four definitions of psychology Flashcards
4 Definitions of Psychology
- the study of mind and behavior
- the science of experimental epistemology
- the science of knowing and experiencing
- the science of things that move around on their own
Wilhelm Wundt
1879 in Leipzig, Germany
founder of psychology as an experimental science
found the first laboratory dedicated to psychology, separating psychology from philosophy for the first time as the science of the mind: STRUCTURALISM looks for elements of thought.
Every thought has an image associated with it
John Broadus Watson
1913
proposed psychology should be the science of behavior
declares that to be a science, psychology must only study the observable and thus must be a science of behavior, rather than of mind
We don’t care about your thoughts, we are studying behavior
Ulric Neisser
1967 - an arbitrary date for the beginning of COGNITIVISM
coined the term “cognitive psychology”
publishes his textbook “Cognitive Psychology”, outlining the areas of study (e.g., attention, memory, perception, language) that had begun yielding to investigation in the last decade, and presenting a consensus on the new information processing view of the field that solidified its popularity and led to its rapid ascendance.
Rationalism / Nativism: What is the Origin of Knowledge?
Born with innate ideas; experience provides occasion for knowing; “nativism”
Empiricism / Associationism: What is the Origin of Knowledge?
Born as clean slate (“tabula rasa”); experience is source of knowledge; “empiricism’
Rationalism / Nativism: How is knowledge arrived at?
Learn by operation of mind – manipulation of concepts and ideas; “rationalism”
Empiricism / Associationism: How is knowledge arrived at?
Learn by connecting experience in world; “associationism”
Psychology is “the science of knowing and experiencing”
Knowing: more than just storing information like a computer
–> animals know how to behave so as to meet goals
Experiencing: more than just registering light wavelengths like a computer
–> see blue, hear note played on clarinet, taste salt
–> different from knowledge or information: describe blue to a blind person, describe taste of salt without the word salty
–> source of all motivation
Mind-Body Problem
Dualism: universe is made of two interacting substances: physical matter (including body) and non-physical immaterial stuff (like soul / mind / thought)
–> from Rene Descartes around 1640 / early scientific revolution
–> how they can interact, no one knows (Descartes: happens in pineal gland)
Materialism: universe is made of one kind of substance, physical matter – which then must include mind, if mind is real; merely an assertion though
Psychology is “the science of things that move around on their own” Ancient Greek philosophy c. 600 BCE
Matter: Thales’s concept of matter, later Democritus and atoms c. 400 BCE
Motion: naturalistic (non-supernatural) account of motion and change culminating in Aristotle’s physics c. 350 BCE
Psychology is “the science of things that move around on their own” Scientific Revolution 1600s and after
all nature viewed as matter in motion
Matter: Dalton’s atomic theory 1803, Einstein’s confirmation of atoms 1905
Motion: Newton’s mechanics uses differential equations for change over time, Einstein’s relativity 1915 combines space and time into one fabric
What does scientific material as a worldview say?
All that exists is matter in motion
- Defined by choice of variables to describe nature in 17th century
- Includes physical variables like mass, length, velocity, momentum, etc.
- Excludes all psychological variables and phenomena that don’t fit with the physical, like color, sound, taste, and generally knowing and experiencing
Epistemology
The philosophy of knowledge, it is about how do we realize what is right and wrong, how do you get someone else to see what is true
