Lecture 5 Flashcards
Dr. Roy thinks the importance of which debate has been overstated in the history of psychology?
structuralism (Titchener) vs functionalism (James)
Edward Boring was a student of ______.
His 1929 book, ______ (one of first psych history books), put lots of emphasis on the debate between ____ and ____
student of Titchener (structuralist!)
book: A History of Experimental Psychology
debate btw structuralism and functionalism
Edward Bradford Titchener (1867-1927) was a (structuralist/functionalist)
structuralist (leader of structuralist school)
Titchener believed that experimental psychology’s major goal was _______
the atomistic analysis of the elements of consciousness
Titchener was one of _____’s most influential students
Wundt
What warning of Wundt’s did Titchener disagree with?
- Wundt warned against reductionism (introspectively revealed dimensions of consciousness can’t be considered “elements” bc they can’t exist on their own!!
Titchener thinks that by using ___ we can break down complex thoughts into ____. This process goes the opposite way of which thinker’s idea?
introspection; simpler elements (atoms of thought, sensory in nature)
opposite of Locke (experience –> simple ideas –> complex ideas)
What does Titchener think about Kant’s idea that inner observation cannot be separated and recombined at will?
disagrees with this; we can identify basic elements of thought
According to Titchener, how should we use the method of introspection?
- trained “introspectors” have to work hard to reduce all their mental contents into more basic elements while avoiding stimulus error
What is stimulus error?
- describing the object rather than one’s experience w the object
- Titchener warns against this
According to Titchener, all conscious experience can be reduced to ______
introspectively accessible sensory images
What does Titchener think about the use of language?
we should use specialized language, but it shouldn’t be too technical
Titchener established _____ distinguishable elements of sensory experience (___ visual, ____ auditory, ___ taste, ____ sensations of digestive tract)
43 000
30 000 visual, 11 000 auditory, 4 taste, 3 sensations of digestive tract
According to Titchener/Boring, the 4 main dimensions of consciousness are:
Quality, intensity, extensity (space) and protensity (duration)
What 3 reasons were given for why Titchener’s structuralism had limited impact in the field of psychology?
- introspection did not intuitively give rise to the experience of elementary sensations (our minds do things without us being conscious of it (ex creative synthesis))
- no practical impact
- failed to convince the researchers who remained interested in contents of consciousness (he took structuralism too far; it goes totally against gestalt psych idea that whole is different from sum of its parts)
How do mechanistic and vitalistic physiology fit into the reductionist/emergentist framework?
mechanistic physiology is similar to reductionism
vitalistic physiology is similar to emergentism
Who wrote “The Principles of Psychology” (1890)? How many years did it take?
- William James
- first english psych textbook
- took 12 years
James was more of a _____ than a program builder
communicator!
Who taught the first American uni course (at Harvard) on the new scientific psychology? (1872)
William James
Was Wundt a structuralist?
not really, hard to put him in a box
What did Wundt think of James’ work?
it is literature, it is beautiful, but it is not psychology
What did James think of Wundt’s work?
thought experimental psych concerned w very specific questions was boring!
What topic does James’ psych textbook start with?
physiology!
James: although it has limitations _____ is still the best available psychological method
introspection (didn’t like experimental methods)
James’ ideas can be interpreted as a precursor to ______ (by observing experience itself and letting experience dictate the categories)
- phenomenalism!
- here James is kinda in agreement w Titchener
James: minds are ____ in the natural world
objects
What metaphor can be used to describe James’ thoughts on consciousness? What about Titchener?
James: stream of consciousness
Titchener: train of thought
James: the stream of consciousness goes from a ____ part to a ____ part back to a _____ part
substantive part –> transitive part (moves fast, not totally aware of all thoughts) –> substantive part
5 key points about James’ “stream of consciousness”
- every thought is part of a personal consciousness
- thought is always changing
- thought is sensibly continuous
- there is an intentionality or “aboutness” of consciousness; object of attention is experienced as an “undivided state of consciousness”
- intrinsically related to direction of our thoughts/perceptions; only pay attention to a fraction of what we can be aware of
Attention in James’ “stream of consciousness” is similar to what element of Wundt’s ideas about consciousness?
- apperception!!
James: “My first act of free will shall be _______”
“… to believe in free will”
What did James decide during his existential crisis in 1870?
- to believe in free will
- built habit of thinking more positive thoughts (like mindfulness!)
- used free will in his personal life and determinism in science
Why did James say that psychology is a “nasty little subject”
- it is limited
- “all one cares to know lies outside”
In his later career, James left Harvard and turned to _____, founding _______ with Charles Sanders Peirce
philosophy; pragmatism
What is pragmatism?
- founded by James and Charles Sanders Peirce
- scientific knowledge can never be entirely certain, but only subject to varying degree of “pragmatic belief”
- think Darwin: evolution/adaptiveness of ideas, some ideas can gain/lose value depending on environment/competitors
- believing in free will in your own personal life is pragmatically “correct” bc it “works”
What role did Carolus Linnaeus play in shaping the theory of evolution?
- created the classification system (Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species)
Describe Lamarck’s law of inheritance of acquired characteristics
- ex giraffe lengthens neck over lifetime from stretching to eat leaves, passes this on to offspring; cycle repeats
According to Darwin, the chief mechanism of evolution is _______ and ______
blind variation (built in variability in each species)
selective retention (those best suited to environment survive and pass on their genes)
What are the implications of Darwin’s idea that humans have descended from animal ancestors?
- no fundamental difference btw man and higher mammals in their mental faculties
- if we are animals, we can study animals as a proxy for humans!!
Thorndike suggested that _____ would be easier to study than children
- chickens
- his prof James kept his chickens in his basement for first 2 years of his PhD bc his landlord said no
When James left Harvard, Thorndike went to Columbia to study under Cattel and studied _______
cats! (although he originally brought his chickens with him)
Who used a puzzle box method to study animals?
Thorndike
What 2 conclusions did Thorndike learn from his studies ith cats in a puzzle box?
- cats used trial and error learning
- law of effect: when stimulus-response sequences are followed by pleasure they tend to be strengthened (stamped in); are weakened (stamped out) with annoyance/pain
Where is Thorndike on the list of most eminent psychologists of the 20th century?
9th!!
What is the relationship between Charles Darwin and Francis Galton
cousins
What made Francis Galton realize that “eminence” runs in families?
he studied the biographical dictionaries of famous people (family trees of 12 groups of historically famous people)
What did Galton say about the statistical distribution of intellectual ability?
it tends to fall into statistical distributions similar to other physical traits (normal curve)
What did Galton think about adoptive vs biological relatives?
- said adopted children were less similar to parents
- presented anecdotal evidence of Roman Catholic popes who adopt “nephews”
Darwin generally (approved/disapproved) of Galton’s ideas on hereditary genius?
approved!
What did Francis Galton do at the International Health Exhibition in London in 1884?
- tested 9000 of 4 mil ppl who came to exhibition
- measured head sizes, psychophysical tasks, and reaction time
- it turns out these were the wrong measures for intelligence
What were some of Galton’s key contributions to statistics? (4)
- 1860: defined measure of standard deviation to characterize normal distributions
- 1888: popularized concept of correlation (and applied it to psychological measures!)
- developed regression line
- discovered “regression to mediocrity” (regression to the mean; when you take 2 measures and the first is very high the second will likely be closer to the mean)
What work by Galton was further revised by his biographer and mathematician Karl Pearson?
- correlations!! (and applying them to psychology and anthropology)
Galton on applying statistics to physics:
- Outcomes are ____
- Noise comes from______
- Measurements are made by _____
- Outcomes are stable
- Noise comes from instrumentation
- Measurements are made by few, but very precise, observations
Galton on applying statistics to psychology:
- Outcomes are ____
- Noise comes from______
- Measurements are made by _____
- Outcomes are variable
- Noise is intrinsic to the process!!
- Measurements are made by averaging several observations
What was Galton’s vision of “positive” eugenics?
- project of improving human race through selective breeding
- wanted to reproduce exemplars of the best of the human race (eminence)
- imagined competition where winners would be married by Queen and receive generous subsidies
- these individuals should be identified early so they can have as many kids as possible
- one consequence of this line of thinking was the sterilization laws in the states in early 1900s (64 000 ppl sterilized between 1907-1963ish)
What are the 3 moral arguments against eugenics presented in class?
- people have fundamental rights and can’t be coerced against their will
- how do we even decide what traits are valuable? HUGE risk of prejudice and discrimination here
- different societal values are always in conflict w one another (eg equality and freedom); no “positive” solution to societal issues, best we can do is compromise
What is a “positive solution”?
- one solution that will solve all aspects of a situation
- political problems don’t have positive solutions
What 2 scientific arguments against eugenics were presented in class?
- complex traits like intelligence are also under the influence of the environment and aren’t inherited in a simple Mendellian (one gene-one trait) process
- breeding is not an easy process, breeding one trait can cause issues with other traits
How did Galton define “hereditary genius”?
- more about capacity, intelligence wasn’t really a thing yet
- “natural ability” that urges a man to perform acts that lead to reputation
Who created the first intelligence test?
Alfred Binet
George Romanes’ 1882 book “Animal Intelligence”:
- was very inspired by _____
- argued that there is ______ between people and animals
- Darwin
- no qualitative difference (same processes but just less advanced)
Thorndike’s 1911 book _____ marked the moment when the term “intelligence” started becoming more popular
Animal Intelligence: Experimental Studies
Why did we need a new term (intelligence)?
- “reason” (which just meant problem solving capacities in the service of motives) became something we share w other animals
- so we need a new term!!
Herbert Spencer’s 1855 book Principles of Psychology proposed that intelligence is related to ______
the degree of adaptation to the environment (survival of the fittest!)
According to Herbert Spencer, what are the 2 main aspects of adaptation?
- intelligence: individual learning, flexible
- instinct: evolution of the species, inflexible
Which two thinkers pursued the work of Galton but struggled to find a measure of intelligence?
- Pearson
- Spearman
WHy did Binet come up with the first intelligence test?
- in 1882 education was made compulsory in France
- they wanted to identify children who did not qualify for normal education, mandated him w the task
How did Binet come up with the items for his intelligence test?
- asked teachers about expectations for students and used that as guidelines for test
- worked on test with student Theodore Simon
In Binet’s test, no single item can discriminate impaired vs normal children, you have to take _____ into account
age!
Binet distinguished between ___ and ____ age
chronological and mental age
When Stern introduced IQ in 1912, he argued that it is the _____, not the ____, between chronological and mental age that matters
ratio, not the difference
How would Binet vs Stern graph normal vs typical development (where Y axis is mental age and X axis is chronological age)
Binet: two parallel diagonal lines
Stern: lines start closer together but normal dev. line increases faster in mental age!
How did the ideas of Binet/Simon differ from Spearman/Terman/Galton in terms of intelligence?
- Binet/Simon wanted to focus on who is delayed, not looking for genius; test is just about who is fit for regular education, not really measure of “intelligence”
- Spearman et al thought that individuals and groups are always being tested for their fitness, saw school as arena where innate endowment was put to the test
What was Spearman’s “general intelligence” (g)?
- single common factor of generalized mental “power” which is applicable in some degree to all intellectual tasks
What was Spearman’s two-factor theory of intelligence?
- performance on all intellectual tasks requires both a single common factor (g) and a second, specific factor (s) which is unique to the task
What were the 4 types of specific intelligence in Spearman’s model?
- mechanical
- logical
- arithmetical
- spatial
What metaphor was used to explain Spearman’s two-factor theory of intelligence?
- g is like oil/power
- s is like the specific engine for a given task
How did Lewis Terman contribute to intelligence testing?
1916 Stanford Revision of Binet-Simon Scale
- adapted it for americans
- used a larger normative sample
- multiplied IQ by 100 to center it around 100
1917-18 Army Alpha and Beta tests
- adopted Binet scale to see who is fit for army/leadership
- beta test was designed for non-native english speakers (more nonverbal)
What was problematic about Terman’s work?
- found that IQ was lower for ethnic minorities and said that explains why whites are superior
- there was a greater societal acceptance of this theory bc it explained what ppl “already knew” (social structure)
According to Dr. Roy, what really put psychology on the map?
intelligence testing!!
