2. history

Pure, Basic, and Fundamental Science

• Terms like 'pure,' 'basic,' or 'fundamental' science can create prejudice by implying superiority.

Pure vs Applied Science in the History of Psychology

• Wundt wanted 'new psychology' seen as a pure science for higher status.

• Historically, applied activities were viewed as inferior due to pre-industrial Europe's class structures.

• Universities gradually included applied topics.

Development of Applied Psychology in the USA

• In America, applied science wasn't seen as inferior.

• Applied psychology grew, focusing on real-life issues.

• James's functionalism and Wundt's structuralism differed; James saw consciousness as functional, while Wundt studied mind structure.

William James and the Beginning of Psychology in America

• Early American psychology focused on problem-solving.

• James and Hall differed from Wundt; James supported 'coalescence hypothesis,' Wundt the 'brick wall hypothesis.'

Function of Psychology

• James was influenced by Darwin and Peirce, emphasizing usefulness and adaptiveness.

Functionalism at the University of Chicago

• Dewey and Angell developed functionalism, distinguishing it from Wundt's structuralism.

William James and Educational Psychology

• James advised forming good habits through natural tendencies, associating new ideas, and redirection.

• Forgetting is rapid initially, then slows. Recognition can occur without recall.

Münsterberg and Forensic Psychology

• Münsterberg, the father of applied psychology, promoted its science.

• He showed witness unreliability, false memory, and the impact of prejudice.

• He used early lie detection tests and emphasized quick eyewitness testimony without leading questions.

Stanley Hall and Applied Psychology

• Hall set up the first psychology lab in the USA and founded the APA.

• He viewed adolescence as emotional and vigorous.

Comparison of Early Psychologists

• James and Hall didn't differentiate applied from non-applied psychology.

• Modern educational psychology relies on testing.

Further Experiments by Münsterberg

• Münsterberg's research highlighted suggestibility and false memory.

Lie Detection and Eyewitness Testimony

• Münsterberg's research advises quick testimony, avoiding leading questions, and awareness of false memories.

Witmer and Clinical Psychology

• Witmer founded the first psychological clinic and coined 'clinical psychology'.

• He focused on education and later emphasized environment over heredity in mental illness.

Alternative Treatments for Mental Illness

• 'Moral treatment' was developed by religious/nonmedical figures.

• Dix campaigned against abusive asylums.

Historical Abuse in Mental Institutions

• Institutions like Bethlem Hospital were abusive.

• The Madhouses Act of 1774 and County Asylums Act of 1828 improved regulation, but abuse persisted.

Environmentalism and Mental Illness

• Environmentalism suggests mental illness can be cured with better environments, influencing behaviorist approaches.

Witmer's Clinics and the Rise of Psychological Assessment

• Psychologists led Witmer’s clinics, initiating mental illness analysis.

• Witmer wasn't influenced by Freud.

Scott and Industrial Psychology

• Scott developed industrial psychology, focusing on consumer influence and personnel testing.

Binet and Psychological Testing:

• Binet introduced tests to measure mental faculties for student placement.

Spearman and General Intelligence

• Spearman introduced general intelligence, affecting faculty scores.

• Early student allocation based on constant intelligence was seen as discriminatory.

Applied vs. Non-Applied Research

• Applied research gained importance; REF and TEF emphasize societal benefits and teaching.

Research Impact Assessment

• Impact is defined by reach, significance, and data-supported research.

• Applied psychology needs data or theory-led research.

• Translational research links theory and practice.

Value of Research

• Both applied and non-applied research are valuable; distinction matters less as science becomes theoretical.

• Good theory is practical.

Discrimination Against Women in Psychology

• APA and BPS had varying attitudes towards women; experimental groups showed explicit bias.

Discrimination within Experimental Psychology

• Experimentalists showed bias, excluding women and minorities, deeming them unsuited for science.

Introduction to Behaviourism

• Behaviorism (1920s-1950s) used animal research to establish psychology as a science.

Assumptions of Behaviourism

• Mechanisms causing behavior are the same across species.

• Behaviorism includes ideas from early 20th century to 1950.

Rejection of Introspection

• Behaviourism rejected introspection due to non-replicable results.

Problems with Introspection Detailed

• Külpe studied higher mental processes using introspection against Wundt's belief.

Examples of Introspection's Limitations

• Studies showed behavior and object naming occur without explanation.

Summary of Introspection's Failures

• Introspection isn't a reliable tool for understanding the mind-behavior link.

Imageless Thought Controversy

• Debates arose, with varying introspection-based conclusions.

Precursors to Behaviourism: Edward Thorndike

• Thorndike studied animal behavior, proposing laws of effect and exercise.

Thorndike's Puzzle Box Experiments

• Cats escaped puzzle boxes faster over time, leading to the proposal of two laws.

Thorndike's Laws

• Law of Effect stated actions followed by satisfaction recurred, vice versa; Law of Exercise stated responses strengthen with frequency.

Quasi-Scientific Expression

• Emphasis was on the quasi-scientific expression.

Limitations of Thorndike's Laws

• The laws aren't completely correct.

Reactive Inhibition

• Reactive inhibition generates when an action is carried out, and it accumulates and dissipates with time.

Motivation in Thorndikes' Findings

• Thorndike’s findings implied some form of motivation as well.

Watson and Methodological Behaviourism

• Watson favored animal research, believing results applied to humans.
  Introspection wasn't needed; observation was better.

Watson's Work on Animal Education

• Believed animal results apply to humans and observation is key.

Watson's View on Introspection and Behaviourism's Goal

• Behaviourism aimed to predict and control behavior.

Founding of Behaviorism

• Started in 1913, assuming no animal-human difference.

Stimulus-Response Bond

• Watson emphasized stimulus-response bond for habits, conditioned by environment.

Conditioning and Neuroses

• Watson applied conditioning to neuroses; Little Albert experiment showed fear conditioning.

Watson's Work in Advertising and Childcare

• Used emotional appeals in advertising and provided childcare advice.

Recommendations in Watson's Childcare Book

• Advised routine, avoiding fear, and withholding love (now incorrect).

Skinner and Radical Behaviourism

• Skinner rejected theoretical terms, focusing on observation.

Observational and Theoretical Terms

• Scientific explanations predict cause-effect via observation terms.

The Purpose of Scientific Explanations and Theoretical Terms

-The purpose of scientific explanation is to predict cause and effect relationships between observation terms

Intervention of Theoretical Terms

• Theoretical terms cause intervening between observation terms: (A) observation causes (B) observation because of (C) a rationale based on a theoretical level of description

Paradox of Theorizing

• Once the links between observations are known, theoretical terms become redundant.

Psychological Theory Paradox

• If an organism variable succeeds in linking stimulus to response, it can be ignored.

Skinner's Argument Against Psychological Theoretical Terms

• Skinner rejected physiological and mentalistic explanations.

Explanatory Fictions

• Skinner viewed organism variables as redescribing behavior, not explaining it.

Skinner's View on Humans

• Skinner viewed humans as stimulus-response systems.

The Skinner Box

• Skinner box created for rat behavior research.

Operant vs. Respondent Conditioning

• Skinner introduced operant conditioning.

Shaping Behaviour with Reinforcement

• Reinforcement shapes behavior better than punishment.

Operant conditioning

• Positive reinforcement means that you gain a positive experience, and negative reinforcement means you avoid a negative experience

Walden Two

-Positive reinforcement means you gain something desirable, while negative reinforcement means you remove something undesirable

Skinner's Invention

• Skinner also invented the ‘aircrib’ and the summator

Innovations in Education

• Students should learn at their own pace and receive immediate feedback.

Behaviourist Ideals to Increase Happiness

• Behaviourist principles could increase happiness via positive reinforcement.

Neobehaviourism

• Neobehaviorism allows organism variables if operationally defined.

Rat Maze Experiment

• Rats' prior experiences influence maze responses.

Prior Experiences and Historical Influences

• Similar to satiated rats vs hungry rats: the responses of these two different groups of rats to the maze will be different

Good Organism Variables defined by Neobehaviourists

• Neobehaviourists defined ‘good’ organism variables as objectively measurable.

Hull's Quantitative Theory

• Hull used math to explain behavior, focusing on net reaction potential, drive, and habit.

Hull's Formula

• (S*ER = D \times H), illustrating drive energizes behavior, habit directs it.

Tolman's Purposive Behaviourism

Key aspects of this behaviourism are:

Molar Behaviorism: Behavior is a larger, goal-oriented act rather than a series of discrete actions

All-or-none Learning: Tolma believed learning was an all-or-none process, where one either knows or does not, unlike Hull’s view of incremental, associative learning. This approach is similar to the focus in Gestalt psychology on the whole rather than the parts.

Cognitive Maps: Tolman hypothesizes that rats create a cognitive map of their environment to better navigate it

Hypothetical Constructs and Intervening Variables

Behaviourists only allowed operationally defined organism variables in their theories; also known as intervening variables, they are defined by their measurement procedures. But MacCorquodale and Meehl identified another type of organism variable, hypothetical constructs, which are assumed to exist independently of their measurement