Pioneers Of Psychology Chapter 1

Front 1

Which 3 types of souls did Aristotle describe and what were they capable of?

Back 1

1. Vegetative souls: nourish themselves and reproduce
2. Sensitive souls: sensation, memory, locomotion and imagination
3. Rational souls: reason consciously and take on highest moral virtues

Front 2

What did Descartes recognize when he had a crucial insight that led to analytic geometry?

Back 2

Any point in space could be defined by its nummerical distances from arbitrarily defined lines or planes.

Front 3

What did Descartes' work 'Rules for the Direction of the Mind' put forward?

Back 3

The most elementary and axiomatic units of a subject (simple natures) had to be determined. Just two properties are ultimate simple natures: extension and motion.

Front 4

How did Descartes define a 'simple nature'?

Back 4

An idea or impression that is at once clear, meaning that it is given immediately in experience and distinct, meaning that is is incapable of further analysis or doubt.

Front 5

What idea did Galilei put forward in his work called The Assayer?

Back 5

The three primary qualities of shape, quantity and motion presumably reside inherently in matter, whereas the secondary qualities arise only after the primary qualities impinge on the human senses.

Front 6

What three particles did Descartes come up with and how did he conceptualize them?

Back 6

1. Fire, capable of filling up any space of any shape or size
2. AIr, completely filled all the spaces between objects
3. Earth, all material objects are composed of this particle

Front 7

Which of Descartes ideas contributed to neuropsychology?

Back 7

The idea that animal spirits (CSF) flow through the ventricles of the brain. Memory and learning can be accomplished through flowing animal spirits.

Front 8

Which 2 kinds of reflexive responses did Descartes theorize on?

Back 8

1. Automatic reflexes: vital spirits flowed immediately down the same nerve whose fiber had been tugged
2. Learned reactions: response is not originally connected with its stimulus

Front 9

What was Descartes theory on differation between reactions of human beings to the same stimuli?

Back 9

Internal factors such as emotions play a role in animal response. Commotions may develop in different parts of the animal spirit, influencing receptiveness of nearby nerves to flows of spirit toward the muscles.

Front 10

What did Descartes describe in his work called 'Discourse on Method'?

Back 10

How his method based on systematic doubt came into being and summarizing its major conclusions regarding the body and soul.

Front 11

What did Descartes define as innate ideas?

Back 11

Ideas independent of specific sensory experience derived from the thinking soul itself.

Front 12

Why is Descartes commonly labeled as a rationalist?

Back 12

He believes reasond and intellective functions of the conscious mind where more fundamental than sensory experience.

Front 13

Why is he labeled a nativist?

Back 13

His system posits innate ideas existing prior to concrete experience.

Front 14

What new element did Descartes add to the idea of dualism?

Back 14

That body and soul do not act alone but rather interact.

Front 15

What part did Princess Elizabeth of Bohemia not understand about Descartes' theory?

Back 15

An immaterial mind and a material body could interact and mutually influence each other. And how the nonmaterial soul can possible determine the spirits of the body to produce voluntary actions.

Front 16

What problem did Descartes stumble upon when suggesting the soul resides in the human brain?

Back 16

The brain was a physically divided organ with two symmetrical halves, whereas the soul seemed a unified, single entity.

Front 17

How did Descartes define the 'Passions'?

Back 17

The conscious experiences accompanying the body's emotions.

Front 18

How does the soul respond to this information (animal spirits flow past pineal gland, causing it to move slightly)?

Back 18

1. It senses a particular nature of the gland's movement (a conscious sensation of a passion)
2. The soul may take a conscious attitude toward that passion and attempt to influence it (voluntary movements of pineal gland)