Lecture 2 - Pre-Scientific Psychology Flashcards
(28 cards)
What is public psychology?
“It comprises public interest in and beliefs about behavior and mental states.
It involves practitioners, such as phrenologists and mesmerists from the nineteenth century, and
contemporary practitioners who are not trained in psychology, but advertise themselves as persons
who can offer psychological help such as reading a person’s mind, foretelling the future, or offering
some form of therapy that they believe will be effective in treating certain kinds of problems. They
can practice in this way as long as they do not advertise themselves as a psychologist. […]
Contemporary popular psychology is manifested in hundreds of ways, for example, books, television
shows, magazines, and radio talk shows.
One can buy books on how to have a happy marriage, how to raise optimistic children, how to
control ones emotions, how to be an effective leader, and how to overcome depression.”
John G. Benjafield
What happened in 1876?
Invented the
telephone and
many thought
he used it to speak
to his dead
brother
What happened in 1896?
first medical X-Ray
- X-rays start to appear everywhere
What happened in 1896?
Odic liquid
- thinks that this satuartes all living
things
the human soul was published
What happened in 1898?
Investigates radio waves
Assessing personality and ability by measuring the bumps and
indentations of a person’s head defined the pseudoscience known as:
A. physiognomy
C. characterology
B. psychophysics
D. phrenology
D. phrenology
When phrenological exams revealed negative qualities in an individual,
the phrenologist would:
A. encourage the client to disguise those qualities
B. focus instead on the positive qualities
C. encourage the client to work to improve those qualities
D. Phrenologists never identified negative qualities in their clients; it was bad for business
C. encourage the client to work to improve those qualities
The pseudoscience that evaluated a person’s personality and abilities
based on facial features is
A. physiognomy
C. phrenology
B. psychophysics
D. mesmerism
A. physiognomy
Which of the following pseudosciences was particularly used to
validate ethnic stereotypes?
A. mesmerism
C. physiognomy
B. spiritualism
D. new-thought movement
C. physiognomy
Who is Franz Josef Gall? In what years? What is he known for?
Franz Josef Gall (1758-1828)
Phrenology assumed:
- Different parts of the brain =
Different functions - Brains areas can be
overdeveloped = Skull bumps - Bumps indicate the faculties of
an individual - Franz Gall proposed 27 different
faculties (e.g., sense of satire,
sense of pride) - Elements of modern
psychology: localization of
function; multiple personality
factors
What came alongside phrenology? Who was a key figure? In what year?
- Alongside phrenology came physiognomy, the
belief that facial features revealed a person’s
character - A key figure was Cesare Lombroso (1835-
1909), Italian surgeon and criminologist
It is suggested that mesmerism could be described as the
beginnings of _________________ in America.
A. psychology
C. psychotherapy
B. psychiatry
D. vocational counseling
C. psychotherapy
Who were the main patients for animal magneticism?
What was the controversy with animal magneticism?
Patients were mostly women
The Franklin commission
investigates animal magnetism:
Psychological suggestion or
physical magnetic action?
The french wanted to see if this was ligitamate
- Bejiman Franklin was the head of this
Started blindfolding people who were recevinng the
treaatment
- they would not know if they actually got the treatment or not
but would always report feeling better wether they actually got
the treatment or not
Imagintion alone can get the effects of mesmerism.
The principal activity of spiritualists in their séances was to
A. provide contact with the dead
B. help the recently departed find peace in the afterlife
C. bolster religious beliefs by confirming that there was an
afterlife
D. determine the cause of death in cases where the
circumstances of the death were mysterious
A. provide contact with the dead
What was the american spiritualism movement? In what years?
Movement beginning in 1848 in which mediums
claimed to be able to contact the dead through
séances
Psychologists including William James and Hugo
Münsterberg (both at Harvard) disagreed about the
legitimacy of this practice and looked for scientific
evidence
What was the basic premise of what was called the “mind cure”
movement, also known as the “new thought” movement?
A. that chemical imbalances in the brain created
psychological disturbances
B. that physical healing resided in a person’s mental powers
C. that mental illness, like physical illness, was the result of
medical causes
D. that spirituality was the key to good physical health
B. that physical healing resided in a person’s mental powers
The new science of psychology’s battle for scientific respectability was
partially undermined by a famous psychologist who showed a strong
interest in the pseudosciences. Who was he?
A. William James
C. Wilhelm Wundt
B. Phineas Quimby
D. Franz Gall
A. William James
The new science of psychology was established in universities as part of
existing departments of philosophy. The philosophical psychology in
these departments was known as
A. empirical psychology
C. mental philosophy
B. faculty psychology
D. psychophysics
C. mental philosophy
What is mental philosophy vs. public psychologies? What year?
1880s
The founding of new psychological
laboratories in North America was
concurrent with phrenology,
physiognomy, mesmerism, spiritualism,
and mental healers
These were usually housed within
philosophy departments, and positioned
themselves as part of this lineage
Reaction-time experiments at the University of Pennsylvania
Conscience, virtue, religion, love, justice, and civic duty were the
subject matter of
A. mental philosophy (this is about how does the
mind work)
C. British empiricism
B. moral philosophy (this is about what is just and moral)
D. Scottish realism
B. moral philosophy
According to John Locke, all knowledge comes from two sources
A. the mind and experience
C. perception &
learning
B. acquired and innate ideas
D. sensation &
reflection
D. sensation &
reflection
Locke’s concept of tabula rasa or the mind as a blank slate
A. emphasized the importance of nativist influences
B. minimized the role of sensation in acquiring knowledge
C. denied the existence of innate ideas
D. meant that thought played the only role in the mind’s
acquisition of knowledge
FIND ANSWER
Who is John Locke? What did he think? When?
John Locke (1632-1704)
and other British Empiricists (philosophers)
argued that the mind was a blank slate or
tabula rasa – that our minds learn from
experience (sensation and reflection)
Contrary to the views of the British empiricists, the Scottish
realists argued that
A. innate ideas make up a substantial portion of
consciousness
B. psychology could never be an empirical science because
the observed and observer would be the same
C. sensation and reflection are the means by which all
learning occurs
D. the objects and events of the world are directly knowable
Find answer
