Major Players Flashcards
Johannes Kepler
Kepler believed in the in Copernicus heliocentric model
Tycho Brahe, who was Keplers teacher did not confirm wit Copernicus’s explanation of planetary movement. Kepler continued his work after his death.
Keppler three laws of planetary movement:
1. Planets move in orbits shaped like an ellipse. (1609) 2. A line between a planet and the Sun covers equal areas in equal times. (1609) 3. How long a planet takes to go around the Sun is related to the radius of the planet’s orbit. (T2 proportional to a3) (1619)
Kepler and Galileo
Both worked as professors and had problems with the church
Galileo might have seen Kepler as rival so he didn’t gave him access to his new telescope.
Kepler used to talked negative about Galileo
They never met
Isaac Beeckmann
Strong Calvinist
studied theology, literature and mathematics but worked in the field of medicine and logic as well
Beeckmann and Descartes
Both met and Descartes asked Beeckman to translate a mathematical problem from dutch to french
Beekmann interested Descartes in his mechanical theory and convinced him to devote his studies to a mathematical approach
They felt out over a dispute whether Beeckmann helped Descartes, which Descartes denied
James McKeen Cattell
American psychologist (first professor for psychology in the united states)
Cattell helped establishing psychology as a legitimate science through experimental techniques
He conducted research on intelligence, used quantitative methods
He stated that he had inherited ability but environment plays also a role in development
Cattel and Darwin
Visited Germany and met Darwin who interested him in Psychology
Worked as Darwin assistant
His thoughts were influenced by Eugenics
Due to Darwin’s evolutionary theory he became interested in individual differences
Edward Titchener
Developed a psychology laboratory in the USA
Promoted structuralism
used introspection as method to discover structure of human mind
Titchener and Wundt
translated Wundt’s books
Studied with him (so strong influence)
brought Wundts structuralism to the US
changed it from relationship between elements of consciousness to identifying the basic elements themselves
Edward Thorndike
Conducted animal research in puzzle box
Law of effect: behaviours that are followed by good consequences are likely to be repeated in the future
Concluded through the cat observing experiment that animals learn to make a response to create a desired outcome
Watson and Thorndike
Watson build up on Thorndikes studies with animals and operant conditioning
Watson placed strong emphasis on the impact of environmental factors on behaviour, whereas Thordike believed on biological (men/women) rather than cultural reasons
Erik Homburger Erikson
Invented the term identity crisis
Contributed to our understanding of personality (continuous development through life with the need of crisis which you have to overcome and learn from as preparation for the next crisis)
professor at Yale Havard and University of California
Erikson and Freud
He was Neo-Freudian
Worked with Anna Freud together who interested him i psychoanalysis
Did not focus on parental relationship, more importance on the role of ego and the progression of personality
Freuds theory ended in early life o patients, Erikson described development through entire lifespan
