HIS & PSYCH MIDTERM PT. 2
what is aquinas's view of faith, reason and sensory experience? what are the implications aquinas position?
Aquinas reintroduced the west to Aristotle's psychology through a Christianity filter. Believed that reason and faith are compatible, and all true paths should lead to the same result, therefore faith and reason should be independent from each other. He thought of the mind as a tabula Rosa and believed the mind accumulates knowledge through sensory input.
what was the goal of philosophical inquiry for socrates? what method did he use to pursue that goal? in what way did socrates agree with the sophists and in what way he disagreed? what is the role of essences in this debate
His aim was to examine people's ethical beliefs in order to improve the way they live, this was referred to as conceptual analysis. Socrates agreed: truth is subjective, but a careful exam of one's subjective experiences would reveal certain concepts that were stable and knowable and that when known, would generate proper conduct. Socrates disagreed: no truth exists beyond personal opinion
according to augustine, what is the locus of control of human behavior? what was the source of knowledge? what was legacy to psychology?
Humans know god through intense introspection and minimizing experience of the flesh, humans have free will thus they are responsible for their destiny. He believed that knowledge without faith is possible but is not complete, he also believed that behavior is controlled by guilt. Changed the locus of control from forces outside a person to forces within a person
how did Leibniz explain the origin of ideas? summarize his monadology and its relation to conscious. discuss his proposed solution to the mind-body problem
Leibniz held that no mental state has as a real cause some state of another created mind or body, and no bodily state has as a real cause some state of another created mind or body. his theory that the universe is made of an infinite number of simple substances known as monads. Monads can also be compared to the corpuscles of the Mechanical Philosophy of René Descartes and others.
describe spinoza's pantheism and his position on the mind-body relationship. in what way did his philosophy encourage the development of scientific psychology
Like Descartes, Spinoza thought he could achieve knowledge or reality through geometry. His approach to god is pantheism which is the belief that god is everything. He equated god with nature and thought that we can know of only two attributes, thought (mind) and extension (body). He found that the mind and the body were two separate ways to of expressing the activity of a single substance.
summarize philosophy of neoplatonism, including what it took from plato and what it changed. describe the contributions of philo and plotinus to this philosophy
Neoplatonism strives to understand everything on the basis of a single cause that they considered divine and referred to as "the one" or "god". This renewed interest in Plato's philosophy but emphasized mystical over rational aspects as it rejected the body. Plotinus believed that god is the source of all knowledge and philo believed that god created and governed the world through mediators.
contrast the features and components of scientific and non-scientific explanations
Non-scientific explanations include people such as Galileo, Kant, Comte who believed that psychology could never be a science, while other such as John Stuart Mill believed that psychology could be a science. The scientific method relies on logically stepped process for investigating and acquiring or expanding our understanding while nonscientific method relies on tradition, personal experience and intuition and logic to arrive at a conclusion.
What is Occam's Razor? why is occam's razor an important turning point after scholasticism in the history of psychology?
Occam believed that arguments should have their extraneous assumptions shaved away. his represents a turning point in the history of psychology because Occam changed the question when it came to the nature of knowledge from a metaphysical problem t a psychological problem. For Occam, the question was how the mind classifies experience and no more concerned with a transcendent reality that could be understood only by abstract reasoning or intense introspection
describe the challenges that historians face and the influences they receive when writing about history
One thing that makes it difficult is not knowing what actually happened in the past, as the historians were not actually there. In addition, the data of the histories may be affected by the actions of the participants themselves in recounting certain events. Data may also be altered in order to protect the reputation of the people involved. Faulty translation from one language to the next is also a reoccurring problem.
how did the sophists differ from the philosophers that preceded them? what was protagorus' and gorgias' attitude toward knowledge
Sophists: there were many equally valid and philosophical positions. Truth was believed to be a function of a person's education, personal experiences, culture, and beliefs. Gorgias believed the only way to experience the world was through the senses and no way to conclude that knowledge is straight forward
distinguish between past and history
The difference between the past and history is that history describes our attempts to research, study and explain the past, while the past refers to an earlier time and the people and societies who inhabited it, not necessarily the events that occurred.
. Describe when, where, and how psychology was born as science, the zeitgeist that surrounded this event, and why it is so relevant.
The late 19th century marked the start of psychology as a scientific enterprise. Psychology as a self-conscious field of experimental study began in 1879, when German scientist Wilhelm Wundt founded the first laboratory dedicated exclusively to psychological research in Leipzig.
summarize newton's main ideas and his principles of newtonian science. why is newton relevant to psychology? what is deism?
The most important discovery is the law of gravitation, the idea that white light is a mixture of all colors and calculus. Newton had three laws of motion, In the first law, an object will not change its motion unless a force act on it. In the second law, the force on an object is equal to its mass times its acceleration. In the third law, when two objects interact, they apply forces to each other of equal magnitude and opposite direction. Deism belief in the existence of a supreme being, specifically of a creator who does not intervene in the universe. The term is used chiefly of an intellectual movement of the 17th and 18th centuries that accepted the existence of a creator on the basis of reason but rejected belief in a supernatural deity who interacts with humankind
pt. 2 prior question
A. According to Locke, what was the difference between simple and complex ideas? what was his theory of association? What/s the difference between primary and secondary qualities? How did the paradox of the basins with water demonstrate this difference? What connection can you make to Galileo? Locke believed simple ideas are elemental ideas that arise from sensation and reflection, while complex ideas are derived ideas that are compounded of simple ideas and thus can be analyzed or reduced to their simpler components. His theory of association is the notion of combining or compounding ideas and the reverse notion of analyzing them marks the beginning of the mental-chemistry approach to the problem of association. He believed that primary qualities are characteristics such as size and shape that exist in an object whether or not we perceive them. Secondary qualities are characteristics such as color and odor that exist in our perception of that object. B. What is the main idea of the original source entitled: Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690) by John Locke (which appears in your textbook, pages 36 to 37)? is that there are "No Innate Principles," by reasoning that "if we will attentively consider new born children, we shall have little reason to think that they bring many ideas into the world with them," and that, "by degrees afterward, ideas come into their minds C. What was Berkeley's view about external reality? Explain his statement "To be is to be perceived". How does this statement relate to the enduring question of what's the relation between the physical reality out there and our subjective experience of that reality; in other words, of whether we can aspire to understand the universe? believed that only the minds' perceptions and the Spirit that perceives are what exists in reality; what people perceive every day is only the idea of an object's existence, but the objects themselves are not perceived. D. In what ways are Berkeley's ideas similar and in what way they are different from Locke's. Summarize his explanation of distance perception. Berkeley agreed that knowledge of the external world comes from experience but did not think that there were primary qualities. He believed in mentalism which is the doctrine that all knowledge is a function of mental phenomena and dependent on the perceiving or experiencing person. E. What was Hartley's philosophical goal? In what way might he be considered the first modern psychologist? Summarize his explanation of association. According to him, how was involuntary behavior transformed into voluntary behavior? What part did the emotions play in his philosophy? He offered physiological explanation for the association of ideas in terms of mechanics. He explained in his law of association that how voluntary behavior can develop from involuntary behavior. His also took into account the law of contiguity, synchronous and successive. F. Summarize James Mill's view of the mind, mental elements, and associationism. James mill believed the mind was nothing more than a machine, He believed it functioned in the same predictable way as a clock did. In addition, sensations and ideas are the only kinds of mental elements that exist. Mill believed that the mind had no creative function because association is a totally automatic process. G. Compare the "mental physics" of James Mill with the "mental chemistry" of his son John Stuart Mill. Did John Stuart Mill believe a science the mind was possible? Why or why not? Mental physics: complex ideas as composed of simple ideas - every idea can be broken down into simpler ideas. Mental "chemistry": complex ideas are more/different than just the sum of the simple ideas that gave rise to them (a chemical is more than just the elements that compose it)
Explain why the first school of psychology, created by Wundt, was called "Voluntarism". What does this name reveal about Wundt's view on perception and consciousness? How does this view relate to the views of British empiricists and rationalists?
Voluntarism is the idea that the mind has the capacity to organize mental contents into higher-level thought processes. He called it this as it is derived from the word volition defined as the act or power of willing
Describe the main ideas presented in Brentano's Act Psychology, Stumpf's Phenomenology, and Külpe's approach at Würzburg. Identify how these schools differed from Wundt's Voluntarism.
Voluntarism. - Act psychology is a system of psychology in which focused on mental activities rather than on mental contents (for example which is seen). -Stumpf's Phenomenology: an introspective method that examined experience as it occurred and did not try to reduce experience to elementary components. Also, an approach to knowledge based on an unbiased description of immediate experience as it occurs. - Kulpes approach- Systematic experimental introspection: this is a method that used retrospective reports of subject's cognitive processes after they had completed a task. -Imageless thought: Kulpes idea that meaning in thought can occur without any sensory or imaginal component.
Describe Titchener's paradoxical views and actions regarding women's role in the new science of psychology.
When it came to Titchener, he had some very paradoxical views towards women and psychology as a whole. One of his primary rules, when it came to things, is that women were not allowed period! Titchener wanted an environment were oral reports could be interrupted, dissented from, and criticized in a smoke-filled room with no women. He felt that women were too pure to smoke or to even be around it. Women did not feel equal to men even when they tried to attend the meetings they were quickly removed. Therefore, they went to great lengths to try to stay in the area to hear what psychology with men would be as if they felt that there was a difference. The woman that advocated for change is a woman by the name of Christine Ladd-Franklin who requested that Titchener should read a paper that she wrote on experimental psychology. She was denied her degree from John Hopkins just because she was a female but was given there degree 44 years later. She felt that Titchener policies were very immoral and unscientific when it came to his disagree with letting women in the field of psychology. Once his viewpoint was finally changed, he was the first person to openly accept women into his graduate studies program with him at Cornell. More than one-third of his 56 doctorates studies were females. He also was fonder of hiring females faulty, and this idea and practice were considered radical especially at this time. When it comes to my own opinion of why Titchener felt the way that he did I would have to say because women being in a leadership position was something that was not very common. Women were used to just being housewives and having babies and not getting involved in any education or especially an education that can promote change such as the area of psychology. He might have thought that women ideas were as superior as male opinions especially since back in that time there were more males than females in many different areas of education.
describe the zeigtgeist that characterized the roman empire, the middle ages, and the renaissance, and the enduring questions that were tackled during each period
Zeitgeist: the defining spirit or mood of a particular period of history as shown by the ideas and beliefs of the time
Define chronometric analysis.
a method for studying a mental process that involves varying stimulus input conditions and measuring participants' reaction times to those stimuli. The relations between the stimulus variables and reaction times are then used to make inferences about the underlying mental processes. Also called mental chronometry. See Donders's method
what were the contributions of avicenna, averroes, and maimonides philosophies to western thought?
Averroes attempted to restore the original teachings of Aristotle and opposed the Neoplatonist tendencies such as Avicenna. Avicenna sought to explain human intellectual activity by distinguishing between the possible intellect and the agent intellect. He created the holistic medicine that we know today. Maimonides was the most influential of the jewish thinkers as he worked to harmonize Judaism with philosophical thought.
what are the main contributions of the most ancient philosophers (chinese empire renaissance)
Confucius- Confucianism - Ancestor worship and human-centered virtues - Relation of individual to society - Emphasis of education - Golden rule: do not do unto others what you would not want others to do unto you Lao-Tse- Taoism - Nature and society are continuism - Universe is composed of two opposite forces- ying and yang - Advocates humility and religious piety
summarize the main contributions of copernicus and galileo. in your answer include following info: why did copernicus heliocentric system replace Ptolemy's geocentric theory, what was Galileo's role, what was the church's reaction, and what was the impact on our view of the universe and our place in the universe. discuss galileo's distinction between primary and secondary qualities and the implication of this distinction for psychology
Copernicus- heliocentric (sun-centered) view of the universe. Ptolemy's geocentric (earth centered) view was previously accepted as it agreed with the theological idea of human's central place in creation. Galileo believed that properties such as color, smell and taste do not have the same reality of physical properties of objects such as shape and motion, and that the subjective qualities reside in the observer rather than in the object reserved. The qualities inherent in matter are primary qualities (shape, quantity, and motion) while secondary qualities (color, smell and taste) arise when the primary qualities contact an observer's sensory apparatus.
elaborate a conceptual map of ancient greek philosophy
Cosmologists- explained the universe - Abstract: Pyhtagoras: MATA - Physicists: o Thales (water) and Heraclitus (fire) o Perminides and Zeno § Change is an illusion o Empecedes § Four elements o Democritus § Atoms o Anaxagoras § Seeds - Sophists o Protagoras § Many truths o Gorgias Everything through sense - Golden Period of Greece o Socrates o Plato o Aristotle
briefly describe the philosophical views held by each of the schools that flourished during the roman period, including the name of each school, who founded it and what it pursued
Skepticism - Found by Pyrrho (365-270 BCE) - Never in position to have definitive beliefs in anything including skepticism itself - Not disregard rules but do not believe there is any rational basis for such rules - Life guided by simple feelings Cynicism - Cofounded by Antisthenes and Diogenes in 455- 360 BCE - Taught back to nature life free from society's convention - People should seek simple life close to nature Stoicism - Found by Zeno of Citium 333-262 BCE - World functions according to a master plan and whatever happens is just a part of the plan - Develop virtues and not material possessions Epicureanism - Found by Epicureans (341-270 BCE) - Rejected the idea of afterlife or supernatural influences - Hedonism: search for pleasure and the avoidance of pain - Pursue the "good life" - True pleasure found in simplicity and moderation
Describe Donders' experiments to measure how long it took to perform various mental operations.
Donders attempted to describe the processes going on in the mind by analyzing cognitive activity into separate, discrete stages. (Method a) A simple response time task. For example, you are seated in front of a panel that contains a light bulb and a response button. When the light comes on, you must press the button. (Method b) A choice response time task. For example, you are seated in front of two light bulbs, each with its own button. You must press the button corresponding to the appropriate light. (Method c) A go/no-go discrimination response time task. For example, you are seated in front of a panel with two light bulbs and one response button. When the target light goes on you must press the button, but not if the other light comes on. Donders then predicted the kinds of processes that might be involved in each task
explain the philosophical view of empiricism and what enduring question it attempts to answer
Empiricism is the pursuit of knowledge through the observation of nature and the attribution of all knowledge to experience. This attempts to answer the question of where knowledge comes from and where does mental attributions come from.
explain the main contention of rationalism, what enduring question it addresses and the basic differences between rationalism and empiricism. in your answer, include a distinction between a passive and an active mind
Empiricism tended to describe the passive mind, that is a mind that acts on sensations and ideas in an automatic, mechanical way. The rationalists tended to have a more active mind, a mind that interacts with information from the senses and gives it meaning that it otherwise would not have. Rationalism is belief or theory that opinions and actions should be based on reason and knowledge rather than on religious belief or emotional response.
Identify, explain and exemplify the traditional answers provided to each of the enduring questions in psychology
Enduring Question 1: Are our actions determined or freely chosen? -Non-determinism: humans have free will, which allows us to choose our actions. In consequence we are responsible for our actions. People are responsible for their crimes -Determinism: states that acts are determined by accessible and accurately measurable causes- biological, environmental and psychological -Environmental Determinism: suggests behavior is largely explained by environmental factors -biological Determinism: proposes behavior is largely explained by genetic or physiological factors -Hard Determinism: the causes (environmental, biological, psychological) automatically and mechanistically trigger human. Therefore, there is no personal responsibility -Soft determinism: people are ultimately responsible for their actions. -Indeterminism: claims that behavior is determined, however the causes cannot be accurately known or measured. Enduring Question #2: Are humans truly rational? - Rationalism: our thoughts and actions are guided by strict logical and systematic intellectual processes. - Irrationalism: the intellect is not the main guide our thought and behavior. Emotions feelings instincts or unconscious processes dominate intellectual processes Enduring Question #3: Is the mind different than the body? - Monism: everything in the universe can be explained in terms of just one type of reality or substance o Materialism o Idealism - Dualism: There are two types of substances or compontents in the universe, physcail and mental which correspond to the body and the mind. o Parrellism o Interactionism o Epiphenomenalism o Double Aspecticism o Pre-Established harmony - Pluralism: reality is compromised by multiple different substances Enduring Question 4: What is the relationship between the physical reality out there and our subjective experience of that reality - Naïve realism: or sense process physical reality how it is, if there is a house in front of us we perceive that there is a house in front of us - Subjective Idealism: our perceptions and experiences about reality are the product of our own subjective processes. Therefore, it is impossible to get to know reality Enduring Question 5: Where do human mental attributes come from? - Nativism: mental attributes are innate, so they are controlled by genetics - Empiricism: mental attributes are acquired through experience Enduring Question 6: How do we acquire knowledge? - Empiricism: knowledge is acquired through sensory experience - Rationalism: knowledge is acquired through reasoning Enduring Question 7: what direction should our investigation about the universe follow? - Inductivism: Investigation should start with particular observations and individual to eventually obtain general rules. - Deductivism: Investigation should start with assumed general truths then apply them to individuals. Enduring Question 8: What can we aspire to discover in our search for knowledge and truth? - Universalism: we can discover universal truths about the world - Relativism: Universal truths either do not exist or cannot be known- humans influence what they observe so truth is relative to the individual Enduring Question 9: What explanations are preferable? - Mechanism: living organisms, including human behavior should be explained in physio-chemical terms - Vitalism: Living organisms contain a vital force that doesn't exist in inanimate objects therefore life and activities of living organisms are not completely explicable by mechanical laws or physio chemical terms
what were the major differences between temple medicine and the medicine practiced by alcmaeon and the hippocratics
Temple medicine: Early Greek medicine, based on superstition and magical practices. Alcmaeon and Hippocrates: objective and naturalistic. Displacing such beliefs as that illness was due to the possession of spirits was the belief that health resulted from a balance among bodily elements or processes.
why did the main philosophical questions change shortly after aristotle died? provide examples of the new major questions
Greek philosophy didn't comfort the grief of the death of Aristotle, so thinkers stopped asking abstract questions and addressed everyday life. It also ended due to the Athens defeat in the Peloponnesian war
explain why plato is an extreme rationalist and nativist. include plato's theory of forms, the cave allegory, and reminiscence theory
He is a rationalist because he thinks that we have innate knowledge of the forms, moral concepts and possibly color. He believed that the world of forms is transcendent to our own world and also is the essential basis of reality. The cave allegory helped plato realize that the general run of humankind can think, and speak, without any awareness of his realm of forms. The reminiscence theory is that knowledge is to remember, and that search and learning are one and the same act, this theory is based on the assumption of the immorality of the soul, if the body is mortal, the should and the knowledge it holds is mortal.
summarize the view held by paul regarding the human spirit, the human body, and reason
He preached the death, resurrection, and lordship of Jesus Christ, and he proclaimed that faith in Jesus guarantees a share in his life. He believed that we were made up of these things in relation to religion and god. Spirit: divine Reason: caught in between Body: dirty and the source of problems
summarize the main contributions of following british empiricists: locke, berkeley, hartley, james mill, and john stewart and way they were influenced by the zeitgeist A) according to locke, what was the difference between simple and complex ideas? what was his theory of association? whats the difference between primary and secondary qualities? how did the paradox of the basins with water demonstrate this difference? what connection can you make to galileo? B) what is the main idea of the original source entitled: Essay Concerning Human Understanding 1690by john locke C) what was berkeley's view about external reality? explain his statement "to be is to be perceived" how does this statement relate to the enduring question of what's the relation between the physical reality out there and our subjective experience of that reality; in other words, of whether we can aspire to understand the universe? D) in what ways are Berkeley's ideas similar and in what way they are different from Locke's. Summarize his explanation of distance perception E) what was hartley's philosophical goal? in what way might he be considered the first modern psychologist? summarize his explanation of association. according to him, how was involuntary behavior transformed into voluntary behavior? what part did emotions play in his philosophy? F) summarize James Mill view of the mind, mental elements, and associationism G) Compare the mental the "mental physics" of james mill with "mental chemistry" of his son john stuart mill. did john stuart mill believe a science the mind was possible? Why or why not?
Locke-He was the first person to explain the self through a continuity of consciousness. He proposed that the mind was a blank slate or tabula rasa. Law of association and simple and complex ideas Berkeley-Believed the world may be real and may not, was a subjective idealist. Best known for early works on vision and metaphysics Hartley-Observations as a contribution to philosophy, the work is important in the history of psychology for suggesting that body and mind function in concert., vibrations in nerves and brain James Mill- Believed that the mind was like a clock, was a strict empiricist. He also implemented and popularized utilitarianism. Believed no room for free will John Stewart Mill- Mental chemistry, complex ideas are not summations of simple ideas and the model to explain the mind is chemistry, also created the creative synthesis Descartes- the mind influences the body, but the mind exerts a greater influence on the body than previously believed.
describe and identify the choices that scholars have to make when writing about history, including what approach to take (personalistic, naturalistic, and eclectic) what to include (presentism vs historicism) where to start and what approach to emphasize (breath vs depth)
The personalistic theory focuses on the achievements and contributions of specific individuals, while the naturalistic theory focused more on the view that progress and change are attribute to the zeitgeist, which makes a culture receptive to some ideas but not all. In addition, there is presentism which is a view in which historians only include past events that are relevant to the present, while historicism includes everything you believe is relevant even if it is not relevant to present day psychology. In addition, there was the eclectic approach which focuses on who did what and was an integrative form of psychology. Breadth refers to the full span of knowledge of a subject while depth of learning refers to which specific topics to focus on.
Discuss Ebbinghaus's work in memory, including what he studied, how he studied it, what he discovered, & its relevance in psychology.
The theory is that humans start losing the memory of learned knowledge over time, in a matter of days or weeks, unless the learned knowledge is consciously reviewed time and again. Also invented n onsense syllabus which is syllables presented in a meaningless series to study memory processes
compare the different views of science: traditional, Popper's view, and Kuhn's view
The traditional view of science included empirical observations, search for lawful relationships, prediction and control, assumption of determinism, and theory formulation, testing and revision. Poppper's view: Popper believed that a scientific theory must be refutable, he believed that science is an unending search for better solutions or better explanations. He is best known for the falsification principle
what connections can you see between christian, islamic and jewish scholars in the middle ages?
There are notable similarities in notions of sacrifice, good works, hospitality, peach, justice, pilgrimage ad god
summarize democritus view about the composition of animate, inanimate, and cognitive events. differentiate between elementism and reductionism. provide examples contrast democritus' explanation of sensation and perception with that of empedocles'
These events were simply reduced to atomic activity. Elementalism is the communication that one can make with the element. He believed that no matter how complex something it was could be explained by elementalism. In terms of reductionism, he believed that everything could be explained on one level (observable phenomena) in terms of events on another level (atoms and their activity).
why were the first philosophers called physicist? why were they called cosmologists? list the physes proposed by thales, heraclitus, empodcles, anaxagoras, and democritus
They emphasized natural explanations instead of supernatural ones, and sought a primary element called physis- which everything was made. They were sometimes referred to cosmologists since they were largely physicalists who tried to explain the nature of matter- focus on the history and structure of the universe. Thales: Water is essence of living and non-living things Heraclitus: Fire is Physis because it turns everything into something else Empedocles: four elements- earth, fire, air, and water Anaxagoras: universe was a mixture but at the center of it all is a seed, there is an infinite number of seeds Democritus: Atoms was it
define scholasticism and provide an example of what scholastics did
This is a system of thought and a method that dominated the middle ages, that is based on Aristotelian logic and the writings of the early church fathers, that has a strong emphasis on tradition and dogma. Bring reason to the support of faith, scholastics sought to solve anew general philosophical problems.
explain the meaning of renaissance. describe the four themes that characterized renaissance humanism and give examples.
This is the revival of classical art, architecture, literature, and learning that originated in Italy and spread throughout Europe from the 14th-16th century. The four themes of Renaissance humanism are individualism, personal religion, intense interest and anti-Aristotelianism.
Explain the reason why Wundt is considered the founder of the new science of Psychology, instead of Weber, Fechner or Donders.
Wilhelm Wundt opened the Institute for Experimental Psychology at the University of Leipzig in Germany in 1879. Wundt was important because he separated psychology from philosophy by analyzing the workings of the mind in a more structured way, with the emphasis being on objective measurement and control.
Contentual objectivism-Contentual subjectivism Functionalism-Structuralism Conscious mentalism-Unconscious mentalism Nomotheticism-ldiographicism Methodological objectivism-Methodological subjectivism Molecularism-Molarism Purism-Utilitarianism Staticism-Dynamicism
contentual objectivism: Philosophy One of several doctrines holding that all reality is objective and external to the mind and that knowledge is reliably based on observed objects and events. contentual subjectivism: moral statements are facts functionalism-structuralism: type of consensus theory it says that society is based on mutual agreements. It sees the creation and maintenance of shared values and norms as crucial to society, and views social change as a slow, orderly process. conscious mentalism-unconscious mentalism: nomotheticism-idiographicism: Nomothetic and idiographic are terms used by Neo-Kantian philosopher Wilhelm Windelband to describe two distinct approaches to knowledge, each one corresponding to a different intellectual tendency, and each one corresponding to a different branch of academe Methodological objectivism-Methodological subjectivism: Methodological objectivism is the position that methods of investigation can be, and should be able to be, repeated and verified by another investigator. Methodological subjectivism is the position that methods cannot be repeated and thus cannot be verified by another. Molecularism-Molarism: psychological data most aptly de- scribed in terms of relatively small units—relatively. large units Purism-Utilitarianism: The normative ethic theory that the proper course of action is the one that maximizes utility, usually defined as maximizing total benefit and reducing suffering or the negatives. Staticism-Dynamicism:
Explain in what way psychophysics played a fundamental role in the development of psychology.
Most important, he gave psychology what every discipline must possess if it is to be called a science: precise and elegant techniques of measurement
summarize the main ideas of francesco and martin luther and their implications to science and society
Petrarch was a scholar whose writings arguably signal the beginning of the renaissance. He wrote in opposition to Averroes reliance on Aristotle, he also opposed scholasticism and religious authority. Martin Luther found the protestant reformation. He argued that Aristotle's assimilation was a major cause of Aristotle's decline and also sought a more personalized and less ritualistic religion.
Define philosophy and explain in what way it changed the way early humans tried to understand nature and people
Philosophy Is the love of wisdom, it is an activity people undertake when they seek to understand fundamental truths about themselves, the world in which they live and their relationships the world and to each other. Eventually natural explanations overtook supernatural ones, and stories were questioned.
what did comte mean by positivism? in his view, how was positivism? In his view, how was positivism related to the natural and to the social sciences? did he think that a science of the mind was possible? Why or why not?
Positivism is the knowledge in disciplines must be based only on objectively observable phenomena. Also believed that the universe is explainable in physical terms by existence and nature of matter. Comte did not believe that knowledge derived from metaphysics or theology and believed it only derive from science, also was a big materialist which is the doctrine that the universe can be explained by physical terms by the existence and nature of matter
Define psychophysics and how it relates to enduring question #4 (can we aspire to know the universe?).
Psychophysics is the scientific study between mental and physical processes
summarize how rousseau represented the main ideas of romanticism
- "The social contract" is an admittedly mythological contract among individuals to surrender some of their freedoms to ensure a community which respects the individual and, thereby, preserves as much freedom as possible. This idea, combined with Locke's thoughts on government, were to inspire the founding fathers of the new United States.
describe the main contention of romanticism and how it differed from rationalism and empiricism
Romanticism was a reaction against both empiricism and rationalism. For the romantics, the empiricists diminished humans either as unemotional machines, or as beings in which the emotions were developed through hedonism. Romantics believed that humans are not coldly calculating creature but beings motivated by chaotic passions, therefore it is necessary to consider the whole person. Rationalism is what's actually going on cognitively or the reality of something. While romanticism is basically mattering of the heart and have to do with thinking out of emotion.
Define the following terms: school of thought, subject matter, method, scientific method, experimental method, theory, hypothesis, population. Remember that most of these definitions are not in your textbook.
School of thought: a particular way of thinking, typically one disputed by the speaker. Scientific method: involves making conjectures (hypotheses), deriving predictions from them as logical consequences, and then carrying out experiments or empirical observations based on those predictions. ... Scientists then test hypotheses by conducting experiments or studies. Experimental Method: involves the manipulation of variables to establish cause and effect relationships A hypothesis proposes a tentative explanation or prediction. ... Their hypothesis may be proven true or false by testing and experimentation. A theory, on the other hand, is a substantiated explanation for an occurrence
describe aristotles four causes of things: entelechy, scala naturae, soul, relationship among sensory experience, common sense, passive reason, and active reason; association laws of memory; imagination and dreaming; empotions; function of the unmoved mover
- Aristotle believed there were four causes of things - material cause - formal cause ( the defining characteristics) - Final cause- the purpose of the thing - Efficient cause- the antecedent condition that brought the thing about Entelechy: everything in nature has a function built into it known as entelechy Scala Naturae: This scalerefers to the idea that nature is arranged in a hierarchy ranging from neutral matter to the unmoved mover which is pure actuality and is the cause of everything in nature. Hierarchy of souls - He believed sense provided information about the environment but did not believe objects sent off tiny copies of themselves like Democritus. He also believed that common sense as the mechanism that coordinated the information from all the senses.
what important epistemological question did Heraclitus raise? contrast hericlitus view with that of other pre-socratic philosophers that address this question (paramenides, pythagoras)
- Heraclitus raised the question of how can something be known if it is constantly changing? Parmenides believed that the world was fixed, and that change was simply an illusion. Pythagoras believed that everything in the universe can be explained by numbers, therefore change could be explained by numbers as well.
important to study the the history of psychology
- It is important to study the history of psychology because the study of the past is important for the present. The history of psychology and early developments help us establish why psychology is the way it is today. In addition, it is a major showing that it is important field to know and understand.
1. Describe the localization vs. non-localization debate. Identify key scientists in each side of the debate and the contribution of each. In your answer, ensure that you include the following: A. Basic tenets of phrenology, founder, reasons for phrenology's popularity, and its influence on psychology. B. Hall & Flourens's contributions to our knowledge of the nervous system, their approach to brain research, and whether their conclusions support or refute phrenology. C. Broca's method for brain research, his conclusions, what side of the debate was supported, and why. D. Fritsch & Hitzig's approach to brain research, their results, who their results supported and why.
A. Basic tenets of phrenology, founder, reasons for phrenology's popularity, and its influence on psychology. Phrenology is the detailed study of the shape and size of the cranium as a supposed indication of mental abilities. Franz Joseph Gall believed in phrenology and that certain brain areas have localized specific functions or modules. Although Galls findings have been influential on an important historical advance towards neuropsychology. A. Hall & Flourens's contributions to our knowledge of the nervous system, their approach to brain research, and whether their conclusions support or refute phrenology. Hall observed that decapitated animals would continue to move if their nerve endings were being stimulated. He concluded that different parts of the brain and nervous system controlled different levels of behaviors. He postulated that voluntary movement depended on the cerebrum, reflex movement on the spinal cord, involuntary movement on direct stimulation of the muscles and respiratory movement on the medulla. Flourens would destroy parts of the brain and spinal cord in pigeons and see what happened, he found the cerebrum controlled higher mental processes and the midbrain controls visual and auditory reflexes. They also practiced the methods of Extirpation and the clinical method. There research supported phrenology as it shows that certain parts of the brain were responsible for various things. B. Broca's method for brain research, his conclusions, what side of the debate was supported, and why. Broca examined the brain of a man who had recently died. ... Broca discovered a damaged area in the man's left frontal lobe. He subsequently found damage in the same brain area in other people with similar speech problems. Broca concluded that he had found the part of the brain that was responsible for speech. C. Fritsch & Hitzig's approach to brain research, their results, who their results supported and why. They used an electrical stimulation technique for exploring the cerebral cortex with weak electric current to observe motor responses. They found that stimulating certain areas in the cerebral cortex resulted in motor responses.
Describe the contributions, main concepts, and methods developed by the first psychophysicists. In your answer, include the following
A. Describe Weber's research techniques and his findings. What significance did Weber's work have for the development of experimental psychology? Weber explored new fields and found the two-point threshold which is the threshold at which two points of stimulation can be distinguished as such. This was done on the skin. He also came up with the just noticeable difference which is the smallest difference that can be detected between two physical stimuli. B. Summarize Fechner's psychophysical work, methods, findings, and contributions to the development of psychology as a science. Fechner proposed two ways to measure sensations, first we can determine whether a stimulus is present or absent, sensed or not sensed. Second, we can measure the stimulus intensity at which subjects reports that the sensations first occurs, this is the absolute threshold of sensitivity. The differential threshold is the point of sensitivity at which the least amount of change in a stimulus gives rise to a change in sensation.
Summarize the discoveries regarding the nerves, and nerve impulses. Identify key scientists, their methods, and their discoveries.
A. Müller's doctrine of specific nerve energies. In simple terms, the Doctrine states that we directly perceive in the first instance the activity of our nerves, rather than properties in the external world. B. Galvani's discovery of nervous impulses. nerve impulse is the basis of all human thoughts and emotions, and of all sensations and movements. As such, it has been the subject of scientific enquiry for more than two centuries, beginning with Galvani's chance observation that a frog's leg twitched in response to an electrostatic discharge nearby C. Controversy between Golgi and Ramón y Cajal regarding the composition of the nervous system and impulse transmission. Reticular theory is an obsolete scientific theory in neurobiology that stated that everything in the nervous system, such as brain, is a single continuous network. The concept was postulated by a German anatomist Joseph von Gerlach in 1871 and was most popularized by the Nobel laureate Italian physician Camillo Golgi. However, the theory was refuted by later observations of a Spanish pathologist Santiago Ramón y Cajal, using a staining technique discovered by Golgi, which showed that nervous tissue, like other tissues, is made of discrete cells. This neuron doctrine turned out to be the correct description of the nervous system, whereas the reticular theory was discredited. D. Helmholtz's empirical measurement of the speed of the nerve impulse and his contributions toward understanding perception. He provided the first empirical measurement of the rate of conduction by stimulating a motor nerve and the attached muscle in the leg of a frog, in addition he did research on vision, where he found that the external eye muscles and the mechanism by which the internal eye muscles focus the lens. Def: Absolute threshold Def: differential threshold Def: Two-point threshold Def: Just noticeable difference Def: Psychophyscis
Describe Titchener's Structuralism
A. Titchener's view on the goal(s) that psychology should pursue. - Thought that we should explore on mental elements or contents and their mechanical linking through the process of association. Only one type of conscious experience was worth researching. B. Titchener's three elementary states of consciousness and their elements. Describe the influence that Democritus, the concept of mechanism, chemistry, and Wundt had on these ideas. Experience is dependent on the person who is actually experiencing it. Elements of consciousness o Reduce conscious processes to their simplest components o Determine law by which these elements of consciousness were associated o Connect the elements with their physiological conditions C. Titchener's method of introspection, stimulus error, how to avoid it, and how his method was later criticized. - stimulus error: confusing the mental process under study with the stimulus of object that is being observed - Method of introspection: relied on observers who were rigorously trained to describe the elements of their conscious state rather than reporting the stimulus by a common name.
summarize kant's contributions as the main rationalist. in your answer, include A) what did he mean by an priori category of thought? how do such categories influence what we experience consciously? B) briefly summarize his explanation of the experiences of causality, time, and space C) explain Kant categorical imperative and what enduring question it relates to D) Did he believe that psychology could become a science? Why or why not?
A. What did he mean by an a priori category of thought? These included reality, totality, cause and effect, and existence and nonexistence. He believed that we had 12 categories that shaped our thoughts because categories are part of the minds structure and permit us to conceptualize totality. B. Explain Kant's categorical imperative and what enduring question it relates to. This is that a person should act in such a way that the rule behind his or her actions could serce as a universal law for all to follow. Although it Is innate, humans can choose whether to act in accordance with it. C. Did he believe that psychology could become a science? Why or why not? Kant considered psychology to be an empirical inquiry into the laws of mental operations. He believed that mental operations lack substance, only a time dimension, and therefore cannot be assessed. Kant's authoritative opinion retarded the development of psychology as an experimental science.
Describe Wundt's viewpoint about the new science of Psychology. In your answer, please include the following issues:
A. What should psychology's goals be? He believes that psychologists should focus on and be concerned with the study of immediate experience rather than mediate experience. Mediate experience provides information about something other than the elements of experience. His goal was to analyze the mind into its elements. A. What mental processes did Wundt consider that Psychology should study? Which should remain outside of psychology's scope? He thought that we should study introspection which is an examination of one's own mind to inspect and report on personal thoughts or feelings. B. What is the difference between mediate and immediate experience? What is an example of each? Which of the two types of experience did Wundt thought that psychology should study? D C. . What method should psychologists use? What is the role of external and internal perception, and what rules should be followed? The method of introspection should be used by psychologists. Mediate experience - associated with physical science, it is experience that is mediated by some device of accurate measure. (For example, using a thermometer to determine how hot/cold it is). Immediate experience - the experience of the psychological researcher. It is not mediated by anything external or objective. - Tridimensional theory of feelings: Wundt's explanation for feeling states based on three dimensions; pleasure/displeasure, tension/relaxation and excitement/depression. - Wundt suggested that sensations were one of two elementary forms of experience. Sensations are aroused whenever a sense organ is stimulated, and the resulting impulses hit the brain. - Feelings are the other elementary form of experience sensations and feelings are simultaneous aspects of the immediate experience. - Conscious experience is compounded from apperception which is the process by which mental elements are organized.
describe descarte's main ideas - what was it that descartes thought he could be certain of? once this certainty was arrived at, how did Descartes use it in further developing his philosophy? - why did descartes reach the conclusion that most ideas are learned but some ideas are innate? give examples of ideas that he thought were innate. what enduring question is this view tapping into? - summarize descartes view of the mind-body relationship. what enduring is he tapping into? - what were descartes contributions to psychology?
most famous statement is Cogito ergo sum, "I think, therefore I exist." With this argument, Descartes proposes that the very act of thinking offers a proof of individual human existence. Because thoughts must have a source, there must be an "I" that exists to do the thinking. Descartes did not believe that the information we receive through our senses is necessarily accurate. ... Moreover, if his senses can convey to him the heat of the fire when he does not really feel it, he can't trust that the fire exists when he feels it in his waking life.
