Problem 3: birth of psychology

Question 1

Wilhelm Wundt
-lifespan
-general ideas

Answer 1

-1832-1920
-founder of psychology
-used cartesian-lockean way of ideas
-alliance between physiology and psychology = experimental psychology (idea: mental is explained by physiological causes)

Question 2

research methods in psychology

Answer 2

-introspection: ‘looking at one self’
– internal/traditional perception: old, less experimental and controlled
– experimental self-observation: controlled, more scientific

Question 3

apperception

Answer 3

linking the new to the old, new information is linked to old information

Question 4

völkerpsychologie

Answer 4

the use of historical and comparative methods, rather than only experimental methods

Question 5

reductionist approach

Answer 5

reducing mental processes and behaviour to physiological processes

Question 6

Titchener
-lifespan
-general ideas

Answer 6

1867-1927
-student of Wundt, thought apperception was wrong: we form knowledge through representations of pictures, not apperception
-the mind is only made up of sensations
-only sensory elements could be found in mind, not complete processes such as attention

Question 7

Freud:
-lifespan
-ideas

Answer 7

1856-1939
-founder of psychoanalysis + first comprehensive theory of personality
-sexual drives –> fail to satisfy something, satisfy it another way later in life

Question 8

criticism on freud

Answer 8

-introspection of the subconscious min if of no use
-his main research findings were based on his own patients
-had financial motivation in research

Question 9

Galton
-lifespan
-ideas

Answer 9

1822-1911
-darwinian psychology
-focus on heritability and nature (extreme nativist)
-measuring intelligence

Question 10

eugenics

Answer 10

galton: improving humanity through positive selective breeding

Question 11

Gall
-lifespan
-ideas
-criticism

Answer 11

1758-1828
-brain researcher, biological approach
-phrenology (personality can be inferred from the brain’s shape and size)
-localisation of function: specific brain parts for specific functions
-criticism: phrenology is pseudoscience

Question 12

donders
-lifespan
-ideas

Answer 12

1818-1889
-experimental psychology: mental chronometry, using reaction time to measure mental functions

Question 13

James
-lifespan
-ideas

Answer 13

1842-1910
-James lange theory of emotion: emotions stem from interpretation of physical sensation
-functionalist: focus on function of the mind rather that how it works
-pragmatism: psychology should be more practical, psychology is not about what is entail but how it can be applied

Question 14

de groot introspection method

Answer 14

• thinking aloud to study which steps someone takes in chess –> creates interference

Question 15

criticism on introspection

Answer 15

-subjective
-only the tip of the iceberg, most mental processes are subconscious

Question 16

Weber’s law

Answer 16

just noticeable difference (smallest change that can be perceived) / size of the stimuli