2.3 philosophy and ethics (2.3HISTORYANDMETHODSOFPSYCHOLOGY)
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Full summary of problem 3, block 2.3
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2.3 philosophy and ethics (2.3HISTORYANDMETHODSOFPSYCHOLOGY)
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Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam (EUR)
Here is a summary of problem 3, block 2.3. It has been edited after the post discussion so only relevant information is included. All sources and materials are included in the summaries. I got full marks in this course. My average was a 10.
2.3 philosophy and ethics (2.3HISTORYANDMETHODSOFPSYCHOLOGY)
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Problem 3 2.3
Birth of Psychology
Toward the science of psychology
Understanding the Brain and NS
Localization of function (gall)- each of his proposed faculties was innate and located
in a particular region of the brain
- Well-developed mental faculties correspond to well-developed parts of the brain
- The organs corresponding to the well-developed faculties in the brain would be
larger than the organs corresponding to less-developed faculties – their relative
size would be registered on the skull as bumps overlying the developed organ
- Nativistic
- compared humans with other animals
- materialistic
- his psychology was behaviouristic rather than introspectionistic – focused on
observations of behaviours and of bumps on the skull rather than on the
introspection of his own mind
- objective
- functional (almost evolutionary) – concerned with how the human mind copes
with the world
- individual differences- rejected the study of the generalised adult mind in favour
of a study of how people differ
- scientific – inspired the investigation of the localisation of behavioural functions
in the brain
◊ pseudoscientific- specific locations found to be faulty and the assumption that the
size of the brain corresponds to strength of faculty and that bumps on the skull
conform to the shape of the brain were found to be false
◊ Flourens- discovered the functions of the various lower parts of the brain
- More dominated by philosophical ideas than Gall
- Cartesian dualist – soul resides in the cerebral hemispheres
- Since the soul is unitary, the actions of the hemispheres must be so too
- Mass action- the cerebrum is a single organ with a single function – it acts as a
mass, not a set of disparate, localised organs (unlike what gall thought)
- Believed there was no organic connection between the sensory and motor
functions of the lower parts of the brain and the cerebrum
The nervous system- the way in and the way out
Bell -distinguished two sets of nerves at the base of the spinal column – one carried
info to the brain (sensory/afferent nerves), the other carried info from the brain to
the muscles (motor/efferent nerves)
Paul Broca- different parts of the brain are responsible for different mental processes
(supports Gall)
- Tan- damage to left frontal lobe caused a speech disorder
Fritsch and Hitzig – electrical excitation of the cerebrum can elicit movement
- Different parts of the brain, when stimulated, seem to regulate different
movements
,Emerging reflex theory of the brain
Some parts of the brain receive sensations, others govern specific actions, and the
association of sensation and action then produced behaviour
The brain is a complex reflex machine with the cerebral hemispheres providing
associative connections between incoming stimuli and outgoing responses
The brain connected stimuli and responses and the mind associated or connected
ideas
Inventing methods for psychology – Donders
Mental chronometry- reaction time it takes to make a decision
Studied information processing
Experimentation- manipulating nature in order to reveal its workings
Measuring how long it takes someone to respond to a single stimulus e.g. turning on
a small lightbulb above a response key – simple reaction time
Measuring compound reaction time- turning on two lightbulbs and two keys. The
simple reaction is still involved, but the subject has to discriminate, or make a
judgement about which light has come on and then respond appropriately
- If say simple reaction time was 150m/s and compound was 230m/s, then, the
mental action of judgement added to the simple reaction, 80 m/s
- mental chronometry- this method that offers an objective way of measuring
physiological and mental processes
- used by Wundt
- quantitative method which helped ensure the scientific stature of experimental
psychology
Psychophysics
Fechner- carried out the first systematic research in experimental psychology that
produced mathematical laws
- Before him believed that the mind can be subjected to neither experimental nor
mathematical analysis
Found that the content of consciousness can be manipulated by controlling the
stimuli to which a person is exposed – makes mental experiment possible
- Lift a known weight, listen to a known pitch, known volume etc.
- To test this we can ask the subject to say which of the two weights is heavier, or
which of the two tones is louder
- By systematically varying both the absolute values of the pairs of stimuli and the
differences between them, and by observing when subjects can and cannot
distinguish the pairs, sensations can be indirectly quantified
- We can therefore mathematically relate stimulus magnitude R with the resulting
strength of the sensation
Mental testing
Fundamental for the founding of applied psychology (education)
Experimental psych studied the normal human mind, regarding individual differences
as error variance to be minimized by careful experimental control
Mental testing on the other hand, was directly concerned with carefully measuring
individual differences
, - There is no normal human mind, only the average one
Testing in Britain
Sir Francis Galton (1822-1911) – cousin of Charles Darwin
Interested in the evolution of mental traits
Traced lineages of families in which physical abilities seemed to pass from parent to
child and other families in which mental abilities did the same
He would show that one family produced generations of outstanding college
wrestlers while another produced outstanding lawyers and judges
Wanted to measure intelligence
Looked at exam scores of children to see if those who did well or badly in one
subject did well or badly in all
- Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient
- Found a strong correlation which supported the idea that intelligence is a single
mental ability
- Began the controversy over general intelligence
Methods rooted in british empiricism
- If the mind is a collection of ideas, then intelligence would depend on how well
he or she can represent the world in consciousness
- Measures of sensory perception would then be measures of intelligence
The focus on consciousness was also consistent with the German introspective study
of the contents of consciousness, and some of his measures were adaptations of
psychophysical methods
Believed that the bigger the brain, the more intelligent the mind it caused
- Head size would also be a measure of intelligence
◊ As a practical matter his tests were failures – sensory perception is not the basis of
intelligence, and the correlation between brain size and intelligence is extremely
small
Testing in France
Alfred Binet (1857-1911) – more effective and durable means of measuring
intelligence
Early work concerned hypnosis
Cofounder of the first psychological institute in France
Studied individuals in depth
Test was developed through his work on government commission formed in 1904 to
study the education of the mentally subnormal
- Government’s aims called for a psychological version of clinical diagnosis in
medicine
- Mentally subnormal children interfered with the education of normal children,
and the commission was charged to come up with a way to diagnose subnormal
children, especially those on the borderline of normal functioning
Developed a practical test based on assembling a scale of intellectual tasks that
could be performed by normal children at specific ages
- Compare the performance of a given child to that of his or her age mates
- Subnormal children could then be detected, removed from the classroom, and
given special education
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