Lecture 2 - History of Psychology Flashcards
Ebinghaus
Wrote an early textbook
Psych has a long past but a short history
thousands of years of philosophy but did not become its own thing until the 19th century
Structuralism quote essence
Physiology informs us about those life phenomena that we perceive by our external senses. In psychology, the person looks upon himself as from within and tries to explain the interrelations of those processes that this internal observation discloses - Wilhelm Wundt
The essence of structuralism
Wilhelm Wundt
STRUCTURALISM
Physiologist
Defined psychology as the discipline studying conscious experience
Established the first psych research lab in Leipzig in 1879
Father of psychology (European)
Structuralism
Examples of mental states
Introspection
What makes up consciousnesses
Consciousness or other complex mental phenomena can be analysed into a set of basic, constituent elements (like chemistry)
Could use introspection to study this
Examples of mental states: perceived colors, imagined objects etc
Introspection required intense training to analyse a conscious experience into its basic elements
Sensations are raw sensory content of consciousness without meaning. All conscious thoughts and perceptions were considered, combinations of these sensations
Examples brass in painting
Is not made up of brass color, rather yellows, browns etc. Pulling them apart is the goal of structuralism
William James
FUNCTIONALISM
Prof of anatomy and physiology at Harvard
Psych research lab in 1875, 4 years before Wundt
Wrote principles of psychology
Was a functionalist
William James quote
Consciousness does not appear to itself as chopped up in bits… it is nothing joined, it flows. A river or a stream are the metaphors by which it is most naturally described. In talking of it hereafter, lets call it the stream of thought, consciousness, or subjective life. It is just this free water consciousness that psychologists resolutely overlook.
If you chop consciousness up, it is not consciousness as that flow is the nature of consciousness. Therefore structuralists will not get at the nature of consciousness,
Functionalism
Proposed psychology should investigate the function, or the purpose of consciousness
Darwinian, natural selection
Adaptive traits include behaviors and thoughts etc
The typical characteristics must serve some purpose
Problems with structuralism
Totally subjective
No independent objective evaluation
reproducibility is low - different people reported the same thing different ways
You cannot see the mind to analyse it
Structuralism vs Functionalism
Chopping up
Structuralists work in a lab
Functionalists work in the field
They actually used the same technique, breaking stuff down into components but functionalists do this to arrive at a description of what the person is not how it is constructed.
Same technique. To work out a function a structuralist approach is not enough but in the end, the functionalist will chop the thing up into its elements
Influence in NA
Wundt trained so many people that his students founded loads of labs in NA
John B. Watson
BEHAVIORISM
John Hopkins
Took over dept in 1909
Attacked both structuralism and functionalism with the “behaviourist manifesto” in 1913
John Watson Quote
“Psychology as the behaviourist views it is a purely objective natural science. Its theoretical goal is the prediction and control of behaviour. Introspection forms no essential part of its methods, nor is the scientific value of its data dependent upon the readiness with which they lend themselves to interpretation in terms of consciousness. The behaviourist … recognises no dividing line between man and brute. The behaviour of a man … forms only a part of the behaviourist’s total scheme of investigation
Behaviourism in 3 points
Where did behaviorism influence and what else affects the EU
Psychology must be purely objective - excluding all the subjective data or interpretations of conscious experience. It is not the science of mental life but the science of behaviour.
The goal of psychology should be to predict and control behaviour
There is no qualitative difference between human and non-human behaviour. Difference is quantitative. So can use animals.
Behaviorism didn’t much influence continental Europe but it swept the anglosphere. Here, empiricism defines good science. In the EU, idealism is a valid form of inquiry.
Psychology should be a Natural Science
Gestalt Psychology
Max Wertheimer
Gestalt is German for form
Whole is more than the sum of its parts
We perceive whole forms, and not the parts from which they are made
What we perceive depends on the context in which it is embedded
Opposed structuralism
Very influential, especially in perception
Phi phenomenon
Optical illusion of movement when separate stimuli are shown between 30 and 200 ms apart. We see it as something moving.
Maybe due to the decay rate of the visual perception being slower than the actual stimulus that gave rise to them. Instead of two, we mistakenly perceive it as one and we cannot turn this off.
Gestalt principles (and examples)
Emergence
A figure can emerge out of many dots and we cannot unsee it (like the dog)
Multistability
A figure can have multiple stable configurations and we may see them all sequentially (neker cube)
Reification
Illusory contours. We will make an object if we perceive its contours (3 pac men make a triangle)
Invariance
We can tell an object is the same thing even if seen from many sides. AIs cannot do this yet
Figure-Ground laws (and examples)
Closure - tend to perceive objects as closed
(dotted line makes a triangle or sqaure)
Similarity - objects perceptually similar will be grouped together
Proximity - objects close together will be grouped together
Continuity - things with good continuity will be grouped together. If elements of an object align with an object, we group them together
Psychophysiological Model
A form of reductionist: attempt to explain human behaviour by recourse to its biological basis
Explores relations between behaviour and processes and structures the CNS
Aplysia and three levels
First level was of the behaviour
gill withdrawal reflex.
when touched pair with pain
effect was time the gill was withdrawn for after being touched
the longer and more regularly this pairing went on the longer the effect lasted and the logner the organism “remembered” to make its effects long
classical conditioning
leads to longer term memory
4x a day for 4 days = 10x the effect for at least 7 days afterwards
Circuit level of analysis
Second level = circuitry
Measure the response of the neurons electrophysiologically
Work out which are related
3rd level - molecular level
What happens inside these neurons at the level of molecules and gene expression
Assumptions of the psychphysiological model
Psychological phenomena can be explained in terms of physical and biochemical processes
General principle of reductionism applicable to human behaviour: Complex phenomena can be sufficiently explained by reducing them to more elemental phenomena on more basic levels of analysis.
Any form of behaviour is determined by physiological structures and partly inherited processes
Experience can modify a behaviour by changing the physical and biochemical processes that underpin behaviour
Psychodynamic model
All behaviour is explained in terms of drives
Human behaviour arises from (a) inherited, biological drives and reflexes and (b) the attempt to solve conflicts between the individual and society concerning the individual’s needs and wishes and societies demands for socially adaptive behavior.
We act differently because our different histories lead to our feeling different motivational forces differently
Behavior results from tension and conflict and reflects the attempt to reduce these negative states
Motivation is the key concept. Actions will stop when all needs are fulfilled as then there is no motivation to do more.
Theory assumes humans are intrinsically aggressive and evil by their nature and driven by sexual impulses
Freud
Neurologist
Unconscious as the main motor of behaviour
Psychoanalysis - big in EU and South America, not in NA
Observations of his patients created the school
Id, superego, ego
Id - pleasure principal - increase pleasure , decrease pain. totally unconscious
superego - morality. Conscience, ideals, aspirations (your perfect self)
ego - reason and self control. mediates the teo
There are small conscious parts, some pre-conscious parts we can make conscious and the rest is unconscious
Psychoanalysis
Tries to make unconscious, conscious
Behaviourist model
ABC
Notable studies (2)
Overt, observable behaviour is the proper level of analysis
ABC
Antecedent = conditions that precede the behaviour
Behaviour
Consequence that follow
Pavlov’s dog
Little Albert
Albert fear no animals
when the white rat is presented a metal pipe is hit with a hammer which scared him
after conditioning phase he is afraid of the rat and other rat like things like animals and white masks
Quote by John B. Watson
“Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I'll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select--doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief, and, yes, even beggarman and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors.
Its all conditioning. Humans are only controlled by stimuli and responses. Influential in NA.
Cognitive model
Replaced behaviorism during the revolution
Assumes that cognitions are the principle subject matter of psychology
Cognitions are all processes that used to be called mental (perception, thinking, decision making) etc
Cognition studies these
Behaviour can be explained by analysis of information processing
Experiential studies use behavioral reactions to deduce underpinning cognitive processes.
Humans construct their subjective reality
Information processing perspective - brain works like a PC
What is stored, retrieved (encoding, storage, retrieval, recall)
Memory trace, memory record is a unit of info that can be processed
Structures like STM = RAM
LTM - HDD
McGurk effect
Visual information dominates over audio
Baa baa baa can sound like faa faa faa if we see the lips making this movement. We cannot turn this off even though we know its happening
Weakness of cognitive
Unobservable
Humanistic Model
Influential in clinical settings
Opposes the (a) pessimism of psychodynamic theory and (b) the environmental determinism of behaviourism
Assumes humans are motivated by free will
Humans are mostly intrinsically good
Strive for good and to realize their potential fully. They seek change and self-realization
Humanistic psychology tries to understand human behaviour by detecting patterns in life histories
Humanistic psychology focuses on the phenomenological world (the world experienced by the subject) and not the objective world of the external observer.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs
5 areas of needs
1) Physiological - food, shelter etc
2) Security - desire for job security
3) Social - desire for affiliation and acceptance
4) Self-esteem - the desire for status and position
5) Self-Actualization - the desire for a fulfilling life and to fulfill one’s potential
