History of Psychology Study Guide

Chapter 1

Why do we study Psychology?

• To appreciate modern psychology

• To avoid repetition of mistakes

• The importance of rediscovery

What is science?

• The ability to directly observe something in nature followed by an explanation of what has been observed

What is rationalism? (LOGIC)

• knowledge comes from reason and logic

What is empiricism? (SENSE/EXPERIENCE)

• knowledge comes from sensory and experiences

Theories

• To organize empirical observations and guide future observation

• MUST BE TESTABLE

  2 Classes of scientific laws

  • Correlational law (shows a connection, not a cause)

  • Casual laws (a cause, has control)

    it is rare that a case only has one cause

Karl Popper

Popper disagreed with traditional views of science and instead believed that scientific activity began with a problem which determines what observations are needed. He believed that ALL scientific theories will eventually be proven false and replaced with better theories.

• Principles of Falsifiability

  • Scientific theory must be refutable

  • (For a theory to be valid according to falsification, it must produce hypotheses that have the potential to be proven incorrect by observable evidence or experimental results.)

    • Ex: the hypothesis that “all swans are white” can be falsified by observing a black swan

• Risky Predications

  • For a theory to be scientific it must run the risk of being incorrect

Mind & Body

• Monism

  a view that there is only one kind of ultimate substance

  • Materialist (matter)

    • Everything is physics and chemistry: matter is the only reality

  • Idealist (consciousness)

    • Even physical reality is a result of perception/ideas

• Dualism

  Belief that there are both physical and mental events

  • Interactionism (Mind & Body interact)

    • mind influences the body and vice versa

  • Emergentist (Mental state emerge from physical brain state)

    • One version of this is epiphenomenalism

      i. The brain causes mental events, but mental events cannot cause behavior

      ii. Mental events are just biproducts of brain processes

  • Psychophysical Parallelism

    • Environmental experience causes BOTH mental events and bodily

      responses simultaneously but the two are independent of one another

    • Mind and body do not interact but also cannot be separated

Nativism vs. Empiricism (Nature v. Nurture)

• Nativism: Emphasizes role of inheritance

• Empiricism: Emphasizes role of experience

Rationalism vs. Irrationalism

• Rationalism: Human behavior is guided by logic & intelligence and is thought out and specific

• Irrationalism: Human behavior is largely unconscious, and the true causes of behavior cannot always be identified/ explained (emphasizes emotions)

• Many see the combination of the two as superior

Origin of human knowledge

• Radical Empiricist

  • All knowledge is derived from sensory experience

  • Passive mind

• Rationalist

  • Sensory experience is often the first step in attaining knowledge, but

    the mind must then actively transform this information in some way before

    knowledge is attained

  • Active mind

• Nativists

  • Some knowledge is innate

• Chess example

  • if two people look at a chess board mid game but one of them is a master and the other doesn’t know how to play at all, are they looking at the same board?

    • empiricist: yes, because it is the same object

    • rationalist: no, one sees moves to be made and the other just sees figures that are scattered across a checkered table

• Free will vs. Determinism

  • Free Will - The idea that people have the ability to make their own choices and are not controlled by external factors

  • Determinism - The idea that all events are caused by previous events, and that people are controlled by external factor

Chapter 2

Animism

• The belief that inanimate objects have human feelings and intentions

Anthropomorphism

• Giving animals human characteristics

Thales (625-547 B.C.)

• Seen as the first philosopher

• Emphasized natural explanations and minimized supernatural ones

• Physis - water

• The single substance of the world is water

  • Developed navigation methods based on stars & planets

  • Applied geometric principles to measure large things (ex.

    buildings)

Anaximander (610-547 B.C.)

• Studied with Thales

• Proposed a very basic theory of evolution

• Physis – the “boundless” or the “indefinite

  • Argued even water was a compound of smaller material

  • He believed that the world and all natural phenomena originated from this indefinite substance, rather than from a specific element like water or air

  • fish theory: earth + water = Fish

Heraclitus (540-480 B.C.)

• Physis – fire

• Heraclitus identified fire as the primary substance (arche) of the cosmos

• Nothing “is”; everything is “becoming”

• Famous statement – “it is impossible to step twice into the same river”

• Epistemological question: how can something be known if it is constantly changing?

Pythagoras (580-500 B.C.)

• Physis – numbers

• Math can be used to predict & explain nature

• Transmigration of souls

  • when we die, our souls move on

• Progressive for the time

• First to talk about mind & body (dualism)

• Believed mind to be more important

Empedocles (490 -430 B.C.)

• Physis – 4 elements (water, fire, earth, air)

• Humans consist of these elements:

  • Earth = solid part of the body

  • Water = liquids in the body

  • Air = breath of life

  • Fire = ability to reason

• Eidola- the first theory of perception (tiny participles going through our pores)

  • eidola were thin films or images emitted by objects that traveled through the air and entered the eyes, thus enabling vision. According to this theory, these images were composed of tiny particles and retained the form of the object from which they originated.

Hippocrates (Father of medicine)

• Balance of 4 humors

  • Blood: Linked to being cheerful and energetic.

    Phlegm: Linked to being calm and dependable.

    Yellow Bile: Linked to being ambitious and sometimes angry.

    Black Bile: Linked to being thoughtful and sometimes sad.

    • The idea was that a balance of these fluids meant good health, and an imbalance could lead to illness or changes in personality.

• The Hippocratic oath is “to do no harm”

Galen

• First theory of personality

• 4 humors associated with 4 temperaments

  • more blood = joyful

Socrates (470-399 B.C.)

• Know thyself”

• Wanted people to question

• Wanted people to question/challenge him

• Search for knowledge

• Always in a position to learn

• Socratic questioning: asking questions to stimulate critical thinking and to draw out ideas and underlying presumptions. (Why this? Why that?)

Plato (427-347 B.C)

• Allegory of the cave

  • Imagine a group of people who have lived chained inside a dark cave all their lives. They are facing the cave wall and can't see the entrance. Behind them is a fire, and between the fire and the prisoners is a raised walkway. People outside the cave pass along this walkway, casting shadows on the wall of the cave.

    The prisoners watch these shadows and believe them to be the only reality, as they have never seen anything else. One day, a prisoner is freed and exposed to the outside world. At first, the light is blinding, and it takes time for the prisoner to adjust. Slowly, the prisoner realizes that the shadows on the wall were merely reflections of real objects in the outside world.

    When the prisoner returns to the cave to tell the others, they don't believe him and prefer the shadows, which are familiar to them.

• Reminiscence theory of knowledge: All knowledge is innate and can be attained only through introspection

Aristotle (384-322 B.C.)

First philosopher to extensively attend to many topics that later became part of psychology

• Technology: everything has a cause

• Entelechy: belief that everyone and everything starts out with purpose/function

• Cause and purpose come from “unmoved mover” (God?)

• a force that causes the change but itself is not changed

Laws of association

• law of contiguity

  • ideas or experiences that occur together in time or space are linked in memory

    • ex. if you always hear a bell right before dinner, you may start associating the sound of the bell with the feeling of hunger.

• law of similarity

  • similar ideas or experiences are connected in the mind

    • ex. seeing a picture of a cat may remind you of your own pet cat because they share similar features

• law of contrast

  • opposite ideas or experiences are associated with each other

    • ex. thinking about a cold winter day might make you think of a hot summer day due to their contrasting characteristics.

• law of frequency

  • the more often two ideas are paired, the stronger the association becomes

    • ex. hearing a song repeatedly, specific memories come up

Chapter 4

Renaissance

• 4 themes

  • Individualism: People began to focus on personal achievements and self-expression

  • Personal Religion: People sought to understand their faith individually rather than relying solely on the Church.

  • Interest in the past: They studied ancient texts, art, and architecture, which influenced their own work.

  • Anti Aristotle: People began to emphasize individual potential and achievements, which sometimes clashed with Aristotle's more rigid views on society and human nature // The period also saw a movement towards personal religion and a questioning of the authority of the Church. This broader trend of questioning established authority extended to Aristotle's ideas as well.

Martin Luther

• views on Catholicism

  • disgusted” by Christianity at the time, especially opposed to Catholicism

  • Luther believed that the Pope had too much power over the Church and politics. He argued that the Bible, not the Pope, should be the ultimate authority on religious matters

• Didn’t want people to abandon the church, just started a new sect of

  Christianity

  • Protestant: The term "Protestant" originally referred to those who "protested" against certain practices and beliefs of the Catholic Church.

• Denial of Free Will

  • Everything is in God’s plan

Geocentric Theory

• the belief that the Earth is the center of the universe

Heliocentric Theory

• the belief that the Sun is the center of the universe

Copernicus (1473-1543)

• First to challenge theory that Earth is the center of the universe

• Said sun was center and backed this with math (heliocentric)

Galileo

he made a telescope (1609)

• why wouldn’t people look?

  • it went against the beliefs of the church

• Why was he hated by the church?

  • God did not intend for humans to have this type of vision. Otherwise, humans would’ve been able be see it with the naked eye.

• When was he cleared by the church? 1992

Newton

• law of gravitation

• Deism: God created the universe and then “let it be” and does not actively intervene in the events of the world

Bacon

No theories, only observations

• If you start with a theory, you start with a bias

• 4 Sources of error (experimenter bias)

  • idol of the cave

    • These errors come from personal experiences and education. Each person's unique upbringing and cultural background can distort their perception of reality

  • idol of the tribe

    • These are errors that arise from human nature itself. People tend to see patterns and order even where none exist, and they project human characteristics onto the natural world

  • idol of the marketplace

    • These are errors that arise from the use of language and communication. Misunderstandings and imprecise use of words can lead to confusion and false beliefs.

  • idol of the theater

    • These are errors that come from adherence to philosophical dogmas and theories. People often accept these ideas uncritically, much like an audience passively watching a play.

Descartes

• only thing for certain: he was doubting

• “I think, therefor I am”

• invented analytic geometry because of a fly

• Some ideas are innate and put in by nature/God

  • Ex: unity, infinity, perfection, geometry, and God

• Since God would not deceive us, we can trust our senses

  • But we need to analyze sensory information rationally

• Mechanistic view of human & animal behavior

  • Nerves – hollow tubes -> cavities in the brain -> animal spirits

  • Reflex

• Mind/Body Interaction (dualist)

  • Only humans possessed a mind that was conscious and allowed for freedom of choice and rationality

  • Mind can influence the body

  • Mind exerts influence in the brain

  • Psychology = Science

Chapter 5

Hobbes

• politics- monarchy

• Humans can be viewed as machines & understood through geometry

• Physical monist

  • Only the body is important

• Hedonist

  • Motivated by our appetites

• Determinist

  • Choice is just a verbal label

Locke

One of the most influential political philosophers

• Government: By the people, for the people

• Dualist

• Rejected Hobbes’s physical monism

• Opposed innate ideas

  • Tabula Rasa (blank slate)

  • Ideas come from experience (nurture)

• simple ideas- basic sensory experiences from direct interaction with the external world

• complex ideas- combing simple ideas through processes like association, memory, and imagination

• Mind can neither create nor destroy ideas

Berkeley

• External reality: only our perceptions

• If a tree falls...

  o with experience we can accurately perceive

  o Distance perception

  o Milestone: How complex perception is

• to be is to be perceived

Bain

• first psychologist

• founded “mind”, first psychological journal

• mind 3 components: feelings, will, and intellect

• Voluntary behavior- self-initiated actions guided by past experiences

• Reflexive: involuntary automatic response to stimuli

  • ex. Pulling your hand away from a hot stove.

• Spontaneous: involuntary automatic behavior that occurs without a direct stimulus and can lead to learning

  • ex. a baby might randomly make a sound (spontaneous behavior) and then learn to repeat it because it gets attention from parents.

• Precursor to operant conditioning

Chapter 6

Von Leibniz

• law of continuity- no native gaps in nature

• Petite Perceptions- tiny, unconscious, sensory experiences that accumulate to form, conscious awareness but one individual too small to be noticed.

• (These are subtle, often unnoticed impressions or feelings that can influence our thoughts and behaviors without us being fully aware of them.)

• Apperception- becoming consciously aware of accumulated petite perception leading to higher thought and self-awareness

Faculty Psychology

• theory that the mind is made up of different mental faculties (think of phrenology) (the touching head thing)

Kant

• was a faculty psychologist

• categorical imperative

  • Always treat others as ends in themselves

    • Each individual is free to act on it or not

    • Against it – guilt

    • Free will

• Psych could not become an experimental science b/c

  • The mind cannot be objectively studied

Herbart

• Psychic mechanics- ideas contain a force of their own

• Apperceptive Mass

  • A perception- tiny ideas helps you become conscious

  • Compatible ideas that form a group in consciousness

  • Prevent incompatible ideas from entering

• Repression: force used to keep incompatible ideas in unconscious

  • Enough incompatible ideas – form a group

  • Become another apperceptive mass in consciousness