conceptual and historical psychology

What did the Greeks believe about the constructs of psychology?

different parts of the soul that had different psychological functions. Not everyone had all these aspects. These constructs were;
The Psyche - the image of the dead or spirit double. No intellectual or vital capacity. Not seen as a thinking, living, functioning thing. Menos - shared by all living things, vitality, source of actions, metabolism. Shared between animals and humans. Basic physiological functions.
Thymos - the source of feelings, emotions, goals and hopes.
Noos - a higher intellectual function. Originally assumed not to be possessed by women.

What are some examples of scientific thought that emerged in Ancient Greece?

Critical thinking (Thales). Popper sees Thales as one of the first scientists.
Naturalism (Thales). Looking to the world rather than the supernatural for explanations.
Empiricism (Hercalitus). Importance of senses in obtaining knowledge.
Rationalism (Parmenides). Knowledge is obtained from reason rather than experience.
Materialism (Democritus). There is only matter that behaves in a lawful fashion.
Determinism (Democritus). If things behave in a lawful fashion we don't have free will.

What was one of the earliest theories of personality?

4 humours theory core elements underlying all physical matter in the universe. Fire, water, earth and air make up the four classical elements. Using these elements, 4 types of personality were developed.
Sanguine - extroverted, impulsive
Choleric - courageous, hopeful
Melancholy - neurotic, conscientious Phlegmatic - introverted, calm

What was Socrates' key question?

what are virtues? Virtues refer to traits we see as morally good. Such as justice, courage, beauty, goodness, etc.
Socrates would interrogate experts to draw out their false conceptions about virtues which he felt would make people more aware of their knowledge and therefore more virtuous
Socrates didn't claim to know the answers to these questions but he lived in a state of enlightened ignorance - aporia. Believed most people leaned more towards being morally good.

What were Plato's forms?

behind our physical world, which is unreliable and ever-changing, there is a world of Forms. Every object has a Form. This is the idealised version of this object. The perfect version of it. We can picture or understand the concept of Forms despite not having physically seen it Because of this Plato argued that knowledge gained through thought was superior to knowledge gained via our senses. This supports the idea of rationalism over empiricism.

How did Aristotle's view differ from Plato's?

Rejected Plato's idea that the forms have a separate existence Aristotle argued that you can't separate the matter of an object from its form. The matter refers to the material something is made from while the form is the shape it takes, what it actually is. The two can't be pulled apart. A form is defined by its causes
Material - what something is made from
Essential - what it actually is
Efficient - how it came to be
Final - the purpose for which it exists

What were Plato's ideas about the soul?

rejected the idea that the soul and body were separate. He argued that the soul is the form of the natural body. A body without a soul is dead and a soul doesn't exist without a body. 3 types of souls according to Aristotle.
Nutritive - possessed by plants
Sensitive - possessed by animals
Rational - possessed by humans

What were St. Augustine's key ideas?

St. Augustine held the belief that one's life is predestined. Argued that we are all born with original sin which makes human moral behaviour nearly impossible. In contrast to Socrates, believed that all humans were inherently evil due to original sin also argued against solipsism (this is the idea that you can't prove anything except your own mind exists). Argued that if there are other bodies that appear to behave and feel as I do, then it is reasonable to infer they have similar mental lives - this is a form of inductive reasoning. Agreed with Plato that perception is not the source of truth

What were Avicenna's key ideas?

scholar in the Islamic Golden Age. Was a physician. Extended and applied Aristotle's psychology, he was broadly an empiricist. Argues we start gaining experiential evidence from our senses and use this to develop abstract concepts. We build on this using logic and reason. However, some things in the world, like God, are pure reason.

What were Thomas Aquinas key ideas?

introduced an Aristotelian outlook into Christian theodicy. Aquinas' cosmological argument states that some things move/change. However, a thing cannot move itself, it needs a mover. If you trace every change back through its causes there must have been the first cause. This is God.

What did Thomas Aquinas argue about knowledge?

humans have a natural desire for knowledge. We have no innate ideas, but knowledge comes from experience and reason. Argued knowledge of God cannot be gained through introspection or reason alone. Like all knowledge, it comes from senses and reason. However, some things remain forever beyond the reach of reason

What did Thomas Aquinas argue about the soul?

didn't see the body as a cage or tomb for the soul, rather the person is a whole (a mind and a body). The soul is created new by God with each person and the whole soul is present in the whole body. The soul is immortal while the body is not. However, the body is the natural place for the soul.

What is the mind-body problem?

focuses on what the relationship is between the mind and the brain (the body or the physical). People have known that the brain and the mind are intimately connected for many years but psychological theories concern how they are connected.

What is dualism?

Dualism argues that the mental and physical are different, distinct substance. This theory believes that the soul is eternal but the body is material and destructible. Dualism believes (to an extent) that there is a material world made up of atoms which have properties of extension in space and physical location. The body is in this world. There is also a subjective world made up of consciousness and mind. This may be spiritual and God and the soul don't have any physical properties.

What was Descartes's key argument?

Rene Descartes was the first modern dualist. Descartes produced answers through the Method of Doubt. A form of methodological scepticism where you doubt everything. Helps to distinguish true claims from false claims. Descartes argues that the one thing we cannot doubt is our existence of ourselves. "I think, therefore I am"

What is substance dualism?

Argues that we can doubt the existence of our bodies but not our minds. Therefore they have different properties and must be different. He also argued that the mind was uniquely human. There are uniquely human attributes such as reasoning, language, and maths, that a machine couldn't do. A machine could only perform the functions of an animal.

What are the criticisms of dualism?

It fails to explain how our minds and bodies interact. Descartes responds to this by arguing that the mind controls and receives information from the body via the pineal gland Another problem is that since this theory, we now have computers that can do things Descartes argued were uniquely human functions. It is hard to conclude that other animals are completely absent of consciousness.

What is epiphenomenalism?

a theory that argues brain states cause mind states but they do not have any effects on themselves.

What is occasionalism?

argued that mental and physical don't causally affect each other. God intervenes with each apparent interaction.

What is parallelism?

Parallelism argues that God doesn't interact at each step but established two parallel tracks, like 2 clocks.

What is idealism?

theory most commonly proposed by Bishop George Berkeley. It argues that there is only mental stuff, no material. It rejects the idea of mind-independent reality, all ideas are built from perceptions. "To see is to be perceived" - things don't exist unperceived.

What is materialism?

argues that everything is physical matter. We can reduce the mental level by level to a physical substance. Thomas Hobbs was a key materialist thinker who rejected the idea of a mental substance. Argued people operate under material laws. Our actions, thoughts and feelings are determined. Jean Offray de la Mettri is another materialist thinker who rejected the idea of the soul and stated humans are the same as Descartes' concept of other animals.

What is epistemology?

focuses on thought and where it comes from. It can broadly be divided into rationalism vs. empiricism.

What is rationalism?

Acquire knowledge from birth, God or from reason. Knowledge is either innate or derived from reasoning about the world. Focused on the idea that God implanted certain ideas or information in you. This is where the basis of knowledge comes from and the following knowledge comes from thought, logic and reasoning.

What is empiricism?

Acquire knowledge from experience and our senses.

What is descriptive knowledge?

Where knowledge comes from. Some ideas come from God, are innate, or come from pure reason. Some ideas are true a priori (before experience): God, maths, logic, morality Empiricists - All ideas come from experience. There are no innate ideas, they are all a posteriori (after experience)

What is prescriptive knowledge?

How to acquire knowledge. Rationalists: Pure Reason! The senses can deceive us. Only reason gives us certainty Empiricists: Experience is the best way to acquire knowledge. Science and experiment provide good approaches

What were Descartes' key ideas?

first modern rationalist. "I think therefore I am". Argued our sensations, dreams and experiences may be false - we may be deceived. The only thing we can be sure about is that we are thinking about things, or that we are the subject of thought. Other ideas are placed innately into us by God. E.g. that God exists. This is broadly Platonic.

What were Locke's key ideas?

Argued that the basis for all the mind's content was (sensory) experience. But the mind is not born completely empty - it has the machinery to do certain things. Argued that if certain ideas were innate then everyone should agree on them, but there are no ideas that everyone agrees upon. Argues if reason only reveals the old knowledge we hold, then our mind must be full up, and we can't acquire new knowledge. Instead, the mind is tabula rasa - a blank state

How do simple ideas become more complex (Locke)?

1. Combination - Combine multiple ideas into one - e.g., an apple is red + round + sweet 2. Relation - Bringing ideas together without combination - e.g., my son is like a vulture when he eats 3. Generalisation - Abstracting from events to form general rules without specifics of time or place - e.g., I have only seen white swans, so all swans are white

What were Hume's key ideas?

2 kinds of sensory experience. Impressions: Sensations arising from touch, hearing, sight, smell, and taste Ideas: Impressions recalled later (by memory) Complex ideas may not have been experienced directly but we can bundle various sensations together to form these new ideas. Individual bits of sensations and memories can help form new, complex thoughts. Hume was a radical skeptic, and doubted everything

How did Leibniz criticse both rationalism and empiricism?

Criticised the tabula rasa position of the empiricists. We have innate ideas. Argued the mind is not a passive receptacle of information - it works on and transforms our sensory experiences. It falls in between pure rationalism and pure empiricism. Also argued there was a non-physical mind. The mind exists separately from the brain. Also criticised Descartes as he disagreed that all mental states are conscious. He also did not believe that animals we automata - argued that they had some sensations, feelings and souls. Distinguished them from mechanical beings and machinery.

What were Kant's key ideas?

wanted to synthesise the rational and empirical schools of thought. Critical of radical scepticism and pure reason. Accepted that most experience comes from the senses but also felt that the mind had to have some innate knowledge. Experience assumed certain knowledge, like space, time, and cause-and-effect. We don't perceive these ideas but assume them.

What is noumena and phenomena?

Noumena - the universe of things. The real universe behind our perception of things. Phenomena - the experiences of things. Science can only study phenomena, we can't experience the noumenal world. Our mind structures our sensory experience in space and time, it mediates the world. We can't perceive the world as it really is.

What is the difference between analytic and synthetic information?

Analytic statement - the factual definition of something. Statements where what is being said is already contained in the subject. E.g. the bachelor is an unmarried man. These statements are redundant. Synthetic statement - gives you new information that is not part of the subject. Kant argued that most a posteriori (empirical) knowledge is synthetic, while most a prior (rational) knowledge is analytic. However, some ideas broke this rule such as space, time, and cause-and-effect. They are a synthetic construct but a priori knowledge. Empiricism cannot account for this.

What is natural philosphy?

"A philosophical approach to the natural world: Physics, Chemistry, Biology Isaac Newton was a key figure in the emergence of natural philosophy. Between philosophy and modern science, there was the philosophy of nature. Descartes distinguished the mind from matter while natural philosophy was a materialist reaction to Descartes's mind-body dualism."

What is physiognomy?

"A belief that a person's character can be read in their face. Also believes that this is influenced by your life experience. This has a strong intuitive appeal however, this idea has long been tainted with scientific racism. (and other prejudices). Modern face recognition and face-processing AI systems often judge behaviour, character, or intention by the face. This kind of facial profiling was already considered by scientists in the 19th century"

What is phrenology?

"A belief that a person's character can be read from their skull. This is now commonly dismissed as a pseudoscience however, the basis of the idea is not entirely wrong. There is localisation of functions in the brain. E.g. Broca and Wernicke's area is responsible for speech production and understanding respectively. Phrenology is an example of faculty psychology - the idea that the mind is comprised of distinct mental components"

What is psychophysics?

aim of psychophysics is to find the mathematical laws that relate psychic quantities to physical quantities. Weber and Fechner helped to first develop psychophysics. The methods include estimating the magnitude of something, detecting things, & discriminating things.

What were Fechner's key ideas?

"extended Weber's work by developing a philosophical system of psychophysics. He extended the experiments to sounds and vision and searched for the absolute thresholds for detecting stimuli."

What is psychophysical scaling?

"one of Fechner's key ideas. the idea that larger and larger increases in physical intensity are needed to give the same increase in psychological or perceived intensity."

What was Wundt's key work?

set up the first psychology lab in 1879. This focused on measuring consciousness, describing consciousness using mathematical laws, re-examining philosophical claims about the mind, and finding out about perception is related to reality. Wundt preferred the idea of an active, creative mind. The will or volition was a central idea in voluntarism - we voluntarily and actively decide what our mind attends.

What was Tichener's key work?

Titchener developed Wundt's psychology in a different direction. Wanted to break down consciousness into its elements - an atomic view. Eventually listed around 44,000 elemental qualities of consciousness. Found that introspection eventually became inconsistent and unpredictable for this.

What are some key concepts within the biological origins of psychology?

Evolution Ethology Evolutionary psychology Eugenics Social Darwinism Intelligence testing Freudian psychodynamics

What are some ideas from early evolutionary theory?

Erasmus Darwin (Charles Darwin's grandfather) studied evolution looking at animals, plants and associationist philosophy. Lamarck, a botanist, devised a complete theory of evolution before Darwin. He thought that a complexifying force and an adapting force existed and that animals strive for improvement. He is often cited for the inheritance of acquired characteristics - e.g. giraffes have long necks because they stretch for food.

What were Charles Darwin's key ideas?

Organisms differ, due to inheritance and random changes The environment and resources change also More organisms are born than there are resources to survive (Malthus) Those who are adapted to the conditions will reproduce

What is speciation?

refers to how new species arise. Over time, small adaptive changes in each species accumulate. As they change, species will be more or less adapted to their environment. After a long time, animals from 2 separately-evolving groups can no longer produce fertile offspring. Leads to a new species.

What is ethology?

focuses on the evolution of behaviour. It dealt with the psychologically important topics of instinct, aggression, learning, mating, and social groups.

What did Lorenz's geese study find?

found that the first thing baby geese saw, they would follow. This is imprinting, a strong form of learning

What were Darwin's findings on human psychology?

In Darwin's later work he focused more on human psychology. Looking at things such as sexual selection, developmental psychology, mirror self-recognition in orangutans, and analysis of dreams. Darwin applied the principle of natural selection to the development and distinctions between human languages.

What were Darwin's theories about sexual selection?

"Biological differences such as libido, aggression, and longevity may all make particular animals more likely to reproduce. Sexual selection consists of inter-sexual and intra-sexual selection Inter-sexual selection - One sex prefers members of the other sex (e.g., peacock's tail) Intra-sexual selection - Competition within a sex (usually male) for access to the other, or resources (e.g., deer antlers)"

What are the contrasting theories on facial expressions?

Darwin argues that facial expressions are innate, and their meaning is universally understood. However, Margaret Mead (an anthropologist) argued that they are culturally conditioned.

What did Ekman find about facial expressions across cultures?

much evidence that facial expressions are universal, supporting Darwin. There are 6 basic emotions - happiness, surprise, sadness, fear, disgust, and anger. Further evidence comes from children born blind and deaf who have no way of mimicking facial expressions but still produce many of the same expressions as seeing and hearing people.

What were Francis Galton's key contributions to psychology?

mostly in individual differences and intelligence testing. Looked at the inheritance of 'genius' and coined the term "Nature vs. Nurture". He studied many of these ideas using twin studies, which are still used today.Also known as the father of eugenics

What were William James' key ideas?

focused on the function rather than the contents of consciousness (functionalism). Focuses on what is adaptive within our psychology. Took a holistic approach, pragmatic (beliefs and ideas judged on their usefulness), role of instinct and choice (have instincts, but can override them). James' idea is that emotion comes after bodily changes. We experience emotions in order to regulate and make sense of the physiological changes in our bodies.

What did Galton conclude about eugenics?

reasoned that, if humans have evolved through natural and sexual selection, then we could improve humans using a means of artificial selection. studying eminent men, Galton concluded that bodily and mental characteristics were largely inherited. Concluded that if great men could have great sons, these abilities must be subject to natural selection and genetics Galton thought that mental ability was largely hereditary. So the weak-minded would go to institutions and not have children while the "better sort of emigrants" would be welcomed. known as Social Darwinism

How does Gould criticise eugenics?

Gould pointed out the poor science, hypocrisy and circular reasoning in this work. He claimed that prejudice was driving interpretation, not the data.He questioned the possibility and purpose of ever measuring intelligence objectively.

What are the 3 levels of consciousness, according to Freud?

Conscious Preconscious Unconscious Much of the behaviour is driven by the unconscious, repressed memories and instincts.

What are the 3 components of personality, according to Freud?

Superego (internalised morality), societal pressures Ego (negotiator), driven by the reality principle Id (selfish, animalistic), driven by the pleasure principle. The struggle between these forces is psychodynamics.

What are Freud's psychosexual stages?

1. Oral (weaning). Fixations lead to neuroses, compulsive behaviours, smoking, chewing gum, and eating/drinking disorders. 2. Anal (toilet training). Fixations lead to retentive (fastidious, stingy, clean) and expulsive behaviours (over-sharing, messy, disorganised, inconsiderate). 3. Phallic (parents, 3-6 years). Fixation leads to extremes of dominant and submissive behaviour. 4. Latency (until puberty) 5. Genital (puberty until adulthood) If stage-dependent needs aren't met, the child could become fixated.

What are some defense mechanisms, as outlined by Freud?

Repression - pushing away from consciousness (e.g., Oedipus/Electra complex) Identification - aligning with the enemy (e.g. the same-sex parent) Reaction formation - adopting an exaggerated opposition Projection - attributing thoughts onto others (e.g. cheat accuses you of cheating) Rationalisation - excusing or de-valuing actions Displacement - shifting onto another (e.g. anger directed at something/someone else). Regression - reverting to an earlier stage (e.g. childish behaviours) Denial

What are Freud's psychosexual disorders?

"Oedipus Complex - boys develop sexual feelings for their mother which causes jealousy and resentment towards the father. Fearing the father, boys develop castration anxiety and to overcome this, they internalise their father's attitudes and begin to identify with them. Girls develop penis envy as they "don't have the correct anatomy". In the Electra complex, girls develop sexual feelings for their fathers and feel jealousy and resentment towards their mothers."

What are parapraxes?

repressed thoughts and actions rising into consciousness. They are expressed symbolically in dreams and are also referred to as Freudian slips.

What are the aims of Freud's psychoanalysis?

aims to release the force of unconscious conflicts by making them conscious. Analyses slips of the tongue, free association, and the contents of dreams. Patients on a couch enter a semi-hypnotic state, & reveal their traumas.

What are some criticisms of Freud's theory?

very little evidence for Freud's theory. He believed it was universal human nature however his evidence came from only mentally troubled rich Viennese patients.

How does Popper criticise Freud's theory?

Popper argued that scientific theories must be falsifiable. If a theory cannot be proved wrong then it is not scientific. Freud's theories are so vague that they cannot be falsified

What are the 3 claims within behaviourism?

1. Methodological behaviourism - psychologists must study behaviour.
2. Psychological behaviourism - psychology should be the study of behaviour.
3. Philosophical or logical behaviourism - language about mental states and terms is just behavioural dispositions.
Radical behaviourism is adopting all 3 of these philosophies.

What were David Hartley’s key ideas?

Hartley was an associationist.
one of the first people to propose a physiological association of the mind.
Came up the with idea that nerves “vibrate” and changes in vibration transmit to other nerves. This basic mechanism gives rise to action.
This starts off the idea that the body and mind function together

What were Alexander Bain’s key ideas?

Another associationist.
Bain was a voluntarist and believed in the importance of voluntary action in understanding experience and learning.
However, he also took into account the importance of hedonism. Hedonism refers to the idea that pleasurable associations are more likely to be repeated than unpleasant ones.

How did Thorndike’s ideas influence behaviourism?

2 key laws.
The law of exercise and disuse is the idea that the more often an association is used, the stronger the connection, and the less often it is used, the weaker the connection.
The law of effect is the idea that if an action is followed by a “satisfying state of affairs”, the organism is more likely to repeat it, and less likely if it doesn’t.
Thorndike’s principles form the basis of operant conditioning.

What are some criticisms of Thorndike’s theory?

Thorndike’s principles are not as universal as he believed. For example, in the case of gambling, there is evidence of relapse even when individuals go for long periods of time without gambling which should make the connection weaker.
Similarly, slot machines only provide partial reinforcement but the behaviour is very easy to pick up and continue.

What were Pavlov’s key ideas?

Developed the idea of classical conditioning.
The idea is that you begin with an unconditioned stimulus (US) and an unconditioned stimulus (UR).
When the US is paired with a conditioned stimulus (CS) the CS will eventually produce a conditioned response (CR) without the US.
His work was heavily influenced by Darwin.

What should behaviourism focus on, according to Watson?

Adjustment and maladjustment (to the environment)
Phylogenetic continuity (with other animals). Behaviourism often conducts experiments on animals and believes that the principles can be generalised to humans.
Determination (and control) of behaviour.

What are the 3 types of behaviour, according to Watson?

Somatic (hereditary) - habits, instinctive reactions
Somatic (acquired) - habits
Visceral (acquired) - emotions

How did Hull argue against behaviourism?

Hull was a behaviourist but moved beyond stimulus-response relationships to look at organismic variables (motivations).
key idea was drive theory.
this argued that how likely someone is to react with a conditioned response is influenced by habit strength (prior conditioning) and drive, the extent of the need to satisfy biological drive.

How did Tolman argue against behaviourism?

similarly critical of a purely S-R account of behaviour.
Although he was a behaviourist, he recognised that we cannot escape mentalist terms, cognitive maps, goals, appetites, etc.
Looked at maze learning in rats and saw evidence of goal-directed behaviour and cognitive processes such as developing a cognitive map.

What were Skinner’s key ideas?

was a radical behaviourist.
Rejected organismic accounts of behaviour.
Argued there were 2 accounts of learning.
1. Type S: Classical Conditioning which is stimulus-response learning.
2. Type R: Operant Conditioning. This is response outcome learning. How we learn “voluntary” behaviours.

What is reinforcement and punishment?

Positive and negative reinforcement increase behaviour whereas positive and negative punishment decreases behaviour.
Skinner believed that through these processes we could harness society to shape behaviour.
He argued against the idea of the self, free will and autonomy and dignity.

What are some criticisms of radical behaviourism?

creates an incomplete psychological account as it doesn’t look at or explain our thoughts, feelings and desires.
There are also many things within science that are beyond direct observation which behaviourists do not focus on

What are some criticisms of the blank slate theory?

1. There is evidence of behavioural genetics. Genes can strongly influence behaviour although conditioning can amplify or inhibit these.
2. The prenatal environment affects certain behaviours.
3. We tend to learn certain phobias more rapidly than others. For example, things such as snakes or spiders.

What is instinctive drift?

Breland & Breland found evidence for instinctive drift. This is the idea that conditioning cannot entirely overcome certain instinctive patterns.
Conducted experiments on pigs hunting for truffles/food.
Similarly, not all learning can be explained in Type S or Type R learning.

What is Gestalt psychology?

formed the basis of the modern psychology of perception, looking at the form of objects.
They argued that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Rejected the idea that objects of consciousness are made up of fixed atomic elements.
They also rejected the idea that there is a direct mapping between stimulation and sensation. They instead argued perception is relationally determined. It depends on the relationships between stimuli.

What is the law of Pragnaz?

This is the idea that we are innately driven to experience things in as orderly, regular, and simple fashion as possible.
Phi and Beta - apparent motion (i.e. in neon signs) - our perceptions go beyond physical evidence, it doesn’t map onto reality.
We also see illusory shapes and depending on perspective, we can perceive multiple objects in the same image.

How did psychology vary in the UK?

In the UK, behaviourism didn’t dominate psychology in the same way.
Bartlett looked at schema theory - looking at a mental framework for semantics and memory through active reconstruction against a snapshot model. What people thought should happen rather than what did.
build these internal models to simulate future events and make decisions.

What were Piaget’s key ideas?

Piaget was interested in the acquisition of knowledge. Looked at this through a developmental model.
This is a direct contrast to the behaviourist model. Both focus on the interaction between an organism and the environment but Piaget assumed the use of cognitive structures.
The child is also active instead of passively learning in Piaget’s model.

What were the early influences on cognitive psychology?

Developments in information processes, cybernetics and artificial intelligence were challenging to theories of behaviourist psychology.
The Turing machine showed that simple operations can give rise to complex functions. Subsequent work by McCulloch and Pitts showed a similar operation of the brain.

How did Norbert Weiner's work influence cognitive psychology?

Invented cybernetics, mathematical tools for describing systems of feedback, communication, and control.
He popularised terms like input, output and feedback that are important to cognitive models of the mind.

What is the computational model of the mind?

Looking at the brain as a computer (hardware) and the mind as software.
The brain is seen as an information-processing device that takes input from the world and processes it using cognition. It then guides behaviour which is the output.

How does Chomsky critique Skinner?

Skinner claimed that language acquisition can be explained using principles of operant conditioning.
Chomsky argued we have a language acquisition device equipped with universal grammar.
Chomsky’s work is seen as pivotal in ushering in a cognitive revolution. This upended psychology as the science of behaviour and pushed psychology back towards looking at mediating mental events (e.g. memory, attention).

What are some issues with the idea of the “cognitive revolution”?

It is a very American-centric theory. Other parts of the world weren’t dominated by Behaviourism in the same way as America.
Furthermore, not all behaviourists rejected cognitive processes and behaviourism still exists within modern psychology. Certain disorders are still conceptualised in behaviourist terms.

What was Galton’s work on intelligence testing?

Measured intelligence using things like sensory acuity, brain (head) size, etc. Many of the measures were not very accurate/didn’t work well.
This carried on throughout early intelligence testing with items measured often being very specific and influenced by context. For example, questions may be very British-centric

How did Binet develop intelligence testing?

looking at people with learning differences. Captured different processes and compared them.
Carried out a range of tasks and these were empirically validated by testing at different ages, for example. This helped to discover developmental differences in cognitive functions.

What was Terman’s influence on intelligence testing?

influential in rolling out intelligence testing in education. However, this was driven by eugenics. Terman saw intelligence testing as a tool to nurture the bright and institutionalised the ‘feeble-minded’. This application of psychometric testing to education can also be seen in the UK with its application to grammar schools.

How was psychometric testing used in WW1?

Psychometric testing was used for officer selection - Walter Scott. This was seen as a very valuable contribution towards the war effort.
Mass intelligence testing of military personnel (army alpha and army beta)- Yerkes.
Yerkes used a Galtonian approach to intelligence testing.
His results suggested that many (47.3% or 30.3%) white males were ‘morons’ (with an IQ of 51 - 70).
This statistic was worse for other races, with 79 - 89% of black people being categorised as ‘morons’.
This sparked concern about the fitness and intellectual capacity of the average American - promoting eugenics.
Also used to restrict immigration from certain countries.

What are some issues with the validity of intelligence testing?

There are many problems with the validity of intelligence testing and specifically the army alpha and beta (Lipman). E.g.
-Item content/quality
-Categorisation. The development of different IQ categories also defines how many people fall into the category. Circular reasoning.
-Interpretation.

How is intelligence testing still used?

-Personnel selection
-College admissions (more so in America)
-Courts

How was psychology first applied to medicine?

Charcot had a major influence on psychology, psychiatry and neuroscience.
Witmer began treating cases relating to learning difficulties. Instituted the first psychology clinic.
Psychologists eventually became attached to medical units in hospitals to treat patients.

How was psychology first applied to workplaces?

Elton May looked at the Hawthorne effect to look at how psychology affects productivity in the workplace.
Originally looked at the effect of lighting on workers' productivity in a factory.
Found that any changes in the environment cause an increase in productivity.
However, this is often interpreted as how activity changes behaviour by managers.

How did Turing’s work influence psychology?

idea of complex operations being generated from binary operations helped the development of cognitivism and the computational model of the mind.
Hebb (1949) built on Turing’s work and developed a physiological basis for learning.
McCullough and Pitts (1943) applied Turning’s work to neurons.
forms the biological basis of psychology

How did brain-measuring technology develop?

Developments in the measurement of brain activity include EEG developed in the 1920s, MRI developed in the 1970s, and fMRI developed in the 1990s.
This meant that brain activity could be recorded when doing psychological tasks.