Short Answer Questions; Final Flashcards
What are the main ideas of Pragmatism?
- as a philosophy, pragmatism emphasizes results rather than methods
- not a collection of doctrines or beliefs, but rather a specific way of philosophizing
- it was the immediate precedent of functional psychology in the US
- William James’s pragmatism is summarized in 3 points:
- theoretical positions should be judged by their consequences
- a theory should be at least tentatively accepted, if it proves useful in organizing individual experience
- experience is a continuous flow of subjective events
- Charles Sanders Peirce (influenced most by Kant and Bain) - is the other important figure for pragmatism. His emphasis on mental organization was an early precursor to Gestalt psychology.
Compare Structural and Functional Psychology
- Wundt and Titchener’s structuralism attempted to describe the components of consciousness in terms of basic elements, to describe their combinations and to explain the connections of the elements of consciousness to the nervous system.
- functional psychology is more of an attitude towards the results of investigation, than a comprehensive system
- centers of Functional Psychology: Uni of Chicago & Columbia Uni
- John Dewey initiated functionalism at Chicago, then James Angell, and Harvey Carr
- Columbia: James McKeen Cattell, Edward Lee Thorndike, Robert S. Woodworth
Describe the contributions of one early American female psychologist.
- *Mary Whiton Calkins:**
- Finished PhD requirements under James and Muenstenberg (though didn’t receive the degree)
- extended the memory research of Ebbinghaus, and provided data supporting the secondary laws of association (as per Thomas Reid)
- published an influential introductory psychology textbook “A First Book in Psychology”
- first woman president of the APA (psych) - 1905, then first woman president of the APA (phil) - 1918
- remembered for a psychology of the self, emphasizing the unity and coherence of consciousness, dependent of interpersonal and environmental interactions
What were the main ideas that contributed to the birth of Gestalt psychology?
- Kantian philosophy - the organization of mental activity predisposes the individual to interact with the environment in characteristic ways
- German phenomenology - old: Purinje, Brentano & Strumpf, Dithley & Bergson; new: Edmund Husserl (pure science of consciousness) - at the same time as Gestalt psych.
- the act psychology of Brentano and Stumpf
- the Wurzburg school - Kuelpe - mental activity it terms of nonsensory consciousness; the mind orders environmental events along dimensions of quality, intensity, time, and space (the mental categories of Kant); the mind has determining tendencies that result in patterns of perception
What are the main principles of Gestalt psychology?
- in contrast to Wundt’s study of immediate experience, Gestaltists studied phenomena defined as mediated experience.
- In Gestalt, the focus of person-environment interactions is termed the perceptual field
- perceptual fields naturally tend to be structured in terms of figure and ground
- principles of organization: closure, proximity, similarity.
- organized figures are stable - object constancy
- transposition - is the recognition of salient relationships and the transfer of that knowledge from one learning situation to another
What are the lasting contributions of Gestalt psycholgy?
- the Gestatists expanded psychological inquiry from the limited sphere of immediate experience to include the mediated experience of consciousness, both sensory and nonsensory
- the Gestalt movement admitted phenomenology as a methodological approach
- showed that consciousness and behavior should be considered together
- in America they helped redefine behaviorism (e.g. E.C. Tolman - behaviorist who’s research was provoked by Gestalt)
- Kurt Lewin’s Field theory: some practical applications of Gestalt, used to this day - an empirical model of personality and social activities.
What are the main ideas of classical psychoanalysis?
Compare Freud and Erikson’s theories of psychosexual development.
Both theories assume a predetermined number of more or less stable stages of development. Both are somewhat similar in that there is a certain conflict to be solved or trait to be aquired at each stage. Freud’s theory, however, suggests that personality is practically shaped by the age of seven, whereas Erikson’s theory takes into account social influences on personality throughout the lifespan. Moreover, Erikson allows for ‘going back’ and solving issues from previous stages.
Who were the main proponents and what were the main ideas of social psychoanalysis?
The two main proponents of social psychoanalysis were Harry Stack Sullivan and Erich Fromm. Both were to some extent influenced by the works of Adler and Horney, which were preparing the psychoanalytic movement to examine social settings. Sullivan stressed the importance of “dynamisms” - propelling social interaction - for personality development. Fromm adompted a more existential view of the individual as inherently lonely and alienated from society, attempting to escape and find freedom.
Describe the historical trends which led to Watson’s behaviorism.
The Ionian physicists and Hippocrates, who attempted to explain human activity as mechanical reactions reducible to biological or physical causes. The French sensationalists, especially Condillac’s sensory reductionsm and La Mettrie’s mechanical physiology. Finally, Locke’s notion of the mind as dependent on the environment for its contents and the two dominant themes of the British philosophers: empiricism and associatism.
What is meant by the term Russian Reflexology?
A movement in Russian phisiology, which studies the physiological bases of behavior. The movement began in the late 19th century and continues to this day. Some of the most important reflexologists were I.M. Sechenov, V.M., Bekhterev, and I.P. Pavlov. All of these researchers were not interested in psychology per se, they simply included what most people see as psychological processes as part of their physiological research.
Compare classical and instrumenal conditioning.
Classical conditioning, as defined by the work of I.P. Pavlov involves a temporal pairing of stimuli and responses, wherein an otherwise inocuous stimulus becomes associated with a natural response or reflex. Instrumental conditioning, as seen in the works of Konorski and Miller, as most famously Skinner, involvse behavior driven by its consequences - rewards or punishments.
What are the “Three Forces” in psychology?
Psychoanalysis may be considered the ‘first force’, behaviorism - the second in 20th century psychology. Finally the third force may be any movement which is not strictly psychoanalytic of behavioristic in nature. More specifically, the third force is existential-phenomenological psychology in Europe, and Humanistic psychology in America.
What two main features characterize the Third Force movement?
The two main features of the Third Force movement in psychology are its two philosophical underpinnings: existentialism and phenomenology. Existential philosophy (Dostoyevsky, Nietzsche, Kiekegaard, Dilthey, Sartre, Camus, Jaspers, Buber) applied to psychology - the view of the person as forced to make choices and take responsibility for them. Phenomenology (Husserl, Heidegger) in psychology attemtpted to study individual experience in its unity.
What is the main perspective of existential philosophy?
Existential philosophy best represented by Kierkegaard, Dilthey, and later Sartre, Camus, Jaspers, and Buber, views the individual as making choices about their own life. This freedom is forced upon people by the nature of being and requires them to take responsibility for the outcomes of their actions.
