Exam 1 (Chapters 1, 2, & 3) (copy)

when was the Renaissance?

1300-1600

what are the characteristics of the zeitgeist of the Renaissance?

- little ice age (food scarcity & dying crops)
- bubonic plague (millions died, punishment from god, blamed jews, & created doubt w/ the church)
- growth of empirical studies continued
- interest grew in math
- new tech: clocks & printing press

heliocentric

based on the belief that the sun is the center of the universe

geocentric

based on the belief that the earth is the center of the universe

Hermann Ebbinghaus (1850-1909)

- inventor of nonsense syllable & 1st to study human memory
- "long past, short history"

Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543)

- argued for heliocentric system (more math organized)
- the copernican revolution increased the sphere in which natural causes could act
- got in trouble with the church for his beliefs

Galileo (1564-1642)

- challenged assumptions of the church
- felt the way to explain the universe was through science and mathematics
- primary and secondary qualities

primary qualities of objects

can be described with mathematic precision (ex: quantity, shape, size, position, & motion)

secondary qualities of objects

can't be measured with accuracy; based upon sense of the observer

Isaac Newton (1542-1627)

- deism
- universe is like a machine > can be measure mathematically
- empiricist
- inductive reasoning

deism

universe was created & set in motion by God; God then removed himself from interaction w/ the universe

inductive reasoning

emphasizes that scientific principles are generalizations made after a collection of large amounts of data

Francis Bacon (1561-1626)

- emphasized sense experience (empiricism) in the search for knowledge
- advocated the gathering of observations from a wide variety of sources; don't start w/ theories
- positivism
- inductive reasoning

positivism

only certain knowledge is obtained through objective, publicly observable events

deductive reasoning

using logic to demonstrate that the premises of an argument provide definitive grounds for the conclusion

Rene Descartes (1596-1650)

- skeptic in search for the truth
- "I think, therefore I am"
- was a nativist, dualist, & rationalist
- innate v.s. derived ideas
- cartesian dichotomy
- animal spirits

innate ideas

idea that exists or can be deduced in the absence of direct experience, through reasoning (ex: a material object's extension in space)

derived ideas

ideas that result from one's experiences in the world (ex: those ideas that come from an external source or sensory experience)

cartesian dichotomy

The distinction between humans (mind + body) and animals (only a mechanical body)

animal spirits

hypothetical essence once believed to inhabit the nervous system and to be the driving force behind muscle movement

John Locke

- argues for tabula rasa
- empiricist (knowledge learned through experience)
- criticized innate ideas
- atomistic organizational structure of the mind
- disagreed w/ primary & secondary qualities

atomistic organizational structure

belief that nature can be understood best by reducing complexity to its smallest, most fundamental elements

what were Locke's view on rearing children?

- believed we could shape children by controlling their experiences
- believed every child (regardless of status) should receive an education
- encourage hardening (to learn the reality of the world)

George Berkeley (1685-1753)

- empiricist & idealist
- challenged materialism & advocated a return to spiritual interpretations of the world
- ideas can only exist in the mind
- "that to be is to be perceived"
- accommodation & convergence

subjective idealism

the belief that only ideas and conscious minds have actual existence; assume reality through belief in God

accommodation

the process by which the eye's lens changes shape to focus near or far objects on the retina

convergence

tendency of the eye muscles to make the eyes move in the direction of "crossing" as objects move closer to a person

monocular cues

depth cues, such as interposition and linear perspective, available to either eye alone

David Hume (1711-1776)

- empiricist
- impressions v.s. ideas
- rules of association

what did Hume believe about experience?

experience is simply a chain of events; causality and other relationships are only a function of our mental habits

impressions

mental phenomena that present themselves with force

ideas

fainter images of impressions

what are the rules of association?

1. resemblance
2. contiguity
3. cause & effect

resemblance

when an object reminds of another they become associated with one another

contiguity

events experienced together, either simultaneously (spatial) or successively (temporal), become associated with each other

cause and effect

we cannot be certain of fundamental causes of events, only that events occur together regularly

John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)

- empiricist who contributed most to developing psychology as a science
- method of agreement/differences & joint differences
- concomitant variation

method of agreement

Two or more instances of an event (effect) are compared to see what they have in common. That commonality is identified as the cause.

method of differences

two or more instances of an event are compared to see what they all don't have in common

joint differences

matter of applying both methods

concomitant variation

the degree to which a presumed cause and a presumed effect occur or vary together

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibinz

- mathematician & diplomat
- nothing in the mind that wasn't first in the senses, except the mind itself (mind as veined marble)
- monadology
- petit perception
- apperception

monadology

system in which invisible units of existence (monads) moved in parallel in a pre-established harmony without interacting (psychophysical parallelism)

what are the levels of monads?

1. rational
2. sentient
3. simple

rational monads

form the essence of the human mind (account for consciousness)

sentient monads

found in all living beings that are not human

simple monads

make up physical reality

petites perceptions

perceptions that are below our level of awareness but are essential for higher levels of perception

apperception

A high level of awareness, in which we focus our full attention on some object and apprehend it fully

Immanuel Kant (1724-1800)

- sought middle ground between empiricism and rationalism
- believed knowledge begins with sensory experience
- didn't believe psychology could be an experimental science
- can't objectively study the mind (it's not a physical thing)

binocular vision

vision involving the use of two eyes and aides in depth perception

history

the interpretive study of the human past (not just facts)

what two components does history contain?

1. empirical components (i.e. historical data)
2. explanatory components (i.e. interpretations of data)

why do we study history?

- enriches our understanding of the present
- improves our understanding of the future
- it's a source of valuable ideas
- enriches liberal education
- teaches humility and health skepticism

histiography

the study of historical writing

why is psychology considered a science?

- uses empirical observation
- mixture of approaches (ex: rationalism & empiricism)
- has theories

rationalism

emphasizes the use of reason and logic to arrive at truth; associated with Descartes

empiricism

belief that our knowledge of the world is constructed from our experiences in it; associated with Locke

when did the study of psychology's history become popularized?

1960's when Robert Watson wrote "The History of Psychology: A Neglected Area"

old history

presentist, internal, personalistic

new history

historicist, external, naturalistic

origin myths

associated with old history; stories that overemphasize the importance of particular events in psychology

presentism

to interpret and assess the past only in terms of present understanding

historicism

the commitment to understanding the past for its own sake (aka the contextual approach)

who introduced historicism?

George Stocking in 1965

internal history

what is written occurs entirely within the discipline of psychology

why can internal history be problematic?

it is narrow minded and does not consider the full context

external history

considers outside influences and historical contexts

personalistic history

sees the actions of individual historical characters as the prime "movers" of history (ex: Freud or Wundt)

who is personalistic history associated with?

Thomas Carlyle

eponyms

Historical periods or movements named with reference to some important historical person (ex: Darwinian biology or Watsonian behaviorism)

naturalistic history

emphasizes the overall intellectual and cultural climate of a particular historical era

zeitgeist

the general spirit of the time/era

Edwin Boring

early historian of psychology who studied under Titchener at Cornell and wrote "A History of Experimental Psychology"; was a fan of naturalistic history

multiple

when two or more individuals independently make the same discovery at about the same time (ex: Darwin and Wallace)

epistemology

study of knowledge

a priori

relating to or derived by reasoning/logic (rationalism)

a posteriori

relating to or derived by observation/experience (empiricism)

nativism

inheritance or instinct (rationalism)

active mind

A mind that transforms, interprets, understands, or values physical experience. The rationalists assume an active mind. (ex: Plato)

passive mind

A mind that simply reflects cognitively one's experiences with the physical world. The empiricists assume a passive mind. (ex: Locke)

mechanist

believes that only natural forces govern living things, along with the rest of the universe

vitalism

the belief in a life force outside the jurisdiction of physical and chemical laws

how do we know truth?

authority, empiricism, rationalism, aestheticism, pragmatism, & skepticism

authority

power or title

aestheticism

art or beauty

pragmatism

realistic

skepticism

doubt

determinism

the belief that there are causes, both known & unknown, for every behavior or experience (ex: genes, values, emotions, etc.)

hard determinism

your actions are automatic, mechanical, & machine like through conditioning, etc.

soft determinism

cognitive processes such as intentions, motives, beliefs, and values intervene between experience and behavior

free will (nondeterminism)

The belief that human beings make choices that are, to some degree, independent of the antecedent conditions

monism

argue that everything is related to one fundamental thing; there's mind or there's body, not both

materialism

argues that everything is physical

idealism

argues that everything is mental

double aspect monism

argues that mind and brain are like 2 sides of the same coin

epiphenomenalism

mental states are only the overflow or byproduct of brain activity (i.e. there is only the brain)

dualism

argue that mental states and physical states are two qualitatively different orders of reality

interactionism

argues that mind and body are fundamentally different but interact

psychophysical parallelism

argues that mind and body coexist in a beautiful pre-established harmony without interaction