Historical Roots of Psychology Exam 1

Name two English words that are sometimes synonyms of the Greek word psyche. (short essay)

Soul or spirit.

According to Plato’s Phaedrus, what are three types of souls that each person has? What faculties are associated with each of these three types of the soul

The rational soul (logos) which is the most important type. It controls reason and thought, therefore it is located in the head.

Spirited Soul (Thymos): It must submit to the rational soul, controls emotion and is located in the chest.

Appetitive Soul (Pathos) it submits to the rational soul, controls appetites and desires (think Freud’s ID) and it is located in the abdomen.

Using examples from the “Search for the Soul” lectures, how did ancient science differ from modern science?

The idea of the four humors and how they were tied to the four elements within our bodies.

Also, after the fall of Rome, the exploration of science through experimentation was limited and or non existence.

The heart is centrally located but the brain isn’t and there’s already the idea that other cultures believed that the heart was where the soul was. The “soul” of course, being our mind and thoughts.

Provide two pieces of evidence for the claim that the heart is the location of the organ that generates the mind/thoughts.

What evidence is there that the ventricles are the location of the organ that generates the mind/thoughts?

The clergy believed that the brain was too “common” to act as a go-between for the body and the immaterial soul, however the fluid part of the brain was clean enough and so that became the material connection.

Describe the doctrine and history of ventriclecentrism.

It starts with Galen who described four ventricles, however the church got ahold of this information and collapsed the two last ventricles into one creating three ventricles instead of four (possibly because of the holy trinity) this idea would be believed for nearly 1200 years starting in the 4th-5th centuries of England.

The clergy believed that the brain was too “common” to act as a go-between for the body and the immaterial soul, however the fluid part of the brain was clean enough and so that became the material connection.

How it worked: Breath would enter the body through “hollow” tubes (aka nerves) it would then interact with the spirit of the ventricles and travel outward the same way to affect the body.

1st ventricle: Sensation, common sense, fantasy and imagination

2nd ventricle: The ability to think and cast judgement

3rd ventricle: The home of memory

What evidence is there that the rete mirabile is the location of the organ that generates the mind/thoughts?

The rete mirabile covers all four ventricles in their linings so it stands to reason that if the four ventricles are where the various souls are then so is the rete mirabile.

This was, of course, until it became public knowledge that humans did not have a rete mirabile and that Galen had never autopsied humans, rather a specific kind of monkey and various other animals.

Historically when did/didn’t researchers have access to cadavers (looking for historical eras, not specific dates)? How did access to cadavers influence the search to find the human soul?

The Greeks weren’t exactly fans of dissection, however they still had hospitals on nearby conquered lands around 300BCE. This research would then be kept in libraries such as Alexandria, considered to be the “intellectual center of the Helenistic world”

Having access to cadavers, as well as some still living animals (vivisection) allowed for cross species examinations where the understanding of how humans were different then animals was brought into understanding. Thus, trying to find real concrete proof of the human soul and Galen come into play not too long from now.

What evidence is there that the brain is the location of the organ that generates the mind/thoughts?

Damage to the brain seems to be related to changes in a person’s mind and behavior; and the belief that brain size and wrinkleless is correlated with intelligence

Describe the method and results of MacDougall (1907)

MacDougall believed he could find the weight of the human soul by marking the weights of people before and after they died.

He got six patients, and when they appeared to be close to death he moved them and the bed they were on onto an industrialized scale and did just that.

The results: one patient lost weight just after dying and appeared to keep losing weight. One patient lost exactly 21.3 grams; he neglected to publish the numbers for the other deaths.

Claimed that the human soul weighed exactly 21.3 grams.

Provide 2 criticisms of MacDougall (1907). What is
your own personal feeling about the study?

Criticism: Only used data from six subjects and data from only one subject was taken as God-given law, whereas data from the other five people was ignored.

Personal feeling: The idea that you could weigh the human soul after thousands of years of arguing is ridiculous. If it was just as simple as weighing someone before and after they died, I am sure it would’ve been done before 1907.

1: The brain by itself doesn’t equal consciousness or mind, one needs to add electricity in order for that to work.

2: There was this belief that electricity was a fluid that moved through the brain to then let the brain interact with the world.

3. Spawned what we now know as Monism.

What is the doctrine of fluid materialism? (hint: I am looking for 3 things)

One wouldn’t have been able to find writing in printed college lectures or nonfiction books due to the aristocracy being against fluid materialism (as the fluid materialists often supported the argument of nurture over nature) and nonfiction books needed to be vetted by the government.

So in order to find anything on arguments for fluid materialism it needed to be found in fiction books or in the footnotes of poetry, as those works didn’t need to be vetted.

If a historian were to dig around in old libraries, where would they found writing promoting fluid materialism? Where wouldn’t they be able to find writing promoting fluid materialism?

Why did governments suppress fluid materialism? Until approximately what date did European government suppress fluid materialism?

Fluid materialism went against the church, arguing that the only thing we needed was some flesh and electricity to have a soul. That we formed a soul, and there isn’t anything supernatural or religious about it.

Many fluid materialists were also in the argument of nurture over nature, and considering that the aristocracy claimed that they were simply born better than the other classes, it would stand to reason that they weren’t exactly in favor of the idea of nurture over nature.

This suppression continued until 1852, where prior to this year nonfiction and lectures needed to be vetted by the government.

What are the two types of monism, and which one is most closely related to fluid materialism?

Definition: The idea that humans are made up of one kind of stuff.

One type, Physicalism (materialism): Only physical matter exists — This of course, would be the one most closely related to fluid materialism.

The other type Idealism (phenomenalism): The idea that only the mind exists.

Define classic dualism, Descartes’ neo-dualism (aka Cartesian dualism) and monism (AKA fluid
materialism). Compare and contrast these three things.

Monism: Came after both Cartesian and classic dualism, is the idea that humans are made up of only one thing. There are two different types, claiming that humans are only made out of physical matter or that only the mind exists. —— Note: This is different then dualism, who, either Cartesian or classic, believed in two things working together to make the human being.

Cartesian Dualism: the mind was supernatural which controls thoughts, decisions, and some movement (i.e. prayer) through the pineal gland and the natural body controls things we cannot live without eating, drinking, eating etc. —— Note: Neither classical dualism and monism claims that the sensations are sent to and from this specific part of the brain.

Classic Dualism: The mind was supernatural controlling thoughts, decisions, movement, prayer etc even things as simple as eating and drinking. The body then sends back sensation and perception were sent back to the supernatural mind.

In terms of humans vs. animals (souls & bodies), how did Darwin’s ideas differ from those of Descartes?

Erasmus Darwin promoted fluid materialism and believed that there was no soul after death, it dies with you.

Whereas Descartes believed that we had a soul (mind) that was separate than the natural body and the soul continued after death.

What is empiricism? Who are the empiricists? How is empiricism related to early experimental psychology?

Definition: Deals with how the mind acquires knowledge. The idea that information isn’t innate but comes from experience with the senses. This sparks the whole “blank slate” idea that Locke leans so heavily on.

Other empiricists include: Berkley, Hume, Hartley and Mill (a father son duo).

How did Descartes’ ideas influence psychology?

While Descartes’ wasn’t the first to suggest that the mind and the body were different, he was the first to suggest that the mind controlled more advanced thinking even though thoughts were immaterial and however the basic things, such as eating or going to the bathroom, required no moral dilemma.

As well as his “I think therefore I am” phrase.

What is reductionism? Name two scientific fields that have benefited from reductionism.

Reductionism is the way in which a system operates and how it can be discovered by reducing a system down to its basic components: atoms and molecules.

Two scientific fields that have benefited from this idea: Physics and molecular biology.

What are automata? How are automata relevant to human understanding of the mind and body?

Definition: Mechanical devices that could mimic human or animal behavior (could be programmed to play certain songs, and now there are automata that look like headless dogs). This then brought into the question, well are we not just meat-lined machines?

Describe Descartes’ view of the mind/body relationship. What stuff was the mind made of? What stuff was the body made of? How could the mind and body communicate with each other? What impact did Descartes’ ideas have on the formation of psychology?

Descartes believed that the mind and soul were nonmaterial and that the mind/soul gets sensation from the body and the muscles in order to do things of moral standing (such as praying as he also believed that the mind and soul were based on authority, such as the Bible). He believed that this communication would happen in the pineal gland, as it was in the exact center of the brain, was a unitary structure and was located in a ventricle.

Believing that the mind was supernatural, controlling thoughts and decisions as well as “advanced” movement that you would only see in humans (like prayer as mentioned earlier). While the body was natural that controlled basic things in practically all life such as eating and bowel movements.

This plus his idea of “I think therefore I am” helped spark interest in psychology in two hundred years time.