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PSYC 403 > Lecture 5 > Flashcards

Lecture 5 Flashcards

1
Q

Dr. Roy thinks the importance of which debate has been overstated in the history of psychology?

A

structuralism (Titchener) vs functionalism (James)

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2
Q

Edward Boring was a student of ______.
His 1929 book, ______ (one of first psych history books), put lots of emphasis on the debate between ____ and ____

A

student of Titchener (structuralist!)
book: A History of Experimental Psychology
debate btw structuralism and functionalism

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3
Q

Edward Bradford Titchener (1867-1927) was a (structuralist/functionalist)

A

structuralist (leader of structuralist school)

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4
Q

Titchener believed that experimental psychology’s major goal was _______

A

the atomistic analysis of the elements of consciousness

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5
Q

Titchener was one of _____’s most influential students

A

Wundt

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6
Q

What warning of Wundt’s did Titchener disagree with?

A
  • Wundt warned against reductionism (introspectively revealed dimensions of consciousness can’t be considered “elements” bc they can’t exist on their own!!
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7
Q

Titchener thinks that by using ___ we can break down complex thoughts into ____. This process goes the opposite way of which thinker’s idea?

A

introspection; simpler elements (atoms of thought, sensory in nature)
opposite of Locke (experience –> simple ideas –> complex ideas)

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8
Q

What does Titchener think about Kant’s idea that inner observation cannot be separated and recombined at will?

A

disagrees with this; we can identify basic elements of thought

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9
Q

According to Titchener, how should we use the method of introspection?

A
  • trained “introspectors” have to work hard to reduce all their mental contents into more basic elements while avoiding stimulus error
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10
Q

What is stimulus error?

A
  • describing the object rather than one’s experience w the object
  • Titchener warns against this
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11
Q

According to Titchener, all conscious experience can be reduced to ______

A

introspectively accessible sensory images

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12
Q

What does Titchener think about the use of language?

A

we should use specialized language, but it shouldn’t be too technical

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13
Q

Titchener established _____ distinguishable elements of sensory experience (___ visual, ____ auditory, ___ taste, ____ sensations of digestive tract)

A

43 000
30 000 visual, 11 000 auditory, 4 taste, 3 sensations of digestive tract

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14
Q

According to Titchener/Boring, the 4 main dimensions of consciousness are:

A

Quality, intensity, extensity (space) and protensity (duration)

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15
Q

What 3 reasons were given for why Titchener’s structuralism had limited impact in the field of psychology?

A
  • introspection did not intuitively give rise to the experience of elementary sensations (our minds do things without us being conscious of it (ex creative synthesis))
  • no practical impact
  • failed to convince the researchers who remained interested in contents of consciousness (he took structuralism too far; it goes totally against gestalt psych idea that whole is different from sum of its parts)
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16
Q

How do mechanistic and vitalistic physiology fit into the reductionist/emergentist framework?

A

mechanistic physiology is similar to reductionism
vitalistic physiology is similar to emergentism

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17
Q

Who wrote “The Principles of Psychology” (1890)? How many years did it take?

A
  • William James
  • first english psych textbook
  • took 12 years
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18
Q

James was more of a _____ than a program builder

A

communicator!

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19
Q

Who taught the first American uni course (at Harvard) on the new scientific psychology? (1872)

A

William James

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20
Q

Was Wundt a structuralist?

A

not really, hard to put him in a box

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21
Q

What did Wundt think of James’ work?

A

it is literature, it is beautiful, but it is not psychology

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22
Q

What did James think of Wundt’s work?

A

thought experimental psych concerned w very specific questions was boring!

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23
Q

What topic does James’ psych textbook start with?

A

physiology!

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24
Q

James: although it has limitations _____ is still the best available psychological method

A

introspection (didn’t like experimental methods)

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25
Q

James’ ideas can be interpreted as a precursor to ______ (by observing experience itself and letting experience dictate the categories)

A
  • phenomenalism!
  • here James is kinda in agreement w Titchener
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26
Q

James: minds are ____ in the natural world

A

objects

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27
Q

What metaphor can be used to describe James’ thoughts on consciousness? What about Titchener?

A

James: stream of consciousness
Titchener: train of thought

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28
Q

James: the stream of consciousness goes from a ____ part to a ____ part back to a _____ part

A

substantive part –> transitive part (moves fast, not totally aware of all thoughts) –> substantive part

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29
Q

5 key points about James’ “stream of consciousness”

A
  • every thought is part of a personal consciousness
  • thought is always changing
  • thought is sensibly continuous
  • there is an intentionality or “aboutness” of consciousness; object of attention is experienced as an “undivided state of consciousness”
  • intrinsically related to direction of our thoughts/perceptions; only pay attention to a fraction of what we can be aware of
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30
Q

Attention in James’ “stream of consciousness” is similar to what element of Wundt’s ideas about consciousness?

A
  • apperception!!
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31
Q

James: “My first act of free will shall be _______”

A

“… to believe in free will”

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32
Q

What did James decide during his existential crisis in 1870?

A
  • to believe in free will
  • built habit of thinking more positive thoughts (like mindfulness!)
  • used free will in his personal life and determinism in science
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33
Q

Why did James say that psychology is a “nasty little subject”

A
  • it is limited
  • “all one cares to know lies outside”
34
Q

In his later career, James left Harvard and turned to _____, founding _______ with Charles Sanders Peirce

A

philosophy; pragmatism

35
Q

What is pragmatism?

A
  • founded by James and Charles Sanders Peirce
  • scientific knowledge can never be entirely certain, but only subject to varying degree of “pragmatic belief”
  • think Darwin: evolution/adaptiveness of ideas, some ideas can gain/lose value depending on environment/competitors
  • believing in free will in your own personal life is pragmatically “correct” bc it “works”
36
Q

What role did Carolus Linnaeus play in shaping the theory of evolution?

A
  • created the classification system (Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species)
37
Q

Describe Lamarck’s law of inheritance of acquired characteristics

A
  • ex giraffe lengthens neck over lifetime from stretching to eat leaves, passes this on to offspring; cycle repeats
38
Q

According to Darwin, the chief mechanism of evolution is _______ and ______

A

blind variation (built in variability in each species)
selective retention (those best suited to environment survive and pass on their genes)

39
Q

What are the implications of Darwin’s idea that humans have descended from animal ancestors?

A
  • no fundamental difference btw man and higher mammals in their mental faculties
  • if we are animals, we can study animals as a proxy for humans!!
40
Q

Thorndike suggested that _____ would be easier to study than children

A
  • chickens
  • his prof James kept his chickens in his basement for first 2 years of his PhD bc his landlord said no
41
Q

When James left Harvard, Thorndike went to Columbia to study under Cattel and studied _______

A

cats! (although he originally brought his chickens with him)

42
Q

Who used a puzzle box method to study animals?

A

Thorndike

43
Q

What 2 conclusions did Thorndike learn from his studies ith cats in a puzzle box?

A
  • cats used trial and error learning
  • law of effect: when stimulus-response sequences are followed by pleasure they tend to be strengthened (stamped in); are weakened (stamped out) with annoyance/pain
44
Q

Where is Thorndike on the list of most eminent psychologists of the 20th century?

A

9th!!

45
Q

What is the relationship between Charles Darwin and Francis Galton

A

cousins

46
Q

What made Francis Galton realize that “eminence” runs in families?

A

he studied the biographical dictionaries of famous people (family trees of 12 groups of historically famous people)

47
Q

What did Galton say about the statistical distribution of intellectual ability?

A

it tends to fall into statistical distributions similar to other physical traits (normal curve)

48
Q

What did Galton think about adoptive vs biological relatives?

A
  • said adopted children were less similar to parents
  • presented anecdotal evidence of Roman Catholic popes who adopt “nephews”
49
Q

Darwin generally (approved/disapproved) of Galton’s ideas on hereditary genius?

A

approved!

50
Q

What did Francis Galton do at the International Health Exhibition in London in 1884?

A
  • tested 9000 of 4 mil ppl who came to exhibition
  • measured head sizes, psychophysical tasks, and reaction time
  • it turns out these were the wrong measures for intelligence
51
Q

What were some of Galton’s key contributions to statistics? (4)

A
  • 1860: defined measure of standard deviation to characterize normal distributions
  • 1888: popularized concept of correlation (and applied it to psychological measures!)
  • developed regression line
  • discovered “regression to mediocrity” (regression to the mean; when you take 2 measures and the first is very high the second will likely be closer to the mean)
52
Q

What work by Galton was further revised by his biographer and mathematician Karl Pearson?

A
  • correlations!! (and applying them to psychology and anthropology)
53
Q

Galton on applying statistics to physics:

  • Outcomes are ____
  • Noise comes from______
  • Measurements are made by _____
A
  • Outcomes are stable
  • Noise comes from instrumentation
  • Measurements are made by few, but very precise, observations
54
Q

Galton on applying statistics to psychology:

  • Outcomes are ____
  • Noise comes from______
  • Measurements are made by _____
A
  • Outcomes are variable
  • Noise is intrinsic to the process!!
  • Measurements are made by averaging several observations
55
Q

What was Galton’s vision of “positive” eugenics?

A
  • project of improving human race through selective breeding
  • wanted to reproduce exemplars of the best of the human race (eminence)
  • imagined competition where winners would be married by Queen and receive generous subsidies
  • these individuals should be identified early so they can have as many kids as possible
  • one consequence of this line of thinking was the sterilization laws in the states in early 1900s (64 000 ppl sterilized between 1907-1963ish)
56
Q

What are the 3 moral arguments against eugenics presented in class?

A
  • people have fundamental rights and can’t be coerced against their will
  • how do we even decide what traits are valuable? HUGE risk of prejudice and discrimination here
  • different societal values are always in conflict w one another (eg equality and freedom); no “positive” solution to societal issues, best we can do is compromise
57
Q

What is a “positive solution”?

A
  • one solution that will solve all aspects of a situation
  • political problems don’t have positive solutions
58
Q

What 2 scientific arguments against eugenics were presented in class?

A
  • complex traits like intelligence are also under the influence of the environment and aren’t inherited in a simple Mendellian (one gene-one trait) process
  • breeding is not an easy process, breeding one trait can cause issues with other traits
59
Q

How did Galton define “hereditary genius”?

A
  • more about capacity, intelligence wasn’t really a thing yet
  • “natural ability” that urges a man to perform acts that lead to reputation
60
Q

Who created the first intelligence test?

A

Alfred Binet

61
Q

George Romanes’ 1882 book “Animal Intelligence”:
- was very inspired by _____
- argued that there is ______ between people and animals

A
  • Darwin
  • no qualitative difference (same processes but just less advanced)
62
Q

Thorndike’s 1911 book _____ marked the moment when the term “intelligence” started becoming more popular

A

Animal Intelligence: Experimental Studies

63
Q

Why did we need a new term (intelligence)?

A
  • “reason” (which just meant problem solving capacities in the service of motives) became something we share w other animals
  • so we need a new term!!
64
Q

Herbert Spencer’s 1855 book Principles of Psychology proposed that intelligence is related to ______

A

the degree of adaptation to the environment (survival of the fittest!)

65
Q

According to Herbert Spencer, what are the 2 main aspects of adaptation?

A
  • intelligence: individual learning, flexible
  • instinct: evolution of the species, inflexible
66
Q

Which two thinkers pursued the work of Galton but struggled to find a measure of intelligence?

A
  • Pearson
  • Spearman
67
Q

WHy did Binet come up with the first intelligence test?

A
  • in 1882 education was made compulsory in France
  • they wanted to identify children who did not qualify for normal education, mandated him w the task
68
Q

How did Binet come up with the items for his intelligence test?

A
  • asked teachers about expectations for students and used that as guidelines for test
  • worked on test with student Theodore Simon
69
Q

In Binet’s test, no single item can discriminate impaired vs normal children, you have to take _____ into account

A

age!

70
Q

Binet distinguished between ___ and ____ age

A

chronological and mental age

71
Q

When Stern introduced IQ in 1912, he argued that it is the _____, not the ____, between chronological and mental age that matters

A

ratio, not the difference

72
Q

How would Binet vs Stern graph normal vs typical development (where Y axis is mental age and X axis is chronological age)

A

Binet: two parallel diagonal lines
Stern: lines start closer together but normal dev. line increases faster in mental age!

73
Q

How did the ideas of Binet/Simon differ from Spearman/Terman/Galton in terms of intelligence?

A
  • Binet/Simon wanted to focus on who is delayed, not looking for genius; test is just about who is fit for regular education, not really measure of “intelligence”
  • Spearman et al thought that individuals and groups are always being tested for their fitness, saw school as arena where innate endowment was put to the test
74
Q

What was Spearman’s “general intelligence” (g)?

A
  • single common factor of generalized mental “power” which is applicable in some degree to all intellectual tasks
75
Q

What was Spearman’s two-factor theory of intelligence?

A
  • performance on all intellectual tasks requires both a single common factor (g) and a second, specific factor (s) which is unique to the task
76
Q

What were the 4 types of specific intelligence in Spearman’s model?

A
  • mechanical
  • logical
  • arithmetical
  • spatial
77
Q

What metaphor was used to explain Spearman’s two-factor theory of intelligence?

A
  • g is like oil/power
  • s is like the specific engine for a given task
78
Q

How did Lewis Terman contribute to intelligence testing?

A

1916 Stanford Revision of Binet-Simon Scale
- adapted it for americans
- used a larger normative sample
- multiplied IQ by 100 to center it around 100

1917-18 Army Alpha and Beta tests
- adopted Binet scale to see who is fit for army/leadership
- beta test was designed for non-native english speakers (more nonverbal)

79
Q

What was problematic about Terman’s work?

A
  • found that IQ was lower for ethnic minorities and said that explains why whites are superior
  • there was a greater societal acceptance of this theory bc it explained what ppl “already knew” (social structure)
80
Q

According to Dr. Roy, what really put psychology on the map?

A

intelligence testing!!

81
Q
A

PSYC 403 (10 decks)

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