Midterm

Question 1

Why can psychologists claim that psychology is one of the oldest scholarly disciplines, as well as one of the newest? Explain why modern psychology is a product of both the 19th and 20th centuries.

Answer 1

: Psychology is one of the oldest scholarly disciplines because it has many precursors dating back to Plato and Aristotle. Philosophers discussed many topics that can be related to psychology such as introspection, innate ideas, perception, and sensation. There are many philosophical ties to psychology especially stemming from Rationalism and Empiricism. The influences of psychology vary from Aristotle, Plato, John Locke, Hume, and Berkley. However, psychology is a newer discipline because it really did not progress as a science itself until the 1800’s with Wundt. In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s psychology really got momentum as a science. Education for psychology grew at this time and more and more students began getting their PH.D’s in psychology. Modern psychology is a product of the 19th and 20th centuries because it started incorporating the tools of natural science that was developed during these centuries and is based on both modern and earlier philosophical thoughts and findings.

Question 2

What are the differences between the data of history and data of science? Which do you think is most important and why?

Answer 2

The data of history cannot be reconstructed or replicated. The data of history can also be distorted because it is lost/suppressed, distorted translation, and it can also be affected by self-serving actions of the participants. Also media can be deceiving when it comes to the data of history. The data of science can be replicated. Data for science starts with a theory, then an experiment, and then the data is collected.

Question 3

What can we learn from studying the history of psychology? Include in your answer the reasons discussed in the lecture and indicate which one(s) seem most pertinent to you and why.

Answer 3

There are many reasons to study the history of psychology. By studying the history of psychology we can learn many things like Academic maturity, literacy, parallel topics, perspective, unity in psychology, critical thinking, and helps us learn more about psychology in general. Academic maturity helps us to grow academically by studying one’s history over the years and how it has evolved. Parallel topics help with knowing the different points of view can help us make our own questions. Critical thinking helps as we continue to make studies and experiments because psychology is still growing. Unity explains the framework and combines different aspects of psychology from every philosopher, scholar, and psychologist theories. In my opinion I think one of the more important reasons to study the history of psychology is the unity aspect. Psychology has many different theories and branches, for example biopsychology. I think the unity aspect makes psychology unique because there are so many different ways to apply psychology in life. Also the unity of different theories helped form psychology so studying the history of these combinations can help students see how psychology came about, what makes it different.

Question 4

Explain which approach to organizing history you favor, the naturalistic approach or the personalistic approach (be sure to define each). Why?

Answer 4

There are two approach to organizing history the naturalistic approach and the personalistic approach. The naturalistic approach focuses not on the person but the time they lived in and what influences the person. Personalitic approach focuses on the achievement of certain individuals and their achievements and contributions of the specific individual. Personally I think that the naturalistic approach is the most favorable. I believe that a person’s environment can influence their ideas. I also believe that the era they live in influences their morals, because at one point racism and discrimination were widely accepted in society. Understanding the social norms at the time the individual was alive is a big part in understanding the kinds of obstacles they had to endure.

Question 5

Discuss several contextual forces that have influenced the development of modern psychology. Why is it important to consider context when studying the history of psychology?

Answer 5

Some contextual factors that influenced the development of modern psychology include economic opportunity, war, and prejudice. Economic opportunity is important because when psychology emerged in the 20th century there was a greater need for jobs. Economic opportunity was greatly influenced by the social changes over history. During the 20th century, there were also more jobs than there were psychologist. War was also another factor that influenced psychology. War conditions forced people to move and it changed the places of needs for money. During WW2 they started psychological testing for soldiers and human factors, this greatly changed how we treated soldiers during war time. Prejudice has also influenced psychology. Over the years prejudice against race, sexual orientation, gender, age, and religion have made it difficult for certain people like women and African Americans to be recognized in psychology.

Question 6

From the Story of Psychology, briefly trace the explanations of human mental processes from the nous to the psyche.

Answer 6

The nous is the soul or mind given by God. Animal spirits are in the nervous system that made you move. Descartes believed in dualism which believes that mind and body are different. The psyche is the mind and soul. It later becomes mind and body working together but are still separate. Connected through the pineal gland. The psyc is like separate parts of a clock that work together.

Question 7

Choose the perspective of Spinoza or Descartes. Argue for or against the following: “The world, including human mental activity is wholly subject to natural laws and capable of being understood.” Briefly indicate what the other figure would argue.

Answer 7

Descartes was a dualist and believed the mind and body were separated. He believed that soul was from God and it was unexplainable and unknowable. The body us subject to the physical laws of nature. The body can be studied, however, thinking and reasoning cannot be studied.
Spinoza believed in substance monism= that which is self-dependent in existence. He believed that God was the only true substance. Spinoza believed that mind are subject to the physical laws of the universe b/c we are part of the substance that is subject to physical laws.
In my opinion Spinoza would argue for the statement. Spinoza believed that God was present in everything in the universe, and in mind and matter. He believed that God must be subject to the laws and nature and did not intervene with predetermined events. He believed nothing in nature, including God, were caused by something else. Spinoza believed all things are determined from the necessity of mental and physical events. Spinoza believes the world is subjected to natural laws and can be understood. Descartes does not hold the same views as Spinoza. Descartes believes that senses can be deceiving so I would not think he would be one to argue in favor of this statement.

Question 8

How did the concept of the soul get in the way of the nascent psychology?

Answer 8

3. The soul is from God making it unexplainable and unknowable. The body can be subjected to the physical laws of nature and can be studied unlike the soul. We have a rational soul with a body that is a physical machine.

Question 9

Explain the concept of mechanism. How did mechanism come to be applied to human beings? How were the development of clocks and automata important to the history of psychology?

Answer 9

Mechanism is the belief that the universe is a machine, and is subjected to laws. It was applied to humans because we have to be broken down into elements like a machine (clock)

Question 10

Describe Locke’s view of empiricism. Discuss his concepts of simple and complex ideas.

Answer 10

. Locke’s view of empiricism is that all learning comes through experiences, they are not innate. Locke believed that our mind are blank slates at birth. He believed the origins of our experience came from sensation and reflection. Sensation is a simple idea and involves all our senses. Reflections create complex ideas come from simple ideas by using the processes of combination and abstraction.

Question 11

Discuss how Berkeley inadvertently contributed to the birth of psychology.

Answer 11

Berkley believed mentalism. Mentalism is the idea that your perception of reality is the only reality. He was the first to say that mental events are measurable, and he did not believe in materialism.

Question 12

What are Hume’s laws of association and why are they so important to the history of psychology?

Answer 12

Hume’s laws of association are resemblance, contiguity, and cause &effect. The law of resemblance states that if they resemble each other, they are associated. The law of contiguity is the similarity between space and time. So for example when you see a girl at school then out of school, you then associate her with school). The law of cause & effect states when people see X happen, then Y happens right after and repeats over and over. These laws are important to psychology because as psychologist we need to understand the rules of mental life and how ideas merge together because of these laws. These laws have been guide lines for many scientific theories.

Question 13

Mesmer eventually influenced Freud and others; briefly describe the path from his salon sessions to hypnotism.

Answer 13

1. Mesmer used magnets on the body as a healing process. He believed that the magnets could heal disorders because it would realign the bodies’ magnetic force fields. He continued to treat illnesses with magnets for half a century. At one point he expanded his treatments to sessions with people in a circle receiving magnetism at once. Magnetism went on for half a century and eventually the use of magnets were abandoned. James Braid performed a number of experiments with magnetism and ended up identifying the process as a psychological process. He later renamed it Neuro-Hypnology which shortly became known as hypnosis.

Question 14

Describe the investigation into Mesmer’s claims and the eventual conclusions

Answer 14

2. Mesmer was using this treatment on a patient named Maria. After treatment was little to no effect on her the parents stopped treatment. He was accused of being a fraud by other doctors. He then made his own invention called the oak tub which dispensed magnetic fluid through the iron bars. This showed to also have no effect. He was then called a fraud by the University of Paris. In 1784 there was an investigation where the King put people into a room and used magnets to cure them, however it did not work as suspected and after investigation they found that his method was nothing but imagination.

Question 15

What is phrenology? Describe development of phrenology, including what Gall based phrenology on that ultimately discredited the idea.

Answer 15

Phrenology focuses on measurements of the skull because it was believed that its configuration was directly related to the individual’s personality and intelligence. Phrenology stemmed from physiognomy which was the belief that character and mental abilities varied due to someone’s shape and size of their facial features. This dated back to the Greek times. Gall based his theory on speculation and some case studies. As his studies continued he saw there was no sound scientific proof to support his idea. However, Gall helped advance the field of cognitive psychology.

Question 16

In what way did knitting needles advance the emergence of the science of psychology? (Be sure to mention just-noticeable differences and Weber’s Law.)

Answer 16

. Knitting needles advanced psychology because they were used in the early experiments with Weber. Weber’s experiments were some of the first experiments in psychology. He used the needles to experiment on the sensory system. Weber would touch the needle to a part of the patient’s body, normally their back, and he would measure how far off the person was when they would try to point to the area that was touched. Around this time Mechanist were very interested in reflexes and nerve transmissions. From this Weber’s Law was developed. His law stated that a quantitative relationship between the physical and psychological worlds. This lead to the framework of experimental psychology.

Question 17

Describe the work of Müller and its importance. In what way did he have a considerable influence on psychology?

Answer 17

Johannes Muller was a very influential figure in psychology. Muller wondered if the soul was simply the brain and nervous system in action or was it a separate “vital force” that temporarily inhabits the body. This helped him make many discoveries about the nervous system, which also helped established physiological psychology. Muller’s physiology helped answer how the realities of the world around us become perceptions in our mind. Muller’s work showed how the brain receives and interprets those nerve impulses. He proved that nerve impulses are what the brain receives and not replicas of what we see.

Question 18

Describe Helmholtz’s work on optics, especially color vision research. What was the long-lasting importance of this work?

Answer 18

In his research he concluded that three-color wave lengths (red, blue-violet, and green) were necessary to create all colors, and he called them the primary colors. He also did research with regards to nerve impulses and their speed. He concluded that mind interprets and draws meaning from messages sent via the optic nerve. Furthermore, humans make unconscious inferences about special relations through experience of size, direction, and intensity of the hue of an object. He did test that would train the brain to make adjustments to glasses he made where the subject would see the object in a different spot and adjustment made by the brain. He said that if these were moved around we would see the thunder and hear the lightning.

Question 19

Describe the methods that resulted from Fechner’s work to confirm Weber’s law. Why are these important?

Answer 19

Fechner used 3 different methods of experimental measurement to confirm Weber’s law. 1) Method of limits aka “method of just noticeable differences”- the experimenter presents a participant with a “constant” stimulus and a “comparison” stimulus. The differences were brought about in a gradual pace and would continue until the subject could perceive the difference between the two. 2) Method of constant stimuli aka “method of right and wrong cases.” For this method the experiment will present stimuli in succession or in pairs and the subject will either say yes that they do perceive it or that the two are different or they will say no if they didn’t perceive it or there is no difference between the two. This method is used to determine the likelihood that the subject will perceive the stimulus or the difference between the two stimuli at any given stimulus level or difference between the stimuli. 3) Method of adjustment aka “method of average error.” This was an original method brought about by Fechner himself. The subject is give an “comparison” stimulus and they adjust it until it matches the “standard” stimulus. He found there was always a slight error in every case and would average the numbers to conclude the j.n.d. (just noticeable difference). This was important in creating the idea that measuring the central tendency is not the only way to attain information; variability in data can be just as valuable.

Question 20

In what way was Wundt a “victim” of distorted data? How does this demonstrate that the data of history are different from the data of science?

Answer 20

1. Wundt was a victim distorted data because his student Tichner used his work to put his own ideas in. Tichner was the person that translated Wundt’s work and he used this to alter some of Wundt’s work for his own personal use. This is a perfect example of how the data of history can be altered, suppressed, distorted, or lost. Also the way data is gathered and reconstructed can alter the data of history. The data of history really relies on honest translations on accounts of works. If one piece of the data is lost or mistranslated it changes what really exist and what was made up.

Question 21

If Wundt had lived up (or down) to his father’s expectations and never become a man of renown, what would have happened to psychology? Justify your answer and explain what view of history you are taking (be sure to define the opposing view). Which view is supported by instances of simultaneous discovery?

Answer 21

. I think that regardless of if Wundt had lived up to his father’s expectations and never became renowned in psychology, it would have grown as a science regardless. I do believe that psychology may have been altered by the fact that Wundt wasn’t teaching the new and upcoming psychologist that some subdivisions of psychology would not exist. I think that psychology as a whole stemmed from philosophy, and so the questions about the mind and self-conscious always existed. The opposing view is the great man approach which believes that highly influential individuals have a huge historical impact. Wundt’s teaching influenced many of his students who took those lessons back to their home countries and psychology spread. Not every student of Wundt believed on Wundtian psychology, and this helped form different forms of psychology. So with this approach, had Wundt followed in the steps his father wanted him to take psychology would not be an independent science.

Question 22

How was Wundt’s psychology influenced by the work of the German physiologists and the British empiricists?

Answer 22

Some of Wundt’s big influences came from the empiricist view, German physiology, and
Wundt was influenced by the empiricist’s emphasis on experiments. Empiricist’s also influenced him because they did not believe in innate ideas which raised questions on the mind’s ability to learn and how experience shapes our ideas. While Wundt was successful in the medical field, he did not enjoy it and switched to physiology and studied under Muller. He eventually became the lab assistant to Helmholtz. These physiological influences helped guide him in his own experimental science in psychology. Wundt also used the reductionist perspective to look at the parts of consciousness and use the empirical method of experimentation to test these questions. These influences helped guide Wundt into making psychology its own science.

Question 23

What is the underlying theme in “Outlines of Psychology”? What was Wundt trying to accomplish?

Answer 23

The underlying theme in “Outlines of Psychology” was to show that psychology is just as much of a science as any natural science. Wundt believed that psychology was able to have experiments done (empiricist view). Wundt of course believed that psychology was an all-around better science and should be focused on more. In his writing he wanted to show that psychology was its own science and cut its ties from philosophy and other nonscientific origins. He believed that psychology was “supplementary to the natural sciences” and wanted to show how experimental methods could be applied to psychology.

Question 24

Describe Ebbinghaus’ research on learning and memory, including how Fechner’s work influenced Ebbinghaus. Who was more successful, Wundt or Ebbinghaus?

Answer 24

Ebbinghaus was a German psychologist who was also peer of Wundt’s. He also wanted to expand psychology as a science. Ebbinghaus was interested in studying memory and associations. He read Fechner’s “Elements of Psychophysics” and was inspired to do his own research. He liked Fechner’s mathematical approach to psychology and wanted to use this measurement to apply it to his experiments on learning and memory. He started using himself as a subject and studied his “meaningless series of syllables” to study memory processes. From this he found it was 9x’s harder to learn unassociated material and also made his famous forgetting curve. Ebbinghaus continued his research at the University of Berlin and even published “On Memory” in 1885 on his findings. He and another professor started a journal of Psychology and Physiology of the Sense Organs, this is when psychology really got momentum. Ebbinghaus’ research broadened the scope of experimental psychology. I think this made Ebbinghaus more successful than Wundt in my opinion.

Question 25

Briefly discuss the differences and similarities of Wundt, Müller, Brentano, Stumpf, and Külpe. How did they collectively change the study of human nature?

Answer 25

Franz Brentano’s Act Psychology directly opposed Wundtian psychology. While Brentano agreed with Wundt that psychology should be its own science. Brentano opposed to studying the consciousness and experience. Act psychology differed from Wundtian on mental processes. Act psychology focuses on what the mind does rather than what is in it. He believed that psychology should focus on experience as an activity rather than experience as a structure. He divided mental acts into three classes: sensing, judging, and wishing. He also believed that mental acts can be studied through memory and imagination.
​Stumpf studied phenomenology which is the examination of unbiased experiences. Stumpf and Wundt debated with one another on whose form of introspection was most accurate. Wundt had trained observers and believed they had more accurate introspection. Stumpf argued that his high tech musicians had more accurate introspection. Stumpf worked independently of Wundt, however they both helped expand psychology as a science.

9. Kulpe believed in systematic experimental introspection. This is where the subject reports sensation and perception of feelings but they also record the thoughts subject had while performing the task. Systematic introspection is also referred to as after-the-fact- introspection. This involved higher mental processes, imageless thoughts like smell, and also it asked the observer thought. Of course this type of introspection was very different than Wundt and went against many of Wundt’s ideas. Kulpe did different types of studies which expanded experimental psychology beyond Wundtian psychology.

Question 26

Compare and contrast the approaches of Titchener and Wundt to psychology

Answer 26

Titchener’s structuralism focuses on three things: the individual elements of consciousness, how they are organized into more complex experiences, and how these mental phenomena correlated with physical events. He believed that introspection was different than philosophy introspection. He also believed that consciousness was the total of one’s experiences at a given point. While some were against Titchener his contributions included expanding the subject matter. While he was also vigorous in his methodology, by being rigid it gave people something to rebel against which helped expand psychology. Wundt’s psychology was different from Titchener’s. He believed introspection was self-observation and reporting the inner thoughts, desires, and sensations. It is a process relying on thinking, reasoning, and examining one’s own thoughts, feelings, and one’s soul. Wundt used mechanistic and reductionist view. Wundt believed there were three opposing dimensions of feelings, which he included in his Tri-dimensional Theory of Feelings. These included pleasure/displeasure, tension/relaxation, and excitement/depression. Titchener, who usually prefers a narrower concentration only accepted the idea of one dimension, pleasure/displeasure.

Question 27

What were the criticisms of structuralism and what contributions did structuralism make to psychology?

Answer 27

Structuralism has some criticism as a whole. One of the main criticism is that structuralism faced was that it relied in introspection as the method of understanding conscious experience. The critics believed it was impossible for someone to observe and also do physical activity at the same time. Structuralism also did not support other branches of psychology, so it hindered the progression of the science. Another criticism was that people believed structuralism was too concerned with internal behavior, which cannot be directly observed and so then it cannot be measured. Both Wundt and Titchener pushed for structionalsim even though it was becoming outdated as more branches of psychology emerged. While they pushed for structionalism, it did in fact help expand psychology. This in fact was the 1st type of psychology taught. This led to experiments which proved psychology could be its own form of science. Wundt’s and Titchener’s teachings and their impact on students psychology would have never expanded, even though it expanded in a way they both probably would not have approved since it strayed from their original teachings.

Question 28

With what aspects of consciousness were the functionalists concerned? Describe the nature of their protest against Wundt’s psychology and Titchener’s Structuralism.

Answer 28

. Functionalism is concerned with the mind as it functions or it’s used by organisms to adapt to its environment. Functionalism focuses on very practical questions (what do mental processes accomplish? What does the mind do? How does it do it?) It is not as rigid as structuralism.
James viewed the process of consciousness as a continuum instead of a series of linked experiences. That idea went directly against Wundt’s and Titchniner’s psychology. They put experiences into a similar way to chemistry where different experiences happen when elements are combined into a compound of consciousness. They both used a form of introspection as primary research method, functionalism does not.

Question 29

How did Darwin’s ideas and Galton’s research change the subject matter and methods of psychology? Give examples of their contributions in your answer.

Answer 29

Darwin’s ideas impacted psychology greatly. Darwin’s ideas lead to continuity, functions, methods and individual differences. Continuity involved studying animal behavior as a way to predict human behavior. Functions showed how we fit into evolution of species. Methods which expanded psychology with data beyond introspection. Darwin also introduced individual difference which showed differences between people when it comes to mind and behavior. Galton believed intelligence was inherited and he expanded individual differences. Galton believed intelligence was inherited. He created Eugenics to further his study on genetics. He also created the first mental test. Galton also introduced the association of ideas. (time required to produce associations and reaction time. Galton was also the spark that lead to American psychology.

Question 30

Describe the statistical tools Galton used to measure human characteristics? Discuss the impact of these tools on modern psychology.

Answer 30

Galton created many tools to measure human characteristics. He made his own mental test to measure intelligence. Galton also studied individual differences and the relation they had to other traits and abilities. Galton impacted psychology with his invention of self-questionnaire, word association test, correlation analysis, and his use of mental testing. His inventions helped make him the “founder of new psychology” of individual differences.

Question 31

Explain the importance of Galton’s History of Twins (1875). Citing examples from the article, explain Galton’s position on innate traits and the positive and negative impact of his perspective.

Answer 31

. Galton believed he could study his idea about intelligence being hereditary by using twin studies. This would especially be useful when taking nature vs. nurture into account. Galton was the first to propose a study like this. He wanted to take a pair of identical twins and see if they were similar intellectually. This would be extremely helpful considering that they were raised in the same environment with the same teachers. He used questionnaires to gather his data from friends, family, and the twins themselves. He tool this data and published “The history of twins” in 1875. This data favored the nature rather than nurture had an impact on intelligence. However, Galton also believed that some traits were innate like natural characteristics. A positive point was that these findings did open the door for behavioral genetics. It also this really fueled the fire for the debate of nature vs. nurture which is still an important question in today’s psychology. He also found a way to figure out the strength of heritability and how to express it mathematically. One negative impact of Galton was his concept of eugenics which many people discredited.

Question 32

Explain what Hunt meant when he wrote that “the outcome of Galton’s work is a paradox.”

Answer 32

5. Hunt referred to Galton’s work as a paradox because while he had great contributions that helped further psychology, he hardly gets credit or mention for them. Galtonian psychology never really had many followers. In this time Germany was the center of psychology and many went there to study it, so they were trained by Wundt. When the psychology movement shifted from structuralism when the functionalism movement started influencing people to be Jamesian. Another reason Galton’s work was not very credited is because he worked independently and he is more commonly linked to being the father of eugenics rather than his twin studies.

Question 33

Functionalism was born and developed in America. Why?

Answer 33

In the 1900’s advancement and moving forward begins. During this time there was a lot of exciting innovation in the world of science. Darwinism was influencing many new psychologist. This view of evolution was going into the zeitgeist of the day in America about working your way up in the world.

Question 34

Describe Spencer’s notion of social Darwinism. How did social Darwinism influence American psychology?

Answer 34

Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution influenced many of the upcoming American psychologist like Herbert Spencer. Spencer took Darwin’s idea of evolution and extended it to the social world. He believed everything in the world operated by survival of the fittest (which is a term he coined, not Darwin). Spencer referred to this as social Darwinism. This view became more popular than the structuralsit view. With the social Darwinism view it proposed that higher mental processes were developed over time as people evolved. Spencer also proposed synthetic philosophy which combined different knowledge and human experiences. These ideas were very against Wundtian psychology and other structuralists. These ideas reflected America at the time (free enterprise, self-sufficiency, and independence from government regulation). Psychology for America was more focused towards functionalism.

Question 35

Reflecting on James’s work in psychology remark on three aspects of James’s work as either contributions to or distractions from the advancement of psychology. Be sure to include in your answer, James’s definition of psychology and his view of the purpose of consciousness.

Answer 35

William James was the leading American psychologist in his time. Some positives of his work included his writings, his excellent communication skills, his specific way of looking at the mind, and his opposition of Wundt. While he had some positive effects on psychology, some people believed his work was a distraction in the advancement of psychology. Some of James’ work included mental telepathy, clairvoyance, spiritualism, and séances. Jame also never had his own Jamesian school of thought. James also never trained scientist. James also showed no passion with psychology, he viewed the science as “a nasty little science.” He also believed that psychology was “an elaboration of the obvious.” James believed consciousness was necessary for human evolution. Overall I believe that James was not as passionate about psychology being its own science like other psychologist in his time. If he had invested more into it with his great writings and his intelligence he could have impacted psychology, especially in America, more.

Question 36

Describe the contributions of Titchener and Dewey in founding functional psychology

Answer 36

Titchener and Dewey both contributed in founding of functional psychology. Titchener was the one who helped introduce Wundt’s ideas to America, granted he did manipulate Wundt’s ideas to make them work in Titchener’s favor. Titchener provided the definition of structural psychology as the study of mental processes and consciousness. He believed the function of psychology was to discover the nature of experiences by examining consciousness. Titchener’s ideas did stray away from Wundtian psychology, he strayed from the idea that higher mental processes are assembled in each individual from simple elements. Titchener also coined the turn functionalism. Dewey was one of the first to apply psychology to academics. He was the first to practice psychology using action and application. He did not believe that someone’s consciousness can be reduced to parts or elements. Instead Dewey believed this was a reflex circle. Dewey was interesting in how behavior and consciousness function in organism and how they adapt to their environment. He believed stimulus =reaction/response and that changes that person.

Question 37

According to Angell what are the 3 major themes of the functionalist movement?

Answer 37

Three: major themes of Functionalist Movement:
1: F.P is the study of mental process operations
2: fundamental utilities of consciousness. How does it help w/ needs of organism and the demands of environment, how can meditate so it can adapt and survive?
​3: F.P is interested in mind/body relationship

Question 38

Describe Woodworth’s dynamic psychology and his views on using stimulus and response to understand psychology.

Answer 38

Woodworth’s dynamic psychology emphasized the physiological events that influenced behavior incorporated He was interested in finding out why people behave as they do and what forces drive us. He believed psychology was a combination of behavioral, physiological, and introspective methods. Woodworth believe that stimulus influences the organism to act in certain way, but it does not mean it automatically elicits the response. He believed human motivations and conscious decisions play a role in human behavior.

Question 39

Compare functionalism’s contributions to psychology with the contributions of structuralism.

Answer 39

Functionalism had many contributions of psychology. This view opposed to structuralism and that in its-self expanded psychology. The research of functionalism covered animal behavior, children’s behavior, and extended research on mental disorders. Functionalism came with its own way of gathering data and experiments. It went beyond introspection. Functionalist created their own ways of testing like mental test and questionnaires. Functionalism was also helped establish psychology as a science in America. Structionalism contributed by introducing new ideas that cut the philosophical ties. This showed that psychology was a science in its own. Structuralism created new questions for people related in psychology and while it was eventually boycotted by some, it started the psychology movement.