Lecture 4: The Birth Of Psychology Flashcards
Historical method
One of the three research methods introduced by Wundt; consist of studying the human mind by investigating the products of human cultures; according to Wundt particularly well suited to investigate the ‘higher’ functions of the mind
What are the 3 methods Wundt used
- Experimental methods (reaction times)
- Introspection
- The historical method
Functionalism
Name given to an approach in early American psychology research that examined the practical functions of the human mind inspired by the evolutionary theory
Structuralism
Name given by Titchener to his approach to psychology, consisting of trying to discover the structure of the human mind by means of introspection (also Wundt)
Würzburg school
Group of psychologists at the university of Würzburg who used introspection as a research method; they claimed that many thought processes were not available to introspection (imageless thought)
Gestalt psychology
Group of psychologists emphasizes that organisms perceive entire patterns or configurations, not merely individual components
Asylum
Name given to the institutions for the insane established from the sixteenth century on; first modeled after prisons, later after hospitals for chronic patients
Neurologist
Name used at the end of the 19th century by physicians who were interested in the treatment of milder forms of mental problems outside the asylum; the term was later used to refer to specialists of the nervous system, when the original neurologists merged with the psychiatrists and took up the latter’s name
Psychological treatment
Treatment of mental health problems consisting of conversations between the patient and the therapist; initiated by Freud as an alternative to the prevailing medical and educational treatments
Psychoanalysis
Name given to Freud’s theory and therapy
Case study
Within medicine and clinical psychology, the intensive study of an individual patient within the context of his/her own world and relations, to understand and help the individual patient
What are the two categories that Kant divided the disciplines into
Proper science (lawful, quantitative description in the language of mathematics) and improper science (describing cases in normal language)
What was the most important thing that Wundt contributed to psychology
Because he had the first psychology laboratory and a program for students from all over the world very many people can be traced back to Wundt because he had so many students —> his legacy lies in his contribution to the spreading of the word and making psychology known
Which movement is associated with Wundt
Structuralism
Which movement is associated with James
Functionalism
What is the James-Lange Theory of Emotion
Emotion is a response to physiological change; you have a bodily response to certain thing and your emotions are a response to those bodily responses
What was Charcot most know for
He was one of the first neurologists and did much work on hypnosis, he was also a front runner when it came to treating patients and not just sticking them in asylums
What was an important finding of Delbouf
He stressed the importance of demand characteristics
What was the most important thing Binet contributed to psychology
He invented the first intelligence test together with Simon
What are the 3 most important aspects of Freud’s theory and what do they mean
Id - operates based on pleasure principles
Ego - operates based on reality principles
Superego - operates based on perfection principles
What are Freud’s most important contributions (2)
- There is a reason for why someone acts a certain way
- Importance of childhood in later life
What are 4 arguments against introspection and for why psych cannot be a proper science (Kant)
- Mental states have no quantitative properties (like objects have weight/length)
- Introspection can therefore not provide a mathematical description
- Consciousness “never stands still”, is always in flux, it cannot be kept constant to look at it closely, and thoughts cannot be separated
- Observing the mind automatically changes the mind
What was Wolff’s most important contribution
He was the first person to see psychology as a science and launched the idea of introspection as a scientific method, he wants to describe the results of introspection mathematically
Why did Comte say introspection was not a reliable observation (2)
- there is no distinction between the investigator and the investigated
- objectivity is impossible with introspection because you can’t look inside someone’s mind to check their introspection —> evidence from introspection is therefore not public
What was the view on man before 1800 (of Copernicus, Descartes, Newton, etc) (3)
- Man does not fall under the scope of natural phenomena and can therefore not be described mathematically
- Man is qualitatively different from animal
- Human body is governed by an immaterial spirit which only makes itself known through subjective experience
What was Donders’ most important contribution
Mental chronometry = He decided to determine the duration of mental processes —> provided a mathematical description of mental processes
What was Quetelet’s most important contribution
Even when individuals cannot be lawfully described, the average of a group of individuals can be
What were Galton’s 3 most important contribution
- He thought of genetics as influential and of qualities as heritable
- founder of eugenics
- founder of the regression line —> enabled behavioral genetics
How do Darwin’s ideas effect the ideas in this time (3)
- man loses its special status compared to animals
- human and animal behavior are related
- a big part of the question “who are we” suddenly falls within the scope of science
Which 3 things has to happen for psychology to be seen as a science
- Mathematical psychology and psychometrics (Donders, Quetelet and Galton)
- Evolutionary theory (Darwin)
- Realization that the mind is connected to the brain
What set Wundt and James apart from Freud in their thinking
They felt it was more important to focus on consciousness than on unconsciousness
What was Titchener’s most important contribution
He was one of the founders of structuralism
