Final

Question 1

Explain how the trend towards objectivism influenced by the traditions of mechanism and positivism reinforced and favored the growth of animal psychology and of behaviorism.

Answer 1

• Mechanism: idea that there are rules that govern how the body works as a machine—body is subject to physical laws and can be studied (Descartes).
• Comte: founder of positivism—emphasizes positive knowledge and facts (knowledge that is not debatable) as opposed to subjective knowledge.
• Objectivism: truth is not debatable; true knowledge comes from observation; truth is objectively verifiable.
• Systematic introspection is no more; can’t observe what someone is thinking.
• Very objective view becomes part of the zeitgeist.
• Objective and scientific study of animal behavior develops into behaviorism, according to Watson. Animal psychology developed out of Darwin’s evolutionary theory.*****
• Skinner, Watson, and others believed that psychology should concern itself with the observable behavior of people and animals, not with unobservable events that take place in their minds

Question 2

Describe the popularity of Clever Hans and the significance of his fame and the findings about him as an antecedent influence to behaviorism.

Answer 2

• Idea of a horse that could countà raised interest in animal intelligence and increased attention to behavior and consciousness; elevated question of animal learning.
• Turned out to be a conditioned stimulus (baiting stimulus).
• Pfungst demonstrated that the horse was not actually performing these mental tasks, but was watching the reaction of his human observers. Pfungst discovered this artifact in the research methodology, wherein the horse was responding directly to involuntary cues in the body language of the human trainer, who had the faculties to solve each problem. (From Wikipedia).
• Pfungst then proceeded to examine the behavior of the questioner in detail, and showed that as the horse’s taps approached the right answer, the questioner’s posture and facial expression changed in ways that were consistent with an increase in tension, which was released when the horse made the final, correct tap. This provided a cue that the horse could use to tell it to stop tapping. Even when Pfungst showed the most suddle cues, Hans picked up on them.
• Antecedent influence bc he brought attention to animal intelligence by training Hans to count

Question 3

Relate Thorndike’s connectionism to the older philosophical notion of association. Describe Thorndike’s puzzle-box research and define the law of effect that resulted from this research.

Answer 3

• Wanted objective approach to animal behavior and a mechanistic approach to overt animal behavior rather than mental elements (ie. focus on observable behavior).
• Older Philosophical Notion: Connectionism: came out of the idea of associations (or concept of connections between ideas) from Locke and Hume; direct descendant from Locke.

o Thorndike said: NOT connection between ideas, but learning is the result between situations (stimuli) and responses***

• Mechanistic approach—reduce behavior to stimuli and response.

Puzzle Box research:

• Worked with animals using puzzle boxes he designed himself.
• Trial and Error learning or Trials of Accidental Learning.
• Animal (usually a cat) in the box must hit switch to open box, then gets food reward.
• Behaviors that open the door are rewarded and thus increase (Stamping in/out a response).

Law of Effect: any act that produces satisfaction and becomes associated with that action. When event reoccurs, satisfactory behavior is repeated (later known as positive reinforcement).

Question 4

Explain Pavlov’s work and how it helped shift associationism from its traditional emphasis on subjective ideas to more quantifiable, objective responses such as muscular movements and glandular secretions. Why was this important at the time and why is this important to modern psychology?

Answer 4

• Pavlov worked with the primary digestive glands and the role of saliva; higher nervous systems of the brain—explored conditioned reflex.
• Looks at conditions that caused salivation by surgically isolating the glands.
  a. Restrained dogs emitted ‘psychic’ predictive salivation (dogs salivated early) during not applicable conditions.
  b. Pavlov tested conditions under which ‘psychic secretions’ and responses occur.
  c. Thus moved association to quantifiable relationships that can be objectively measured (i.e.—science).
• Pavlovian/Classical Conditioning: all about prediction of behavior; predicting conditions for a stimulus to occur.

Question 5

Explain how Pavlov’s research started with psychic secretions and ended with an understanding that classical conditioning is all about prediction. Be sure to include an example of classical conditioning in your answer.

Answer 5

-• Pavlov worked with the primary digestive glands and the role of saliva; higher nervous systems of the brain—explored conditioned reflex.
• Looks at conditions that caused salivation by surgically isolating the glands.
a. Restrained dogs emitted ‘psychic’ predictive salivation (dogs salivated early) during not applicable conditions.
b. Pavlov tested conditions under which ‘psychic secretions’ and responses occur.
c. Thus moved association to quantifiable relationships that can be objectively measured (i.e.—science).
• Pavlovian/Classical Conditioning: all about prediction of behavior; predicting conditions for a stimulus to occur.

Question 6

What was Twitmyer’s contribution to modern psychology, why is it so often overlooked?

Answer 6

-Discovered the same results as Pavlov with human patients and testing of reflexes (Simultaneous Discovery); Like Pavlov, he accidentally discovered classical conditioning or that he could condition a response by way of a bell. Twitmyer would ring a bell before testing the reflex and found that patient’s pre maturely responded to the bell. Technically Twitmyer discovered the phenomenon

He presented his work at a meeting of the American Psychological Association in 1904, presided over by William James. His paper, “Knee jerks without stimulation of the patellar tendon”, was given late in the session, well-past the scheduled lunch break, and drew little response from the crowd.

Question 7

In what way did early influences in Watson’s life influence his untimely exit from psychology and what impact did that untimely exit from psychology have on the field?

Answer 7

Early influences:

• Mother’s phobic concern over dirt: dirt=the devil; very religious.
• Nanny: told Watson the devil was in ‘the dark’—resulted in Watson’s phobia of the dark; anxiety most of his life.
• Dad: abandons family, makes Watson completely dependent on mother.
• Switched to psychology in 1900 when mother died, did not fulfill promise to become a minister.
• Struggles with money and childhood anxieties; always on the verge of a breakdown.

Untimely exit:

• Scandal over his affair with Rosalie results in him losing his means of publishing research (no longer head of Psychological Review).
• Uses his experiences in psych and applied it to modern advertising:

o Attention to consumer behavior.

o Promoted advertisement psychology the most.

o Associated feelings with product (Hershey’s Share a Kiss and a Smile).

• Publishers wanted him to write articles in a readable style—no longer published in professional journals.

Question 8

Why is Watson’s story prone to distortions of data (give examples) and how do these impact psychology?

Answer 8

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Question 9

What criticisms of structuralism and functionalism did Watson make in his pivotal 1913 article?

Answer 9

• The content of psychology should be behavior, not consciousness.
• Methods should be objective rather than introspective (observing one’s own mental state); uniform and experimental methods.
• Purpose should be “prediction and control of behavior” rather than fundamental understanding of mental events; study of things that can be objectively viewed.
• Psychology had failed to become an undisputed natural science because it was concerned with conscious processes that were invisible, subjective, and incapable of precise definition.

Question 10

How did behaviorism change the role and task of the human subject?

Answer 10

• No more introspection.
• Scientific—more people apply psychology.
• Humans are viewed as machines, thus to understand the machine you must observe it objectively.
• Consciousness not studied.

Question 11

Discuss the reasons for behaviorism’s popular appeal.

Answer 11

• Based on science—more people apply it; more applicable to real life.
• Watson’s charm and charisma.
• First ‘truly scientific’ psychology.
• Disposed of philosophical question of mind and soul; no more introspection.

Question 12

How did Watson explain thought? In what way can his view be seen in the work of Skinner?

Answer 12

• Behaviorism considered muscle movement as proof of thought; thought is subvocal speech (a behavior).
• Watson believed stimulus-response impacted thought processes; thus, study the connections between stimulus and response to discover thought processes adjusting to the environment (stimulusàthoughtàresponse).
• Skinner: studied the connection between a stimulus and reward resulting in a response that can be conditioning to reoccur. If an organism is operating on an environment and responding to consequences of its behavior, behavior can be altered based on the consequences.

Question 13

What is operationism? How did it influence the neobehaviorists of the 1920s and 1930s?

Answer 13

• Operationalism: attitude/general principle; the purpose of which is to render the language and terminology of science more objective and precise and to rid science of problems that are not actually observable or physically demonstrable (pseudo-problems); the validity of any given scientific finding is dependent on the operations by which it was reached.
• Supported Watson’s call for objectivity and scientific methods in psychology: if you cannot observe and objectively test it, then discard it.

Question 14

How is operant conditioning used to modify behavior?

Answer 14

• Operant conditioning: (BF Skinner) understanding how an organism is operating on an environment and how it responds to the consequences of behavior; how behavior is altered due to consequences of actions.
• Reinforcer: increases likelihood of reoccurrence.
• Punishment: extinguishes behavior/decrease likelihood of occurrence.
• By rewarding a series of little random movements, one by one, the experimenter can ‘shape the behavior’ of the animal until it acts in ways not part of original or natural performance.

Question 15

Walden II represents a society based entirely on behavioral engineering. Choose one of the main characters from “Walden II” and briefly (but accurately) describe the community, be certain to consider what would be the most important features from that character’s viewpoint.

Answer 15

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Question 16

What is the overarching principle of Walden II? Give examples of the use of the principle from Walden II.

Answer 16

-• Human behavior is always under the control of external forces; the goal of society and of a science of behavior should be to take control of those forces so that individuals can become happy and productive members of society.
• Skinner wanted behaviorism to change society for the better and for society to use behaviorism in real-world settings in positive ways.

Question 17

Taken to the logical conclusion, what is the bottom line of behaviorism in regard to freedom and free will, especially from the viewpoint of Skinner? Discuss the implications for society, giving consideration to Walden II.

Answer 17

-• Skinner wanted behaviorism to change society for the better and for society to use behaviorism in real-world settings in positive ways.
• In his view, humans could be studied as machines (mechanism); humans operating on their environment and then the consequences of their actions either reinforce or extinguish that action.
• No such thing as free will—we are all conditioned to respond in certain ways to certain things; our behavior is a cycle of stimulus and response.

Question 18

Explain how a visual illusion gave rise to the Gestalt school of thought.

Answer 18

-• As Wertheimer was gazing out of a window of a train he was traveling on, he began to speculate why it was that objects in the distance seemed to be moving fast even though they were obviously stationary.
o (telephone poles, houses and hilltops, though stationary seemed to be speeding along with the train). As he rode, he began to question the popular belief that such illusions were the result of the retina and instead wondered if it could be the result of a higher-level mental process.
• Eventually, he began to think of another illusion produced by a stroboscope.
• Using projections of lines for his experiments, he stumbled upon the “phi” phenomenon. Although it was later disproven, his theory of the illusion of motion taking place in the mind, not retina, became the seed for Gestalt psychology and began the birth of Gestalt psychology.

Question 19

What factors impeded acceptance of Gestalt psychology in the United States?

Answer 19

-• Wrong place at the wrong time. Behaviorism was very popular at the time and Gestalt psychology was dealing with the very subject matter that Behaviorism rejected or denied.
• Behaviorism grew out of the current atmosphere in the U.S. It was a reaction to psychological principles born here.
• Gestalt was born in Germany and was a direct rebellion of Wundtian principles. It valued the whole instead of its parts.
• Due to the World War, most of the leading Gestalt psychologists were forced to move to the U.S. in order to escape persecution and keep working. Not only were they impeded by the popularity of Behaviorism at its peak, they were held back by the language and culture barrier. Their work had to be translated and this delayed it from reaching an American audience.
• False belief of many in the U.S. that Gestalt dealt only with perception and that these professors had no graduate students meant that it never became a powerful school of thought in this country.
• Ideas from the Gestalt psychologists did keep cognitive principles alive that were later incorporated into Cognitive Psychology, which definitely became a powerful school of thought within psychology.

Question 20

Name and explain three of the laws of Gestalt.

Answer 20

-• Proximity- This law states that as when a number of similar objects are seen, they tend to be perceived in sets of which are close to each other.
• Similarity- When a number of similar and dissimilar objects are mingled, the similar objects are seen as groups. This law can overcome the proximity factor**
• Pragnanz- the tendency to see the simplest shapes in complex patterns. For example, if a circle and a rectangle overlap, one will only see the two shapes and not regard the overlapping space as a separate shape. A particular case of the Law of Pragnanz is closure. This occurs when a familiar shape is seen with missing parts. As a result, we fill in the gaps to complete the image in the simplest way possible.
• The Law of Proximity: when we see a number of similar objects, we tend to perceive them as groups or sets of those which are close to each other. Wertheimer demonstrated this with paired groups of dots and paired groups of letters below them. He found that people shown the lines of dots spontaneously see it as pairs of dots close to each other; people cannot make themselves see it as constructed pairs of widely spaced dots with little room between the pairs.
• The Law of Similarity: when similar and dissimilar objects are mingled, we see the similar ones as groups. This can overcome proximity because we notice the similar objects before noticing the groups of like and unlike objects together.
• The Law of Continuation or direction: In many patterns, we tend to see lines that have a coherent continuation or direction (why we are able to pick out a meaningful shape from a bewildering background). In a picture of two figures that have become merged, where now a wavy line going through the figure is apparent, it is impossible to see the originals because of the dominance of the wavy line.

Question 21

Describe Köhler’s research on Tenerife regarding chimpanzee mentality. What was the significance of this work?

Answer 21

What was the significance of this work?
• Tenerife is one of the Canary Islands where Kohler was offered the position of Director of the Prussian Academy of Sciences’ anthropoid research station.
• He arrived there in 1913 and ended up staying for over six years due to the war and post-war conditions.
• Some have speculated that he was really a spy and British intelligence agents thought so because they believed no scientist would have spent so much time studying how apes get hard-to-reach bananas.
Experiment:
• First he presented the chimps with detour problems where they had to use a roundabout route to get to the bananas. They could solve these types of problems easily. He then moved on to more challenging problems where they could use tools to get the bananas. These included poles that could be fitted together, boxes to stack, and ladders that could be leaned against a wall (which they never figured out how to use properly).
Significance:
• The finding that insight learning does not depend on rewards, as did the stimulus-response learning that was described in Thorndike’s experiments with cats had huge implications for the psychology of learning because Kohler showed the reward did not bring about the learning; the animals solved the problems before they received the fruit.
• The second very significant idea that came out of his research was that insight learning allowed him to see that once an animal achieved an insight they could then generalize this information and apply it to other situations. In psychological terms, insight learning is capable of “positive transfer.” Kohler later showed the processes happened with young children, although even very young children were far more insightful than mature chimps.
• Third, Kohler showed what the Behaviorists and followers of Wundt would not believe: that an animal can be trained to choose between two different colored objects, but what they learned was not a relationship between the colors. Kohler’s experiments with chickens and later with chimps on this subject showed that the relationship between the colors was the primary fact the animals had learned since they transposed it to different situations. It was an example of the general rule that animals and humans perceive and learn everything in terms of relationships. Relationships are the key to perception, learning, and memory. This idea had been excluded from psychology but was reinstated by Kohler’s work and the work of other Gestaltists. Experiments and findings such as these kept the path to cognitive psychology open and alive, even as Behaviorism tried to smother them.

• Kohler’s experiments consisted of placing chimps in an enclosed area and presenting them with a reward that was out of reach, such as bananas. Kohler used four chimps in his experiments, Chica, Grande, Konsul, and Sultan. In one experiment, Kohler placed bananas outside Sultan’s cage and two bamboo sticks inside his cage. Neither stick was long enough to reach the bananas so the only way to reach the bananas was to put the sticks together. Kohler demonstrated to Sultan the solution by putting his fingers into the end of one of the sticks. However, this did not help Sultan solve the problem. After some contemplation, Sultan put the two sticks together and created a stick long enough to reach the bananas outside his cage. Another study involved bananas suspended from the roof. The chimps first tried to knock them down by using a stick. Then, the chimps learned to stack boxes on top of one another to climb up to the bananas. He noticed that an ape would suddenly see a solution. He interpreted this as a restructuring of their view of the situation. He called the sudden discovery “insight” and defined it as “the appearance of a complete solution with reference to the whole layout problem.” This was a very different process than Thorndike explained with his trial-and-error or “trial-and-accidental success” learning.
• Kohler described three properties of insight learning. First, insight-learning is based on the animal perceiving the solution to the problem. Second, insight-leaning is not dependent on rewards. Third, once a problem has been solved, it is easier to solve a similar problem.
• Kohler tested Gestalt theory in regards to the transposition of stimuli by training a chicken to distinguish between two shades of gray. The chicken was then rewarded for pecking at the darker gray card but was not rewarded for pecking at a lighter gray card. After numerous trials, the chicken only pecked at the darker gray card. When the chicken was exposed to a dark gray and a black card, the chicken pecked at the black card. This experiment disproves Thorndike’s theory that animals learn to respond to a particular stimulus with a specific response.
• Kohler conducted a series of experiments on chimps mentality between 1914 and 1920 that lead to studies of human problem solving by the Gestalt psychologists. Kohler created a number of different problems for his apes to solve where the chimps had to get bananas by a roundabout route and others where they had to use “tools” to reach the out-of-reach bananas (they used sticks where they could knock the bananas down, and ladders where they could lean them against a wall, and boxes). At times the apes would suddenly see a solution to the problem, which Kohler termed as a restructuring of the ape’s view of the situation- or “insight.” It was defined as the appearance of a complete solution with reference to the whole layout of the problem. In one experiment, Kohler put an ape in the cage an the bananas out of reach, outside the cage with several sticks inside the cage. In some situations, the apes would immediately see a solution and in others, the ape might not realize it for some time, then all of a sudden see that it could reach the bananas with the sticks.
• Kohler also determined that this insight thinking could not be used on simpler animals such as chickens; in these experiments, he set up a semi-enclosure making an “L” shape with the chicken on the inside and the food on the outside of the fence. The chicken was not able to realize how it could get around the wall to the food but a dog could.
• This was different from Thorndike’s experiments using cats because the puzzle box problem was not something they could solve using intelligence because it contained mechanical elements they could not see. It was a different process of problem solving: looking at the whole layout of the problem versus trial and error learning. Thorndike’s learning was dependent on reinforcements and punishments were not used as frequently because of the difference in effectiveness from rewards. One of Kohler’s most important findings was that insight learning does not depend on rewards as did the stimulus-response learning of Thorndike’s cats. The chimps were seeking a reward but their learning was not brought about by the reward, they solved the problem before they ate the fruit. Another finding was that when animals achieved insight, they learned the solution to the problem and were able to generalize and apply the solution to different problems (in modified form). These observations prepared the way for Gestaltist studies of human problem solving.

Question 22

Why was Gestalt psychology both a success and a failure?

Answer 22

-• Gestalt psychology had many disadvantages at the time of its emergence. Though it became a leading school in Germany, the founders and their students were forces to disperse because of World War II. Koffka and Kohler introduced Gestalt psychology and at first there was a great interest in it. Yet, behaviorism was rapidly becoming popular and overshadowed the new ideas. This was especially the case with translation, as it delayed the impact of the Gestalt works. Also, with the behaviorist views being so popular, many were not interested in the topic as they were misinformed that it was only about perception. The combination of these factors left little room for Gestalt psychology to spread; however, this is not to say that it completely disappeared, but was absorbed in a number of other schools of thought. In recent years a resurgence of interest in Gestalt ideas has occurred, although it has happened less forcefully.
• Success: Several forms of research confirmed Gestalt psychology theories such as studies of language acquisition (showed that children sense the grammatical structure of sentences and begin speaking in grammatical sentences long before being taught anything about grammar). Koffka had an extensive effect on he psychological community through his writings, mainly Principles of Gestalt Psychology. Kohler created a center for psychological research and scholarship at Swarthmore, which top notch doctoral candidates and as elected president of APA representing his personal achievements and contributions of Gestalt movement to psychology. The most important ideas of the Gestalt psychologists had become part of the mainstream of psychology thinking such as that of the whole, (the Gestalt), Pragnanz, and the Gestalt problem solving theory, and its contributions to the study of memory.
• Most behaviorists saw Gestalt psychology as a regression to a discredited, unscientific nativism. This nativism meant that innate ideas existed and that the mind imposes certain kinds of order on experience; which could not be true according to the behaviorists. The dismissive approach to behaviorism by Wertheimer, Koffka, and Kohler offended many American psychologists resulting in the Gestalt psychology becoming only a secondary part of psychology at the time.

Question 23

Describe the relationship between psychoanalysis and the other schools of thought we have discussed. What was the third great shock Freud delivered to humanity?

Answer 23

• -When Freud introduced psychoanalysis, Wundt’s psychology had been around more than 15 years, structuralism and functionalism were young, and behaviorism wasn’t even around. Each focused on conscious experience in some way and used experimental methods or introspection all in the academic environment. However, psychoanalysis focused on the unconscious and used clinical observation as its method. It emerged from medicine/psychiatry and focused on psychopathology or the mentally ill.
  
  • The third great shock was claiming, basically, that people are controlled by the unconscious, which operated outside of awareness or control (deterministic).
• 3 great shocks to society’s collective ego: Copernicus, Darwin, Freud (The third great shock was claiming, basically, that people are controlled by the unconscious, which operated outside of awareness or control (deterministic))
• Psychoanalysis deals with the unconscious, which is mostly ignored by other systems. Wundt and Titchner would have no use for it because it cannot be broken down into elements. All were influenced by the spirit of mechanism, by Fechner’s work in psychophysics, and evolutionary ideas of Darwin.
• Psychoanalysis came from within psychiatric tradition of treating the mentally ill; was not and still is not comparable to other ways of thinking in psychology.
• Psychoanalysis was neither a product of the universities nor purely a science, but instead it arose within the psychiatric traditions.
• Deals with the unconscious; everyone else in psychology was ignoring unconscious.
• The third greatest shock Freud delivered to humanity was when he proclaimed that we are not all rational rulers of our lives but instead we are controlled by unconscious forces.

Question 24

Discuss the two major sources of influence on the psychoanalytic movement. What school of thought within psychiatry did Freud revolt against? Explain.

Answer 24

-• The two major sources of influence on the psychoanalytic movement were the somatic and psychic. The somatic school held the belief that abnormal behavior had physical causes such as brain injuries, strained nerves, or understimulated nerves.
• The psychic school held the belief that mental or psychological were explanations for abnormal behavior. In general, the somatic viewpoint was dominant due to the work of the German philosopher Immanuel Kant who ridiculed the view that emotional problems could somehow lead to mental illness. Psychoanalysis developed as a revolt against somatic orientation. As the treatment of mentally ill persons progressed, some scientist became convinced that emotional factors were of far greater importance than physical causes.
• (this is from previous study guide, I don’t have any notes on ‘somatic’ vs. ‘psychic’)
• Somatic: Immanuel Kant; physical explanations for abnormal behavior.
• Psychic: weakness within a person’s faculties; emotions are more important.

Question 25

How were Freud’s theories influenced by Darwin’s work, by Moritz Benedikt, by the late 19th century attitude toward sex, by the ideas regarding catharsis and dreams, and by his childhood experiences?

Answer 25

-• Freud was influenced by Darwin due to his publication of Origin of Species when Freud was very young; this publication altered the conception of man so that man was now seen as being part of the natural order, which made it possible to treat man as an object of scientific investigation to research human behavior and motivation. Freud had always believed that no aspect of the mind existed apart from the brain and that physical processes in its neurons are materials of the phenomena of the mind. He believed that every mental event has a cause.
Mechanism
• Ideas of mechanism (human as a machine).
• Mechanist—idea that there are rules that govern how the body works as a machine; body is subject to physical laws and can be studied.
Childhood
• In his early years he suffered many neurotic symptoms and saw himself as an outsider. Freud was very attached to his mother, which is represented in some of his psychoanalytic theories.
• Dreams, mental processes, hidden symbolism; continuity of emotional behavior from childhood to adulthood.
• Authoritative father–feared and respected.
• Protective mother–very attached.
Sex
• Sex drive emerges very young; sexuality emerging early
• Got a boner at age 2 looking at his naked mom
• Vienna=place of debauchery
• Psychology based not on science or experimentation but rather on personal observations of own life
• Zeitgeist—attitude toward sex
o In late 19th century Vienna, it was actually fairly open about sexuality. People were starting to be kind of daring. (Showing ankles, wrists, woo!)
o The Viennese society was thoroughly prudish and hypocritical about sexuality but in medical and scientific circles it was a matter of interest. Only dealt with adult sexuality
o Some of Freud’s clients though would have been more proper.
o There’s also beginning to be some talk in the day about the dangers of repressing sexuality.

Question 26

Discuss the role of the patient Anna O. in the development of Freudian theory.

Answer 26

• a. Pivotal in development of psychoanalysis
  b. Severe hysterical symptoms; general breakdown
  c. Symptoms appeared when taking care of her dying father
  d. Breur treats her with hypnosis–remembered specific experiences that seemed to have given rise to her symptoms; talking under hypnosis made her feel better afterwards; every day for over a year; Bertha called sessions ‘chimney sweeping’ and the ‘talking cure’; Breuer claimed things talked about under hypnosis were found repulsive by her when not under hypnosis
  e. Positive transference: transferred feelings towards Breur; hysterical childbirth; overcame illness on her own once Breur left
  f. Significance: talking cure, free association

Question 27

How did Freud define the following concepts: repression, instinct, id, ego, and superego? What are the life and death instincts. Be sure to explain the importance of each of these concepts.

Answer 27

-1. Repression- In order to deal with the anxiety associated with the Oedipus complex, a child will hide their true wishes in their unconscious. According to Freud, this is a key mechanism of the mind as it is the most basic way to defend itself against the conflict that would otherwise occur. This may be applied to other unwanted wishes and desires. Repression: process of barring unacceptable ideas, memories, or desire from conscious awareness, leaving them to operate in the unconscious mind; Freud believed that this was a key mechanism of the mind as a way to defend itself against a highly anxiety-producing conflict produced by a primitive wish and fear of harm in the real-world. It was related to the Oedipus complex, wherein the child represses oedipal wishes into the unconscious.
2. Instinct- Freud meant this term as an “impulse,” “moving force,” or a “drive.” Originally he thought that instincts associated with the mouth, anus, and sex organs composed the entire psychic energy, but he later became convinced of instinct to destroy. He proposed an instinct theory that was composed of two parts. The life instinct, or Eros, is comprised of all life-preserving impulses, including sexual drives. The death instinct, or Thanatos, includes the impulses toward hostility, sadism, and aggression. Instincts: Mental representations of internal stimuli that drive a person to perform certain actions.
• Instincts: mental representations of internal stimuli such as hunger that drive a person to take certain actions
o Freud thinks person has disposition to act in some way to reduce an anxiety caused by the instinct
o Categories instincts as life instincts and death instinct
 Life instincts: hunger, sex, thirst, self-preservation; manifest in the libido
• Libido: sex drive (originally apart of all life instincts, now refers to sex)
• Death instinct: destructive; if turned inward can manifest as masochism and suicide; outward is aggression and hatred towards others
3. Id- All mental processes in a newborn are comprised of the id. This means they are unconscious and primary, not including logical reasoning. This is what serves to satisfy our instinctual demands of primitive desires dealing with self-preservation, such as hunger, thirst, sex, and aggression. The id operates only to relieve these tensions, there is no consideration of consequences. Id: unconscious and primary processes that have no logical reasoning. It seeks to satisfy instinctive demands for the satisfaction of primitive desires having to do with self-preservation, sexuality and aggression. The demands of the id operate in accordance with the pleasure principle meaning they seek to relieve tension without any consideration to societal rules or practical consequences of those acts. This concept is important in child-rearing and socialization processes aimed at controlling the forces of the id while directing them into acceptable activities.
4. Ego-Since it would be impossible to go through life with only a selfish id, the ego develops in order to help control it and guide it to acceptable behaviors. Partially, this is achieved by training and educating the conscious mind, or the self. As a child grows this grows apart from the id, but never completely detaches from it. This is how some ideas from the id, such as the Oedipus complex, can slip into the ego and must be pushed back by aggression. Though there are many other impulses controlled by the ego through means such as self-criticism and self-control. Overall, most of the ego is not conscious but preconscious. They are not repressed but not quite in the ego. This allows for problem solving and the use of well-known skills. Ego: rational aspect of personality responsible for directing and controlling the id; overlaps and merges with the id; impulses are controlled by the ego; the ego becomes capable of self-criticism and self-control. Much of the ego is not conscious; many of its processes are preconscious.
5. Superego- The superego monitors and censors the ego. It is unconscious and is central for aiding in social behavior. It is developed in the ego and results from the Oedipus complex. Commands such as “you must not” are translated into “I must not.” Therefore, the superego allows moral values to be internalized. They form the “ego ideal,” of what one should or should not do in a given situation.

Question 28

Why is dream analysis important in Freudian theory?

Answer 28

-He analyzed his own dreams in his self-analysis and it became the basis of his theory of the unconscious mind and its influence. His dream analysis is where he developed his ideas about the Oedipus Complex, etc. His own dream analysis is what led him to believe dreams represented repressed wishes/ideas/desires. etc
• Self-analysis and the Interpretation of Dreams
o Self-analysis of neurotic problems; bit of a midlife crisis; anxiety over death and traveling
 Interpreted his own dreams; dreams rich source of unconscious information
 Took a couple of years–Interpretation of Dreams (1900) considered major work; outlines Oedipus complex; well-known, appeared in 8 editions during his lifetime
 Never stopped self-analyzing; psychoanalysis self-biographical in nature
Freud believed that dream analysis was an important way that unconscious information could be retrieved. He held one’s unconscious to hold hidden, unpleasant feelings and memories that were forgotten by force. Therefore, he regarded dreams as pieces of this hidden information that are uncovered when the conscious is not active. He proposed that dreams could produce insight to hidden wishes, but in order to avoid waking up they are disguised. Freud encouraged patients to use free association with what they could remember from a dream in attempt to discover what the being hidden.
He thought that dreams fulfill wishes that would otherwise wake us and that their basic purpose is to enable us to continue sleeping and that some dreams fulfill simple bodily needs. Freud said that to protect sleep, the unconscious mind disguises disturbing elements, transforming them into relatively harmless ones.

Question 29

Explain Freud’s reoccurring point in “The Psychopathology of Everyday Life”.

Answer 29

-Unconscious ideas/motives affect everyday behavior (thought/action). Where he first described the Freudian Slip as we know it today, which is an act of forgetting or lapse in speech. What seems an innocent slip of the tongue or other mistake is really the expression of an unconscious motive or anxiety.
• The Psychopathology of Everyday Life (1901)
o Freudian slip: not a mistake, but rather the unconscious trying to escape
o Freud spoke of forgetfulness, slips of the tongue, and failed actions, which Freud thought were caused by unconscious motives. He suggested that in our everyday life, there are unconscious things that are dying to get out and when we forget something, or accidentally say something we didn’t mean, etc. we are displaying this unconscious hidden message about the subject of the “slip”; he termed these occurrences “Freudian slips”.

Question 30

Discuss the basis for Freud’s ideas and theories. Which of his ideas are supported and which are not?

Answer 30

-• The basis for his ideas and theories was his belief the unconscious determines and controls everything so to speak. His exploration of dreams resulted in this belief and led to his formation of pretty much all his other ideas such as the Oedipus complex, repression, personality (id, ego, superego), instincts, you name it.
• The supported and not supported she listed on the power point for that lecture. Don’t have it in front of me right now, but I plan on listing it just like the notes basically.

Question 31

Defend both sides of this argument “Freudian theory has extensively hurt and helped the field of psychology.”

Answer 31

-• One reason for the negative impact of Freud’s theory was due to his opposition to experimental research. Had no faith in the scientific method; he alone could come up with these ideas, interpret, and judge them. This fact alone went against what other psychologists of the day, such as the behaviorists, thought and relied on for research and support for theory. Also the social developments and protest movements throughout the 60s-80s gave rise to conflict with some of Freud’s theories such as his ideas about women and homosexuality. These criticisms gave people a reason to point out psychology and its offensive ideas because of Freud’s theories concerning these matters.

● The behaviorists did adapt some of Freud’s theory into behaviorism in the 1950s-60s. Clinical psychology would not have emerged as it did and still is today without the impact of Freud’s theories, despite the inability to experimentally test his theories. Freud’s impact on psychology, his psychotherapies, and human beings perception of themselves in a Western society has been very significant and insightful for future research especially in clinical psychology. Freud’s theory of the unconscious was one of his most important contributions to the understanding of personality and human behavior. Freud influence psychology in the research on child development and clinical psychologists began applying and developing more practical adaptations of Freud’s psychoanalysis. Freud’s theories have also become an important part of our culture and its ideals in the ways that people think about human nature and themselves. Many neuroscientists have since validated many of Freud’s theories such as the absence of necessary brain structures for forming conscious memories during the first two years of life (infantile amnesia) and the identification of the unconscious memory systems that account for some irrational phobias.

Question 32

Describe, in general, the changes the neo-Freudians made in Freud’s system of psychoanalysis.

Answer 32

-
Modifications of the system
• Expansion of Ego
o Ego independent of id
o Ego has own function separate from the id
o Ego is free of conflict when the id impulses push for satisfaction (deemphasized role of conflict)—completely different from Freudian thought

• Biological forces deemphasized
• Social and psychological forces emphasized
• Minimal importance
o Infantile sexuality
o Oedipus complex
o Personal development more due to psychosocial developments than psychosexual interactions

Question 33

Describe Anna Freud’s approach to psychoanalysis. In what ways did Anna Freud’s life experiences influence her approach?

Answer 33

-• Anna Freud focused on ego psychology and psychoanalytic therapy with children; pioneered analysis of the child.
• She said that you cannot talk to children the same way you talk with adults. Her methods included contributions and innovations such as play materials and observation of child in home. She also established a psychoanalytic training center for clinical psychologists.
• She revised the orthodox psychoanalytic theory and expanded the role of the ego and its function as separate from the id. She also elaborated on and clarified the use of defense mechanisms and their role in protecting the ego from anxiety.
• She actually developed the list of “Freudian” defense mechanisms but does not get credit for this accomplishment.
• She and others were trying to establish psychoanalysis more a part of scientific psychology by simplifying Freudian concepts, operationally defining Freudian notions, encouraging experimental investigation of psychoanalytic hypotheses, and by modifying the way psychotherapy was conducted. This resulted in the fostering of a relationship between psychoanalysis and academic experimental psychology.
Life experiences:
• She wrote about beating fantasies and daydreams and sexual gratification through masturbation which can be seen as reflections from her father’s mention of worries about her sexuality and from her violent dreams about killing Freud’s enemies and their sessions (4 years 6 nights a week) analyzing these dreams.
• She also wrote about the incestuous father-daughter relationship: resulting from the emotional attachment she developed for her father and probably from him treating his own daughter analyzing all of her personal dreams and thoughts.

Question 34

In what ways did Jung’s life experiences influence his analytical psychology? Describe the Jungian concepts of the collective unconscious and archetypes.

Answer 34

-• Mentally ill mother; clergyman father; lonely childhood
• he learned to not trust the external world as a whole and began to look inward to his unconscious; dreams and unconscious lead him to study personality.
• Freud and Jung became close friends but Jung was more critical of Freud’s work than his other followers because he had already established his identity as a professional. He realized his views were very different from Freud’s and after he came out about it they would no longer be friends (which is exactly what happened).
• Collective Unconscious: the deepest level of the psyche containing inherited experiences of human and prehuman species. We all have universal evolutionary experiences but they are unconscious. We are not aware of them nor do we experience them in our memory or awareness.
• Archetypes: inherited tendencies within the collective unconscious. determinants of person’s behavior, similar to ancestors (e.g. reactions from extreme danger, birth, death, etc.) There are 4 types:
a. (1) Persona - “mask we wear” (how we want to appear to society)
b. (2) anima and animus - each person exhibits some characteristics of other sex
c. (3) shadow - darker self, more animalistic (believed it came from our ancestors) it can also also be a source of spontaneity, insight, creativity, etc.
d. (4) self - balanced all aspects of unconscious; unity and stability in personality “harmony and completeness of personality”

Question 35

Discuss the issues on which Adler and Freud disagreed. What criticisms have been made of Adler’s individual psychology?

Answer 35

-Individual Psychology:
• Believed human behavior is not determined by biological forces, instead by environmental/social forces (such as events in childhood).
• In contrast to Freud, minimized role of sex in personality and focused on conscious rather than unconscious, determinants of behavior.
• Adler also believed we are more strongly affected by what we think future holds.
• Freud divided personality into id, ego, and super-ego but Freud viewed it as a consistent unit that works towards one overriding goal (this goal is perfection - the betterment of the self).
• Instead of sex being our primary motivator, a generalized feeling of inferiority is the determining force of behavior; penis envy more a matter of envy of male power in society
o e.g. child with a stutter will likely become a great orator
o child needs to overcome this “lack” and thus seeks to improve themselves
o if a child does not have the compensatory behavior in their life (like if they are overly pampered) the child will have abnormal behavior and will not learn to cope with life’s challenges and can lead to inferiority complex.

Social interest: innate human potential to cooperate with other people to achieve personal and societal goals
Emphasized unity and consistency of the personality—one overriding goal is superiority or perfection/fulfillment of the self
Inferiority Feelings
• Inferiority complex: condition that develops when a person is unable to compensate for normal inferiority feelings; physical, mental, social handicaps
• Universal and experienced by everyone
• Abnormal compensatory methods—incapable of coping with life’s problems

Criticism
o No scientific validation; relied on common sense observations
Life experience: poor, unhealthy child

Question 36

Contrast Horney’s views on this topic with those of Freud. What is important about her contribution to psychology?

Answer 36

-Life Experiences:
• Horney described her work as an extension of Freud’s (was not trying to debunk it). She grew up with a lack of parental love, her mother wished her father was dead, and her mother rejected her in favor of her brother. She believed that these negative life events lead to her basic anxiety. She later married and had 3 daughters but had sexual difficulties and affairs. She eventually divorced and went to psychoanalytic therapy to get over the loss of one of her lovers. After this, she established her own clinic and continued to see patients.

She disagreed with Freud over the following:
• unchanging biological forces being the primary reason for personality
• challenged validity of Oedipus complex
• discarded concept of libido and Freudian structure of personality
• opposed penis envy; said men instead had womb envy (manifested unconsciously by desires to harass and belittle women to maintain superior position but harboring a secret wish to create life)
• said Freud was too pessimistic
• believed humans have potential to change, and continue to change, and can become good
• she did not accept ideas of unconscious motivation and emotional/non-rational motive

Ideas
• Basic anxiety is described as persuasive feelings of helplessness and loneliness which are the basis for neurosis. She came to this conclusion by characterizing her own feelings as a child. She said that anything that disrupts the basic upbringing of a child can cause basic anxiety.
• She believed that personality does develop as a child but it can change throughout life (so no anal, oral, etc. phases) and said if these did develop, it was because of cultural, social, and environmental influences.
• Whenever a parent does something negative, child develops coping strategies and these can become a neurotic need. She said there were 10 (say multiple JIC) strategies (e.g. overcompensation, dependent need to be with someone, aggressive personality, etc.) These can intensify someone’s difficulties because they affect the whole individual.
• She also talked about Idealized Self-Image, which is a false picture of one’s own personality. It prevents neurotic people from realizing that they are neurotic because they deny the existence of their inner conflicts.

Question 37

How did Allport’s view of personality differ from Freud’s view? How did Allport’s work affect the academic acceptance of personality as a topic of study?

Answer 37

-• Allport grew up with a very mixed childhood. He was mostly happy at home but was rejected by other children. Perhaps this is the reason he later disagreed with Freud with regards to childhood being a big indicator on our personalities**
• Allport felt that we are more affected by our present conflicts and interactions as adults.
• Allport did take time to visit Freud and it turned out to be very traumatic for Allport. From their interactions, he realized he felt that Freud focused too much on unconscious forces to the neglect of our conscious drives.
• He studied normal adults and felt that they function in more rational terms and only neurotic people are driven by any unconscious drives.
• He also felt that it was impossible to make a general law/theory that applied to everyone, because each person is an individual.
• His work with personality and motivation was primarily focused around the idea that the core of personality is its treatment of motivation.
• His ideas have not inspired much research because of a lack of a way to objectively test them. However, he did make the study of personality academically respectable when his book was published in 1937. Prior to this, personality was only examined in the clinical setting.
• His work inspired other psychologists (Maslow & Carl Rogers) and is currently resurfacing, as there is an increase renewal in some of his work.

Question 38

Compare Erikson’s views with Freud’s views on the issue of whether personality is fully determined in childhood.

Answer 38

-• Trained in psychoanalysis by Anna Freud.
• Identity Crisis and his own crises in his life influenced this idea:
(1) he thought he had one last name when in fact he was wrong
(2) was a German Jew and was rejected by classmates of both origins
• Responses in his 8 stage model are based on the search for Ego. These responses can be adaptive or maladaptive and he felt that we consciously direct our own growth at each stage which again opposes Freud’s doom and gloom view. Erikson’s stages go all the way into old age so he believed that personality is continually developed whereas Freud focused on early childhood and infancy.

• Identity crisis—shunned for being German Jewish and for looking Aryan; changed last name
• Psychosocial Stages of Development
o 8 psychosocial stages
o Adaptive and maladaptive way of coping
• Male-Female Personality Differences
o Believed biologically based on possession or absence of a penis
• Some research support

Question 39

Describe and explain the antecedent influences on humanistic psychology.

Answer 39

-• Some of the antecedent influences on Humanistic psychology were Brentano, Kulpe, James, Gestalt psychology, Psychoanalysts/Neo-Freudians, and the zeitgeist of the day.
• Brentano criticized the mechanistic, reductionist, natural science approach to psychology. He favored the study of consciousness as a molar quality rather than molecular content. Kulpe believed that not all conscious experience could be reduced to elementary form or be explained in terms of responses to stimuli. James was against the mechanist approach and urged a focus on consciousness and the whole individual. The Gestalt psychologists focused on a holistic approach to consciousness.
• The Neo-Freudians such as Adler, Horney, Erikson, and Allport believed that primary conscious beings possessed spontaneity and free will influenced by the present, future, and past (holistic experiences). Finally, the zeitgeist of the day in the 60’s had the “hippie” movement, which was focused on personal fulfillment, the belief that humans could achieve perfection, and had an emphasis on the present, and what feels good now (hedonism).

Question 40

Compare the views of Maslow and Rogers on self-actualization and on the characteristics of the psychologically healthy person.

Answer 40

-• The main difference between Maslow and Rogers’ views on self-actualization is that Rogers focused on childhood relationships with the mother when determining if the person could become self-actualized. If the child had unconditional positive regard from his or her mother in childhood, then later in life they would be fully able to function and be able to self-actualize. If, however, they had conditional positive regard from their mother, then they would internalize that and spend their lives overcompensating for that conditional relationship.
• Rogers also had less characteristics of the self-actualized person than Maslow. They both focused heavily on the experiences of the person. For example, Maslow says that the self-actualized person will have “a resistance to conformity” and “intense mystical or peak experiences” while Rogers says they will have “an openness to experiences” and a “tendency to live dully in every moment”. They also both stress the freedom and creativity of the individual. Maslow: “a democratic character structure” and “an attitude or creativeness”. Rogers: “high degree of creativity” and “a sense of freedom in thought and action”.

Question 41

Why was Maslow’s work at Brandeis so important for both humanism and cognition?

Answer 41

-• Maslow was mentored by Alfred Adler, one of Freud’s contemporaries who had rejected his views and thus been rejected by Freud, at Columbia University. It was from him that Maslow began reconsidering the outlooks of current psychologists which inspired his views on Humanistic psychology. Later, after Maslow founded the Psychology department at Brandeis University he would mentor Ulric Neisser, who is claimed to be the “father of Cognitive Psychology” if a founder must be specified. Maslow’s Humanistic views would inspire his views of cognitive psychology.

Question 42

Describe the status of humanistic psychology and the reasons for its fate.

Answer 42

-• Ultimately, although Humanistic psychology got its own academic journal and its own division of the APA, it was not considered to be a true school of psychological thought. Mostly this was due to the fact that it was primarily used in private clinical practice and because of the movements in psychology that were popular, humanistic psychology was kind of put on the back burner. However, we can see humanistic psychology’s influence in other areas of psychology and in other fields like social work. (Pretty sure that’s why she said the timing was bad).

Question 43

What is the legacy of humanistic psychology?

Answer 43

-

Question 44

Describe each of the antecedent influences on cognitive psychology.

Answer 44

-•	Greek philosophers
•	British empiricists/associationists
•	Wundt
•	Structuralism
•	Functionalism
•	Behaviorism
•	Gutherie
•	Tolman
•	Gestalt
•	Piaget

Question 45

Who should be named the father of cognitive psychology? Justify your answer.

Answer 45

-somebody

Question 46

Considering Hunt’s discussion of cognitive psychology, has the cognitive movement been successful? Why or why not?

Answer 46

• Nature of Cognitive Psychology
  a. Process of knowing
  i. In contrast to simply responding to stimuli
  b. How humans structure/organize experience
  i. Organize world into meaningful wholes
  c. Active and creative–idea of individual
• Successful Revolution?
  d. Cognitive Psych–1970
  e. Cognition–1971
  f. Memory and Cognition–1983
  g. Journal of Mental Imagery–1977
  h. Cognitive Therapy and Research–1977
  i. Cognitive Science–1977
  j. Unified study of how the mind acquires knowledge
• Cognitive Science
  k. Scientific study of thought, language, the brain; the scientific study of the brain
  l. Cognitive psych
  m. Linguistics
  n. Anthropology
  o. Philosophy
  p. Computer sciences
  q. Artificial intelligence
  r. Neurosciences

Question 47

What is so magical about the number 7? Cite examples from the Miller reading to explain your answer.

Answer 47

-

Question 48

Give and explain two examples of simultaneous discovery that we have discussed this semester. Now that you have studied the history of psychology, which view of history do you support, naturalistic or personalistic? Justify your answer.

Answer 48

• ) Pavlov and Twitmyer. Pavlov found dogs salivate in expectation of food at arrival of experimenters and Twitmyer found that people would exhibit a knee jerk reflex before he hit them when he rang a bell. i.e. both arrived at classical conditioning principles independently around the same time.
  b) Darwin and Alfred Russell Wallace. Both arrived at conclusions of natural selection/ evolution at around same time.
• The naturalistic approach focuses on the times. The naturalistic approach looks at how the masses (the people) and the place make-up and influence history more so that important figures in history. It focuses on simultaneous discovery, which is when two or more people come to some discovery independently of each other.
• The personalistic approach focuses on the people. With the personalistic approach we look at monumental achievements and contributions of specific individuals. How progress and change can be directly attributed to people who changed the course of history.

Question 49

Taking into consideration all the schools of thought that are a part of the history of psychology, explain why physics is so important to understanding the history of psychology.

Answer 49

-• In physics during this time we had Einstein and Bohrs who were discarding idea of observer and external world. They said if you are observing you are participating so you can’t observe without participating.
• Got rid of notion of detached observer. You always have the filter of observation as part of what’s going on. If you always have this going on then your consciousness is there in everything so it is not just something you can just push aside and ignore.
• Need to understand consciousness to understand anything. We have participant observers and this restored the vital role of consciousness to where it is today.

Question 50

Reflect on the following quote and indicate whether you agree or disagree, citing specific examples to validate your argument.
If the history of psychology as discussed in this class tells us anything, it is that as a school of thought becomes formalized, it has forward momentum that slows once it successfully overthrows the standing school of thought.  As the new school of thought ages, its initial momentum slows as it becomes less flexible and more rigid and dogmatic in its position. It is in this way that a new establishment is born as the school of thought takes a stance to protect itself. Such is the progress in the history of any science; there is no finish line, but instead an ever expanding, ever growing process as newer ideas evolve from older ones and the science attempts to adapt to a continually changing landscape.

Answer 50

-• The establishment of each of the schools we’ve learned about in this class initially began as a movement against an already established position. In this way, the opposing position was morphing and forming into what it would become.
• Once it was established as the new “thing,” the movement began to firmly establish itself and the outlines of “what it stood for” were laid.
Examples:
• Watson trying to convince the psychology world that the focus of psychology should be behavior and not consciousness and that conscious processes were invisible, subjective, and incapable of precise definition which is why psychology had failed to become an undisputed natural science. By criticizing what was the current way of psychology, he made behaviorism a new establishment. But after the birth of behaviorism, it continued to grow and develop as more people studied and added to it.
• NeoFreudians revamping psychoanalysis:
Modifications of the system
o Expansion of Ego
 Ego independent of id
 Ego has own function separate from the id
 Ego is free of conflict when the id impulses push for satisfaction (deemphasized role of conflict)—completely different from Freudian thought
o Biological forces deemphasized
 Social and psychological forces emphasized
 Minimal importance
• Infantile sexuality
• Oedipus complex
 Personal development more due to psychosocial developments than psychosexual interactions
• Adler and Jung revolting against Freud’s psychoanalysis
• Cognitive and Behaviorist psychology merging together
• In this way, schools of thought are always influencing one another and changing as new information is added.

Question 51

Considering the scientific fields in psychology today, what direction will psychology take in the next 50 years? Justify your answer with evidence.

Answer 51

-tanswer