power point file attached, short slidesHistorical 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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