Psychology As A Science Flashcards
Aristotle
The mind - source of all human behaviour. Thought and reasoning. Memory. Mentalism.
Descartes and dualism
Non material mind governs advance cognition. Brain directs behaviours.
Immanuel Kant
Critique of pure reason. Human experience is drawn from the structure of the mind.
Psychology origins.
Abilities and behaviours seen within an evolutionary framework. Materialism. Natural selection of physical and mental traits.
Francis Galton
Social Darwinism. Human differences can be partly explained by genetics. Statistical methods to measure psychological traits. (Correlation)
WilhelmWundt
First experimental psychology lab. Physiological psychology
Measurement tools
Kymograph (stopwatch) and chronoscope (blood pressure)
What did measurement tools do?
Measured psychological response to diff Linda’s of visual illusion example;illusions of reversible perspective.
The first psychologists ways of experiments
Used psychophysics experiments to measure human sensation. (Light, sound, noise) recorded subjective perceptual experiences.
Measuring thresholds
Ernst Weber and Gustav Fechner. Mathematical laws of perception. Sensitivity thresholds (absolute and difference). magnitude estimation.
Difference threshold
Mathematically expressed as just noticeable difference. Webers law.
Magnitude estimation
Experiments measure the perception of objective reality.
Edward Titchener (structuralism)
Goal to determine the “basic elements” of the conscious mind (sensations, images, feelings)
Technique of introspection (direct or indirect)
Introspection
Mental tests were used to measure thought processes behind decision-making. Accuracy comes from skill of both experimenter and observer.
Functionalism
Concern with practical applications of the growing field of psychology.
(Sensation, perception of space, perception of reality, instinctive behaviour and hypnotism)
