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?
- 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
How was Wundt’s psychology influenced by the work of the German physiologists and the British empiricists? Describe the concept of voluntarism.
- 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
Gall’s ideas reinforced the growing belief among scientists that it was possible to localize specific brain functions.
True
The essence of Weber’s Law is that the just noticeable difference depends on the relative difference between two intensities of stimulation.
True
What was the ultimate goal of the Berlin Physical Society?
- 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.”
Describe Wundt’s methodology and rules for introspection. Did he favor quantitative or qualitative introspection. Why?
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
- observers can determine when process begins
- observers in a state of readiness or strained attention
- possible to repeat the observation several times
- 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
Describe Wundt’s cultural psychology. How did it lead to division within psychology?
- 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
- YES for simple mental functions
- 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
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).
False
What was Fechner’s insight on October 22, 1850? How did Fechner measure sensations?
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
How did developments in early physiology support the mechanistic image of human nature? Discuss methods developed to map brain functions.
- 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
Why did cultural psychology have little impact on American psychology?
- 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
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.
False
Describe Titchener’s method of introspection. How did it differ from Wundt’s?
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
Wilhelm Wundt’s psychology immediately and completely transformed the nature of academic psychology in Germany.
False
Describe Weber’s research on two-point thresholds and on just noticeable differences. What was the importance of these ideas for psychology?
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.
Fechner found that an increase in the intensity of a stimulus produces a one-to-one increase in the intensity of the resultant sensation.
False
Compare and contrast Titchener’s and Wundt’s approaches to psychology.
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
Titchener’s focus was on the synthesis of elements of consciousness into higher-order cognitive processes.
False
The criticisms directed at the method of introspection were more relevant to Titchener’s method of observation than they were to Wundt’s method.
True
Describe Titchener’s three elementary states of consciousness and the four attributes of mental elements.
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
- Quality 2. Intensity 3. Duration 4. Clearness
* affective states possess only first three attributes
Trace the fate of Wundtian psychology in Germany. On what grounds was Wundt’s system criticized?
- 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
Titchener’s introspective observers agreed quite closely when reporting on the same stimulus.
False
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?
- 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
Describe Gall’s cranioscopy method and the popular movement that derived from it. How were they discredited?
- 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
