Chapter 9 - Early approaches to psychology

Question 1

What is Wundt’s claim to fame?

Answer 1

Founder of psychology

Question 2

Thought meter

Answer 2

Wundt found that it took 1/10 of a second to shift attention from sound of bell to position of pendulum

Question 3

What was Wundt measuring using his thought meter?

Answer 3

Speed of selective/voluntary attention

Question 4

Divided attention

Answer 4

Person can attend to pendulum or to bell, but not to both at same time

Question 5

When people think they are multitasking, what are they actually doing?

Answer 5

Constantly switching their attention back and forth between stimuli

Question 6

Did Wundt believe that consciousness can be measured and quantified?

Answer 6

Yes

Question 7

Wundt’s Principles of Physiological Psychology goals

Answer 7

To create a new field of experimental psychology
To uncover the fundamental facts of human consciousness

Question 8

What was the original name of Wundt’s journal, and what was it changed to?

Answer 8

Philosophical Studies to Psychological Studies

Question 9

What is often considered as psychology’s DOB?

Answer 9

1879

Question 10

Why is 1879 considered psychology’s DOB?

Answer 10

Opened the very popular “Institute for Experimental Psychology” lab at University of Leipzig

Question 11

What did Wundt oppose?

Answer 11

Opposed materialism and aspects of empiricism

Question 12

What did Wundt believe about consciousness?

Answer 12

It is immaterial and that people do not passively/automatically sense and perceive stimuli
Believed we play an active role in synthesizing sensory info

Question 13

What did Wundt believe about empiricism?

Answer 13

Couldn’t account for human will/volition

Question 14

What is the first technical school of thought in psychology?

Answer 14

Voluntarism

Question 15

What did Wundt see will as?

Answer 15

A central concept in psychology/consciousness

Question 16

What did Wundt include in will as?

Answer 16

Attention
Volition
Motivation

Question 17

What did voluntarism seek to do?

Answer 17

Understand mental laws governing consciousness

Question 18

What kind of mental processes did Wundt believe could be studied experimentally/scientifically?

Answer 18

Only basic mental processes/immediate experience (e.g., sensation, perception)

Question 19

What were Wundt’s beliefs on studying more complex mental processes?

Answer 19

Believed that understanding things like morality, language require naturalistic observations and historical analysis

Question 20

What were Wundt’s two major goals?

Answer 20

To discover the basic elements of thoughts
To discover the laws by which mental elements combine into more complex mental experiences (i.e., perception)

Question 21

How did Wundt seek to discover the basic elements of thought?

Answer 21

Through experimental rather than pure introspection

Question 22

What were the 2 basic elements of thought, according to Wundt?

Answer 22

Sensations
Feelings

Question 23

Sensations

Answer 23

Sense organ is stimulated and resulting impulse reaches brain

Question 24

What are the three aspects of sensations?

Answer 24

Modality
Intensity
Qualities

Question 25

Give 2 examples of the aspects of sensations

Answer 25

Auditory; loudness; pitch and timbre Visual; brightness; hue and sensation

Question 26

What was Wundt's theory of feelings?

Answer 26

Tridimensional theory of feeling

Question 27

Tridimensional theory of feeling

Answer 27

Pleasantness-unpleasantness Excitement-calm Strain-relaxation

Question 28

Name Wundt's 3 aspects of discovering the laws by which mental elements combine into more complex mental experiences

Answer 28

Apperception Perception Creative synthesis

Question 29

Apperception

Answer 29

An active process whereby a person chooses to attend to certain stimuli (i.e., voluntarism)

Question 30

What is a synonym for apperception?

Answer 30

Attention

Question 31

Perception

Answer 31

A passive process whereby an individual gathers an impression based on their physical stimulation, anatomical makeup, and past experiences

Question 32

Creative synthesis

Answer 32

People create their experiences through actively attending to and arranging stimuli (e.g., the pitch of a sound) Accommodate, alter, contextualize information

Question 33

Who said the following quote: "There are no psychological qualities in physics. For example, there is no red, or green, or blue in that world. Redness, greenness, and blueness are phenomena that are created by the cortex of the experiencing individual. A musical quality, the flavour of the wine, or the familiarity of a face is a rapid creative synthesis that cannot, in principle, be explained as a mere sum of elemental physical features."

Answer 33

Wundt

Question 34

What is Edward Titchener's main claim to fame?

Answer 34

Developed the largest doctoral program in the U.S.

Question 35

What is Titchener colloquially known as?

Answer 35

"The U.S. representative of Wundtian ideas"

Question 36

Consciousness according to Titchener

Answer 36

The sum total of mental experience at any given moment

Question 37

Mind according to Titchener

Answer 37

The accumulated experience of a lifetime

Question 38

What kind of science did Titchener emphasize psychology as?

Answer 38

Pure science

Question 39

What was Titchener's school of thought?

Answer 39

Structuralism

Question 40

What did Titchener seek to do? How did it differ from Wundt?

Answer 40

He did not seek to explain conscious experience (e.g., how perception works), but to describe conscious experience

Question 41

Positivism founder

Answer 41

Titchener

Question 42

Positivism

Answer 42

Believed psychology's focus should be on observable mental events

Question 43

Through his introspection, what did Titchener seek to do? Example?

Answer 43

Carefully describe and classify observable mental events Look at apple: weight, hue, brightness, etc.

Question 44

What did Titchener use his introspection to describe?

Answer 44

Sensation (not perception)

Question 45

Stimulus error founder

Answer 45

Titchener

Question 46

Stimulus error

Answer 46

When meaning is described during introspection

Question 47

Give an example of a stimulus error

Answer 47

Calling it an apple instead of describing the colour/hues/weight of an apple

Question 48

What were the 3 mental elements according to Titchener?

Answer 48

Sensations Images Affections

Question 49

Sensations according to Titchener

Answer 49

Elements of perception

Question 50

How many elements of perception were there according to Titchener? Division?

Answer 50

Over 40,000 30,000 for vision 12,000 for audition 20 for other senses

Question 51

Images according to Titchener

Answer 51

Elements of ideas Mental representations

Question 52

Affections according to Titchener

Answer 52

Elements of emotions/feelings

Question 53

How did Titchener interact with Wundt's theory of emotion?

Answer 53

Adjusted tri-dimensional theory of emotion into one dimension Believed feelings cannot be described through clearness or extensity Believed feelings occur over one dimension; could only be described using Wundt's "pleasantness-unpleasantness" dimension

Question 54

What did Titchener subscribe to in place of voluntary apperception and creative synthesis?

Answer 54

Associationism

Question 55

What did Titchener believe drove attention? How did this differ from Wundt?

Answer 55

Clearness of sensations (rather than will)

Question 56

Clever Hans

Answer 56

Hans the horse seemed to be able to solve arithmetic problems

Question 57

Explain the enigma that is Clever Hans.

Answer 57

Carl Stumpf's committee (e.g., Oskar Pfungst) was unable to detect deception But Hans was only able to answer accurately when his owner knew the answer and when the questioner was visible to him

Question 58

How did Clever Hans work his magic?

Answer 58

Hans was picking up on subtle, non-verbal cues (e.g., nodding) Read body language

Question 59

The Clever Hans Phenomenon

Answer 59

Pfungst tested the subtle cues (e.g., on other humans) and found they were virtually impossible to suppress

Question 60

What did the Clever Hans Phenomenon inspire?

Answer 60

Double-blind experimentation as a way to avoid experimenter bias/observer-expectancy effect