Test 1 Flashcards
(43 cards)
Define Zeitgeist
Ghost time – the general intellectual and cultural climate or spirit of the times
What is determinism?
Past actions and events are going to help determine future & present events
Define mechanism
All processes, no matter human, animal or astronomical, had its origins in physics and chemistry (intellectual Zeitgeist); machines are the foundation to study everything
The new psychology was the product of?
Ancient philosophy
Who demonstrated that phrenology was bogus?
Pierre Flourens
What did Descartes believe about ideas in the mind?
Mind controls the body; uni-directional (mind → body). Body is composed of physical matter (like a machine)
What is often considered one of the great ironies about Descartes’ death?
Descartes body and head were separated at his death and initially buried separately
What is the mind body problem?
Prevalent belief that the mental world and the material world were distinct from each other
Differentiate James Mill from John Stuart Mill’s associationism.
Both utilitarian (greatest happieness of the greatest number) James Miller was John Miller’s son, James viewed learning as mechanic learning (robotic learning) and John viewed learning as mental chemistry (mind plays a role in processing ideas)
The Zeitgeist of 17th- to 19th-century Europe and of the U.S. was marked by what philosophy?
Personalistic and Naturalistic
A school of thought emerges whenever what happens?
A system of ideas, shares a theoretical orientation, and work on common problems (when they don’t agree) we do not have paradamic science
What is Weber’s two-point discrimination threshold?
The amount of distance necessary, between two points that touch the skin, before subjects discern a difference between the two sensations; there is a relationship between the physical characteristics of stimuli and the sensation they produce
The greatest technological advance during the Renaissance was?
Printing press → the spread of literacy
Which Greek philosopher first proposed a theory of perception, relying on “atoms” of the mind and in the environment?
Democritus
Descartes’ dualism was novel in its emphasis on what?
Mechanism and his work on the mind-body problem; there is a distinction between mind and body and they are bi-directional (body influences mind and vice versa.)
Why didn’t Cajal receive more attention for his work on the neuron?
Discovered the direction of travel of nerve impulses; he published his findings in Spanish and most of the discoveries were done in German
How was the work and life of da Vinci consistent with the Zeitgeist of Renaissance science?
Mechanism – scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician, and writer
What is psychophysics?
Making a connection between body and mind
Why are there so many different schools of thought in psychology?
We do not agree on the nature of psychology (subject matter)
Who first proposed that nerve impulses were electrical in nature?
Luigi Galvani
The view about the human soul (or mind) that holds that it originated from the same matter as any other material object, it is part of the natural world and could be studied by the methods used for the study of nature is called what?
Dualism
Who developed phrenology? Who popularized it?
Franz Joseph Gall (the idea that the brain is specifically located), Johann Spurzheim (student) and George Combe (phrenologist)
According to Locke, how do we acquire ideas?
Experience and environment on a passive mind; radical behaviorist (empiricist), argued for the Tabula Rasa (black slate), primary qualities (directly linked to physics and secondary qualities (interpretations)
Aristotle’s theory of memory was based on what?
Experience; people remember by using similarity, contrast, and contiguity (association)
