History Of Psychology

Question 1

Ancient Greek

Homer - what is his idea about ‘pusche’ (mind/soul)?

Answer 1

It accompanies the body, but doesn’t cause behaviour and survives death

Behaviour is motivated by the gods

Question 2

Archaic Greek

Alcmaeon of Croton - what is his view of perception and sensation?

Answer 2

Perception distinct from understanding

Sensory organs connected to brain by channels (porous)

Sensation and thought occur in brain

Question 3

Archaic Greek

Empedocles of Acragas - what are his thought on objects?

Answer 3

Objects emit copies - our senses catch the copies and pass on to the heart where thinking takes place

Question 4

Archaic Greek

Pythagoras - what was Pythagoras’ view between mind and body?

Answer 4

Created Pythagoras theorem

Thought musical notes could be translated into mathematical equations - explaining harmony of plants

There’s a distinction between king and body - soul moves to divine if pure enough otherwise reincarnated into animal

Question 5

Classical Greek

Socrates - what was his method for to find the truth?

Answer 5

Midwife method - rational method to help people discover what is true using critical reasoning

Question 6

Classical Greek

Plato - what is Plato’s idea of categorisation?

Answer 6

Appearance relates to our world but reality relates to world of Ideas or Forms - forms explain our knowledge of categories

Question 7

Classical Greek

Plato - how does Plato believe we can remember the forms?

Answer 7

By doing philosophy - we lost this knowledge at birth - idea of forms leads to hierarchy of things that exist and of states of minds

Question 8

Classical Greek

Plato - what are his 3 souls personality is made up of?

Answer 8

Rational soul - motivates quest for forms and located in head (immortal) - philosophers

Spirited soul - motivates quest for glory and fame, located in chest (mortal) - military

Desiring soul - irrational wants, located in belly/genitals (mortal) - farmers

Question 9

Classical Greek

Plato - what did Plato mean by visual perception?

Answer 9

Eyes emit rays and strike objects, sunlight necessary as it’s an extra factor for vision to occur

Question 10

Classical Greek

Plato - why did he think reason and logic were necessary?

Answer 10

To grasp the forms

Question 11

Classical Greek

Aristotle - what was his idea of perception?

Answer 11

Mind receives an objects form - matter and form (‘essence’) are distinct, forms explain knowledge of abstract categories eg. ‘Chair’

Question 12

Classical Greek

Aristotle - what was Aristotle’s 4 causes?

Answer 12

Efficient cause - behaviour
Material cause - made of
Formal cause - what defines them
Final cause - purpose

Question 13

Classical Greek

Aristotle - what was Aristotle’s view of body and soul?

Answer 13

Soul and body can be distinguished but not separated - soul can’t exist without body

Question 14

Classical Greek

Aristotle- what are his 3 elements of soul?

Answer 14

Nutritive - nutrition, reproduction, growth

Sensitive - awareness, imagination, memory

Rational - higher level thinking, power to think

Question 15

Classical Greek

Aristotle - what were his 3 laws of association (explaining memory)?

Answer 15

Similarity

Contiguity (same time, same place, same actions)

Contrast

Question 16

Medieval

What was neo-Platonism?

Answer 16

Soul seen as a hierarchy - higher part of soul (divine) and lower part (seat of personality)

Inspired western and eastern philosophers

Question 17

Chapter 1

What are Lindberg’s 3 important characteristics of cultures before writing invented?

Answer 17

‘Know-how’ - know how to make tools, fire, hunt etc - skills not based on understanding but practical rules of when to do it

Fluidity of knowledge - oral transmission of prictical skills

Collection of myths and stories about beginnings of universe, life etc where human traits projected onto objects and events - Animism (explanation of world by means of spirits it’s human-like characteristics)

Question 18

Chapter 1

What were the early stages of writing systems?

Answer 18

Combinations of

Pictograms - pics resembling people, animals and objects they represent

Phonograms - signs to represent sounds of spoken language

Question 19

Chapter 1

How did writing change the acucumulation of knowledge?

Answer 19

Meant insights could be retrieved if they wanted to be looked for and made information available, subtly changing the way knowledge was preserved

Question 20

Chapter 1

What was the purpose of the base 5?

Answer 20

Lines/markings most common evidence if counting - larger numbers difficult to represent = tallies used in indecent cultures with 5 the grouping base - coincides with no of fingers on hand

Question 21

Chapter 1

Aristotle - what are the 3 types of knowledge?

Answer 21

Productive - making things
Practical - how ought to act in various circumstances
Theoretical - truth -> mathematics, natural science, theology

Question 22

Chapter 1

Aristotle - what are axioms?

Answer 22

Self-evident truths about nature acquired through observations and intuition and of which final cause can be found out

Question 23

Chapter 1

How did book printing change lives?

Answer 23

Knowledge came more available

Books so rare constant danger of loss or destruction

Manually copied books had many transcription errors especially with scientific materials

Scholars could work on same copy of a book - easier to correspond and collaborate