Psychology 1001 Flashcards

Flashcards about the History and Philosophical Foundations of Psychology

Acknowledgement of Traditional Land Owners

The school acknowledges and pays respect to the traditional owners of the land, the Gadigal of the Eora Nation.

Tri-chromatic Theory

Proposed that the eye detects 3 primary colors: Red, Green, Blue.

Young / Helmholtz Theory

3 types color receptors (cones: red/green/blue). All other colors are combination of these cones

Opportunities in Psychology

Studying the brain & behavior opens many opportunities, even in fields you never believed you would work when you started as a psychology student.

Interdisciplinary Nature of Psychology

Psychology is a very interdisciplinary enterprise including neuroscience, computer science, philosophy, biology, physics, chemistry, and more.

George Santayana Quote

Those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it

Problems with Understanding History

Understanding history is dependent on many variables, one of which is that we forget. Memory is far from perfect due to interference, decay/forgetting, and later added (mis)information.

Presentist bias

The tendency to discuss and analyze past ideas, people, and events in terms of the present.

Alhazen

Born 965 in Basra, Iraq; Died 1040 Cairo, Egypt

Russia's new schoolbook

The book promoted by Russian Education Minister Sergei Kravtsov mentions Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Division of Germany after WW2

After WW2, Germany and Berlin were divided into eastern (Soviet Union) and western part (USA, France, UK).

Understanding the Present

We can only understand the present with some understanding of the past.

Zeitgeist

Spirit of the times

Start of Psychology

Most (hand)books on Psychology will state: It started with Wilhelm Wundt (1832– 1920), when he established the first psychological laboratory in Leipzig in 1879.

Wundt and Structuralism

The goal of psychological research is to study the structure of the mind and consciousness.

Introspection

A technique to ‘look into the brain’.

Goal of Introspection

Building blocks of our conscious experience; the mental elements!

Edward Titchener

A student of Wundt, British, moved to Cornell University in the USA, and introduced Structuralism and Introspection to the Americans

William James

Harvard University; The ‘Godfather’ of Psychology; Book: Principles of Psychology (published 1890)

Functionalism

The aim of Psychology is understanding the purpose of the mind and consciousness. That is, the function!

The establishment of the Wundt's lab

Considered the start of Scientific or Academic Psychology.

Fechner

Weber and Fechner’s law published in 1860 in ‘Elemente der Psychophysik’ (In German, translates to ‘elements of psychophysics’)

Gustav Theodor Fechner

Fechner is considered the Godfather of Psychophysics.

Weber’s law

A Just noticeable difference: a JND

Weber’s law definition

the change in a stimulus that will be just noticeable is a constant ratio of the original stimulus