Lecture 08 - Last of Wundt, Ebbinghaus & DARWIN

What was Wundt seen as in the field of psychology? How did the end of his career go?

seen as the founder of psychology

obtained success → became crabby and protective over his status

• e.g. was skeptical of Ebbinghaus’ work on memory since it challenged his ideas

William James had some negative comments about his writing style saying “it is beautiful but not psychology"

many got tired of his dictatorial approach that was slightly unmerited

Who were two of Wundt’s successors?

1. Edward Titchener

2. Hermann Ebbiinghaus

Who was Titchener? What were his beliefs with psychology?

1867-1927

one of Wundt’s more influential students

believed that experimental psychology’s main goal was the atomistic analysis of the elements of consciousness, its structure

a structuralist

What kind of work did Titchener do?

some experimental work but focused mostly on Wundt's introspection approach (he thought better suited to identify mental components)

very ambitious (like Wundt) and biased the initial perceptions of Wundt research to being only on introspection

contributed to development of psychology infrastructure in North America (big program at Cornell)

his approach led to some disagreements (behaviourists, psychoanalysis, humanists)

Who was Ebbinghaus and what did he promote?

1850-1909

not a Wundt student

wanted to study memory experimentally

During Ebbinghaus’ time why did people believe it was difficult to study memory? How did Ebbinghaus cope with this in his experiments?

Difficult because we build up associations with daily objects and people and that would interfere for experimental memory research ("you are just studying tightness of associations")

Used nonsense syllables to try to study "pure" memory, not influenced by experience

Described a typical forgetting curve involving a rapid decline and levelling off

• Can be affected by memory mnemonics (tricks) and practice (e.g. spaced repetition)

Similar to Fechner, results approached a mathematical function

Before Darwin how was the soul and psychological processes being thought of? Recap Plato, Locke and Helmholtz based on is the soul metaphysical, is it innate vs. acquired, and what are the best tools to study the mind?

Plato: metaphysical? Yes! Innate vs. acquired? Innate and an eternal world of forms! Best tools to study the mind? Deep thought!

Locke: metaphysical? Sort of. Innate vs. acquired? God made the brain but left a tabula rasa for experience. Tools? Some thought but empiricism to study world

Helmholtz: metaphysical? No! Innate vs. acquired? Mostly acquired but a mixture. Tools? Science all the way!

Who was Charles Darwin? What kind of voyage did he end up on?

1809-1882 ("When did he live?" - 1800s)

English naturalist whose travels to the Galapagos Islands

Developed the theory of evolution by natural selection

• Influence all the life sciences and psychology

Influenced by his grandfather

He went to Cambridge as a backup and studied nature

Met John Stevens Henslow who was a clergyman and botany professor and recommended him as a naturalist for his ship the Beagle

• The 2 year voyage turned into 5 years

What did he read that inspired him to promote uniformitarianism? What is uniformitarianism?

He read Charles Lyell's The Principles of Geology -> agreed with the ideas

He promoted uniformitarianism: the theory that Earth's major features developed gradually over long stretches of time

• A rebuttal to catastrophism which was the main view of the time: that Earth's features were formed by a series of major catastrophes over a shorter period of time (this came from religious thinking)

What was the dominant view of biological origins before Darwin, and what was Paley’s argument from design?

Previously there's been great resistance to the idea of non-spiritual psychological processes

• Most people still believed in creation

Paley's argument from design: "humans and the various species of animals are so complicated and so perfectly constructed and adapted, they must have been designed as finished products by God"

Who was Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, and how did his theory of evolution differ from Darwin’s?

Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744-1829): A French zoologist who proposed that species evolve and change owning to the inheritance of bodily changes produced by the voluntary exercise or disuse of particular organs

• e.g. giraffe's gaining a long neck to reach tall branches

Darwin's grandfather also argued and wrote that species change over time

Darwin’s difference: Evolution occurs through heritable variations and natural selection, rather than the inheritance of acquired characteristics

What observations led Darwin to consider that species change over time?

He examined bones of extinct animals, suggesting that life had changed over time, but this evidence alone was insufficient

He noticed geographical differences between members of the same animal group

He observed that animals, particularly birds, differed across islands, potentially because of different environments and food sources

These observations suggested that species gradually change as they adapt to their environments

What was Thomas Malthus’s influence on Darwin’s theory of natural selection?

• Malthus argued that populations can grow faster than available resources

  • This competition is balanced by factors such as famine and disease

• Darwin applied this idea to evolution: because resources are limited, organisms must compete to survive and reproduce

What is natural selection to Darwin?

Darwin proposed that within species differences led to some animals being better adapted to their environment and thus more successful in reproducing

How did Darwin know that natural selection would be controversial for its time? Give example with Scopes trial?

He knew it would be controversial as it really challenged religious doctrine (especially when he realized this also applied to humans)

Really made metaphysical/religious explanations unnecessary

He stated: animals and humans "partake from our origin in one common ancestor, so we may be all netted together"

e.g. Scopes Trial (1925): John Scopes was prosecuted in Tennessee for teaching evolution in violation of a state anti-evolution law