THE BIRTH OF CONTEMPORARY PSYCHOLOGY

Flashcards covering the foundational figures, schools of thought, and scientific paradigms in the history of contemporary psychology based on the Week 2 lecture.

Associationism

The theory that all knowledge consists of associations between simple elements linked through perception, a belief shared by Plato, Aristotle, and John Locke.

Epistemology

The branch of philosophy concerned with the study of how we know things.

Ontology

The branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of being and what things exist.

Nephesh

A term in the Hebrew bible meaning "breather," which was translated into Greek as "Psyche" (soul).

Atman

A concept of the soul used in the Hindu text Rigveda dating back to $1500$ BCE.

Logical Positivism

A philosophical framework (roughly $1920-1955$) that emphasizes observation, verification, and induction.

Hypothetico-Deduction

A scientific method (developed around $1958$) involving induction to form hypotheses and deduction to formulate predictions for experimental testing.

Paradigm Shift

A concept introduced by Kuhn ($1960$s) describing a fundamental change in the basic concepts and experimental practices of a scientific discipline.

Wilhelm Wundt

Considered the founder of psychology as an independent discipline, he established the first laboratory for experimental psychology in Leipzig in $1879$.

Physiological Psychology

A term used by Wundt to define the study of life processes that stand midway between external and internal experience, utilizing objective and empirical methods.

Just-Noticeable Difference (JND)

A focus of threshold perception research by Wundt studying the smallest difference between two stimuli that can be detected.

Psychometry

The measurement of mental processes, such as reaction times, to gain an understanding of mental functioning.

Introspection

The process of looking inside oneself to report on sensations, thoughts, and feelings, assuming conscious access to mental processes.

Experimental Self-Observation

Wundt's preferred method of introspection conducted under controlled circumstances to differentiate it from "armchair philosophy."

Historical Method

Wundt's approach to studying mental differences manifest in variations between cultures over time and space.

William James

A Harvard professor who viewed the human mind as an evolutionary adaptation developed to increase survival chances, focusing on what functions the mind serves.

Psychological Functionalism

The school of thought asserting that the study of the mind should focus on its functions in adaptation to an organism's environment.

James-Lange Theory

A theory of emotion suggesting that physiological arousal occurs first and subsequently prompts the emotional experience.

Alfred Binet

A French psychologist known for developing the first validated intelligence test and for his work in psychophysics and craniometry.

Binet-Simon Intelligence Scale

The first validated intelligence test developed in $1905$ (perfected in $1907$) designed to identify children with special educational needs.

Sigmund Freud

A physician who founded psychoanalysis, focusing on unconscious mental processes and the impact of childhood experiences on human behavior.

Psychodynamics

A proponent view held by Von Brücke that all organisms are energy systems governed by scientific chemical and physical processes.

Talking Cure

A therapeutic intervention developed by Freud and Josef Breuer involving verbal communication rather than medical or educational intervention.

Manifest Message

In Freudian dream analysis, the literal content of what the patient reports seeing or experiencing in the dream.

Latent Content

In Freudian dream analysis, the hidden or underlying meaning derived from the unconscious mind.

Structuralism

A school of psychology, associated with Wundt, that aimed to identify the structure of conscious experience through introspection.

Gestalt Psychology

A school of psychology focused on how perception is organized and how people make sense of the world holistically.

Behaviourism

A school of psychology, associated with Watson, that rejected the study of consciousness in favor of the study of observable behavior.

Edwin Boring

The first major historian of psychology who documented five schools: Structuralism, Functionalism, Gestalt psychology, Behaviourism, and Psychoanalysis.