PSY/310 Week 1 Historical Influences on Psychology

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Historical Influences on the Field of Psychology

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Major Influences

Philosophical Influences

Physiological Influences

The New Psychology

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Philosophical Influences

The Spirit of Mechanism

The Clockwork Universe

The Beginnings of Modern Science

The Contributions of Descartes: Mechanism and the Mind-Body Problem

Philosophical Foundations of the New Psychology: Positivism, Materialism, and Empiricism

Contributions of Empiricism to Psychology

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The Spirit of Mechanism

England and Western Europe

Machines used to enhance human power
Allowed industry to not rely on the strength of humans
Machines used for entertainment and amusement
Mechanism – the universe is a machine
Natural processes can be explained through physics and chemistry
Led to the realization that accurate time-keeping instruments were needed

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The Clockwork Universe

Daniel Boorstin – labeled the clock the “mother of machines”

People became reliant on clocks because they are:

Regular
Predictable
Precise

The clock became the basis for governmental structure and political systems

The clock also became a metaphor for the universe

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The Clockwork Universe

Determinism – belief that all present and future actions are caused by previous events

Reductionism – the belief that the operations of a phenomenon can be best understood by breaking them down into their most basic aspects

Automata – machines built to mimic human movement and action precisely and regularly

People as Machines

Human functioning and behavior were controlled by mechanical laws
Experimental and quantitative methods can apply to human nature
Began the belief that people are machines

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The Beginnings of Modern Science

Empiricism – the quest for knowledge through observing nature; the belief that all knowledge comes from experience

Rene Descartes

French philosopher
Made hypotheses regarding behavioral conditioning
Studied mathematics and philosophy

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Contributions of Descartes

Mind-Body Problem – questioned how to differentiate between mental and physical characteristics

Descartes :

Believed the mind and body are joined and influence each other
Believed that the function of the mind was to think

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Contributions of Descartes

The Nature of the Body

Proposed that since the body is physical matter it should have the same properties of all physical matter
Reflex Action Theory – the belief that an object can produce an involuntary response (reflexive behavior)

The Mind-Body Interaction

The mind influences the body, and the body influences the mind
Founded from mechanistic terms

Doctrine of Ideas

Derived Ideas – composed by the application of stimulus from the external world
Innate Ideas – produced by the mind or consciousness, without the need of a sensory experience

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Philosophical Foundations

Positivism – only natural phenomena or objectively observable facts should be recognized

Introduced by Auguste Comte
Believed that social sciences needed to abandon the metaphysical presence and focus solely on observable facts

Materialism – facts are described in physical terms according to the properties of matter and energy

Derived from the idea of positivism

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Empiricism

John Locke (1632-1704)

Studied cognitive processes
Believed the mind acquires knowledge through experience
Identified the concepts of sensation and reflection
Differentiated between simple and complex ideas
Simple – come about through sensation and perception
Complex – composed of multiple simple ideas that can be further broken down
Proposed the belief of primary and secondary qualities
Primary – characteristics that are constant and exist regardless of our perception
Secondary – characteristics that require our perception of the object

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Empiricism

George Berkeley (1685-1753)

Mentalism – belief that knowledge comes from mental phenomena and depends on perception and experience.
Believed we come to know new information because of associations with other objects

David Hartley (1705-1757)

Associations require contiguity and repetition
Memory, reasoning, emotion, voluntary action, and involuntary action can be explained through associations
Mechanism – explains the mental and psychological world through mechanical ideologies

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Empiricism

James Mill (1773-1836)

Believed the mind to be a machine
The mind is passive and operated by physical components
There is no free will
The mind is not creative

John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)

Mental chemistry – approach to the association of ideas
The mind plays an active role in associations
Creative Synthesis – when simple ideas are combined to form complex ideas, they develop new qualities

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Critical Thinking

Respond to the following questions in 100 words or less:

How did clocks influence the world when they were introduced?
Why was Descartes so important to the development of psychology? What did he contribute?
In your opinion, who contributed the most to empiricism? Why?

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Physiological Influences

Developments in Early Physiology

The Beginnings of Experimental Psychology

Researchers in Experimental Psychology

Hermann von Helmholtz
Ernst Weber
Gustav Theodor Fechner

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Developments of Early Physiology

Brain Functions Research – attempted to map the functions of the different parts of the brain

Methods of mapping from the inside of the brain:
Extirpation
Removes or destroys a specific area of the brain to document the change in behavior that resulted
Clinical Method
Reviewed damaged areas of the brain after death to determine which areas were responsible for certain behavioral conditions
Electrical Stimulation
Stimulated areas of the cerebral cortex with a small electrical current to observe the motor responses that resulted

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Developments in Early Physiology

Methods for mapping from the outside of the brain:
Phrenology – the study of the skull and belief that mental characteristics correspond to the specific shape of the skull
Proposed by Franz Josef Gall
Received negative criticism and affected Gall’s reputation
Research on the Nervous System
Luigi Galvani – believed neural impulses to be electrical in nature
Santiago Ramon y Cajal – determined the direction that neural impulses travel
The Mechanistic Spirit
The movement to explain physiology through the principles of physics

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The Beginnings of Experimental Psychology

Foundations in Germany

Sciences were developing in Western Europe during this time
Focus on science allowed for the growth of experimental psychology
Education reform
Academic freedom
More resources for research
More opportunities for scientific techniques

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Researchers in Experimental Psychology

Hermann von Helmholtz (1821-1894)

Considered to be one of the greatest scientists of his time
Studied physics and physiology
Stressed mechanism and determinism
Believed that human sense organs function like machines
Famous contributions to psychology:
Researched and studied the speed of the neural impulse
Determined the conduction speed of the neural impulse
Also researched reaction times of sensory nerves
Researched the senses of vision and hearing
Proposed a revised theory of color vision
Researched perception of tones in audition

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Researchers in Experimental Psychology

Ernst Weber (1795-1878)

Investigated and researched new fields of senses
Applied experimental methods to research on psychological problems
Main contributions:
Two-Point Thresholds – the point at which two points of stimulation can be differentiated from one another
Just Noticeable Difference – the smallest difference in stimulation that can be detected

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Researchers in Experimental Psychology

Gustav Theodor Fechner (1801-1887)

Believed that the relationship between the mind and body could be quantified
Absolute Threshold – the level of stimulus required in order to detect a sensation
Differential Threshold – the least amount of change in a stimulus that will produce a change in sensation.
Introduced the Methods of Psychophysics
The study of the relationship between mental and physical processes

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Critical Thinking

Respond to the following questions in 100 words or less:

Which method of brain mapping do you believe was considered the most accurate during that time period? Why?
Why was Hermann von Helmholtz considered to be one of the greatest scientists of his time?

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The New Psychology

The Founding Father of Modern Psychology

Researchers in The New Psychology

Hermann Ebbinghaus
Franz Bretano
Carl Stumpf
Oswald Kulpe

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The Founding Father of Modern Psychology

Wilhem Wundt (1832-1920)

Founded the science of psychology
Built the first psychology laboratory
Studied sensation and perception
Focused on the concept of selective attention
Conducted work on ethics, logic, and systematic philosophy
Voluntarism – the belief that the mind is able to consolidate information for higher-level processing

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Wilhelm Wundt Cont.’d

Introspection

Derived from principles of physics
Evaluation of one’s own mind and experiences to further understand thought patterns and feelings

Conscious Experience

Sensations – experienced when a sense organ is stimulated
Feelings – produced by sensations
Tridimensional Theory of Feelings:
Pleasure/displeasure
Tension/relaxation
Excitement/depression
Apperception – how we organize mental elements

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Researchers in the New Psychology

Hermann Ebbinghaus (1850-1909)

Investigated higher mental processes, including learning and memory
Studied associations and how they are formed
Explored the process of forgetting

Franz Brentano (1838-1917)

Disagreed with Wundt’s theories
Believed psychology should study mental activity
Developed Act Psychology – focused on mental processes and activities instead of mental contents

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Researchers in the New Psychology

Carl Stumpf (1848-1936)

Famous for the psychological study of music
Phenomenology – evaluated experience as they happen

Oswald Kulpe (1862-1915)

Systematic Experimental Introspection
The process by which subjects would complete a task and then examine how they completed the task through cognitive processes
Imageless Thought
The belief that thoughts do not require specific images in order to have meaning

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Critical Thinking

Respond to the following questions in 100 words or less:

Wilhelm Wundt is credited with founding psychology as a science. What were his specific contributions to this foundation?
What did Hermann Ebbinghaus contribute to the science of psychology?

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