Lecture 2 - History of Psychology

Question 1

Ebinghaus

Answer 1

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

Question 2

Structuralism quote essence

Answer 2

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

Question 3

Wilhelm Wundt

Answer 3

STRUCTURALISM

Physiologist

Defined psychology as the discipline studying conscious experience

Established the first psych research lab in Leipzig in 1879

Father of psychology (European)

Question 4

Structuralism

Examples of mental states

Introspection

What makes up consciousnesses

Answer 4

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

Question 5

Examples brass in painting

Answer 5

Is not made up of brass color, rather yellows, browns etc. Pulling them apart is the goal of structuralism

Question 6

William James

Answer 6

FUNCTIONALISM

Prof of anatomy and physiology at Harvard

Psych research lab in 1875, 4 years before Wundt

Wrote principles of psychology

Was a functionalist

Question 7

William James quote

Answer 7

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,

Question 8

Functionalism

Answer 8

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

Question 9

Problems with structuralism

Answer 9

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

Question 10

Structuralism vs Functionalism

Chopping up

Answer 10

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

Question 11

Influence in NA

Answer 11

Wundt trained so many people that his students founded loads of labs in NA

Question 12

John B. Watson

Answer 12

BEHAVIORISM

John Hopkins
Took over dept in 1909

Attacked both structuralism and functionalism with the “behaviourist manifesto” in 1913

Question 13

John Watson Quote

Answer 13

“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

Question 14

Behaviourism in 3 points

Where did behaviorism influence and what else affects the EU

Answer 14

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

Question 15

Gestalt Psychology

Answer 15

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

Question 16

Phi phenomenon

Answer 16

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.

Question 17

Gestalt principles (and examples)

Answer 17

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

Question 18

Figure-Ground laws (and examples)

Answer 18

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

Question 19

Psychophysiological Model

Answer 19

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

Question 20

Aplysia and three levels

Answer 20

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

Question 21

Assumptions of the psychphysiological model

Answer 21

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

Question 22

Psychodynamic model

Answer 22

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

Question 23

Freud

Answer 23

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

Question 24

Id, superego, ego

Answer 24

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

Question 25

Psychoanalysis

Answer 25

Tries to make unconscious, conscious

Question 26

Behaviourist model

ABC

Notable studies (2)

Answer 26

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

Question 27

Quote by John B. Watson

Answer 27

“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.

Question 28

Cognitive model

Answer 28

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

Question 29

McGurk effect

Answer 29

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

Question 30

Weakness of cognitive

Answer 30

Unobservable

Question 31

Humanistic Model

Answer 31

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.

Question 32

Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs

Answer 32

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