A History of Psychology Chapter 4: The New Psychology.

A History of Psychology

Chapter 4:

The New Psychology

The founding father of modern psychology

Who? Gustav Fechner (1801-1887)

Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)

William James (1842-1910)


Fechner: originator

1st time demonstrated how to make precise measurements of mental quantities

His goal was to understand the relationship between the mental and material world.Gustav Fechner


Wundt: Founder & promoter

Established the world’s 1st experimental psychology laboratory, edited the 1st Journal, began experimental psychology as science

His goal was to promote psychology as an independent scienceWilhelm Wundt


William James

First true American psychologist

Turn psychology from Europe to the U.S.

William James

Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)-----His life

1. Childhood was lonely, 1st grades in school were poor, always disliked school

2. Did not get along with classmates, ridiculed by teachers

3. Decided to be a physician to work in science and make a livingWilhelm Wundt

Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)-----His life 4. Disliked medicine, switched to

physiologya. Student of Johannes Muller

b. Complete his doctorate in 1855 at U. of Heidelberg

c. Lab assistant to Hermann Helmholtz


5. While working in physiology, he thought the study of psychology as an independent, experimental, and scientific discipline.

6. 1858-1862: Contributions to the Theory of Sensory Perception

a. described his own original experiments

b. offered methods for psychology

c. first used the term of “experimental psychology”


7. 1863: Lectures on the Minds of Men and Animals.

A study of Reaction Time

Influence cognitive science, dominate experimental psychology in 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s

Experiment on Reaction time

Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)-----His life 8. Offered the first formal course on

“physiological psychology”

“physiological” = “experimental”

9. Productivity 54,000pages (1853-1920), an output of 2.2

pages per day

Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)-----His life 10. 1873-1874: Principles of Physiological

Psychology

a. his masterpiece

b. established psychology as an independent laboratory science

c. became the record of psychology research: six editions

Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)----The Leipzig years

1. Professor of philosophy at Leipzig: 1875-1920

2. First psychology lab: model for psychology labs everywhere

3. First journal for psychology research a. 1881: Journal of Philosophical Studies b. 1906: new title-Journal of Psychological

Studies

Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)----The Leipzig years 4. Trained first generation of experimental

psychologists

5. Trained several Americans and most of them returned to the US to begin laboratories of their own.

6. Also, his students established laboratories in Italy, Russian, and Japan.

7. He was not himself a laboratory worker even though his faith in laboratory research.

Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)----Cultural psychology 1. 1880-1891: wrote on ethics, logic,

systematic philosophy

2. 1900: Cultural Psychology The creation of social psychology

3. Concerned with stages of human mental development

Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)----Cultural psychology 4. Focus on language, art myths, social,

customs, law, and morals.

5. Divided psychology in two: Experimental Psychology Social Psychology

Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)----Cultural psychology 6. Experimental psychology

Simpler mental function such as sensation and perception

Must be studied through experimental/laboratory methods.

7. Non-experimental methods higher mental processes such as learning and memory cannot be studies experimentally can be studied using methods of sociology

anthropology, social psychology

Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)----Cultural psychology 8. Citations:

Cultural Psychology: < 4% Principles of Physiological Psychology: >61%

9. Reasons for the lack interest in cultural psychology Little need to pay attention to developments

from Europe Less concern to cultural issues

Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)---The study of conscious experience

1. Wundt adapted scientific methods (in nature science) to study psychology

2.Subject matter in Wundt psychology: consciousness studied by the methods of analysis or reduction reduction to its elements active in organizing its contents


3. Voluntarism: The mind has the capacity to organize

mental contents into higher-level through process.

emphasized the process, not the elements however, recognized the elements Provide only a beginning to understanding

psychological processes.


4. Mediate experience: Mediate experience provides information about

something other than the elements of that experience E.g., The flower is red; I have a toothache

5. Immediate experience: unbiased by any personal interpretations Our experience of redness or our feeling of discomfort

from a toothache


6. Analyze the mind into its elements and its component parts like nature science (chemical elements)

Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)---The method of introspection

1. The method of a scientific psychology requires observation of conscious experience

2. Method of observation: Introspection: is the examination of one’s own mental state,

“internal perception”, and report on personal thoughts or feelings

Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)---The method of introspection 4. Its use is derived from physics and physiology

Fechner: subjects compared two weights and reported whether one is heavier, lighter, or equal. They were introspecting and reporting on their conscious experiences.

3. Required subjects to complete 10,000 introspective observation before ready to be Wundt’s subjects.

4. Accurate observation and replication

Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)---The method of introspection 5. Wundt’s four rules and conditions

Observers must be able to determine when the process is to be introduced

Observers must be in a sate of readiness

It must be possible to repeat the observation several times

It must be possible to vary the experimental conditions in terms of the controlled manipulation of the stimuli.

Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)---The method of introspection 6. Required quantitative and objective

measurement (e.g., reaction time), not qualitative introspection

7. Used sophisticated equipment for objective measurement

Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)---elements of conscious experience

1. Wundt’s three goals for psychology Analyze conscious processes into elements Discover how elements are organized Determine the laws of connection governing

the organization of the elements


2. Two elements of conscious experience: Sensations Feelings Both are immediate experience


3. Tridimensioal theory of feelings From Wundt’s own experiences as a subject. Wundt concluded three independent

dimensions of feelings: pleasure/displeasure tension/relaxation excitement/depression

Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)---Organizing the elements of conscious experience

1. Reality: Whole: tree 2. Lab: report elements of conscious experience:

color, shape, or brightness

3. Doctrine of apperception The process of organizing mental elements into a

whole. is a creative synthesis. Impacted Gestalt psychology (the whole is different

from the sum of its parts)

Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)---The fate of Wundt’s psychology in Germany

1. 1941: psychology: subspecialty in philosophy

2. Some against to separate psychology and philosophy

3. Lack of funds for a separate discipline Government officials did not see the practical value in

psychology and were hesitant to provide enough financial support

Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)---The fate of Wundt’s psychology in Germany

4. Wundt’s psychology, focusing on organizing the elements of consciousness, was not appropriate for solving real-world problems.

5. Slow develop as a distinct science in Germany

6. 1910: 4 psychologists 1925: 25 psychologists

14 of 23 universities: separate psychology department

Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)---Criticisms of Wundtian psychology

1. Criticisms of method of introspection Not objective

2. Focus on conscious experience and avoid soul

Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)---Criticisms of Wundtian psychology

3. Not applicable to practical problems

4. Decline of Wundt’s system his personal opinions regarding World War I

Wundtian research and writing disappeared in English-speaking world.

Wundt’s lab was destroyed during WWII

overshadowed by Gestalt psychology (in Germany) and psychoanalysis (in Austria)

Other Developments in German Psychology Others in England:

Charles Darwin: a theory of evolution Francis Galton: a psychology of individual differences

Others in Germany Hermann Ebbinghaus (1850-1909) Franz Brentano (1838-1917) Carl Stumpf (1848-1936) Oswald Kulpe (1862-1915)

Others in German Psychology ---Hermann Ebbinghaus (1850-1909)

A. In general 1. Born in Germany in 1850

2. Impacted by Fechner, Elements of Psychophysics

3. using himself as the only subject

4. In 1880, taught at U. of Berlin; was not promoted there (lack of publication).

5. In 1894-1905, accepted a position at U. of Breslau. After 1905, moved to U. of Halle.

Hermann Ebbinghaus


B. Research on learning 1. first to apply the experimental method to

study higher mental processes (learning and memory)

(Wundt thought that higher mental processes is impossible to study experimentally)

2. Study learning was to examine association


B. Research on learning 3. Measuring memory: counting the number of trials

and repetitions required to learn the material. (Like Fechner, measuring sensations indirectly through by

measuring the stimulus intensity to produce a just noticeable difference in sensation)

4. Recall: through the frequency of associations

5. Provided quantification of learning, memory, recall, and forgetting


C. Research with nonsense syllables

1. Nonsense syllables

a. meaningless material is 9 times harder to learn than meaningful material

b. found longer material requires more repetitions


2. Most significanta. influence of experimental conditions on human learning and memory.

b. quantitative analysis of the data

c. finding that time to learn is a function of the number of syllables


D. other contributions to psychology 1. 1890, founded the Journal of Psychology and

Physiology of the Sense Organs

2. Emphasized relationship between psychology and physiology

3. Developed a sentence-completion test


D. other contributions to psychology4. In 1920, The Principles of Psychology; In 1908, A Summery of Psychology.

5. Many of his conclusion about learning and memory remains valid now. He expanded the experimental psychology.

6. More influential than Wundt

Others in German Psychology ----Franz Brentano (1838-1917)

A. Career Was prepared to be a priest

1864, received his degree

1866, taught philosophy at U of Wurzburg

1874, published Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint and moved to U. of Vienna

Franz Brentano

Others in German Psycholo---Franz Brentano (1838-1917) His students, Carl Stumpf, Sigmund Freud

Precursor of Gestalt and humanistic psychology

Shared Wundt’s goal: psychology as a science

1874: Psychology From an Empirical Standpoint in direct opposition to Wundt’s view was empirical, not experimental method was observation, not experimentation did not reject experimentation data are from observation and individual experience

Others in German Psychology---Franz Brentano (1838-1917)

B. Brentono: Act psychology

1. Rejected study of the content of conscious experience

2. subject matter: mental activity

3.experience as activity

Wundt: conscious experience

1. Accepted Study the content of conscious experience

2. Subject matter: Mental content

3. Experience as structure

Others in German Psychology---Franz Brentano (1838-1917)

4. Requires new methods a. acts are not accessible through introspection b. study of mental acts requires empirical

observation

5. Relied on systematic observation

6. Two methods: through memory and imagination

Others in German Psychology ----Carl Stumpf (1848-1936)

A. In general 1. Born in medical family

2. Interested in music

3. Studied with Brentano and interested in philosophy and science

4. 1868, received his degree; 1894, taught at U. of Berlin

5. Wundt’s major rival

Carl Stumpf


B. Research

1. Perception of space

2. 1883, 1890: Psychology of Tone

a. second only to Helmholtz in work on acoustics

b. pioneer in psychological study of music


C. Phenomenology 1. Argued primary data for psychology are

phenomena

2. Phenomenology: Knowledge based on unbiased description of

immediate description of immediate experience at it occurs, not analyzed or reduced to elements.

Others in German Psychology ----Carl Stumpf (1848-1936) 3. Analysis of experience into elements makes that

experience artificial and no longer nature

4. Bitter debate with Wundt re: introspection of tones

a. highly trained lab observers (Wundt)

b. expert musicians (Stumpf)

Others in German Psychology ----Carl Stumpf (1848-1936) D. Other works

1. Founded Berlin Association for Child Psychology

2. Established center of music collection from the world

3. Published a theory of emotions, his idea relevant to contemporary cognitive theory of emotion

Others in German Psychology ---Oswald Kulpe (1862-1915)

A. In general 1. Student and colleague of Wundt

2. “Kind mother” “science as my bride”

3. 1893: Outline of Psychology

a. Psychology is the science of the facts of experience

b. as dependent on the experiencing person

Oswald Kuiilpe


Kulpe 1. Thought processes should be

studied experimentally 2. Developed systematic experimental

introspection a. involved performance of a

complex task b. subjects gave retrospective

report of the cognitive processes experienced during the task

Wundt 1. Impossible to

experimentally study about high mental process

2. Introspection

B. Kulpe’s differences with Wundt


Kulpe 3. Subjective &

qualitative 4. Detail 5. Describe the complex

mental operations

Wundt 3. Objective &

quantitative 4. Not detail 5. Reaction time or

judgment of weights



Kulpe 6. Experimenter:

active role

Directly ask questions of the observers to facilitate the details of their reactions

Wundt 6. Experimenter:

Limited to presenting the stimulus material and recording results

Not intrude on the

actual observations



Kulpe Thought can occur

without any sensory or imaginal content

Wundt All experience is

composed of sensations and images

C. imageless thought

A History of Psychology Chapter 4: The New Psychology.

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Transcript of A History of Psychology Chapter 4: The New Psychology.