Lesson 5 - Early Approach to Psychology Flashcards
Why is Wilhem Wundt considered the founding father of Modern Psychology? What did psychology meant for him?
Because he intentionally and deliberately promoted the field of psychology
For him, promoting this field meant promoting it as a scientific field
Disagreed with anyone who said that:
• Psychology was not a science
• Could not be studied experimentally
Describe Wundt’s work in terms of research, professors, labs, work
Established the world’s first psychology lab in 1879
Completed his post-doctoral training with Hermann von Helmholtz
Established himself as an independent researcher
• Supporting himself and his work by writing textbooks
Became a professor of philosophy at the University of Leipzig at 45 y.o.
• His lecture hall was more like a theatre with a magic lantern
• Would draw crowds of 600 students
Describe Wundt’s methodology for his work on reaction times
Interest: Reaction time: can one person perceive 2 stimuli at the same time?
• Methodology: used a pendulum that would swing and cross the demarcation line, while hitting a bell
• Stimuli: sound of bell and sight of the pendulum crossing the line
• Participants: himself
• Result: one cannot attend 2 stimuli simultaneously, both stimuli register sequentially (take 1/8th of a second to register)
• Conclusion: Consciousness holds only a single thought, a single perception
Why did Wundt want to test selective attention?
- If we are only able to attend to 1 stimulus at a time, then attention must be selective
- Given that attention is limited, we must focus on the task at hand
- There is an element of making a choice to selectively attending to a stimulus
Who was the first person to use the term “experimental psychology”?
Wundt
What is Psychology’s first school of thought? What is it called, and what is the thinking behind it?
School of thought: group of people sharing common assumptions, thoughts and methodologies
Voluntarism: emphasis on intentionality and volition (or willfulness) - Wundt’s school of thought
Focused on the volition of the individual
• If attention was selective then there is a decision made to attend to the stimulus
• The mind organizes mental elements into higher-level thoughts
• There is also willfulness in organizing thoughts
• The activity of the mind was more important than its contents
What were the goals of psychology according to Wundt?
To understand: Simple conscious phenomena • Basic processes of the mind • Experimentation could be used • Beginning of Experimental Psychology Complex Conscious Phenomena • Higher mental processes • Language and cultural interactions • Naturalistic observation could be used • Beginning of Social Psychology
Define what is Völkerpsychologie, as well as its 3 main areas of research
To better understand people, we need to study how they interact with each other in social and cultural settings
• Titchener (Wundt’s student) translated it to Social Psychology, though there is no English translation for that
3 main areas of research of Völkerpsychologie:
1. Language: how it's acquired and how it's used in terms of social behaviour 2. Arts: including myths and religion 3. Customs: cultural norms and established laws
Define immediate and mediate experiences according to Wundt
Psychology would concern itself with the immediate experience/conscious processes of people - the world of experience in the moment
• Mediate experience: using a thermometer to quantify how cold it is outside
• Immediate experience: you going outside to see how cold it is
Describe Wundt’s method of introspection, as well as what introspection is, and the rules that Wundt established for introspection observation
Introspection: examination of one’s own mental state to inspect and report on personal thoughts or feelings
Wundt devised experimental introspection
• Conducted under Wundt’s explicit rules and conditions
• Conducted by highly trained observers
Subject requirements: intense training in how to introspect properly and did not consider them fully trained until they had reported 10,000 introspections
• Believed that with practice, elements would be reported automatically without interpretation getting in the way
Wundt’s 4 rules for introspection observation
1. Observers must know when the procedure will begin 2. Observers must be in a "state of readiness or strained attention" 3. The observation must be repeatable numerous times 4. The experimental conditions must be varied in terms of control over stimulus manipulation
What are the 2 forms of conscious experience according to Wundt?
2 forms of conscious experience according to Wundt:
• Sensation: whenever a sense organ is stimulated and the resulting impulses reach the brain, can be described in terms of modality (auditory, visual, etc) and intensity
• Feelings: the subjective interpretation of sensations, do not arise directly from a sense organ
Define Wundt’s tri-dimensional theory of feelings
Tri-Dimensional Theory of Feelings
Wundt realized that the speed of a metronome in front of him elicited various emotions
These feelings could be categorized by 3 attributes
• Pleasant/Unpleasant: how pleasant or agreeable a sensation was (certain rhythms, rates of speed)
• Strain/Relaxation: anticipation of a sensation that will come (sound), and relief after sensation has occurred
• Excitement/calm: feelings of slight happiness with faster sounds, depression with slow sounds
Give an example of the questions that Wundt asked to the participants after listening to the metronomes
Wundt asked about these aspects after making participants listen to metronomes: • Sensation • Auditory modality • Evaluate pitch, timbre, speed • Feelings • Was the sound pleasant/unpleasant? • Did it evoke excitement/calm? • Did it make you feel strained/relaxed? He always asked yes/no questions
Define apperception according to Wundt
Wundt believed that sensations and feelings are not happening in isolation
• Immediate experiences are made up of different elements leading to perception
• Apperception: when we are aware of perception - NOT passive
Perception = passive process
Associating elements of physical stimulation, past experiences and anatomical makeup to make out perceptual field
Describe Wundt’s creative synthesis
Wundt suggested that perceptions have a unity to them
• Ex: we do not see the individual qualities of a tree when we stand in front of it; we notice the whole concept of the tree
• Will be a precursor for Gestalt
Creative synthesis: the elements which are attended to can be rearranged as the person wills and can lead to new experiences with the same stimuli
Apperception: active process of associating elements into a whole concepts, which often leads to emergent qualities (creative synthesis)
• Chemistry example: hydrogen and oxygen (2 gasses) make up water (liquid) when combined together
What were the criticisms of Wundtian Psychology?
- The German economy was collapsing after the defeat in WWI
- Introspection cannot always yield similar results
- Disagreements in results cannot be settled by repeating the experiment
- Edward Bradford Titchener will attempt to bring some of Wundt’s ideas to America
Summarize Titchener’s work at Cornell
He went to America and began a long career at Cornell University (1893-1927)
• 1893-1900: Established a lab, conducted research and wrote over 60 scholarly articles
• Supervised more than 50 doctoral candidates and built his system of structuralism
• Many mix up Wundt and Titchener because Titchener attempted to translate Wundt’s work for America
• However, voluntarism and structuralism are very different
Compare Titchener’s perspective about the study of the mind with Wundt’s perspective (structuralism vs voluntarism)
Titchener’s perspective: the study and analysis of the basic elements of conscious experience = Psychology
Goal: discover the structure of consciousness
• Only “normal adults” could be used to test this
Wundt’s perspective: psychology = the mind has the power to organize mental activities through apperception
