Chapter 4 Flashcards
(11 cards)
What was William James (1842-1910)’s contribution to psychology?
- He was born in a wealthy family.
- Harvard medical school then taught and opened a physiological lab in 1875.
- Published an extraordinary book “The Principles of Psychology” in 1890, the book’s content was really similar to mental philosophy, such as consciousness, imagination, and reasoning, but James drew work from neurophysiology, psychophysics, and psychological experimentation, etc.
- James didn’t enjoy laboratory work but instead focused on teaching and writing in philosophy. He was very interested in paranormal phenomena and mental healing.
What were some key principles in James’s study of the mind/consciousness?
- He studies the stream of consciousness and its linkage to selective attention. In contrast to Wundt’s psychology, James believed that consciousness flowed like a stream instead of existing in bits or discrete units.
- He thought that processes such as habit and selective attention can help us extract information, make sense of it, and act on it in a world of sensory overload.
- Consciousness can help people make good decisions.
What did James believe about the formation of emotions (James-Lange theory of emotions)?
The bodily changes result from the perception of the situation, and that recognition of the bodily changes subsequently produces the subjective feeling we label emotion.
Who was Mary Whiton Calkins (1863-1930) and what were her contributions to psychology?
- Was never granted her PhD due to stigmatization towards women at that time!
- She was the first women to found a psychology laboratory in 1891 in Wellesley.
- She made great contributions to the current conceptualization of human memory.
- First woman president of the American Psychological Association in 1905
What was one memory technique invented by Calkins that is still in use today?
The paired associates method: items (words, nonsense syllables, pictures) are presented in pairs in the learning trials and then one item of the pair is used to cue the other in the memory trials
What was one research procedure invented by Calkins that is still in use today?
The recency effect could be reduced or eliminated by insertion of some kind of distractor task between presentation of the list and recall of the list.
Who was G. Stanley Hall and what were his contributions to psychology?
- He was William James’s student and completed doctoral degree in Harvard.
- Opened the first psychology laboratory in America in 1883
- Founded the first psychology journal in America, founded APA in 1892, began the Child Study Movement to enhance education, and started the first journal of religious psychology
- He was the president of the Clark University for 31 years
What was the Child Study Movement about?
- People at that time were obsessed with raising children of good moral character.
- The broad goal of child study was to discover all that could be known about the child, such as sensory capabilities, physical characteristics, humour, etc.
- Even though the movement was not hugely successful, it led to the true science of developmental and educational psychology
What was G. Stanley Hall’s another contribution to the field of psychology (i.e. his book)?
“Adolescence: Its Psychology and Its Relations to Physiology, Anthropology, Sociology, Crime, and Religion” (1904), a book that is generally credited with establishing adolescence as a distinctive stage in human development and introducing the term into popular usage.
Key among Hall’s many contributions was the impetus he gave for the study of development, in childhood, adolescence, and old age, and the legacy of that work for modern lifespan developmental psychology
Who was James McKeen Cattell (1860-1944)?
He came from a relatively prosperous family. First studied with Hall at Johns Hopkins, after dispute with Hall, left for university of Leipzig to study with Wundt in 1886.
His mentor was Francis Galton, developed anthropometric tests (measures of human cognitive, sensory, and motor abilities) 人体测量测试
His main contribution was that he advanced the field’s experimental study methods as to use mental tests such as intelligence tests to quantify mental traits. He coined the term “mental test”
What were some other contributions of Cattell?
He served as the owner and editor of science for 50 years and made the journal viable using his broad connections in the scientific community and his entrepreneurial skills to enhance the currency of the content.
He welcomed publications from his colleagues in the field and helped psychology gain visibility within the broader scientific community
