History & Systems Exam 1

Front 1

define Science
-Empirical observations
-Theory

Back 1

a process developed as a way to answer questions about nature by directly examining nature,
empirical observations: direct observation of nature
theory: interested in lawful relationships

Front 2

Determinism

Back 2

Every behavior has a causal explanation

Front 3

Biological determinism

Back 3

Emphasizes the importance of physiological conditions and/or genetic predispositions in explaining behavior

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Environmental determinism

Back 4

Emphasizes the importance of environmental stimuli9as determinants of behavior

Front 5

Sociocultural determinism

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emphasizes cultural or societal rules, regulations, customs, and beliefs that govern human behavior

Front 6

Indeterminism

Back 6

human behavior may be determined by the causes cannot be accurately measured (e.g. Hawthorne effect)

Front 7

Nondeterminism

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science is not a way to study humans, human behavior is freely chosen and self-generated. Free will leads to personal responsibility for behavior.

Front 8

Hard determinism vs. soft determinism

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HARD: x causes y in an automatic, mechanistic manner (very little personal responsibility)
SOFT: x can cause y but cognitive processes can intervene between experience and production of behavior (more personal responsibility, foundation of therapy)

Front 9

List some problems with the writing of history

Back 9

-Selecting sample of information gathered
-Important pieces could be missing (either by acts of God, or on purpose)
-Access to some information restricted
-Reliability of information gathered
-Questionable value of information

Front 10

Sensation vs. Perception

Back 10

SENSATION: outside world falling on sensory perceptors
PERCEPTION: psychological experience

Front 11

Theodore Vischov

Back 11

discovered consciousness ceases when head is severed from body

Front 12

Why Germany?

Back 12

German profs could direct students in research, were well funded, and well paid.

Front 13

Charles Bell (time period)

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Sensation + Perception
(1774-1842)
Trained as surgeon
Demonstrated that there are separate nerves for sensory and motor functions.
Wrote a book about nerves that he found through dissection
Found facial nerves (bells palsy)

Front 14

Johannes Muller (time period)

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Sensation + Perception
(1801-1858)
Discovered the doctrine of specific nerve energies

Front 15

Doctrine of specific nerve energies

Back 15

Each nerve responds in its own characteristic way regardless of the stimulation that activated it

Front 16

Herman von Helmholtz

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Sensation + Perception
(1824-1894)
Materialist
Determined speed of nerve conduction, argued that if vitalism is real, stimulating the toe wouldn't take longer than stimulating the chin
Young-Hemholtz theory of color vision (trichomatic theory)
Resonance place theory of auditory perception

Front 17

Christine Ladd Franklin

Back 17

Sensation + Perception
(1847-1930)
Evolutionary theory of color vision: we started achromatic, then blue-yellow sensitivity, then red-green sensitivity

Front 18

Materialism vs. vitalism

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Everything can be explained by physical processes, there is no "other" animating us vs. there is an "other" animating us--our spirit.

Front 19

Franz Josef Gall

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Localization of Brain Function
(1758-1828)
Phrenology (doctrine of the skull): human "faculties" can be identified and located in specific parts of the brain
Identified fibers connecting hemispheres, discovered contralateral function
Mental abilities of different species correlated with complexity of the brain (counted gyri, they are not similar across species).

Front 20

Pierre Flourens

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Localization of Brain Function
(1794-1867)
wanted to disprove phrenology, used ablation to find that cerebellum is center of motor coordination, and not the center of sexual behavior ("amativeness")

Front 21

Paul Broca

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Localization of Brain Function
(1824-1880)
studied Leborgne (Tan), who couldn't speak after several epileptic seizures. Found Tan had expressive or motor aphasia: function localized to left inferior lobe; called Broca's area.

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Psychophysics

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Study of relationship between the perception of a stimulus event and the physical dimensions of the stimulus being percieved

Front 23

Ernst Weber

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Measurement of Mental Events
(1795-1878)
Mapped the relative sensitive of various locations on the skin (two-point threshold)
Demonstrated a mathematical relationship between the psychological and the physical: Weber's Law (JND 3% in humans)

Front 24

Gustav Fechner

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Measurement of Mental Events
(1801-1889)
Found that the length of time you have a visual afterimage correlates with how bright the light is.
Night View (materialism) vs. Day View (personal and cosmic consciousness)
Elements of Psychophysics (1860): first book of experimental psychology

Front 25

Francis Galton (1822-1911)

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The Mental Testing Movement
(1822-1911)
Developed the survey method.
Thought Darwin's theory applied to distribution of wealth.
Published: English Men of Science, their Nature and Nurture (1874), History of Twins (1875), Hereditary Genius (1869) - "I propose to show in this book that a man's natural abilities are derived by inheritance."
Composite portraiture: looking for common features of criminal faces.
Eugenics: use of selective breeding to increase general intelligence of a population.
--Anthropometric Laboratory (beginning 1884) to test people's avilities
--"Galton whistle": thought fast sensory processes = fast brain processes
Developed correlation coefficient with Karl Pearson.

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Herman Ebbinghaus

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Educational Testing
(1850-1909)
Completion task to assess his "mental fatigue" (tested himself).
Used these fill-in-the blank tests on children, found that some simply did not learn as well as others.

Front 27

Alfred Binet

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Educational Testing
(1857-1911)
Asked to determine which children needed to be put into special education:
--Tested idiots, imbeciles, and debiles
--Assessed their "mental age"
--Stated that the only purpose of testing was classroom placement, and that it did not tell you about their success in life.

Front 28

Henry Goddard

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Educational Testing
(1866-1957)
Worked at Vineland Training School for Feeble-minded Girls and Boys.
Assessed them using Binet method, presented his findings at the American Association of the Feeble Minded.
Case study: the Kallikak family - a study in the heredity of feeblemindedness.
Suggested forced sterilization of feeble-minded women.

Front 29

Lewis Terman

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Educational Testing
(1877-1956)
Developed best-known IQ test (coined term "intelligence quotient."
Hereditarian.
Genetic Studies of Genius: mental and physical traits of a thousand gifted children (1925)
--disproved "early to bloom, early to rot" theory
--created Stanford-Binet tests of intelligence (adapting Binet's to American audience)

Front 30

Robert Yerkes

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Other Uses of Testing
(1876-1956)
Developed tests for recruits for WWI: Army Alpha (English-readers) & Army Beta (non English readers).
Yerkes Primate Center at Yale

Front 31

William James

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Functionalism
(1842-1910)
Believed psychology was "no science... only the hope of a science."
Believed in free will.
Published (with considerable help from wife, Alice) The Principles of Psychology (1890)
--Methodology in first textbook: introspection, comparative method (with animals), shunned experimental methods ("brass instrument psychology")
James-Lange theory of emotion
Spiritualism: belief that consciousness survives death
Founded American Society for Psychical Research, studied Leonora Piper

Front 32

Consciousness is... (according to James)

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1. personal
2. constantly changing
3. sensibly continuous
4. selective
5. active

Front 33

Functionalism

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Mental Processes have a fucntion in adapting a person to an environment.
Want psychology to be a practical science.
Interested in mental processes and behavior.
Influenced heavily by Darwin.

Front 34

Hugo Munsterberg

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Functionalism
(1863-1916)
Known as first applied psychologist.
Published On the witness stand (1908): forensic psychology.
--railed against hypnosis as a way of gaining truthful testaments
Published psychology and the industrial efficiency (1912)
--developed assessments to place you in jobs

Front 35

Lillian Moller Gilbreth

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Functionalism
(1878-1972)
Awarded first doctorate in industrial psychology.
Efficiency expert:
--Ergonomics
--Designed Kitchen Practical in 1929

Front 36

Ergonomics

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study of how systems and products can be made most efficient for human use

Front 37

G. Stanley Hall

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Functionalism
(1844-1924)
Awarded first doctorate in experimental psychology (?) at Harvard, 1878.
Founded American Psychological Association (1892).
First President of Clark University.
--Freud spoke at Clark in 1911