history & theory (PSY 4391) exam 2

Wundt noted that our reaction speed was

a) 1/10th of a second

b) was completely

c) Unknowable

d) 1/100th of a second

a) 1/10th of a second

For Titchener, the ________ of psychology involved a search for the neurological correlates of mental events

a) when

b) how

c) what

d) why

d) why

Titchener defined ___________ as the sum total of mental experience at any given moment.

a) general impression

b) the mind

c) the apperceptive mass

d) the consciousness

d) the consciousness

To study the higher mental processes, Wundt believed that we must use _________.

a) controlled experimentation

b) pure introspection

c) immediate analysis

d) naturalistic observation of various forms

d) naturalistic observation of various forms

True or False:

The Principle toward the Development of Opposites is defined as: after a prolonged experience of one sort, there is a higher chance for the individual to seek the opposite experience.

True

According to Titchener, all feelings can be explained by employing the dimension of:

a) excitement--calm

b) tension--relaxation

c) pleasantness--unpleasantness

d) joy--sadness

c) pleasantness--unpleasantness

Because Wundt believed that individuals could direct their attention anywhere they wished, he referred to his brand of psychology as:

a) functionalism

b) bold and creative

c) structuralism

d) voluntarism

d) voluntarism

According to Wundt, sciences like physics were based on ________ experience, whereas psychology should be based on ________ experience.

a) immediate; mediate

b) sensory; physiological

c) mediate; immediate

d) sensory; emotional

c) mediate; immediate

True or False:

Titchener had more simple instructions for his subjects than did Wundt.

False

According to Wundt, empiricism lacked an appreciation of:

a) the laws of association

b) free will

c) innate ideas

d) secondary qualities

b) free will

Unlike perception, which is, ____ apperception (selective attention) is _____.

a) explicit; implicit

b) conscious; unconscious

c) creative and artistic; memorized

d) passive and automatic; active and voluntary

d) passive and automatic; active and voluntary

What provided Darwin with the principle he needed to tie his many observations together?

a) Spencer's Principles of Psychology

b) Malthus' Essay on the Principle of Population

c) Wundt's volkerpsychologie

d) Lyell's Principles of Geology

b) Malthus' Essay on the Principle of Population

Who coined the term "survival of the fittest"?

a ) Erasmus Darwin

b) Lamarck

c) Charles Darwin

d) Spencer

d) Spencer

According to the Spencer-Bain principle, ________.

a) smaller populations are more exposed to evolutionary pressures

b) the probability of a behavior is increased if it is followed with a pleasurable outcome and decreased if it is followed by painful outcome

c) intelligence comes from sensory acuity

d) the organisms with the best adapted features will be more likely to survive and reproduce

b) the probability of a behavior is increased if it is followed with a pleasurable outcome and decreased if it is followed by painful outcome

According to Spencer, the best government is one that:

a) protects the weak with effective policies.

b) is elected by a majority of reasonable people.

c) allows free competition among all its citizens

d) protects people from their own animal instincts.

c) allows free competition among all its citizens

True or False:

Charles Darwin was a successful student and that is what afforded him the opportunity to voyage on the Beagle.

False

According to Lamarck, if an adult member of species develops a trait, such as powerful leg muscles, that make its survival more likely, the trait can be passed down to the adult's offspring. This phenomenon is called:

a) inheritance of acquired characteristics.

b) survival of the weakest

c) law of effect

d) artificial selection

a) inheritance of acquired characteristics.

One of the earliest conflicts Darwin had with organized religion was over:

a) his study of animals

b) his refusal to be a church member

c) the age of the earth

d) the definition of weather patterns

c) the age of the earth

Who formulated a theory of evolution similar to Darwin's at about the same time that Darwin formulated his own theory?

a) Malthus

b) Lamarck

c) Spencer

d) Wallace

d) Wallace

True or False:

Strength and aggression are seen as necessary traits for evolutionary success.

False

What term did Galton use for the improvement of living organisms through selective breeding?

a) Anthropometry

b) Eugenics

c) Sociobiology

d) Phrenology

b) Eugenics

School of Psychology

a major theory or perspective within the field of psychology

Who created voluntarism?

Wilhelm Wundt

voluntarism

The name given to Wundt's school of psychology because of his belief that, through the process of apperception, individuals could direct their attention toward whatever they wished.

What was the first school of psychology?

Voluntarism

Who was the first experimental psychologist?

Wilhelm Wundt

What was Wundt's goal?

to analyse the nature of human consciousness by understanding simple and complex mental processes

Wundt categorized simple conscious phenomena as

basic processes of the mind, like memory

Wundt categorized complex conscious phenomena as

higher mental processes, such as mental illness

True or False: Wundt opposed materialism.

True

Wundt believed that ________ mental processes could be observed by experimentation, but not __________ mental processes.

simple; complex

What are the two types of experience that Wundt believed in?

1) Mediate experience

2) Immediate experience

Mediate experience

Experience that is provided by various measuring devices and is therefore not immediate, direct experience. (natural sciences)

Immediate experience

Direct subjective experience as it occurs - senses

What were Wundt's goals for experimental psychology?

1) Discover the elements of thought

2) Discover the laws by which mental elements combine into more complex mental experiences

Elements of thought

According to Wundt and Titchener, the basic sensations from which more complex thoughts are derived.

What methodologies did Wundt employ?

Introspection

Wundt's two types of introspection

1) Pure introspection

2) Experimental introspection

Pure introspection

unstructured self-observation

Experimental introspection

Use of laboratory instruments to vary the conditions and make the results of internal perception more precise

- ex: Wundt's reaction time measurements, yes or no answers

What introspection did Wundt prefer to use?

Experimental

What did Wundt believe were the two basic types of mental experience?

1) Sensation

2) Feelings

Sensation

stimulation of sense organs

- Includes modality (and qualities within this) and intensity

Feelings

The basic elements of emotion that accompany each sensation. Wundt believed that emotions consist of various combinations of elemental feelings.

Wundt's Tridimensional theory of feeling

1) pleasantness / unpleasantness

2) excitement / calm

3) strain / relaxation

Wundt believed that sensations and feelings are experienced together, which then causes _________ to occur.

perception

Creative synthesis

The arrangement and rearrangement of mental elements that can result from apperception.

- Adds will to the equation of Mill's mental chemistry

Wundt's Mental Chronometry

reaction time studies, using Donders's techniques

Why did Wundt abandon his reaction-time studies?

Reaction time varied too much

**Heraclitus

Psychological vs. physical causality

Physical causality: Cause and effect can be supported

Psychological correlation does not equal causation because people are unpredictable

What are the three principles in psychological causation?

1) Principle of heterogony of ends

2) Principle of contrasts

3) Principle toward the development of opposites

Principle of the heterogony of ends

All actions have unintended consequences - Something unexpected almost always happens that, in turn, changes one's entire motivational pattern

- "no good deed goes unpunished"

Principle of contrasts

Opposite experiences intensify one another

- When you experience pain, happiness then feels heightened

Principle toward the development of opposites

After a prolonged experience of one type there is an increased tendency to seek the opposite type of experience

- ex: when parents are too strict, kids want to act out

Who created structuralism?

Edward Titchener

Who did Titchener study under?

Wundt

What was Titchener's personality?

Very abrasive, hated when people disagreed with him. However, he was not narrow-minded at all

How did Titchener view female psychologists?

He excluded the, from his organization, the Experimentalists, but often championed many women who he saw as brilliant. Exclusion likely due to the culture of the time

What were Structuralism's goals?

Determination of the what, how and why of mental life

"What" of mental life

Learned through introspection, the basic mental elements of conscious experience (like elements of thought, but less restrained than Wundt)

"How" of mental life

How the elements (of thought) combine

"Why" of mental life

Neurological correlates of mental illness

Wundt sought to ________ conscious experience while Titchener only sought to __________ mental experience.

explain; describe

Titchener thought that _________ introspection could be observed and experimented on

pure

Through introspection, Titchener hoped to observe

sensations, not perceptions

What are criticisms of Titchener's goal of experimenting using pure introspection?

It cannot be measured

What did Titchener believe were the mental elements?

1) Sensations

2) Images

3) Affections

Affections

emotions

Did Titchener agree with Wundt's tridimensional theory of emotion?

No, believed emotions had one direction: pleasantness-unpleasantness

Law of Combination

basic elements combine based on traditional associationism to form complex ideas - rejected creative synthesis

What basic law of association did Titchener use to explain his law of Combination?

Law of contiguity

Titchener's context theory of meaning

sensation is given meaning by the images it illicits

Neurological correlates of Mental Events

- physiological processes give psychological processes continuity

- Nervous system does not cause mental events, though can be used to explain some of their characteristics.

What caused the decline of structuralism?

- People recognized that introspection was hard to measure, therefore inviable

- Lack of practical applications to people in general/mental health

- Development of behaviorsm

Who coined the theory of inheritance of acquired characteristics?

Jean-Baptiste Lamarck

Theory of inheritance of acquired characteristics

physical changes caused by an organism's environment can be passed on to offspring

Herbert Spencer

Believed evolution should be applied to everything in the universe, including the human mind and societies, striving for *perfection*

Spencer-Bain Principle

behavior resulting in pleasurable consequences tends to be repeated and behavior resulting in painful consequences tends not to be.

- behavior and hedonism, law of contiguity

Did Herbert Spencer have similar or different ideas to Lamarck?

Different - thought that systems become more complex over time

Who created the theory of Social Darwinism?

Herbert Spencer

Social Darwinism

The belief that only the fittest survive in human political and economic struggle.

What was the expedition Darwin went on called?

The voyage of the Beagle

What was the goal of the Beagle voyage?

Collect scientific facts to support the Biblical account of the creation

Was Darwin a good student?

No

Which economist was Darwin inspired by?

Thomas Malthus, Essays on the Principles of Population

What did Darwin's theory argue?

That natural events determine what organisms survive

Darwin's theories were similar to which other theorist?

Alfred Wallace

What postulates did Darwin believe caused natural selection to occur?

1) Variability

2) Not enough resources for everyone to survive

3) Survival of the fittest

Fitness

Ability of an organism to survive and reproduce in its environment

Did Darwin believe variations were on purpose or accidental?

Accidental, just based on random genetics

How did Darwin explain human emotion as a result of evolution?

Animal emotions are remnants of animal emotions and had once been necessary for survival

How does Darwin's theory of evolution affect us still today?

- Modern comparative & developmental psychology

- Played a role in functionalism

Who was Sir Francis Galton related to?

Darwin - was his cousin

What were all of Galton's "firsts"?

1) First to study nature-nurture question

2) First to use a questionnaire in research

3) First to use word-association (projective) tests

4) First to conduct twin studies

5) First to study imagery

6) First to develop correlational techniques

- Also invented the weather map and consider fingerprints as identification

At first (before his questionnaire) did Galton believe intelligence was nature or nurture?

nature, inherited

What was Galton widely known for?

His stance on intelligence and eugenics

What did Galton's questionnaire study?

the nature-nurture controversy

Galton's studies of mental imagery

Noticed everyone imagines things differently

Anthropometry

the scientific study of the measurements and proportions of the human body.

Why did Galton study anthropometry?

believed sensory acuity was related to intelligence