Traditions

Phrenology

An early form of psychological testing, involved the practice of assessing personality by reading bumps or variations in the skull-Psychometric Tradition

Binet

Developed a battery of tests to assess mental processes in children: administered tests to large numbers to develop norms- psychometric tradition

Goddard, Terman, Catell

Helped to popularize binet-style tests in the United States; founded a psychology laboratory in the United States that emphasized measurement - psychometric traditon

The Empirical Tradition

Historians typically mark the beginning of modern psychology as 1879, the year that Wilhelm Wundt established the first laboratory devoted to studying mental processes in Leipzig, Germany. Wundt was convinced that psychology like biology physics and other sciences should seek knowledge through the application of empirical research methods. He and others who came after him were determined to study human behavoir by employing the two most powerful tools of science: observation and experimentation.

The clinical tradtion

The earliest explanations of disordered behavior involved magical forces and supernatural agents, persons who acted crazy were said to be possessed by demons or spirits and treatment involved various forms of exorcism(trephining, boring small holes in the skull to provide evil spirits with an exit)

Charles Darwin

"origin of species": Published in 1859: 1)variation of individual characteristics occurs within and between species (including humans) 2) natural selection takes palce in part on the basis of those characteristics- The psychometric Tradition

The employment of clinical psychologists in mental hospitals had what important effects?

1) widened psychologists spear of influence as they contributed to the assessment of persons with psychological problems and more tests were developed 2) It promoted interaction between psychologists and psychiatrists. Common interests would influence each other and this would lead to the birth of clinical psychology -psychometric tradition

Psychology was involved in measuring individual differences in mental functioning and it hosted what two overlapping approaches to the task?

1)the Galton- Cattell sensorimotor tests, aimed at assessing inherited, relatively fixed mental structures 2)the instruments of Binet and others, which emphasized complex mental structures that could be taught to some degree

Freud

Advanced psychoanalytical view of personality and psychotherapy in numerous writings: his approach came to dominate psychiatry and clinical psychology in the United States during the first half of the 20th century -clinical tradition

Kraepelin, Charcot, Janet, Hall

Classified psychologists disorders; studied and treated patients with atypical neurological symptoms; used case studies of pathology to reveal general principles about healthy and unhealthy workings of the mind -clinical tradition

Bessell, Gall, Galton

Noted individual differences in recording observation measured physical and physiological reaction to asses personality and mental functioning - psychometric tradition

Lightner Witmer

One of Wundts students, finished his doctorate in 1892 and was appointed director of he university of Pennsylvania psychology laboratory. Became the worlds first clinical psychologist and established the first psychological clinic. His first case was Charles Gilman who was a "chronic bad speller". Witmer diagnosed him with what would be known as a reading disorder today. -Empirical Tradition

The psychometric Tradition

Practice of measuring peoples physical and mental abilities. Because clinical psychology deal with the individual, it could not appear as a discipline until differences among human beings were identified and systematically measured.

James

Psychologist/physician who participated in both empirical and clinical traditions; introduced European psychology and psychiatry to U.S. audiences; wrote the principles of psychology, which some still regard as the most influential psychology book ever written - clinical tradition

Muller, Helmholtz, Weber, Fechner

Studies sensory discrimination and perception; explored and measured nerve impulses; sought explanations of mental events in terms of physical processes- Empirical Tradition