Test 2 Flashcards
What is Experimental Psychology?
Study of mental processes of normal, adult humans through introspective analysis under experimental control
Ruled out study of:
Comparative psych, functional psych, behavioral psych, clinical psych
Who was Edward B. Titchener?
Leader of experimental psychology in America
Promoted structuralism: focus on contents of conscious experience
What is structuralism?
Analyze the structure of the mind Experience= all knowledge Contents of Consciousness Elements are in constant flux Point of view Meaning
How did Titchener differ from Wundt?
Expanded on Wundt’s ideas
Examine higher mental processes
Break consciousness down to understand
Titchener rejected Wundt’s tridimensional theory of feelings and suggested that affections had only one dimension, pleasure/displeasure
Titchener also denied Wundt’s dimensions of tension/ relaxation and excitement and depression
What is Titchener’s Point of View?
Only 1 observable universe but observe in different ways
EX If a tree falls in the forest, is there a sound?
Biology: Nervous impulse (auditory system)
Psychology: Conscious experience + Nervous impulse
Physics: Vibration
Observer must specify point of view and be consistent
Mixing points of view within a given observation- incompatible/ inconsistent contents
Leads to stimulus errors for psychologists
Mix knowledge about physical stimulus with conscious experiments of stimulus
To understand conscious experiment, stick with psychological point of view
Titchener’s Elements of consciousness?
- Reduce conscious processes to their simplest components
- Determine laws by which these elements of consciousness were associated
- Connect the elements with their physiological conditions
What is the smallest unit of consciousness?
affective quality- sadness or pleasure, sensory processes, particularly involving vision and touch, extensity
What are characteristics of mental elements?
Assumed sensory discrimination- measure of intelligence
Tested range of human and animal discrimination
Sounds, colors, smells, findings later replicated
Mental imagery
Normal distribution
Psychological questionaire
What are criticism of structuralism?
Structuralism seen as a futile attempt to cling to antiquated principles and methods
Criticisms of introspection
subjective reports of the elements of consciousness
If the mind was able to observe its own activities it would have to divide itself into two parts
Titchener had trouble defining exactly what he meant by the introspective method
By not allowing ordinary words to describe the sensations, how should trained observers describe their experiences? - An introspection language would have to be developed
Critics also claim that introspection was really a form of retrospection because time elapsed between the experience and the reporting of it
Examining an experience in an introspective manner may in some way alter it.
What are some of the contributions of structuralism?
Subject matter (conscious experience) was clearly defined. Research methods based on observation, measurement, were in the highest traditions of science
Researchers still ask subjects to report whether the second tone is softer or louder than the first
Significant contribution was its service as a target of criticism
Provided a strong, established orthodoxy against which newly developing movements in psychology
What was the zeitgeist during the time of Functionalism?
Industrial revolution, war - intelligence testing movement
What was Darwin’s influence on psychology?
A focus on animal psychology, which formed the basis for comparative psychology
An emphasis on the functions rather than the structure of consciousness
The acceptance of methodology and data from many fields
A focus on the description and measurement of individual differences
What was Galtons idea of mental inheritance?
Thought that genius and greatness were genetically based more than environmentally based
Believed that people of considerate talent should be selected
Proposed the development of intelligence tests to choose exceptional men and women designated for selective breeding
Eugenic Theory
What was Galtons idea of statistics?
Modern statistical techniques for determining test validity and reliability as well as factor analytic methods
Correction is a fundamental tool in a social and behavioral sciences as well as in engineering and the natural sciences. In addition, other statistical techniques have been developed from Galton’s pioneering work
What was Galtons idea of Mental Tests?
intelligence could be measured in terms of a persons sensory capacities and that the higher the intelligence the higher level of sensory functioning
Galton’s whistle suppose to detect higher levels of intelligence by them having higher sensory functioning
Used a photometer to measure the precision with which a subject could match two spots of color
Calibrated pendulum to measure the speed of reaction to lights and sounds
Created the Anthropometric Laboratory
What was Galton’s idea of Association of Ideas?
Two areas of association:
Diversity of associations of ideas and reaction time
The greatest importance from Galton’s results is the experimental method he developed to study associations
Known as word-association test
What is Galton’s idea of mental imagery?
Galton’s investigation of mental images marks the first extensive use of the psychological questionaire.
Were suppose to remember whether the images were dim or clear, bright or dark, colored or not colored
What was Galton’s influence on psychology?
Adaptation, heredity versus environment, comparison of species, child development, questionaire method, statistical techniques, individual differences, mental tests
Galton had a greater impact on developments in American psychology than the work of psychology’s founder Wilhelm Wundt
What were Romanes ideas of Animal psych and development of functionalism?
Introspection by analogy- investigators assume that the same mental processes that occur in their own minds must occur in the minds of the animals being observed
Observing the animal’s behavior and drawing an analogy between known human mental processes
Flaws- line between fact and subjective interpretation in his data is unclear
What was Morgan’s contribution to animal psych and the development of functionalism?
Law of parsimony- states that animal’s behavior must not be interpreted as the outcome of a higher mental process when it can be explained in terms of lower mental processes
Who was Herbert Spencer?
Argued that the development of all aspects of the universe is evolutionary
Who was William James? What were his contributions to psychology?
Three reasons why James is considered the greatest American Psychologist
wrote with a clarity that is rare in science
Opposed Wundt’s goal for psychology, namely the analysis of consciousness
Offered an alternative way of looking at the mind
Why was James’s book Principles of Psychology so important?
Presents what eventually became the central tenet of American functionalism- goal of psychology is not the discovery of the elements of experience but rather the study of living people as they adapt to their enviroment
“free will”
What was James stream of consciousness?
Not going to assume that mind and soul have anything to do with each other
Phenomenon of mind is sufficient no need to equate mind with soul
though itself = only thinker
thoughts empirical connection with brain is known
mind= knowing, mind= things known
Didnt agree with titchener
“no one had a simple sensation by itself”
