This document links the lectures to the reading material, which is concisely described here. Since the book itself is tough to get through, this summary contains short, clear sentences of the main historical events that determine psychology as it is today. Additional information from lectures and s...
History of Psychology
Chapter 8: Voluntarism and Structuralism (Early experimental psychology)
Mind-Body Problem:
Dualism: mind and body are different in their essence.
Psychophysical interactionism: mind and body are separate substances but affect each other.
Psychophysical parallelism: mind and body are independent. Mental processes and stimuli
are experienced at the same time in the systems but there is no interaction between systems.
Monism: mind and body can look different but are the same thing.
Physicalism: matter>mind; everything is material, out psyche is just physiological brain
processes.
Idealism: mind > matter body and mind are one thing, and they are spiritual, only ideas i.e.,
the mind projects all experiences.
Double aspectism: mind and body run parallel; run in unity and only seem different. In
reality they are the same.
Psychophysical Laws and Consciousness:
Psychophysics: wanted to describe/understand how the intensity of sensory experience
relates to physical intensity of stimuli and also wanted to determine if a lawful relationship
existed between the physical and subjective worlds.
Weber’s Law: K = ΔI/I K= experience of JND. ΔI=amount of change in intensity in original
stimulus I. JND = just noticeable difference detected accurately on 75% of trials.
Ratios between the intensities of the two stimuli matters more than the absolute
differences when it comes to perception.
Weber’s law was the first mathematical way to describe the relationship between the physical
and psychological worlds.
Two-point Threshold Technique: helped map sensitivity to touch and touch acuity on the
body using a compass. Closeness on compass legs to see whether people feel touch in one of
two spots.
Weber was a physician at Leipzig university and used experimental techniques to study touch
and sensation (1795-1878).
Weber-Fechner Law:
Gustav T. Fechner (1801-1887): psychophysical parallelism: mental and physical worlds
run parallel to each other but without direct interaction. He aimed to demonstrate a
relationship between the mind and body (sensory and physical intensities). Creator of
psychophysics. Had a monistic stance but thought the mind and body appear different. Was
professor of physics in Leipzig, became a philosopher, then had a health crisis which made
him switch to philosophy and psychology.
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S = K Log R. S= perceived intensity, K= constant, Log R= logarithmic function of the
physical intensity of the stimulus.
As a stimulus get larger there must be a larger change in stimulus intensity for a change
to be detected (sensation grows in equal steps; corresponding stimulus intensity continuously
increases as a function of a constant multiple) à aim to calculate sensations.
Francis Donders (1818-1889):
• EàR(simple);
• EaàR and Ebàno R (discrimination);
• EaàRa and EbàRb (choice reactions).
Donders did reaction time experiments. As shown in order above; reaction time increases in
order (choice reaction slowest). Donders was a physiologist and physician.
Reaction time: occurs in delay after processing in brain due to time taken by physiological
transmission through nerves and also due to processing time taken in brain in making a
choice.
Donders, Weber and Fechner didn’t consider themselves as psychologists but did
experimental work in psychology.
Fechner’s three psychophysical methods:
1) Method of just noticeable differences (method of limits): requires a person to compare
two stimuli – in which one of the two is varied (the comparison stimulus)- until the person
first notices a difference between the two stimuli.
2) Method of average effort or adjustment: requires a person to adjust a stimulus until it
matches a standard stimulus or appears just different. Can measure either the difference
limen/ threshold (DL= just noticeable difference) or the absolute limen/ threshold (AL=
stimulus detected on 50% of trails).
3) Method of constant stimuli or right or wrong cases: comparison stimuli are paired with
a standard stimulus and people report whether the comparison stimulus is greater than, equal
to, or less than the standard stimulus. Measures both absolute difference and absolute
thresholds.
The Weber and Weber-Fechner Laws provided first mathematical statement of the
relationship between mind and body (also proof that the mind can be measured). It showed
laws for relationships in the field of psychology and therefore helped set it apart from biology
and philosophy as its own science.
Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920): founded the first experimental laboratory for psychology in
Leipzig, 1879. He was the first to move psychology towards the use of the scientific method.
Wundt had a PhD in medicine and taught philosophy in Zürich, then Leipzig. He combined
physiology and philosophy, and founded Völkerpsychologie (Cultural psychology).
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Establishment of psychology as an independent science:
Wundt believed that consciousness did not arise from anything material (a thing or a
substance) and therefore needed to establish a new science to identify the composition of, and
the psychological laws which govern, conscious experience, using a scientific method. This
led to the establishment of his laboratory from which he conducted research and established a
journal, Philosophical Studies. Psychology then expanded as a scientific discipline.
Voluntarism: first formal school of psychology (Wundt)
Wundtian laboratory-based psychology: systematic study of immediate conscious
experiences and the identification of the psychological laws that govern dynamic or changing
conscious experiences. Psychological processes of attention and volition are central to
voluntarism.
Wundtian psychology (physiological psychology) focused on: the immediate conscious
experience (e.g., tasting an apple) rather than the mediated conscious experiences (e.g.,
reading about the taste) when exposed to stimuli.
3 measurement methods: psychophysics, mental chronometry (experiments with reaction
times), and introspection. Participants focused on internal perception (experience in
response to a controlled stimulus such as size, intensity, duration etc.) rather than defining
properties of the stimulus (stimulus error).
Composition of Consciousness (Wundt): (3-Dimensional theory of feeling)
Consciousness was thought to consist of two fundamental components;
1) Sensation (basic mental process/ experience which has reference to external stimulus)
which is activated by sensory nerves and can be defined by intensity, duration, quality, and
clearness.
2) Affect/ feelings (experiences which accompany sensations and are perceived as more
general). Feelings vary along three dimensions (pleasant – unpleasant, relaxed – strained,
calm – excited) and the intensity of a sensation changes the nature of a sensation.
3) Ideas/representations come from combinations of sensations derived from memory or
previous sensations.
Ideas= retrospective and historical; Sensations/Feelings= immediate conscious experience
related to external stimulus. Proposed measurements: psychophysics, mental chronometry,
introspection.
Apperceptions (Wundt): the study of consciousness (sensations, feelings, ideas) stressed the
total perceptual experiences derived from elements of consciousness. The combinations of
these elements of consciousness arrived from either:
Associations (passive combinations) or apperception (active combinations, a result of
selective attention). Apperception allows individuals to have a complex unified consciousness
rather than an array of unorganized elements.
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Apperception = perceptual experience different from sum of individual experiences.
Blickpunkt = (apperception); point in which elements are the focus of attention.
Blickfeld = (perception); field of consciousness in which elements are not in the range of
immediate awareness or attention. I.e., you can be experiencing multiple sensations at the
same time, but some are processed actively (being payed attention to) and others are
processed passively (not being payed attention to).
Herrmann Helmholtz (1821-1894): After discovery of the action potential, he was able to
measure the speed of frog nerve impulses.
Mental Chronometry (Wundt): method for measuring mental processes.
Reaction time (RT): could be used as a measure of mental activity (composed of nerve
impulses) (Filters out the physical reaction to measure the mental reaction in the equations).
Wundt’s mental chronometry: consisted of measuring simple, discrimination and choice
RT. Discrimination reaction time (DRT) = amount of time it takes to respond to a specific
stimulus compared to the amount of time it takes to respond to a non-specific stimulus (simple
reaction time SRT). CRT= choice reaction time.
• Discrimination time = DRT – SRT
• Choice time (CT): time it takes to make a choice (different keys for different
choices).
• Choice time = CRT – DRT – SRT (this method was abandoned because CRT was
not always > DRT + SRT).
Complication experiments: studies conducted in Wundt’s laboratory using DRT and CRT.
Hipp Chronoscope: first measurement of exact RT (clock with small clocks for precise
measurement).
Völkerpsychologie/ Cultural Psychology: Wundt’s work on group/cultural psychology.
Wundt believed that higher mental processes (thinking, memory, motivation) could only be
studied by historical analysis and naturalistic observations of members of different cultures.
Völkerpsychologie: described Wundt’s belief that cultures could be understood as points on a
continuum from primitive to advanced. He was strongly influenced by Darwinism in the
sense that evolution was an underlying metal process (evolutionary continuum of cultures).
Use of gestures in communication: also primary constructions of language are exclamation
(feeling/ desire) and statement (rational judgement).
Measurement: through anthropological studies.
Alternatives to Voluntarism:
1) Franz Brentano (1838-1917) – Act Psychology: systematic study of the mental acts
of consciousness.
While Wundt focused on what was immediately in the mind, Brentano focused on
studying the activity of the mind in mental processes. What the mind does (activity)
is more important than the content of the mind. Brentano wanted to study from an
empirical standpoint (consistent and reasoned), rather than a descriptive one.
Act Psychology: emphasizes three key mental acts; recall, judging and feeling.
- Recall: remembering or having an idea of an object.
- Judging: the object; affirmation or denial of the object.
- Feeling: forming an attitude towards the object. All acts have content.
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