Lecture 4: The birth of psychology - 1650-1900 Flashcards
We ought never to allow ourselves
to be persuaded of the truth of
anything unless on the evidence of
our reason. And it must be noted that
I say of our reason, and not of our
imagination or of our senses: thus,
for example, although we very clearly
see the sun, we ought not therefore
to determine that it is only of the size
which our sense of sight presents;
and we may very distinctly imagine
the head of a lion joined to the body
of a goat, without being therefore
shut up to the conclusion that a
chimaera exists
descartes
Thus we remember, to have seen that species of object we call flame, and to have felt that species of sensation we call heat. We likewise call to mind their constant conjunction in all past instances. Without any farther ceremony, we call the one cause and the other effect, and infer the existence of the one from that of the other.”
Hume
wat was de grootste vraag gedurende deze tijd
does man fall within or outside the scope of science?
who published the first book with psychology in the title and when
christian wolff: 1732 -> Psychologia Rationalis
wat was het boek van christian wolff…
- de eerste presentatie van psychologie als eigen science
- launches the idea of introspection als methode
- wanted to describe the results of introspection mathematically
introspection is the study of …
the mind, by the mind.
(to learn about the mind, we have to look inside)
who was kant impressed with
newton
who was the first to consider the possibility of a scientific psychology
Kant (maar… hij dacht dat psychology at most could describe, but will have no explanatory laws such as physics)
in welke twee categorieen deelde kant science op
- proper science: lawful, quantitative description in the language of mathematics
- improper science: describing cases in normal language, categorisation, merely empirical, Kant called this systemic art
“A rational doctrine of nature thus deserves the name of a natural science, only in case the fundamental natural laws therein are cognized a priori, and are not mere laws of experience…
…in any special doctrine of nature, there can only be as much proper science as there is mathematics therein… …proper natural science requires a pure part lying at the basis of the empirical part, and resting on a priori cognition of natural things”
wie zei dit en wat bedoelde hij er mee
Kant: chemistry is not a proper science, and psychology certainly not!
Kant; introspection is problematic because….
- mental states are not quantitative
- therefore no mathematical description
- consciousness never stands still
- observing the mind changes the mind
Comte: introspection is problematic because….
- no distinction between investigator and investigated
- objectivity is impossible: you cant check it
- evidence is therefore not public (and therefore not scientific)
waarom liep psychologie rond 1700 dus een beetje vast
omdat ze alleen introspectie hadden om mee te meten, en dat was dus niet scientific.
wat was toen het wereldbeeld over mensen en psychologie (3 misconcepties)
- humans cannot be described in maths
- humans are different from animals
- the mind is immaterial
(= non scientific psychology)
waardoor veranderde het beeld
door de uitvinding van de stopwatch in 1816. toen kon Donders in 1868 de ‘duration of mental processes’ meten dmv mental chronometry.
-> toen mathematical description of mental processes
jack the ripper en freud waren tegelijkertijd
oke
Cognitive psychology: it turns out man
can be described mathematically!
oke
Fechner
difference in weight is easier to noice when the objects are similar (twee telefoons) than when they are different (mok vs telefoon)
dus wie kan ook gezien worden als de eerste cognitieve psycholoog
fechner, omdat reaction time van Donders zo subjectief gezien wordt
wie was de eerste die statistiek toepaste op menselijk gedrag
Quetelet
wat introduceerde Quetelet
l’homme moyenne
(the average human: when individuals cannot be described lawfully, the average person can!)
Galton kenmerken
- cousin of darwin
- fascinated by genius ppl
- human qualities are just as heritable as natural qualities
- eugenetics
eugenetics =
intelligence should be leading in who gets to procreate and who does not
wat zeiden statistics
humans are stochastic (eigenschappen die goed beschreven worden door random probability distributions) and noisy
Kant had underestimated…
the potential of descibing humans mathematically
wat was darwins evolutie theorie
- Charles Darwin dethrones man as king of the animal kingdom
- Suggests an explanation for the origin of species based on evolution with two simple principles: accidental mutation and natural selection
- Animals that are better adapted to their environment survive and reproduce more than animal less adapted.
- Human beings developed certain advantageous traits (like bipedalism), passed those on, and evolved as a separate species from apes.
wat waren de consequenties van darwin
– Man loses its special status compared to animals
– Human and animal behavior are related
– A very important part of the question “who are we?” suddenly turns out to fall within the scope of science
wat was de enchantment of the mind
eerst dachten ze dat de soul: connections to god, immaterial, etc.
hoe veranderde dit beeld van de mind
- 1800: mental functions are related to the brain
- localization (wernicke, broca)
- reflexes
-> why wouldnt the brain also just be a machine?
dus welke 3 misconcepties waren er over mensen en psychologie, en hoe werden deze veranderd?
- no mathematical description: reaction time and stopwatch
- humans are not animals: evolution theory
- the mind is immaterial: the brain is material
gebeurde allemaal in de 19e eeuw/1800!
wat was het eerste psychologie lab
in 1879, van wundt
wat deed freud als eerste
first comprehensive psychological theory
wie was de eerste psycholoog van austro-hungarian empire
freud
wie was de eerste van german empire
wundt
wie was de eerste van usa
james
wie was de eerste van frankrijk
binet
Psychoanalysis revolves around….
the tension between the conscious and unconscious
unconscious=
set of uncoordinated instinctual desires (like sex and aggression), too threatening to allow into the conscious
wat is de relatie tussen id, ego en superego
the ego censors the id by order of the superego.
wat waren nog meer standpunten van de psychoanalysis
- In psychic functioning unconscious fantasies,
desires and drives are central. - They primarily serve the pleasure-principle.
- Only secundarily they serve adaptation and
rationality (reality principle). - Rational adaptation never really succeeds, conflict remains.
dus samenvatting van freud
unconscious drives usually serve the pleasure principle, instead of the reality principle. psychological problems arise from problems in the unconscious (complexes, repressed memories etc.). the psychoanalyst needs to trace down these problems.
waar kan een psychoanalyst deze unconscious aan herkennen
– Slip of the tongue
– Dreams
– Free associations
(when the censoring ego is not paying attention)
hoe keken ze voor de 16e eeuw naar mentale stoornissen
- leefden thuis of op straat
- possessed by the devil or ghosts
hoe keken ze na de 16e eeuw naar mentale stoornissen
- responsibility to authorities
- institutions (maar leken eerst wel op gevangenissen)
- treatments such as cold showers or turning around
hoe keken ze rond de 19e eeuw naar mental disorders
- focus from ‘treating morale’ to biological components
- neurologists
- use of hypnosis
- uiteindelijk psychologische therapie
- Psychoanalysis was initiated and shaped by Freud and his wishes were father to many of its
thoughts. - Historians and methodologists have found
unscientific practices and clinical scandals. - This has resulted in genuine scientific and
ethical doubts. Is psychoanalysis a science? Is it a cure? Or only nonsense?
oke
wat was het centrale thema van wundt’s lab
consciousness
welke methodes in wundts lab
– Experimental observation (e.g. reaction time research)
– Introspection (e.g. investigating affective
states)
– Völkerpsychologie (historical and cultural
analysis of psychology).
wat was wundt zijn theorie
characterization of affect in terms of valence (positive/negative) and arousal (high/low)
structuralism =
- Mental states are thus “built” from
basic properties - Structuralists think we should study
the structure of mental experiences - Complex psychological states are
systematic constellations of thoughts
and feelings
hoe zou een structuralist ‘guilt’ uitleggen
= a [negative] feeling linked to the
thought [that you’ve done something
wrong]
hoe zou een structuralist ‘hope’ uitleggen
= a [positive] feeling linked to the
thought [that something might get better
in the future]
wat was een overeenkomst tussen wundt en james
dachten beide dat consciousness centraal moet staan
wat was anders tussen james en wundt
wundt: structuralist
james: vond structuralism saai en impossible, was een functionalist
wat was james zijn tegenargument tegen structuralism
a single thought cannot occur to a single section of the brain, because your thoughts are dynamic.
william james kenmerken
- Strongly influenced by Darwin
- Emphasizes the function of psychological phenomena
- He is therefore one of the founding fathers of functionalism in psychology
- Like Wundt, he developed theories about emotions
- Emotion is a response to physiological change (The James Lange Theory of Emotion).
- These physiological changes and emotions have a function
hoe legt James de emoties disgust en fear uit
– Disgust coincides with sticking the
tongue out, which has the function of
spitting out bad food
– Fear coincides with an increased heart
rate, which has the function of being
ready to flee
wat vragen functionalists zich altijd af
what is the purpose of this psychological state
fear serves to avoid danger, love serves to
generate offspring, : religious faith serves to coordinate behavior in a society
waar is dit een voorbeeld van
functionalism
James emphasizes …
the usefulness of everything; consciousness is not an “entity” but a function
first female president of the APA=
mary calkins
wat deed mary calkins
argued for a union of functionalist and structuralist approaches.
-> the self is both in relation with the environment and should be investigated structurally
Binet;
- Binet first tries to establish intelligence like
Galton did: reaction times, basal perceptual
tests, skull size, etc. - That doesn’t work, and Binet comes up with
the idea of letting kids solve simple tasks - counted how many problems the kids solve: much stronger predictor of academic success than all previously constructed variables.
Terman
- Educational psychologist
- Also eugenicist
- Devises the Stanford Binet Intelligence Scales, which is still the basis of most IQ tests.
- Test scores are seen as more fair than the teacher’s judgement (there is a lot of evidence for that)
- In the 20th century testing institutes are set up to classify students into education levels
- In the Netherlands CITO is founded by A.D. de Groot
- Testing children at primary schools doesn’t have a good reputation anymore, but don’t forget that it was introduced as a solution for
teachers’ prejudices
oke
- Psychology comes into existence in a turbulent time in which the image of man is tilting in all kinds of ways
- Psychology becomes an independent discipline (no longer part of philosophy) and becomes an empirical science, initially based on introspection
- Psychology is given shape: Freud, Binet, James, and Wundt all still have a detectable influence on psychology
- There are some schools, but no dominant paradigm yet. This is being developed in the US, where Thorndike, because he couldn’t use children as a test subject, started studying chickens…
oke
wat was de anthropometric laboratory
van Galton, waar simpele reaction time experiments werden uitgevoerd
= psychometrics!
