Recognition of Psychology

Question 1

Why did it take so long for Psychology to be recognised?

Answer 1

Psychology has “a long past but only a short history” (Ebbinghaus, 1910)
* long past: philosophy created framework for psychological phenomena
* short history: ‘psychology’ not seen in literature before 1500
- but Weber, Donders & von Helmholtz already collecting data

Question 2

Precursors to Psychology (4 time periods)

Answer 2

1. Ancient Greece
2. Roman Era
3. Dark & Middle Ages
4. Renaissance Philosophy

Question 3

Ancient Greece

Answer 3

Aristotle (384-322 B.C.):

Memory:
* ‘stored photos’ of what we’ve perceived
* minds would be blank without experience (wax tablet metaphor)

Organisation of memory:
* retrieval may be cued by: similarity, contrast, contiguity

Question 4

Roman Era

Answer 4

Galen (130-200 AD):

The Four Humours Theory (Hippocrates & Galen):
* humours explain personality

Humours:
* blood - courageous, hopeful
* yellow bile - short-tempered, ambitious
* black bile - introspective, sentimental
* phlegm - calm, unemotional

Question 5

Dark & Middle Ages Timeline

Answer 5

Dark & Middle Ages (5th-15th C):
Dark Age: 476-800
Middle Age: 800-1204
High Middle Age: 1204-1450

Question 6

Dark & Middle Ages

Answer 6

• human nature understood from a religious perespective
• knowledge from divine revelation
  -God determines what should known
  -shouldn’t be too inquisitive
• Christian church served as authority
  -e.g. burning at the stake
• life is a test to determine afterlife
• divine reward & punishment during life

Question 7

Renaissance Philosophy

Answer 7

Descartes (1596-1650):
1.Discourse on Method (1637):
* challenged acceptance of divine knowledge
-reject everything unless certain
-cannot prove existence of God
* Mind - body dualism (separate entities)
-cannot prove that physical senses are not illusory (body)
-cogito ergo sum ‘I think, therefore I am’ (mind)
* the material universe is one big machine that can be studied
-God set it up like this so he wouldn’t have to attend to it all the time
2.Man (1662) (published after death)
* body is a complex machine (automata)
* bones, muscles, & organs are like cogs & pistons

Question 8

Roots of Modern Philosophy: 2 Debated Concepts

Answer 8

Rationalism & Empiricism

Question 9

What is Rationalism?

Answer 9

Concepts & knowledge can be derived via reasoning and may beyond sensory experiences

Question 10

What is Empiricism?

Answer 10

Sensory experience is the only source of knowledge; no innate ideas

Question 11

What did textbooks first publish Psychology as?

Answer 11

A theme of metaphysics

Question 12

What did Kant argues about Psychology?

Answer 12

Kant (1796):
Psychology could not be a natural science:
* introspection changes the state of the mind
* cannot be expressed in terms of mathematics

Question 13

2 British Empiricist Philosophers & What did they Argue?

Answer 13

1.Locke (1632-1704)
2.Hume (1711-1776)
* Like Aristotle, interested in associations between ideas
-similarity, contrast, contiguity
* start life as tabula rasa
-contrasts with Rationalists
* add experiences via sensations & reflections
* process is like mental bricks (experiences) & mortar (associations)

Question 14

Is Psychology Measureable?

Question 15

What is Psychophysics?

Answer 15

The nature of what we measure in Psychology

Question 16

Example of measurement in Psychology

Answer 16

Just Noticeable Different (JND)
-Psychology is measureable but ≠ physics

Question 17

Weber’s Law (1834)

Answer 17

• smallest perceptible difference between two weights can be stated as a ratio between the weights, independent of the magnitudes of the weights
• psychological processes can be measured
• psychological processes do not map directly onto physical dimensions
• experimented with perceptions of being poked by a compass

Question 18

Strengths of Weber’s Law (1834) (2)

Answer 18

+milestones in demonstrating that “psychology is measureable”
+linking internal processes to the physical world

Question 19

What did Fechner (1860) do?

Answer 19

Extended Weber’s work

Weber-Fechner Law: S = K log I
* S = an experienced sensation
* K = a constant
* I = the physical strength of the stimulus
.
* devised the median & studied synaesthesia
-Brysbaert & Rastle (2020) discuss the role of statistics in Psychology

Question 20

Strengths of Fechner (1860) (2)

Answer 20

+milestones in demonstrating that “psychology is measureable”
+linking internal processes to the physical world

Question 21

Bessel (1822)

Answer 21

Looked at Astronomers’ reaction times, then incorporated findings into astronomical equations:
* Telescope pointing south
* Observers indicate when a specific star passes the view-finder
* One astronomer fired for being slower
* Realised individual differences in reaction times
* Incorporated into astronomical equations

Question 22

Donders (1868)

Answer 22

The speed of mental processes
-subtraction method for the ‘speed of thoughts’

Mental chronometry:
* simple reaction time
-perception + motor
* discrimination reaction time
-perception + motor + discrimination
* choice reaction time
-perception + motor + discrimination + response selection

Question 23

Strength of Donders (1868)

Answer 23

+Milestones in demonstrating that “psychology is measurable”

Question 24

2 things von Helmholtz did

Answer 24

von Helmholtz (1821-1894):
* measured nerve impulse speed
-sent electrical impulses through frogs’ legs
* trichromatic colour theory
-underlies modern televisual technology

Question 25

Who “officially” started Psychology?

Answer 25

Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)

Question 26

Wundt: Timeline

Answer 26

1873: published psychology textbook
1875: became professor of philosophy in Leipzig
1879: established first psychology lab
1881: philosophical studies
1892: 11 rooms in lab
1897: special building
1900-1920: cultural psychology

Question 27

Wundt’s 3 Key Methods

Answer 27

• Psychophysical: relationship between stimuli and conscious states
• Introspection:mental processes
• Historical: memory

Question 28

Which method did Wundt try to defend?

Answer 28

The Introspective Method:
* internal perception (arm chair philosophy)
* experimental self-observation (controlled & repeated)

Question 30

What did Wundt teach?

Answer 30

Taught a 6-month introductory course:
* established a network of activity
* e.g. effects of drugs on reaction times

Question 31

What was Wundt’s experiment in the lab?

Answer 31

• used introspection to understand/quantify conscious experiences
• button pressing task based on when ppt becomes aware of a stimulus

Question 32

What specialist equipment did Wundt use? (x2)

Answer 32

Fall chronometer and Hipp chronoscope:
Specialist equipment for accurate measurements of response times

Question 33

What theory did Wundt develop from introspective methods?

Answer 33

Three Dimensions of Feeling(s):
1.pleasant - unpleasant
2.tense - relaxed
3.active - passive

Question 34

What studies were published in Philosophical studies?

Answer 34

50%: sensation & perception
-colour vision, afterimages, visual illusions, time perception, tactile experiences
17%: reaction times
10%: attention/apperception
10%: three-dimensional feeling theory
10%: associations

Question 35

Was Wundt successful?

Answer 35

No:
* no outstanding successes
* no major theoretical contributions
* writings were confusing & contradictory