines the truth but rather each individual person, truth depends on the perceiver rather than the physical reality and perception depends on experience so it will vary from person to person.
Socrates
400 BC. He taught in parks and doorways using the Socratic method. He would question his followers in such a clever way they would answer themselves, therefore all his teachings were verbal. He was ugly and beauty was revered in Athens so he must’ve been brilliant. He was against the sophists therefore he believed there was a truth and it was our job to discover it. Because of this he would question people in power to make them look stupid until they accused him of corrupting the youth and he was given 2 options: either escape or drink poison. He decided to drink poison rather than leave his beloved Athens.
Plato
400 – 300 BC. A student of Socrates but very different from Socrates since he wrote a lot however, it’s not clear how much of Plato’s writing was Socrates or Plato. Plato was pushing for the pure idea of something and said what we observe is false and impure, but what we can reason and think about is much better which is what led to Plato’s allegory cave. He anticipated Freud’s 3 parts of personality with the 3 characteristics of the soul.
Aristotle
300 BC. Student of Plato but believed reality is here in the observable. He was the first psychologists and wrote extensively on a number of topics, he was the last human to know everything that was knowable during his lifetime. Used both rationalism and empiricism, developed the 4 laws of association and developed the ideas of perfect or golden means.
Pierre Abelard
1000/1100. Translated Aristotle, was a theologian and would highlight things that were contradictory in the scripture so he would get in trouble with the church. He proposed the Dialectical method which is debating opposite viewpoints and he said being scholar was acceptable because if we assume that God exists, we have nothing to fear from the study of logic or nature.
Thomas Aquinas
- Known for Scholasticism as he carefully combined reason with the writings of the church and Aristotle to make Aristotle’s writings acceptable for Christians. He believed that the study of nature is acceptable and how reason and faith are separate so you can have faith in your religious beliefs but use logic when it comes to understanding nature. So this is where the division started where people who thought you could serve God best through prayer and others who became scientists and autonomists.
William of Occam
1200-1300. He was a British monk, was excommunicated as he argued that monks should be poor like Jesus and other monks were not too thrilled with that; he was later reinstated. Developed ‘Occam’s razor’ which is what is simpler is most likely the right answer and that a simple theory is better than complex one.
Leonardo de Vinci
1400-1500. He was many things: painters, sculptor, inventor, architect, mathematician, engineer, geologist, botanist, writer. Now realized he used systemic thinking by considering a problem within a context of overall organism or organization.
Galileo
1500-1600. He said there is an objective reality that exists independently of anyone’s perception of it so he studied mountains, moons. He said subjective reality is reality created by the sensing organism (psychological experience) and we shouldn’t be studying that because it was opinion and illusion. Developed positivism which is the belief that only those objects or events than can be experienced directly should be the object of scientific inquiry. Was found guilty of heresy and was on house arrest until his death.
Rene Descartes
1500-1600. He was a celebrity of his time and thought philosophy needed a fresh start, throw everything out and start with basics. He kept breaking things down until the point where he was rejecting almost everything, the only thing he could prove was he himself was doubting/thinking. He invented analytical geometry (vectors) and was described as one of the first psychologists because he believed the mind and body were separate but could influence each other.
Hobbes
1500-1600. Believed man is like a machine, we don’t decide to do an action but need an external force. Complex thoughts are created through linkages of senses through laws of contiguity. The only thing we’re born with is seeking pleasure or avoidance of pain and everything beyond that is produced from our experiences with the environment.
Locke
- Known for believing in ‘tabula rasa’ which means blank slate, the idea we’re born with no pre-existing cognitive structures and it’s only through our experiences with the environment that we learn new ideas. Talked about gradual exposure (behavior therapy) and about how to make learning as pleasant as possible to lead to better learning.
Leibniz
1600-1700. He disagreed with Locke, and said physical things could not cause an idea. Stimuli can only cause a specific idea to be actualized, the thought has to be there already.
Jean Jaques Rousseau
- Says we’re born good but that people around us corrupt us and if we lived in nature we would be noble savages. Explored two routes to achieving and protecting freedom: politically, construct institutions allowing the co-existence of free and equal citizens in a community where they are autonomous. Education wise, foster autonomy and avoid the developments of the most destructive forms of self-interest. One of the first to describe child development.
Stephen Pepper
1800-1900. There are 3 different types of theories in psychology: mechanism, organicism and contextualism. A theory is an explanation that covers a substantial group of occurrences whereas a metatheory is a grouping of theories that share similar assumptions and methodologies.
Charles Bell & Francois Magendie
Experimentally demonstrated that specific mental functions are mediated by different anatomical structures. Dorsal roots of the spinal cord are sensory and ventral roots are motor.
Luigi Galvani
Showed an electrical current could cause muscle contractions in frog legs
Johannes Peter Muller
- He said the speed of a nervous impulse is not measurable therefore vitalism, the belief that life cannot be explained solely as the interaction of physical and chemical forces.
Hermann Helmholtz
- Rejected vitalism and measured the speed of the nervous impulse. He did work on physiological acoustics, optics and color vision. Brough chemistry, physiology and psychology together.
Gustav Fechner
- Explored the relationship between perception and sensation. He was more of a rationalist than a empiricist as he was interested in philosophy, consciousness and linking the physical and spiritual worlds. Wrote a book that less legs mean you were closer to God. He is considered the founder of psychophysics and his laboratory techniques are still used today even though his philosophy is rejected.
Weber
Was interested in the smallest detectable difference. He discovered this for touch.
Fechner
- Extended Weber’s law to other senses, the Weber-Fechner law. Had 3 techniques: method of adjustment: adjust the magnitude of one stimulus until it appears to be the same as the standard stimulus. Method of limits: One stimulus is held constant and another varied to determine which value of the variable stimulus are perceived as the same as the standard. Method of constant stimuli: pairs of stimuli are presented and the subject reports which stimulus appears to be greater than, less than, or equal to the standard stimulus.
Franz Joseph Gall
1700-1800. Skilled anatomist. Confirmed contralateral function. Found the brain is the organ of intellect and emotion. Argued different parts of the brain controlled different functions.
Johann Spurzheim
1700-1800. Assistant to Gall, he plagiarised and extended Gall’s work. Said each faculty (personality trait) is associated with a specific brain area. Brought phrenology to the English.
Flourens
1700-1800. Used ablation and noted the behavioral consequences of destroying brain tissue; rejected localization of unction and phrenology
Fritsch & Hitzig
Used the cortex of a dog to show that motor areas of the brain stimulated movement on the opposite side of the body. Which supported localized functions.
Paul Broca
- A surgeon. Found a chunk that was missing and then the patient could not speak but understood language. Support of localization of function.
David Ferrier
Used precise and systematic stimulation to map the sensory and motor functions of the brain. Opened the modern era of neurosurgery and created a functional map of the brain for guidance.
Ebbighaus
- Studied philosophy and was unaware of Wundt’s work. He was experimentally studying memory and using himself as the participant. He invented a technique using nonsense syllable. Famous for the forgetting curve, learning curve, savings method and overlearning effect.
