Psych History: Essay Quiz 1 Terms (Chapters 1-10)
Bacon, Francis (1561 - 1626)
A British philosopher and politician who argued for a science that is inductive and practical.
St. Anselm (1033 - 1109)
A Christian philosopher and theologian, famous for his ontological argument for the existence of God, who attempted to provide a rational foundation for faith and paved the way for Scholasticism.
St. Thomas Aquinas (1225 - 1274)
A Dominican friar, the most influential Scholastic philosopher, responsible for Christianizing the works of Aristotle.
Erasmus, Desiderius (1466 - 1536)
A Dutch Renaissance humanist, known a voice of cultivated common sense, who was highly critical of superstition and the excesses of organized religion.
William of Occam (1290 - 1350)
A Franciscan monk, famous for the argument known as Occam's razor, who claimed that reality is what we experience directly from the senses.
St. Bonaventure (1225 - 1274)
A Franciscan theologian who was an influential voice of opposition to the blending of Christianity and Aristotle's philosophy as proposed by Scholastics.
Kepler, Johannes (1571 - 1630)
A German astronomer who filled in the mathematical details of Copernicus's heliocentric theory, furthering its acceptance.
Aristarchus of Samos (ca. 310 - 230 B.C.)
A Greek astronomer whose heliocentric theory predated Copernicus by almost 2000 years.
Pythagoras (cs. 485 - 415 B.C.)
A Greek philosopher, a student of Anaximander, who also made contributions to mathematics and mysticism.
Diogenes (ca. 412 - 323 B.C.)
A Greek philosopher, an ardent defender of Cynicism, who lived by example.
Antisthenes (ca. 445 - 365 B.C.)
A Greek philosopher, the founder of Cynicism, who advocated a back-to-nature philosophy.
Epicurus of Samos (ca. 341 - 270 B.C.)
A Greek philosopher, the founder of Epicureanism, a philosophy based on atomism and prescribing moderation for happiness.
Pyrrho of Elis (ca. 365 - 275 B.C.)
A Greek philosopher, the founder of Skepticism, who questioned the possibility of knowledge.
Zeno of Citium (ca. 333 - 262 B.C.)
A Greek philosopher, the founder of Stoicism, who believed that the ultimate virtue consists of accepting fate.
Philo (ca. 25 B.C. - A.D. 50)
A Jewish philosopher who synthesized Platonism with the Hebrew religion.
Maimonides (1135 - 1204)
A Jewish religious scholar and physician who attempted to reconcile Aristotelian philosophy and Judaism.
Copernicus, Nicolaus (1473 - 1543)
A Polish astronomer who broke with the prevailing worldview and argued that the earth revolves around the sun.
Luther, Martin (1483 - 1546)
A Renaissance humanist and theologian who was critical of Scholasticism and a proponent of Augustine's personal religion; a major contributor to the Reformation.
Montaigne, Michel de (1533 - 1592)
A Renaissance philosopher unique in advocating skepticism and not glorifying human rationality.
St. Albertus Magnus (ca. 1193 - 1280)
A Scholastic philosopher who was the first Westerner to conduct a comprehensive review of Aristotle's works and interpretations and who enriched it with his own empirical observations.
Abelard, Peter (1079 - 1142)
A Scholastic philosopher whose accomplishments include a dialectic method for examining Christian doctrine and his proposal of conceptualism as a solution to the realism versus nomimalism debate.
Dogmatist
A believer in indisputable truths.
Phrenology
A discipline, founded by Gall and popularized by Spurzheim, claiming that mental faculties are located in specific areas of the brain and that their strength can be determined by examining the corresponding bumps and depressions on one's skull.
Double aspectism
A dualist position that claims mental events and physical events are inseparable; they are two aspects of the same thing.
Psychophysical parallelism
A dualist position that claims mental events and physical events are never the cause of each other; they are experienced simultaneously.
Interactionism
A dualist position that claims mental events and physical events interact.
Epiphenomenalism
A dualist position that claims mental events are byproducts of physical events.
Emergentism
A dualist position that claims mental events emerge from physical events.
Sophists
A group of philosophers in ancient Greece who maintained that the truth was not absolute but relative and emphasized skills in public speaking and persuasion.
Würzburg school
A group of psychologists under the influence of Oswald Külpe at the University of Würzburg who studied higher mental processes via systematic experimental introspection.
School
A group of scholars, organized around a similar theoretical viewpoint, who work to solve common problems using common methodologies.
Method of limits
A method of determining thresholds by which the experimenter adjusts the intensity of a stimulus in a graded ascending or descending series, until the point of judgment by a subject changes with respect to the presence or absence of the stimulus (absolute threshold) or whether or not it is equal to a sample stimulus (differential threshold).
Method of constant stimuli
A method of determining thresholds by which the experimenter adjusts the intensity of a variable stimulus in a random series, and the subject judges its presence or absence (absolute threshold), or its intensity relative to a standard stimulus (differential threshold).
Method of adjustment
A method of determining thresholds by which the subject adjusts the intensity of a stimulus, until his or her point of judgment changes with respect to the presence or absence of the stimulus (absolute threshold) or its equality to a sample stimulus (differential threshold).
Active mind
A mind that acts upon sensory input to give it new meaning.
Passive mind
A mind that reflects the physical world based on sensory experience.
Reformation
A movement, the result of a growing dissatisfaction with the Roman Catholic church in the 16th century, that called for a reform of church doctrines and practices; eventually lead to the establishment of Protestantism.
Dionysiac-Orphic religion
A mystical religious sect in ancient Greece that sought happiness through the worship of Dionysus
Kuhn, Thomas (1922 - 1996)
A philosopher of science and physicist, critical of the traditional view of science, who described scientific progress as consisting of three stages: preparadigmatic, paradigmatic, and revolutionary.
Positivism
A philosophical system that restricts scientific inquiry to direct experience, the only thing of which we can be certain.
Alcmaeon (fl. ca. 500 B.C.)
A pioneer in ancient Greek medicine who emphasized finding natural causes for disorders.
Temple medicine
A prescientific form of medical treatment used in ancient Greece by priests.
Dialectic method
A procedure employed by Peter Abelard that came to characterize Scholasticism: contentious issues are considered in a question-and-answer format to explore the logical consequence of assumptions on both sides of an argument.
Just noticeable difference (jnd)
A psychological unit designating the minimal change in stimulus intensity that can be detected.
Romanticism
A reactionary movement (along with existentialism) to the Enlightenment, opposed to mechanism and promoting rival concepts such as individual freedom and vitalism.
Existentialism
A reactionary movement (along with romanticism) to the Enlightenment, stressing individual uniqueness, subjective interpretation, and freedom of choice.
Vedantism
A religion from India and Persia that helped shape early Christian thought, emphasizing entering into semiecstatic trances as a means to perfection.
Zoroastrianism
A religion from India and Persia that helped shape early Christian thought, emphasizing the dualism of good and evil.
Protestantism
A religious movement resulting from the Reformation in 16th century Europe, heavily influenced by the writings of St. Augustine and St. Paul, calling for an understanding of God based on faith alone.
Scholasticism
A school defined by the blending of Aristotle's philosophy into Christian dogma during the middle to high Middle Ages.
Cynicism
A school of philosophy, founded Antisthenes, advocating a back-to-nature philosophy.
Epicureanism
A school of philosophy, founded by Epicurus of Samos, based on atomism and prescribing moderation for happiness.
Skepticism
A school of philosophy, founded by Pyrrho of Elis, denying all claims of truth and advocating a suspension of judgment.
Stoicism
A school of philosophy, founded by Zeno of Citium, claiming that the ultimate virtue consists of accepting fate.
Structuralism
A school of psychology, founded by Titchener, whose goal was to describe the structure of the mind.
Scientific theory
A set of statements that function to organize empirical observations and to guide future observations.
Scientific law
A statement describing a consistently observed relation between two or more classes of empirical events.
Correlational law
A statement indicating a systematic relationship between two or more classes of empirical events
Causal law
A statement indicating how classes of empirical events are causally related.
Ptolemaic system
A system of astronomy proposed by Ptolemy that has earth as the center of the universe around which all heavenly bodies perfectly orbit.
Clinical method
A technique involving firsthand assessment of a patient's behavioral disorder, and then, upon his or her death, determining the brain location that caused the disorder.
Mental set
A tendency to respond in a certain way until a particular problem is solved; occurs in the absence of awareness.
Sociology
A term coined by Auguste Comte to refer to studies of (1) comparisons of societies in terms of their progress through three stages of explanations of natural events and (2) the overt products of the mind, especially social behavior.
Noble savage
A term coined by Rousseau for a human uncontaminated by society; guided by feelings, the person would be naturally inclined to live in harmony with other humans, happy and fulfilled.
General will
A term coined by Rousseau that refers to the innate tendency for individuals to do what is best for the common good.
Spontaneous activity
According to Alexander Bain, behavior that randomly occurs in the absence of a triggering stimulus; can become voluntary should it lead to pleasurable consequences.
Voluntary behavior
According to Alexander Bain, behavior, originally spontaneous, but now performed because of its past pleasurable consequences.
Vegetative soul
According to Aristotle, he soul that plants have that permits only basic functions like growth and reproduction.
Vibratiuncles
According to David Hartley, weak vibrations that linger in the brain after the sense impression that caused them stops; they are the biological correlates of ideas
Law of cause and effect
According to David Hume, a law of association in which consistently observing two events in succession leads us to believe that the first event caused the second one.
Law of contiguity (Hume)
According to David Hume, a law of association in which objects experienced together tend to stimulate thoughts of each other.
Law of resemblance
According to David Hume, a law of association in which similar objects tend to stimulate thoughts of each other.
Animal spirits
According to Descartes, a very fine air or wind released by cavities in the brain that travel through hollow tubes to muscles, causing them to move.
Negative sensations
According to Fechner, unconscious reactions to stimulus intensities below absolute threshold.
Intentionality
According to Franz Brentano, every act always refers to something outside of itself.
The Absolute
According to Hegel, the fundamental unity of the universe toward which human history progresses via the dialectic process.
Dialectic process
According to Hegel, the process by which human history evolves toward The Absolute; the process entails an idea (thesis), its negation (antithesis), and a compromise view (synthesis).
Sensation (Helmholtz)
According to Helmholtz, a basic unalterable mental experience arising from stimulating the sense receptors.
Perception (Helmholtz)
According to Helmholtz, the mental experience arising from the transformation of sensations through the process of unconscious inference.
Unconscious inference
According to Helmholtz, the process by which past experience transforms a sensation into a perception.
Becoming
According to Heraclitus, the state of everything in the universe. Nothing is static and unchanging; rather, everything in the universe is dynamic --that is, becoming something other than what it was.
Mental essences
According to Husserl, the genuine, universal, unchanging aspect of mental processes studied by pure phenomenology.
Primary laws
According to John Stuart Mill, laws with generality that describe the overall behavior of events within a system.
Mental chemistry
According to John Stuart Mill, the process by which simple ideas combine to form complex ideas with emergent properties.
Risky predictions
According to Karl Popper, a proposition stemming from a theory that can clearly be shown to be incorrect.
Principle of falsifiability
According to Karl Popper, the fact that a theory is refutable characterizes it as scientific.
Aesthetic stage
According to Kierkegaard, the first stage on the road to full personal freedom, characterized by egotism and hedonism, and ending in boredom and despair.
Ethical stage
According to Kierkegaard, the second stage on the road to full personal freedom, characterized by acting as one ought to according to rules imposed by others.
Religious stage
According to Kierkegaard, the third and final stage on the road to full personal freedom, characterized by a leap of faith as one enters into a relationship with God.
Monads
According to Leibniz, indivisible units, active and conscious, that comprise everything in the universe; they seek clarity of thought and never influence each other.
Opinions
According to Nietzsche, beliefs that are tentative and modifiable in light of new information and therefore, reasonable.
Convictions
According to Nietzsche, beliefs that are thought to correspond to some absolute truth and, as such, are immutable and dangerous
Supermen
According to Nietzsche, persons who satisfy their will to power, acquiring mastery over themselves and their destiny.
Will to power
According to Nietzsche, the primary human motive, to grow and become stronger.
Forms
According to Plato, the pure, abstract realities that are unchanging and timeless and therefore knowable. Such forms create imperfect manifestations of themselves when they interact with matter. It is these imperfect manifestations of the forms that are the objects of our sense impressions
Internal sense
According to St. Augustine, an innate knowledge of moral right and wrong that we use to evaluate our thoughts and behavior; deviating from this sense causes guilt.
Preparadigmatic stage
According to Thomas Kuhn, a pre-scientific period characterized by random fact gathering by rival camps or schools competing to establish their views.
Anomalies
According to Thomas Kuhn, persistent observations that are unexplainable by the current accepted paradigm.
Revolutionary stage
According to Thomas Kuhn, the stage of scientific development during an established paradigm is displaced by another.
Paradigmatic stage
According to Thomas Kuhn, the stage of scientific development during which a paradigm is established and scientists engage in puzzle solving.
Stimulus error
According to Titchener, confusing an object itself with one's immediate experience of that object.
Context theory of meaning
According to Titchener, the images evoked by a sensation provide a context that gives meaning to the sensation; based on the law of contiguity.
Sensation (Wundt)
According to Wundt, an elementary form of experience, devoid of meaning, resulting when stimulating the sense organs generates an impulse that reaches the brain.
Tridimensional theory of feeling
According to Wundt, any given elemental feeling has three attributes: pleasantness -unpleasantness, strain-relaxation, and excitement-calm.
Will (Wundt)
According to Wundt, the force behind conscious intent in attention and behavior.
Perception (Wundt)
According to Wundt, the mental experience resulting from the combining of elements of thought; a passive an automatic process.
Creative synthesis
According to Wundt, the process by which the will organizes and synthesizes elements of thoughts in ways never actually experienced.
Ladd-Franklin, Christine (1847 - 1930)
American academic who advanced a theory of color vision based on evolutionary principles.
Terman, Lewis Madison (1877 - 1956)
American psychologist famous for revising the Binet-Simon test of intelligence and conducting a longitudinal study of gifted children.
Hollingworth, Leta Stetter (1886 - 1939)
American psychologist who challenged misconceptions about women, persons diagnosed as mentally defective, and gifted children.
Goddard, Henry Herbert (1866 - 1957)
American psychologist who translated the Binet-Simon scale into English; responsible for the government enacting sterilization laws and deporting thousands of immigrants.
Yerkes, Robert M. (1876 - 1956)
American psychologist who was chiefly responsible for the intelligence testing program of WWI recruits; also known as one of the founders of comparative psychology within the U.S.
Cattell, James McKeen (1860 - 1944)
American psychologist, a self-proclaimed disciple of Francis Galton, who was interested in individual differences and mental testing; he was a major spokesperson for psychology.
Physis
Among the ancient Greeks, physis referred to the basic substance from which all the other substances in nature were derived.
Enlightenment
An 18th century movement emphasizing rationality, heavily influenced by Isaac Newton and John Locke.
Avicenna (980 - 1037)
An Arab physician and philosopher who attempted to make Aristotelian philosophy compatible with the Muslim religion; for him, the highest level of intellectual functioning was an understanding of God.
Averroes (1126 - 1198)
An Arab physician and philosopher who attempted to make Aristotelian philosophy compatible with the Muslim religion; his interpretations of Aristotle were later severely attacked by Christian philosophers.
Popper, Karl (1902 - 1994)
An Austrian philosopher of science, critical of the traditional view of science, who described the scientific method as consisting of three stages: problems, theories, and criticism.
Plotinus (ca. 204 - 270)
An Egyptian philosopher, the founder of Neoplatonism, who sought truth in the spiritual world.
Pico, Giovanni (1463 - 1494)
An Italian Renaissance philosopher who sought commonalities among all philosophical viewpoints and maintained that humans are uniquely capable of change to become more or less godlike.
Galileo (1564 - 1642)
An Italian mathematician and physicist who is considered the founder of modern scientific method.
Bruno, Giordano (1548 - 1600)
An Italian philosopher, one of the first influential thinkers to accept Copernicus's heliocentric theory, but for religious reasons and not on scientific grounds.
Petrarch, Francesco (1304 - 1374)
An Italian poet, called the father of the Renaissance, who helped stimulate the great artistic and literary accomplishment of the times as well as the emergence of science.
Lombard, Peter (ca. 1095 - 1160)
An Italian theologian and philosopher who argued that, in addition to faith, intellect informed by perception can also lead to knowledge, paving the way for Scholasticism.
Allegory of the cave
An allegory in Plato's Republic intended to illustrate that apparent reality is an illusion.
Socrates (469 - 399 B.C.)
An ancient Greek philosopher who made contributions to methods of philosophical enquiry (i.e., the Socratic method), the nature of concepts (i.e., essences), political philosophy and ethics.
Hippocrates (ca. 460 - 377 B.C.)
An ancient Greek physician who has become known as the father of medicine.
Gorgias (ca. 485 - 380 B.C.)
An ancient Greek teacher and philosopher of the Sophist school.
Science
An approach to answering questions about nature that is characterized by two major components: empirical observation and theory.
Presentism
An approach to history that studies earlier events in an effort to discover direct causes for the present, which is assumed to be the highest form of development.
Historicism
An approach to history that studies the past without attempting to relate it to the present.
Historiography
An examination of how best to write history.
Mediate experience
An understanding of something based on indirect contact with it.
Heraclitus (ca. 540 - 480 B.C.)
Ancient Greek Philosopher who initiated a tradition of empiricist and scientific thinking.
Anaximander (ca. 610 - 540 B.C.)
Ancient Greek philosopher who speculated on an universal substance and on evolution.
Democritus (ca. 460 - 370 B.C.)
Ancient Greek scientist and philosopher who was the first to propose the atomic theory of the elements.
Empedocles (ca. 495 - 435 B.C.)
Ancient philosopher, scientist, poet and politician (four elements: fire, water, earth, and air)
Mystery religions
Ancient religions from the near east containing several common themes that helped shape early Christian thought.
Quality (Locke)
Any physical feature of a object that can generate an idea.
Golden mean
Aristotle believed that happiness can best be achieved by following a course of moderation, which he called the golden mean.
Associationism (Aristotle)
Aristotle's analysis of learning memory includes four laws of association: the laws of continguity, contrast, frequency and similarity. Accounting for learning and memory in terms of such laws of association is called associationism.
Unmoved mover
Aristotle's concept of the unmoved mover is the original source of movement in the universe.
Law of contiguity (Aristotle)
Aristotle's law of contiguity maintains that thinking of something will cause thought of things that are experienced along with that thing.
Law of contrast
Aristotle's law of contrast maintains that thinking of something will cause thoughts of things opposite.
Law of frequency
Aristotle's law of frequency maintains that the more often two events are experienced together, the stronger they will be associated in memory.
Law of similarity
Aristotle's law of memory that maintains that a thought of something will induce thoughts of similar things.
Laws of association (Aristotle)
Aristotle's set of laws that governed memory. These included the laws of contiguity, contrast, frequency and similarity.
Intelligence quotient
As based on performance on intelligence tests, mental age divided by chronological age multiplied by 100.
Mental orthopedics
As conceived by Alfred Binet, exercises and games designed to disadvantaged children how to learn.
Paradigm
As defined by Thomas Kuhn, a set of common beliefs shared by scientists.
Normal science
As defined by Thomas Kuhn, the exploration by scientists of the implications of the currently accepted paradigm.
General intelligence (g)
As first proposed by Charles Spearman, a trait common to performance on all intellectual tasks.
Idols of the theatre
As identified by Francis Bacon, biases stemming from blind allegiance to philosophical dogma that impede knowledge.
Idols of the cave
As identified by Francis Bacon, biases stemming from human individuality that impede knowledge.
Idols of the marketplace
As identified by Francis Bacon, biases stemming from human language that impede knowledge.
Idols of the tribe
As identified by Francis Bacon, biases stemming from human nature that impede knowledge.
Spencer-Bain principle
As noted by Bain and then later Spencer, the fact the behavior leading to pleasant consequences tends to be repeated whereas behavior leading to unpleasant consequences tends to extinguish.
Law of compound association
As proposed by Alexander Bain, several ideas associated through contiguity or resemblance tend to be recalled together.
Law of constructive association
As proposed by Alexander Bain, the rearranging of ideas by the mind to form associations that have never actually been experienced.
Categories of thought
As proposed by Immanuel Kant, innate concepts of the mind that structure subjective experience.
Categorical imperative
As proposed by Immanuel Kant, the principle that a moral decision should be based on its implications should it become a universal law.
Anthropology
As proposed by Immanuel Kant, the study of how people actually behave in order to predict and control behavior.
Inheritance of acquired characteristics
As proposed by Jean Lamarck, environmental pressures in the lifetime of an organism can alter its structure; the modification is then passed on to its offspring.
Apperceptive mass
As proposed by Johann Herbart in his theory of psychic mechanics, the cluster of compatible ideas of which we are momentarily conscious.
Psychic mechanics
As proposed by Johann Herbart, a process by which ideas struggle with each other to gain access to consciousness.
Doctrine of specific nerve energies
As proposed by Johannes Müller, the claim that each sensory nerve produces its own characteristic sensation, no matter how it is stimulated.
Adequate stimulation
As proposed by Johannes Müller, the claim that each type of sensory nerve is maximally responsive to a certain form of stimulation.
Ethology
As proposed by John Stuart Mill, a science devoted to explaining individual differences, that is, how primary laws interact with secondary laws.
Petites perceptions
As proposed by Leibniz, small, unconscious perceptions that enter consciousness as a combined force.
Law of continuity
As proposed by Leibniz, the claim that nature never makes leaps; differences are a matter of small gradations.
Conceptualism
As proposed by Peter Abelard, a compromise view between realism and nominalism: universals exist, but only in the mind and not in reality.
Commonsense philosophy
As proposed by Thomas Reid, the view that what we generally believe to be true is in fact true.
Principle of the heterogony of ends
As proposed by Wundt, inevitable, unanticipated results of goal-directed activity produce a shift in motivation.
Principle of contrasts
As proposed by Wundt, opposing mental experiences amplify each other.
Principle toward the development of opposites
As proposed by Wundt, prolonged exposure to one type of experience motivates the seeking of the opposite kind of experience.
Imageless thoughts
As studied by the Würzburg school, mental actions that do not involve particular references.
Introspection (Wundt)
As used by Wundt, an experimental procedure whereby a subject reflects upon the presence or absence of a sensation.
Mach, Ernst (1838 - 1916)
Austrian physicist and philosopher of science, a positivist who advocated a pragmatic science concentrating on the description of functional relationships between clusters of sensations for pragmatic purposes.
Hering, Ewald (1834 - 1918)
Austrian physiologist whose theory of color vision stated that there are three color receptors on the retina, each sensitive to two complimentary colors, that can react in two opposing ways.
Mill, James (1773 - 1836)
British empiricist and proponent of utilitarianism who wrote one of the most complete summaries of associationism ever offered.
Hartley, David (1705 - 1757)
British empiricist who began the search for biological correlates of mental events.
Mill, John Stuart (1806 - 1873)
British empiricist who was instrumental in furthering the development of psychology as a science.
Bentham, Jeremy (1748 - 1832)
British empiricist who was the major spokesperson for utilitarianism.
Bain, Alexander (1818 - 1903)
British empiricist, known as the first full-fledged psychologist, who was the first to relate real biological facts to psychological events.
Hume, David (1711 - 1776)
British empiricist, the ultimate Skeptic, whose philosophy exemplifies associationism.
Darwin, Charles (1809 - 1882)
British naturalist who created the theory of evolution
Bell, Charles (1774 - 1842)
British physiologist, a co-discoverer of the distinction between sensory and motor nerves.
Malthus, Thomas (1766 - 1834)
British political economist who maintained that the world's human population grows faster than its food supply; a major influence on Darwin.
Burt, Cyril (1883 - 1971)
British psychologist who published research on identical twins indicating that intelligence is inherited; a scandal ensued concerning the authenticity of his data.
Spearman, Charles (1863 - 1945)
British psychologist who viewed intelligence as unitary and inherited; views came to be embraced by testing movement in the U.S.
Newton, Isaac (1642 - 1727)
British scientist who developed calculus, conducted pioneering work in optics, and formulated the universal law of gravitation; his conception of the universe prevailed in science for over two centuries.
Galton, Francis (1822 - 1911)
British scientist, the first to measure and catalogue individual differences among humans; known as the founder of eugenics.
Physiognomy
Character analysis by examining one's facial features, body structure, and habitual postures and movements
Adaptive features
Characteristics of an organism directly related to its survival and reproduction in a given environment.
Factor analysis
Complex statistical technique that calculates intercorrelations among several measures and determines the minimal number of underlying factors to account for them.
Paradox of the basins
Conceived by John Locke to illustrate secondary qualities; the same water may feel hot to one hand and cold to the other if previously the one hand was in cold water and the other hand in hot water.
Clever Hans phenomenon
Conscious or unconscious cuing by trainers to their animals giving the appearance the animals are performing high-level intellectual feats when in fact they are not.
Eidola
Copies of objects that ancient Greek philosophers believed were thrown off by those objects, which made it possible for people to see the objects.
Galen (ca. 130 - 200)
Created a set of personality characteristics to accompany each of Hippocrates' four humors: phlegm (phlegmatic) , blood (sanguine) , yellow bile (choleric) and black bile (melancholic).
Kierkegaard, Søren (1813 - 1855)
Danish philosopher, the first modern existentialist; he equated truth with subjectivity.
Nature-nurture controversy
Debate about the extent to which attributes are inherited or learned
Inductive definition
Defining a term by examining the specific concept instances and using these specific instances as the basis for formulating a general definition of the concept.
Coefficient of correlation (r)
Devised by Karl Pearson, a formula that expresses numerically the degree of relationship between two variables.
Spinoza, Baruch (1632 - 1677)
Dutch philosopher, a rationalist, who proposed double aspectism as the solution to the mind-body problem, embraced pantheism, and whose treatment of emotions represents a significant contribution to psychology.
Hobbes, Thomas (1588 - 1679)
English philosopher who is known as the founder of British empiricism.
Spencer, Herbert (1820 - 1903)
English philosopher who systematized and popularized evolutionary theory; advocated social Darwinism.
Locke, John (1632 - 1704)
English philosopher, a highly influential British empiricist who argued that all ideas come from experience.
Postdiction
Explaining a phenomenon subsequent to its occurrence.
Regression toward the mean
Extreme characteristics in parents tend to be less extreme in their offspring.
Ferrier, David (1843 - 1928)
Following up on the pioneering work of Fritsch and Hitzig, he mapped the motor and sensory regions of the brain by electrically stimulating the brain.
Innate ideas
For Descartes, natural parts of the mind that are so clear and distinct they must be accepted as true.
Intuition
For Descartes, the process of introspection with an unbiased and attentive mind that leads to innate ideas.
Primary qualities (Galileo)
For Galileo, features of physical objects that are capable of mathematical description, the basis for objective reality.
Secondary qualities (Galileo)
For Galileo, products of human consciousness that are incapable of mathematical description, the basis for subjective reality.
Sensation (Locke)
For John Locke, the mental experience that arises from stimulating one or more of the sense receptors; the primary source of all ideas.
Reflection (Locke)
For John Locke, the mind's innate ability for self-examination that generates new ideas from sensations.
Dionysian aspect of human nature
For Nietzsche, the irrational side of human nature, characterized by creative chaos, passion, and change.
Apollonian aspect of human nature
For Nietzsche, the rational side of human nature, characterized by tranquility, orderliness, and predictability.
Will to survive
For Schopenhauer, self-preservation by satisfying biological needs, the prime human motive.
Elements of thought
For Wundt, irreducible psychical events devoid of meaning; comprised of sensations and feelings.
Limen
For both Gotfried Leibniz and Johann Herbart, a threshold that separates contents of the unconscious mind from the conscious mind.
Eugenics
Founded by Francis Galton, a movement advocating the selective breeding of organisms to improve their species.
Act psychology
Founded by Franz Brentano in opposition to structuralism, a school of psychology that focuses on what the mind does rather than what is contained within it.
Flourens, Pierre (1794 - 1867)
French anatomist, an outspoken critic of phrenology, who concluded that the brain functions as a whole; known as a pioneer in the method of extirpation.
Lamarck, Jean (1744 - 1829)
French naturalist who proposed a mechanism known as the inheritance of acquired characteristics to account for the transformation of species over time.
Descartes, René (1596 - 1650)
French philosopher and mathematician, the father of modern philosophy, whose rationalistic, dualistic, and mechanistic views were to have a tremendous impact on psychology.
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques (1712 - 1778)
French philosopher known as the father of romanticism, who believed man is born good and corrupted by society and that the best society is one in which individuals surrender their private wills to the supreme direction of the general will.
Comte, Auguste (1798 - 1857)
French philosopher, known for founding positivism and coining the term sociology, who believed that science should concern itself only with publicly observable events.
Donders, Franciscus Cornelius (1818 - 1889)
French physician and physiologist, the founder of mental chronometry, who used reaction times to measure the durations of mental events.
Magendie, François (1783 - 1855)
French physiologist, a co-discoverer of the distinction between sensory and motor nerves.
Malebranche, Nicolas de (1638 - 1715)
French priest and philosopher, a proponent of the viewpoint that God mediates supposed mind and body interactions (occasionalism).
Binet, Alfred (1857 - 1911)
French psychologist who attempted to directly measure cognitive abilities; he devised a famous scale of intelligence.
Gassendi, Pierre (1592 - 1655)
French sensationalist philosopher and mathematician who hoped to replace the deductive and dualistic philosophy of Descartes with an empirical science based on induction and physical monism.
La Mettrie, Julien de (1709 - 1751)
French sensationalist philosopher and physician who argued that humans are machines and differ from other animals in degree but not in type.
Condillac, Étienne Bonnot de (1715 - 1780)
French sensationalist philosopher and priest who explained all human mental attributes as resulting from sensation.
Helvétius, Claude (1715 - 1771)
French sensationalist philosopher who explored the societal and educational implications of empiricism and sensationalism.
Broca, Paul (1824 - 1880)
French surgeon and anthropologist who discovered the brain location for speech.
Gall, Franz Joseph (1758 - 1828)
German anatomist and physician, considered the founder of phrenology.
Weber, Ernst Heinrich (1795 - 1878)
German anatomist and physiologist, responsible for the first demonstrations of a systematic relationship between physical stimulation and sensation.
Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm von (1646 - 1716)
German philosopher and mathematician, a rationalist, who proposed psychophysical parallelism as a solution to the mind-body problem and who introduced the concept of threshold into psychology.
Brentano, Franz Clemens (1838 - 1917)
German philosopher and psychologist, the founder of act psychology.
Vaihinger, Hans (1852 - 1933)
German philosopher who claimed that all we can know are sensations; while all other conclusions about physical reality are fictitious, they may be of great practical importance.
Kant, Immanuel (1724 - 1804)
German philosopher, a rationalist, who argued that subjective experience is always structured by categories of thought; he proposed the categorical imperative to guide moral conduct.
Herbart, Johann Friedrich (1776 - 1841)
German philosopher, a rationalist, who proposed a theory of mental mechanics to account for the workings of the mind; known as one of the first mathematical and educational psychologists.
Schopenhauer, Arthur (1788 - 1860)
German philosopher, a romantic, who considered the will to survive as the prime human motive.
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von (1749 - 1832)
German philosopher, a romantic, who viewed life as consisting of opposing forces that should be embraced rather than denied or overcome; he wrote Faust, one of the world's greatest literary achievements.
Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm (1844 - 1900)
German philosopher, an existentialist, who proclaimed "God is dead;" believed meaning and morality are matters of perspective, discovered only by supermen who exercise their will to power.
Husserl, Edmund (1859 - 1938)
German philosopher, the founder of phenomenology, who sought to understand the essence of subjective experience.
Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich (1770 - 1831)
German philosophy, a rationalist, who claimed that human history evolves toward The Absolute via a dialectic process.
Hitzig, Eduard (1838 - 1907)
German physician who, along with Fritsch, was the first to discover that the brain is sensitive to direct stimulation; demonstrated that electrically stimulating particular areas of the cortex elicit particular movements.
Fritsch, Gustav (1838 - 1927)
German physician who, along with Hitzig, was the first to discover that the brain is sensitive to direct stimulation; demonstrated that electrically stimulating particular areas of the cortex elicit particular movements.
Fechner, Gustav Theodor (1801 - 1887)
German physicist who founded psychophysics; he demonstrated a systematic relationship between physical stimulation and the subjective experience of it.
Wundt, Wilhelm Maximilian (1832 - 1920)
German physiologist credited with creating an independent science of psychology; viewed the subject matter of psychology as being human consciousness as it occurs.
Müller, Johannes (1801 - 1858)
German physiologist largely responsible for the doctrine of specific nerve energies.
Külpe, Oswald (1862 - 1915)
German psychologist and philosopher, founder of the Würzburg school, who studied higher mental processes via systematic experimental introspection.
Stern, William (1871 - 1938)
German psychologist who introduced the concepts of mental age and intelligence quotient.
Stumpf, Carl (1848 - 1936)
German psychologist who provided an alternative viewpoint to Wundt that was to become the foundation for Gestalt psychology; believed that mental events should be studied as intact, meaningful units.
Ebbinghaus, Hermann (1850 - 1909)
German psychologist, the first to conduct an experimental analysis of higher mental process, in particular, learning and memory.
Natural selection
Given a struggle for survival and individual differences, only organisms possessing adaptive features tend to survive and reproduce.
Parmenides (fl. 515 B.C.)
Greek philosopher who believed that the universe was unchanging; that change was illusory.
Plato (ca. 427 - 347 B.C.)
Greek philosopher who was originally a follower Socrates and later, the Pythagoreans.
Jesus (ca. 4 B.C.- A.D. 30)
His story illustrates the valuing of the spiritual world over the material world and provides the basis for the Christian religion.
Confirmable propositions
Hypotheses deduced from a scientific theory that are testable through experimentation.
Active reason
In Aristotle's system, active reason refers to the creation of new objects of thought.
Sensitive soul
In Aristotle's system, animals possessed a sensitive soul that permitted them to interact with nature and remember.
Dreaming
In Aristotle's system, dreams are a set of images that are acquired while people were awake and return in disorganized fashion during sleep.
Rational soul
In Aristotle's system, humans possess a rational soul that permitted them contemplate events in the world.
Passive reason
In Aristotle's system, passive reason refers to the use of previous experience or previously invented concepts in order to achieve some desired outcomes.
Efficient cause
In Aristotle's system, the efficient cause of something is what causes a thing to be constructed into the thing that it is.
Final cause
In Aristotle's system, the final cause of something is the purpose for which that thing was made.
Formal cause
In Aristotle's system, the formal cause of something is the form or shape of a substance.
Material cause
In Aristotle's system, the material cause of something is the substance the thing is made of.
Common sense
In Aristotle's theory, common sense is the human sense that integrates and interprets information from the five sensory systems of sight, smell, touch, taste and hearing.
Transmigration of the soul
In Dionysic-Orphic religion, the soul was thought to travel from heaven to plant and animal beings according to whether the soul had transgressed in some way or had been redeemed.
Survival of the fittest
In certain environments only individuals possessing certain traits stay alive to reproduce.
Teleology
In psychology, a doctrine that explains behavior in terms of purpose.
Nondeterminism
In psychology, the view that behavior is freely chosen.
Public observation
In science, the relationship between two or more classes of events must be observable for verification by any interested person.
Berkeley, George (1685 - 1753)
Irish bishop and philosopher, British empiricist who opposed materialism and argued that reality consists of our perceptions of it only.
Personal equations
Mathematical formulae that adjust for variations in reaction time between any two subjects.
St. Augustine (354 - 430)
One of the most influential Christian philosophers ever, he validated inner subjective experience as a means to know God, the ultimate knowledge.
Phenomenologist
One who studies intact conscious experience through introspection.
Mental chronometry
Originated by Donders and expanded by Wundt, the calculation of the duration of mental events based on reaction times.
Pure phenomenology
Originated by Husserl, the scientific study of immediate experience without regard to intention; the goal is to understand the essence of the experience.
Helmholtz, Hermann von (1821 - 1894)
Perhaps the greatest scientist of the 19th century, known in psychology for his work in nerve conduction, sensation, perception, color vision, and audition.
Humanism
Perspective that emphasizes the uniqueness and innate goodness of humans, as well as the ability of human to choose and strive for personal growth.
Secondary qualities (Locke)
Physical attributes emanating from an object that only fractionally stimulate us, resulting in ideas that do not match the attributes as they are in the object itself.
Primary qualities (Locke)
Physical attributes emanating from an object that result in ideas matching the attributes as they are in the object itself.
Theory of forms
Plato's theory of forms is that earthy objects have perfect ideal counterparts called ideal forms.
Nativist
Proponent of the view that emphasizes inheritance in explanations of human attributes.
Dualist
Proponent of the view that there are two fundamental kinds of things: mind and matter.
Monist
Proponent of the view that there is only one fundamental kind of thing.
Materialist
Proponent of the view that ultimately only matter exists.
Idealist
Proponent of the view that ultimately only minds exists.
Ontological argument for the existence of God
Proposed by St. Anselm, accepting of reification, it is representative of his attempt to provide a rational foundation for Christian faith.
Renaissance
Ranging from about the 14th to the 16th centuries, this period in European history was marked by a rebirth to open-minded inquiry and renewed creativity.
Deduction
Reasoning from the general to the particular.
Induction
Reasoning from the particular to the general.
Reductionism
Reductionism refers to the method in science of explaining something in one domain or field in terms of a different domain.
Scala naturae
Scala naturae means "ladder of life" or "chain of being". It refers to the notion that things on earth are arranged in a linear scale from simple to complex.
Reid, Thomas (1710 - 1796)
Scottish philosopher, a rationalist, known for his commonsense philosophy and his advocacy of direct realism and faculties of the mind.
Introspection (Plato)
Self-examination of one's thoughts, sensations, feelings and emotions.
Being
Something that is unchanging and thus, in principle, is capable of being known with certainty. Being implies stability and certainty; becoming implies instability and uncertainty
Thales (ca. 625 - 545 B.C.)
Thales, who was from Miletus in Asia Minor, is generally regarded as the first philosopher.
Puzzle solving
The activity of working toward an assured acceptable solution, as governed by a set of rules that limit the process; according to Thomas Kuhn, this is analogous to normal science.
Deism
The belief that God created the universe but does not intervene in it.
Relativism
The belief that because all experience must be filtered through individual and group perspectives, the search for universal truths that exist independently of human experience must be in vain. For the relativist, there is no one truth, only truths
Elementism
The belief that complex process are best understood by studying the elements of which they are comprised.
Universalism
The belief that there are universal truths about ourselves and about the physical world in general that can be discovered by anyone using the proper methods of inquiry.
Social Darwinism
The belief that to facilitate the advancement of human society governments should adopt a laissez-faire approach so that only the fittest survive.
Scientism
The belief, bordering on religion, that the only valid knowledge is scientific knowledge.
Formal discipline
The claim by some phrenologists that the faculties of the mind can be strengthened by practicing their corresponding traits.
Resonance place theory of auditory perception
The claim that each of the thousands of tiny fibers on the basilar membrane has its own specific nerve energy sensitive to a particular frequency of sound.
Young-Helmholtz theory of color vision
The claim that there are three separate color receptors on the retina corresponding to the three primary colors.
Savings
The difference between the time required to learn a task and the time required to relearn it.
Empirical observation
The direct observation of nature.
Cosmology
The discipline devoted to the study of the beginnings, nature and structure of the universe.
Occasionalism
The dualist position that claims apparent causal relations between mental events and physical events are mediated by God.
Preestablished harmony
The dualist position that claims mental events and physical events are independent, experienced simultaneously, and coordinated by an external agent.
Protagoras (ca. 485 - 415 B.C.)
The earliest and best-known of the Greek sophists.
Reification
The error of believing that anything with a name really exists.
Essence
The essential or defining features of a thing.
Inclusive fitness
The extent to which an organism perpetuates its genes; in addition to surviving and reproducing itself, can be accomplished by helping kin to survive and reproduce.
Fitness
The extent to which an organism possesses adaptive features.
Evolutionary psychology
The field that attempts to explain human social behaviors in terms of the perpetuation of one's genes.
Emperor Constantine (ca. 280 - 337)
The first Roman emperor to be converted to Christianity.
St. Paul (ca. A.D. 10 - 64)
The founder of Christianity whose writings were inspired by the Hebrew tradition and Greek philosophy.
Titchener, Edward Bradford (1867 - 1927)
The founder of the school of structuralism; he sought to describe (rather than explain) the what, how, and why of mental life.
Hedonism
The highest form of good is pleasure.
Animism (Greeks)
The idea that inanimate objects in nature are living beings.
Nihilism
The idea that knowledge and truth are impossible to obtain.
Entelechy
The inherent purpose that each thing in the universe has and which keeps moving the thing to achieve its full potential.
Phenomenological introspection
The inner perception of intact, meaningful experience.
Absolute threshold
The lowest intensity at which a stimulus can be detected.
Differential threshold
The minimal amount of change in a stimulus that can be detected.
Weber's law
The minimal change in a stimulus that can be detected is a constant fraction of that stimulus.
Two-point threshold
The minimal spatial distance at which two points of touch on the body produce two distinct sensations.
Voluntarism
The name used by Wundt to designate his school of psychology; stems from the belief that the will is at the heart of all major problems in psychology.
Zeno's paradox
The notion that an object in motion from point A to point B must go half the distance from A to B first, then half the remaining distance, then half the remaining distance, etc. into infinity. Because half the distance must be traveled an infinite number of times, Zeno concluded that the object in motion from A to B could not logically reach point B. The same basic argument can be used to prove that one runner can never catch up to a slower runner who is ahead due to the same reason: the runner must travel half the distance she is behind an infinite number of times. The paradox was never resolved in ancient times.
Empiricism
The notion that knowledge should be acquired through careful observation of perceivable events or phenomena
Solipsism
The notion that our subjective consciousness is the only form of reality that exists and that can be known to us.
Anthropomorphism
The practice of assigning human feelings and characteristics to animals and other non-human things.
Olympian religion
The religion, based on Homer's works, in which the gods lived on Mt. Olympus
Reminiscence theory of knowledge
The reminiscence theory of knowledge refers to Plato's idea that the soul carries within it learning and to expand one's knowledge one has only to remember that which is in the soul.
Kinesthesis
The sensations caused by muscle movement.
Broca's area
The speech center of the brain, located at the third frontal convolution of the left cerebral hemisphere.
Zeitgeist
The spirit or intellectual climate of the time.
Epistemology
The study of knowledge.
Psychophysics
The study of relationships between physical events and mental events.
Heliocentric theory
The theory, proposed by Copernicus, that planets, including the earth, revolve around the sun.
Geocentric theory
The theory, proposed by Ptolemy, that the sun and the planets revolve around the earth.
Reaction time
The time intervening between a stimulus presentation and a response to it.
Principle of conservation of energy
The total amount of energy within an isolated system is constant; first applied to living organisms by Helmholtz.
Mental age
The typical chronological age of children who perform at a given level on intelligence tests
Pantheism
The view that God exists everywhere and in everything.
Determinism
The view that all events are caused.
Panpsychism
The view that all physical things are conscious.
Environmental determinism
The view that behavior is primarily caused by environmental factors.
Sociocultural determinism
The view that behavior is primarily caused by social or cultural factors.
Biological determinism
The view that behavior is primarily caused by the biological factors.
Occam's razor
The view that extraneous assumptions should be "shaved" from explanations and arguments.
Associationism
The view that higher mental processes result from combinations of sensory and/or mental elements.
Rationalism
The view that knowledge is acquired only by employing mental operations or principles.
Empiricism (Hergenhahn)
The view that knowledge is acquired only by sensory experience.
Mechanism
The view that living things can be understood in terms of machines.
Naïve realism
The view that mental experience is an accurate and immediate reflection of what is physically present.
Utilitarianism
The view that morality is derived from the consequences of actions for human well being; moral actions bring the greatest happiness to the greatest number of people.
Nominalism
The view that so-called universals have no existence apart from the individual instances that instantiate them.
Indeterminism
The view that the causes of an event cannot be accurately measured.
Physical determinism
The view that the causes of behavior are directly measurable.
Psychical determinism
The view that the causes of behavior are subjective.
Faculty psychology
The view that the mind is best described in terms of mental abilities.
Vitalism
The view that there is a special force that distinguishes living things from inanimate objects.
Realism
The view that universals have a real, independent existence apart from the individual instances that instantiate them.
Perspectivism
The view that what is truthful or valuable depends upon one's perspective; a famous proponent is Friedrich Nietzsche.
Bell-Magendie law
There are two types of nerve fibers: sensory and motor.
Analogy of the divided line
This is an analogy that Plato uses to distinguish among different forms of knowledge and truth. Plato's basic division is between what is visible and what is intelligible (i.e., knowable, but not seen), with the visible portion smaller than the intelligible portion. The visible portion of knowledge is further divided. At the lowest end of the visible are mere images of objects, but above this is understanding of visible objects. Above this in turn is knowledge of abstract mathematical principles, then knowledge of forms. At this highest level is knowledge of good as a form and knowledge of the forms and how they are organized. Understanding the analogy of the divided line requires an understanding of Plato's theory of forms and his allegory of the cave.
Eclectic approach
This is an approach to history taken by Hergenhahn (2000) that combines the Zeitgeist, the great-person, and the historical development approaches to writing history.
Völkerpsychologie
Translated as "cultural" or "ethnic" psychology, a 10-volume work by Wundt that employed historical analysis to understand higher mental processes.
Correlation
Variations in one variable are accompanied by orderly variations in another; first explicated by Francis Galton.
Great-person approach
Writing history by emphasizing the works of certain extraordinary individuals.
Historical development approach
Writing history by focusing on an idea or concept and tracing its development in terms of selected key individuals and events.
Xenophanes (ca. 560 - 478 B.C.)
Xenophanes, a Greek philosopher and poet, founded the Eleatic school of philosophy.