Psych Overview: U4 Test

Question 1

The name and year of James famous textbook,

Answer 1

Principles of Psychology (1890)

Question 2

The name of James’ philosophy

Answer 2

Pragmatism

Question 3

how and why James viewed determinism in his personal life

Answer 3

When James was not functioning as a psychologist, but as a moral philosopher or simply as a feeling, willing, and socially responsive human being, he could and would adopt a belief in free will

Question 4

How and why James viewed determinism in psychology

Answer 4

James believed that a true science has to postulate complete determinism, because under indeterminism, “science simply stops.” Science and psychology did not and could not contain all the answers for James.

Question 5

what he meant by before determinism “science simply stops”),

Answer 5

Modern psychology’s (and other sciences) most impressive gains had occurred via the assumption of mechanism and determinism.

Question 6

the name of James’ (and Lange’s) theory of emotion,

Answer 6

James-Lange theory of emotion

Question 7

the names and accomplishments of his students.

Answer 7

i. Hall: First American to earn a PhD in experimental psychology under James. Found of the American Psychological Association and numerous journals. Popularized the term adolescence.
ii. Calkins: One of the first women to overcome gender discrimination and establish a career in psychology. Developed paired-associates technique for studying memory as well as an influential system of self-psychology.
iii. Thorndike: An American comparative psychologist who studied with James and went on to become the country’s best-known psychologist after James’s death. Trial-and-error, law of effect.
iv. Boring: Experimental psychologist who became America’s first important historian of psychology.

Question 8

Know what Pavlov won the Nobel prize for and when

Answer 8

his discoveries on the physiology of digestion in 1904.

Question 9

what he talked about in his address,

Answer 9

He publicly introduced his idea of conditioned reflexes.

Question 10

the name of his 1927 book,

Answer 10

Conditioned Reflexes (1927)

Question 11

The basic terms of his science,

Answer 11

i. Unconditioned stimuli: Stimulus component of a Pavlovian unconditioned reflex
ii. Unconditioned response: The response component of a Pavlovian unconditioned reflex
iii. Conditioned Stimuli: An originally neutral stimulus that, after being paired with an unconditioned stimulus, triggers a conditioned response in a Pavlovian conditioned reflex.
iv. Conditioned Response: The learned response in a Pavlovian conditioned reflex

Question 12

including the five or so different kinds of experiments he conducted,

Answer 12

i. Response Magnitude: the number of drops of saliva secreted based on the number of pairings. Conditioned reflexes became progressively stronger, with response magnitudes regularly increasing over the first thirty or so pairings; after that, the conditioned reflex’s strength leveled off.
ii. Response Latency: the number of seconds between the presentation of the tone and the first observable salivation (ISI). Conditioned reflexes became progressively stronger, with response latencies decreasing over the first thirty or so pairings; after that, the conditioned reflex’s strength leveled off.
iii. Higher order conditioning: a strong conditioned salivary reflex was first established to one stimulus, such as the sound of a bell, which then served as the unconditioned stimulus in a further series of pairings with another conditioned stimulus, such as a flash of light.
iv. Generalization: conditioned reflexes could be elicited by stimuli similar but not identical to the original conditioned stimulus.
v. Discrimination (differentiation): A dissimilar stimulus was then presented repeatedly, but never “reinforced” by a succeeding unconditioned stimulus, a further kind of learning occurred.

Question 13

How Pavlov influenced behaviorism in America

Answer 13

Pavlov’s influence had also spread to the U.S., where his nonmentalistic approach appealed strongly to a group of young scientists who called themselves behaviorists. The behaviorists used techniques like Pavlov’s to establish behavioral laws regarding stimuli and responses that could stand independent of physiology.

Question 14

Know the title of date of Watson’s important article

Answer 14

Psychology as a Behaviorist Views it (1913)

Question 15

In what three ways did Watson declare independence from traditional psychology

Answer 15

i. A properly behavioristic psychology must be completely objective and rule out all subjective data or interpretations in terms of conscious experience.
ii. Psychology’s goal was not to describe and explain conscious states, as the traditionalists would have it, but rather to predict and control overt behavior.
iii. Watson denied the traditional psychological distinction between humans and other animals.

Question 16

Know why James was “less of a program builder and more of a popular communicator,”

Answer 16

Why James was “less of a program builder and more of a popular communicator:” James helped create an intellectual climate in America highly receptive to the new science

Question 17

What two psychological trends Watson reacted to?

Answer 17

Introspection

???????

Question 18

Know What’s famous “give me a dozen healthy infants . . . “ quotation,

Answer 18

Watson is often quoted for “give me a dozen healthy infants…” as it being a “radically environmental” view

Question 19

What Fancher and Rutherford omitted from Watson’s quote (and why) *memorize

Answer 19

“I am going beyond my facts and I admit it but so have those who argued to the contrary and they have been doing it for many thousands of years.” (this was omitted because the statement that precedes this makes Watson look irrational)

Question 20

Be able to state the last line and how it changes the quotation

Answer 20

The last line changes the preceding statement because although Watson may see it probable to raise a child into any sort of profession, he knew there was not the technology to do so and there was no experimental evidence to show for at the time.

Question 21

What Watson was really saying in the quote anyway and why it isn’t so radical.

Answer 21

Watson was simply saying that others (primarily Galton) who were on the opposite extreme of the scale (assuming genetics controlled everything), were making similar statements in to the contrary without experimental evidence and that it would seem plausible to nourish a child into a particular line of work.

Question 22

Be able to know the discoveries (both mechanical and technical and scientific) of Skinner

Answer 22

i. Mechanical: Skinner box
ii. Technical: Operant Conditioning
iii. Scientific: ????

Question 23

four (five) unformalized principles of scientific method

Answer 23

i. When you run into something, drop everything else and study it.
ii. Some ways of doing research are easier than others.
iii. Apparatus sometimes breaks down.
iv. Some people are lucky
v. Serendipity: In looking for one thing, you might find something else

Question 24

why they are called unformalized,

Answer 24

They were never formally written down or documented. This would not be found in any textbook.

Question 25

give an examples of a principle Skinner discovered by following the unformalized principles of scientific method.

Answer 25

He discovered extinction when the apparatus broke and stopped supplying reinforcement.

Question 26

Know the title and dates of the four main books by Skinner and briefly the main point(s) of each.

Answer 26

a. Behavior or Organisms: established operant conditioning as a kind of learning distinctly different from Pavlovian conditioned reflex, but equally as important.
b. Walden 2: described an ideal society in which negative reinforcement has been completely abandoned as a means of social control.
c. Verbal Behavior: ??????
d. Beyond Freedom and Dignity: argued that the assumption of “autonomous man,” upon which so many of Western society’s institutions are based, is false and has many deleterious consequences.

Question 27

Be able to describe Skinner’s contributions to application (shaping and programmed instruction) and philosophy,

Answer 27

i. Shaping: reinforcing successive approximations to a terminal behavior
ii. Programmed instruction: an educational technique in which complicated subjects such as mathematics are broken down into simple, stepwise components that may be presented to students in order of increasing difficulty.
iii. Philosophy: Skinner stated that the only way we demonstrate knowledge is through behavior, which is often–especially in response to private events–verbal behavior.

Question 28

how Skinner was always interested in scientific epistemology,

Answer 28

According to Skinner, the only way we acquire knowledge is through the experience of contingencies of reinforcement in the environment.

Question 29

the current name of the science Skinner founded

Answer 29

Behavior Analysis

Question 30

First sentence of Watson’s paper, Psychology as the Behaviorist Views it. (1913)

Answer 30

Psychology as the behaviorist views it is a purely objective experimental branch of natural science.