Unit 2

Question 1

Describe how Wundt’s system as translated by Titchener is an example of distorted historical data. For what reasons might Titchener have misrepresented Wundt’s position?

Answer 1

• Wundt’s former student, highly influential American psychologist, translated Wundt from German to English
• self-declared loyal follower & true interpreter of Wundt
• English-speaking psychologists read Wundt as translated & interpreted through him
• translated only those portions supporting his own approach
• interpreted Wundt’s views to make more compatible with own
• prominent historian of psychology, E. G. Boring (Titchener’s student) declared Titchener followed in the Wundtian tradition

Question 2

How was Wundt’s psychology influenced by the work of the German physiologists and the British empiricists? Describe the concept of voluntarism.

Answer 2

• empiricism and associationism
  
  • consciousness consists of elements that can be studied by method of reduction
• physiologists
  
  • relied on their experimental methods
  • adapted methods to study consciousness
• Voluntarism
  
  • school emphasizing mind’s capacity to organize mental contents into higher-level thought processes
• Perception
  
  • respond to stimulus automatically, mechanically, & thoughtlessly
  • results from past experiences and associations
    
    • e.g., street sign for a native
• Apperception
  
  • full attention is focused on the stimulus
  • consciously recognize, interpret, & think about
    
    • e.g., street sign for a tourist
  • cannot be reduced to purely mechanistic causes

Question 3

Gall’s ideas reinforced the growing belief among scientists that it was possible to localize specific brain functions.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

The essence of Weber’s Law is that the just noticeable difference depends on the relative difference between two intensities of stimulation.

Answer 4

True

Question 5

What was the ultimate goal of the Berlin Physical Society?

Answer 5

• 1840s; students of Johannes Müller (1801-1858)
• committed to mechanism
• signed oath committed to single proposition:
  
  • “No other forces than the common physical-chemical ones are active within the organism.”

Question 6

Describe Wundt’s methodology and rules for introspection. Did he favor quantitative or qualitative introspection. Why?

Answer 6

Introspection (Wundt)

• internal perception (as opposed to self-observation)
• examination of one’s mental state
• provides raw data for psychology
• observers carefully and rigorously trained

Wundt’s rules for introspection

1. observers can determine when process begins
2. observers in a state of readiness or strained attention
3. possible to repeat the observation several times
4. possible to vary the experimental conditions in terms of the controlled manipulation of stimuli

Wundt rarely accepted qualitative introspection, E.g., how one had thought or judged when comparing weights

Wundt dealt primarily with quantitative introspection, E.g., size, intensity, duration of stimuli

Reasons?

• internal (like external) perceptions should be replicable
• sought to minimize interval between act of observing & reporting immediate experience

Question 7

Describe Wundt’s cultural psychology. How did it lead to division within psychology?

Answer 7

• 10 volume work published between 1900 - 1920
• dealt with stages of human mental development as manifested in language, art, myths, etc.
• served to divide the new science of psychology into two major parts:
  
  • Experimental
  • Social
• Experimentation
  
  • YES for simple mental functions
    
    • e.g., sensation & perception
  • NO for higher mental processes
    
    • e.g., learning & memory
• WHY?
  
  • higher mental processes conditioned by language & other cultural training
  • look to sociology, anthropology, & social psychology
    
    • E.g., naturalistic observation & deducing laws after the fact
  • biogenetic law

Question 8

The personal equation is a formula that describes the precise role that each of a person’s voluntary behaviors contributes to his or her personality (behavioral style).

Answer 8

False

Question 9

What was Fechner’s insight on October 22, 1850? How did Fechner measure sensations?

Answer 9

Fechner’s insight:

• sensations could be subject to exact measurement by assuming that jnds were subjectively equal in magnitude
• possible to formulate a quantitative relationship between the mental & material worlds

Absolute threshold: the lowest intensity at which a stimulus can be detected

Differential threshold: how much a stimulus of given magnitude needs to be changed in order to detect a difference

• as we move from one jnd to the next (S), the intensity of the physical stimulus (P) increases by ½ (k) of its current value
• the rate of increase varies from sense to sense (depends on k), but curve will always show the gradually accelerating upswing
• we can predict the subjective intensity of the sensation by knowing the physical intensity of the stimulus

Question 10

How did developments in early physiology support the mechanistic image of human nature? Discuss methods developed to map brain functions.

Answer 10

• early physiologists studied brain functions by conducting research directly on brain tissue
  
  • •“In order to discover whether a certain part of the machine is necessary for a certain function, you could remove or disconnect that part and see what functions are impaired.” (Rachlin, 1970)
• Extirpation method
  
  • destroy brain part & observe resultant behavior change
  • pioneer: Pierre Flourens (1794-1867)
• Clinical method
  
  • posthumous examination of brain to search for cause of behavioral condition
  • pioneered by Paul Broca (1824-1880)
    
    • –1861 case of the aphasic patient called “Tan”
• Electrical stimulation
  
  • apply weak electric current to brain part & observe resultant behavior change
  • pioneered in 1870 by Fritsch & Hitzig
    
    • stimulating points in certain region (motor strip) elicited movements on opposite side of body

Question 11

Why did cultural psychology have little impact on American psychology?

Answer 11

• lack of interest in USA due to timing (1900-1920)
  
  • US psychologists gaining confidence in their own ideas & educational institutions
• rise of functionalism & behaviorism
• Titchener
• described as nearly unreadable
• Wundt’s outspoken comments about WWI
  
  • He blamed England and defended Germany

Question 12

Among Wundt’s rules for introspection was that the subject/observer was not to be forewarned because a preparatory set (expectation) would interfere with the immediate experience.

Answer 12

False

Question 13

Describe Titchener’s method of introspection. How did it differ from Wundt’s?

Answer 13

Wundt’s introspection

• favored quantitative introspection
• avoided retrospection
• focus: apperception

Titchener’s introspection

• detailed, qualitative, subjective, retrospective
• systematic experimental introspection
• rigorous training to avoid stimulus error
• focus: structure

Question 14

Wilhelm Wundt’s psychology immediately and completely transformed the nature of academic psychology in Germany.

Answer 14

False

Question 15

Describe Weber’s research on two-point thresholds and on just noticeable differences. What was the importance of these ideas for psychology?

Answer 15

Two-point threshold:

• smallest spatial distance at which two concurrent but separate sources of touch can be detected
• apparatus resembles a drawing compass
• first experimental demonstration of threshold

Just noticeable difference (JND):

• smallest difference in weights that can be detected?
• led to psychology’s first quantitative (Weber’s) law:
  
  • minimal detectable change in a stimulus is a constant fraction of that stimulus

Importance of Weber’s experiments:

• Weber was subjecting mental events to measurement and mathematical formulation.
• He showed there is not a 1-to-1 relationship between changes in the physical world and the psychological experiences of those changes.
• He showed that mental and physical events could be related mathematically.

Question 16

Fechner found that an increase in the intensity of a stimulus produces a one-to-one increase in the intensity of the resultant sensation.

Answer 16

False

Question 17

Compare and contrast Titchener’s and Wundt’s approaches to psychology.

Answer 17

Wundt

• concerned with apperception
• mind organizes elements voluntarily
• sought to explain conscious experience

Titchener

• concerned with mental elements themselves
• mechanical linking through association
• sought to describe mental experience
  
  • positivism

Question 18

Titchener’s focus was on the synthesis of elements of consciousness into higher-order cognitive processes.

Answer 18

False

Question 19

The criticisms directed at the method of introspection were more relevant to Titchener’s method of observation than they were to Wundt’s method.

Answer 19

True

Question 20

Describe Titchener’s three elementary states of consciousness and the four attributes of mental elements.

Answer 20

Sensations

• basic elements of perception; major focus of research
• 44,500!

Images

• basic elements of ideas; remnants of sensations

Affective states

• basic elements of emotion; only one dimension (pleasantness/unpleasantness)

Attributes of mental elements

1. Quality 2. Intensity 3. Duration 4. Clearness
   * affective states possess only first three attributes

Question 21

Trace the fate of Wundtian psychology in Germany. On what grounds was Wundt’s system criticized?

Answer 21

• rarely initiated new areas of research
• monumental accomplishment—cutting ties
• not an immediate or complete success–Why?
  
  • lots of criticism, not useful in solving problems
• huge decline in influence between WW’s–Why?
  
  • his political stance stance, competing psychologies in Europe, no interest in the US
• psychology after Wundt consists of rebellion against limitations he placed on the field
  
  • E.g., 1885 – Ebbinghaus’ learning research
  • E.g., ~1894 – Külpe’s imageless thought

Question 22

Titchener’s introspective observers agreed quite closely when reporting on the same stimulus.

Answer 22

False

Question 23

What was the significance of Bessel’s work for the new psychology? How did it relate to the work of Locke, Berkeley, and other empirical philosophers?

Answer 23

• astronomers observed stellar transits using the “eye & ear” method
• Bessel discovered observations of all astronomers differed from one another in consistent ways
• corrected for by calculating personal equations
  
  • –E.g., A = B + 0.12 s
• onslaught of publications about personal equations
• role of human observer in all other sciences?
• led to study of human sense organs
• Locke & Berkeley
  
  • inexact correspondence between the nature of object and perception of it
  • Bessel’s work supported this with data

Question 24

Describe Gall’s cranioscopy method and the popular movement that derived from it. How were they discredited?

Answer 24

• Later called phrenology.
• shape of skull reveals person’s intellectual & emotional characteristics
• founded by Franz Gall (1758-1828)
• Gall mapped location of 35 attributes
• embraced by prominent intellectuals
  
  • Auguste Comte (1798-1857)
  • Alexander Bain (1818-1903)
• popularized by Johann Spurzheim (1776-1832)
  
  • provided clear “diagnoses” for people, and methods to improve
  • appealed especially to Americans
• Pierre Flourens was most effective critic of phrenology:
  • shape of skull doesn’t match contours of the underlying brain tissue
  • tissue too soft to produce bulges and dents in the bony surface of skull
  • areas designated for specific mental functions by phrenologists were in error
  • ablation-caused deficits can improve over time

Question 25

What is the stimulus error? Give an example. How, in Titchener’s view, could the stimulus error be avoided?

Answer 25

• imposing meaning on object of observation
• everyday language to be avoided
  
  • E.g., describing an object as an “apple”
  • Instead, describe “redness” and “roundness”
  • Lots of training (up to 10k introspections before allowed to experiment)

Question 26

“Conscious experience as it is dependent upon the experiencing person” was Titchener’s definition of the topic of study for psychology.

Answer 26

True

Question 27

Titchener’s system was marked by mechanism.

Answer 27

True

Question 28

According to Titchener, what is the proper subject matter for psychology and how does it differ from the subject matter of other sciences?

Answer 28

Subject matter of other sciences

• physical processes
• independent of experiencing person
  
  • E.g., heat: energy of molecular motion

Subject matter of psychology

• conscious experience
• dependent on the experiencing person
  
  • E.g., heat: subjective feeling of warmth

Question 29

Schultz and Schultz compare Ebbinghaus’s conception of memory with the process of association espoused by the British empiricists.

Answer 29

True

Question 30

What are the elements of consciousness? What is their role in mental life?

Answer 30

• associationism
  
  • reduction of mental life to simple ideas
• James Mill (1773-1836)
  
  • mind is a machine
• John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)
  
  • mental chemistry
• influence on Wundt
• voluntarism

Elements of consciousness

• basic human (immediate) experiences
  1. Sensations

–aroused when sense organ stimulated

–classified by intensity, duration, & modality

2. Feelings

–subjective complements of sensations

–tridimensional theory

“We find everywhere the same pairs of feelings that we produced by means of the metronome”

Mediate experience

• focused on “object of experience”
  
  • linked to outer perception
• biased or tainted experience
  
  • flavored by contents already in the mind
    
    • E.g., “The rose is red” rather than the feeling of something called “redness”

Immediate experience

• focused on “experiencing subject”
  
  • linked to inner perception
• unbiased or untainted experience
• form the basic states of consciousness
  
  • E.g., describe discomfort from toothache rather than say “I have a toothache”

Question 31

Wundt’s theory of feelings was based on his own introspections.

Answer 31

True

Question 32

For Wundt, the subject matter of experimental psychology was consciousness.

Answer 32

True

Question 33

Describe the paradoxical views of Titchener regarding the place of woman in psychology. Did he act to assist them in their careers or discriminate against them?

Answer 33

• women barred from exclusive meetings of Titchener’s Experimentalists
• otherwise, relatively advanced in his attitudes, accepted graduate students (including the first woman PhD in psychology)

Question 34

How did the idea of imageless thought challenge Wundt’s conception of conscious experience?

Answer 34

Imageless thought

• nonsensory aspect of consciousness
• mental acts without particular referents
  
  • E.g., subjective experience of “doubt” is an imageless thought if doubting is not about anything in particular
• Wundt maintained that all experience is composed of sensations, feelings, and and images of these
• imageless thought controversy was never resolved
• raised doubts about the validity of introspection and paved the way for behaviorism in America

Question 35

What additional criticisms have been made of Titchener’s structuralism. What contributions has Titchener’s structuralism made to psychology?

Answer 35

Criticisms of structuralism

• limited definition of psychology
• whole greater than sum of its parts

Contributions of structuralism

• research methods in highest traditions of science
• served as a target of criticism

Question 36

Today, a differential diagnosis of Alzheimer’s or Pick’s disease can be made only by autopsy. Thus, the extirpation method continues to be invaluable to research in psychology.

Answer 36

False