History of Psychology

General timeline

1879-Wilhelm Wundt: psychology lab at Leipzig U

1883-First psych lab in the U.S. Johns Hopkins U.

1892-First meeting of the American psychological Association (maybe psychology can help treat mental health issues. APA wasn't too happy with this)

1900-Over 40 labs in North America (many started by those with PhD from Leipzig and other German universities)

WWI & WWII increased need for practitioners-APA emphasis shift

1970s:

-creation of PsyD

-First practitioner president

-Rift between scientists and practitioners

1988-Association for psychological science (APS)(disagreed with PsyD)

Phrenology-Franz Gall (1758-1828)

study of bumps and indents on the skull as the reason for characteristics.

-he looked at a bunch of people's skulls and created a map of the skull and its various functions. If someone's skull did not align with the characteristic he would say that person had done a good job at resisting it.

Phrenology-Johann Spurzheim(1777-1832)

-assistant to Gall

-popularized phrenology in the U.S., and died shortly after

Phrenology-George Combe(1789-1858)

wrote popular essays in support of phrenology when it came under attack from scientific community (people should be screened before being hired)

Phrenology-Orson Fowler (1809-1887)

With his brother, popularized phrenology in the U.S. (read about it before getting married)

Physiognomy-Cesare Lombrosio (1835-1909)

Looking at the structure of faces to understand characteristics (racist) Cave-man features ment they were likely to be a criminal

Mesmerism-Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815)

More of an attempt to heal (physical)

-fluids have gotten out of balance, and they respond to magnets

-so, he would use magnets to move the fluids back in place (hypnotizing)

-also used for depression

Spiritualism

-speaking to the dead

-popular in the U.S. beginning in the 1848

-resurgences following following wars (unresolved conflicts, held guilt)

-did bring peace

to people and in a

way these

practitioners

provided therapy

(talk)

-Also provided treatment for depression, anxiety; advice about life problems

-William James believed in this (was a bad look for psychological community)

Mental healing-Phineas Quimby (1802-1866)

change cognitions about what it means to be a healthy person (fatalistic thoughts)

-heal mental and physical issues

Explain the two issues that mental philosophy tried to answer

1) relationship between mind (immaterial) and the body (material) this was basically phil-psych

2) Nature vs. Nurture

Localization of function: Jean Baptiste Bouillaud (1848: 500 francs)

-Was a phrenologist, but acknowledged its falsity after it was debunked

-still believed in localization of function

-if damage to brain is in the frontal lobes->language is in the frontal lobes

-offered 500 Francs for someone to come forward with language damage & not frontal lobe damage (no one came)

Localization of function-Ernest Aubertin (1861: gunshot wound)

case study of man who survived gunshot wound (still healing)

-pressed area of the head where the frontal

lobe is (man couldn't speak)

Localization of Function-Paul Broca (1824-1880)

Yes, localization of function exists

-measured people's skulls to confirm ideology

-measured a lot of different brains

-localized speech on the cerebral cortex

specific area on the left side (Broca's area

1861)

This lead to to attempting to localize

other things

Localization of Function-Carl Wernike (1848-1905)

Wernike's area (temporal lobe): 1864

-comprehension of language

-discovered through autopsies (caused by an internal issue)

Localization of Function-Gustav Fritsch (1838-1927) and J. Edward Hitzig (1839-1907)

Gustav: motor cortex in dogs: 1870

-worked together

-the first people to apply electrical stimulation of the brain

-used dogs to see what responses would

-occur with which stimulated areas

-very specific

Localization of function-Roberts Bartholow (1831-1904)

What not to do:

Mary Rafferty(1874)

infected sore on her head that was cancerous and ate through to the brain. She was going to die anyways, no familial ties, consented (but she was feeble minded). The put a needle in her brain and it sent electrical currents-> convulsions and a coma in the last session led to a convulsive seizure(epilepsy), and she died shortly after.

He faced no repercussions

Localization of function-David Ferrier (1843-1928)

Monkeys:

1876-mapped motor cortex and localized auditory and visual cortex

Couldn't really look at somatosensory (detect touch) because animals can't tell you they are being touched

Localization of function-Wilder Penfield (1891-1976)(Greatest Canadian Alive)

Somatosensory cortex: 1928

interest in epilepsy:

-use ablation in specific spot where epilepsy is/kill tissue so electricity can't spread

-Research participants allowed him to try and figure out where the epilepsy is (by inducing seizure)

-While awake, ablate are of brain and see how they respond with minimal damage

-through this...found the somatosensory cortex

What was Aristotle's stance on nature vs. nurture

Aristotle sided with Nurture over nature

Thomas Upham

elements of intellectual philosophy (1827)

-didn't call himself a psychologist, but instead a philosopher even though he was studying psychology content

John Stewart Mills

Hated his dad and wanted to prove him wrong

System of logic (1843)

Made chemical model of mind (whole > its parts and its all chemical components)

Who was James Mills

James Mills came up with mental mechanics —> Whole = sum of its parts

James Mills also analyzed the phenomena of the human mind (1829)

Thomas Reid

Scottish Realism. Made the book " common sense Philosophy" in 1785

Was Rene Descartes a dualist or a monist?

Descartes was a dualist

Johe Locke

Was a British Empiricism and was a big Nature guy in the (NvN) debate. He also wrote an essay concerning Human understanding

What idea did Julien de la Mettrie make

"Man the Machine" basically a monist approach but he was a nurture over nature guy

What was Descartes take on nature vs. nurture

We learn things (nurture) but we. Are still have innate values/ideas (nature)

Where did Descartes say that the spirit was held in the body?

In the Pineal Gland

Localization of function-Pierre Flourens (1794-1867)

members of the scientific community wanted to get away from phrenology

-No localization function

-Used ablation on puppies and pigeons

-destroyed cerebellum of dogs and found their motor functions damaged

-studied the medulla in pigeons (which regulates the heart)

-some pigeons died

-some pigeons had their cerebellum removed(hindered neuroprocessing)

-some pigeons had little bits removed. Sometimes a function would stop, but it would recover (neuroplasticity...another area would takeover)

Thought the cerebellum did everything->no localization of function

The nervous system: Bell-Magendie Law

1822: Francois Magendie:

Opposite directions:

-Dorsal roots are responsible for sending sensory info to the brain

-Ventral roots responsible for carrying motor info to muscles to direct movement

Reflex arc

1811: Charles Bell:

incorrectly concluded that ventral control was the voluntary and dorsal control involuntary movement

The nervous system: law of specific nerve energies

1827: Johanne Muller

-each sensory nerve has a specific function (optic nerve)

-Idea was first introduced by Bell in 1811

The nervous system: Hermann Von Helmholtz (1821-1894)

speed of neural impulse: 1850

1860: young-helmholtz theory of color vision (trichromatic theory)

-specialized cones: red, green, blue (didn't explain negative after images/black and white)

The Nervous system: Hering

1874: Herring's opponent-process theory

-opposing cells: red-green; blue-green; white-black (reserves)

-young-helmholtz were wrong

-agreed on it happening in the retina, but its chemical, and not in the cones.

-these reserves deplete w/ use so you see the partner color with a full reserve still.

-Then, an after image appears it you immediately stare at a blank space/image.

-These reserves replenish quickly

The nervous system: color concluded

-Color vision is in the retina

-Herring was right about opposing processes, but it does use cones

-Thalamus gets info from the cones

-Neurons get fatigued and in that state, another neuron creates the after image.

the nervous system: pitch perception

-amplitude and frequency contribute to sound of high and low sound waves

-sound happens in the cochlea->auditory nerve into the auditory cortex(basilar membranes)

The nervous system: Helmoltz-Resonance (place) theory 1863

-it happens where the hairs are stimulated

-low pitch-sound happens at the end of the membrane(high pitch usually stays at the front)

-liquid in the cochlea stimulates the hair cells-sound can last after its gone (ringing) (not explained well with this)

The nervous system: Rutherford-frequency theory 1886

-suggests its the frequency not the location (the brain determines high pitch vs low)

-but high pitch sounds come in at such a high frequency, its not possible for the neurons to fire that quickly

-damage comes from too much stimulation to the hair cells(especially high frequency sounds)

Neuron theory: How do neurons communicate? Camillo Golgi (1843-1926)

Invented Golgi stain (silver nitrate)

-clung to neurons (allowed him to see what was happening)

-Neurons are connected in a web(physically) (allowing electrical impulse to travel)

-1906 Nobel Prize in medicine

-but he didn't see gaps w/synapse

Neuron theory: Santiago Ramon y Cajal (1852-1934)

-Did see the gap

-Neurons are not physically connected

-But how do these electrical impulses get across the gap?

Neuron theory: Sir Charles Sherrington (1857-1952)

-Named the gap the synapse (coined the term)

-1906: all or none principle (neurons will or won't fire, no inbetween)

-Whatever happens in the synapse has to be significant enough for the neuron to fire

Neuron Theory: Otto Loewi (1873-1961)

-A chemist

-1920: there are chemicals in the synapse

-If you have enough it will trigger firing

-What do these chemicals do?

-Led to the use of psychotropic medicine

-Before this, crazy things were done to

people because we didn't know how to

give them relief.

-1936: Nobel prize in medicine

Psychophysics: Ernst Weber(1795-1878)

How do people perceive stimuli? (psychological experience)

-Two point threshold: how far do two points have to get from eachother to feel that they are at two points?

-depends on location (more neural connections in certain areas)

-psychological response to a physical thing

Weber's law

the just noticeable change in a stimulus is a constant ratio of the original stimulus(how much does it have to change in order for the change to be detected)

-ex: weight, sound, etc

-Absolute threshold (ex. the point at

which you can hear)

Weber's fraction

weight difference is noticed with 2 % weight difference (point of detection)

Psychophysics: Gustave Fechner (1801-1887)

-scientist-particularly interested in eyes(after imaging)

-October 22, 1850: epiphany

-there is a physical world external to us

-Weber previously quantified the psychological experience therefore, psychology can be a science

Elements of psychophysics (1860)(Fechner's book)

a pound of feathers is the same weight as a pound of lead, but the psychological experience says differently.

-this book influenced many psychologists (very important)