History and Systems of Psychology - Essay Example

? History and Systems of Psychology History and Systems of Psychology Discuss the main ideas of phrenology. a. What are the criticisms of phrenology? The brain as having being responsible for mental capabilities received more attention after Thomas Willis presented his anatomical findings related to the brain in his book. His book explained the numerous structures present within the brain and for the first time mentioned the presence of two kinds of substances inside the brain: the gray matter and the white matter (Fancher, 1996). By examining the size of the cranium for different animals and people including mentally disabled and able people Franz Josef Gall was able to find out the relationship between the size of the brain and the mental functioning thereby forming a basis for phrenology. Although this relationship is flawed, Gall explained how the large size of the cranium among animals controlled the complex and more intellectual functioning. Most of Gall’s assumptions were a result of observation rather than any scientifically sound methodology. Therefore, another scientist Pierre Flourens use scientific methods of systematic study so as to come down to valid conclusions unlike Gall’s unreliable observations. Flourens used controlled environments so as to measure the impact of a particular independent variable on a dependent variable (Fancher, 1996). He used ablation as a technique, which was a surgical and invasive technique in order to find out the functioning that were involved with those parts of the brain that were removed during ablation. His findings proved the important role of the cerebellum in muscular functioning and thus behavior (Fancher, 1996). b. Why was phrenology popular? The human brain has long been associated with intelligence and other intellectual abilities since the last two centuries (Fancher, 1996). Before that, however, thinkers like Aristotle attached little importance to a lifeless and bloodless organ like brain as being associated with mental capabilities. Later, Thomas Willis was found that the white matter consisted of fine channels within it that carried that supplied the “spirits” (Fancher, 1996). The discovery of blood vessels also disregarded Aristotle’s belief of brain as being bloodless. It was also found that stroke or apoplexy could be caused if the blood supply was obstructed in the vessels also leading to symptoms including paralysis or other sensory impairments. Phrenology and the human brain for that matter received more attention after the discoveries made by Franz Josef Gall. Further details about the gray and white matter as found by Willis were provided so as to demonstrate the importance of the human brain in all the major functions of the body and mind. Gall’s findings showed that the two hemispheres of the brain were interconnected by means of commissures (Fancher, 1996) rather than being separate. Also, fibers from the hemispheres connected with the opposite sides of the spine thereby allowing the hemispheres to control the opposite sides of the body. This also explained how damage to one side of the brain caused paralysis of the opposite side of the body (Fancher, 1996). Later Pierre Flourens carried out scientific study to make valid conclusions to establish the relationship between the human brain and the functioning of the body. He presented some quite useful findings relating to the cerebellum and the cortex. The cerebellum was associated with locomotion or any other coordinated behavior. The cortex was associated with voluntary actions and consciousness because its ablation resulted in loss of will (Fancher, 1996). Thus, phrenology was popular due to its critical findings relating all essential mental functioning to the brain which was previously supposed to be a lifeless organ. 2. What importance did optical illusions have in the debate about the nature of the mind? a. What importance did the work of Gestalt psychology have in this debate? The German thinker, Immanuel Kant who started a study on critical philosophy founded a basis for the scientific study of the mind (Fancher, 1996). Kant regarded noumenal world and the phenomenal world as being the two domains of reality. Noumenal world referred t the presence of objects that existed regardless of our experience with them. Phenomenal world referred to the noumenal world as being transferred into our inner world through interaction with the mind. According to Kant, the existence of causality, which is the tendency to associate specific events to precedent events, could not be proved in the extraneous world and therefore demonstrated it as being inherent to the mind. He insisted the external experiences were a result of the mind in a way that could be studied through experimental physiology. Optical illusions, which became a cause of debate, meant an individual’s mindful impression of an optical trigger that was somewhat distinct from its “objective” characteristics. Then a body of Gestalt psychologists found out the role of the active mind in one’s conscious perceptual experience. These psychologists established how the mind perceived things as a whole (gestalt) and not as numerous, separate components. Hermann Helmholtz studied about sensation and perception and discovered about the law of specific nerve energies and Ophalthalmoscope (Fancher, 1996). He examined the speed of nerve impulses and his examination’s findings clashed with that of Kant in terms of the perceptual mechanism which has a great impact on learning and experience. Unlike Kant who took the phenomenal world as having no spatial dimension, Helmholtz found out the impact of experience on spatial perception. He furthered Kant’s studies relating to vision and sound through scientific analysis. According to Helmholtz, the components of mindful experiences did not require any form of previous learning. These components included one’s visual field is filled with the organized rays of lights. Therefore, perception resulted from purposeful understandings of the sensory information. More scientists studied the impact of color, vision, and stimuli including Maxwell, Young, Fechner, and so on. 3. Compare and contrast Wundt's view of psychology and Titchener's view. Wilhelm Wundt had a different way of explaining the personal equations for he considered the differences in the sizes of the sensory and motor nerves and also the speed of the nervous impulses that travelled along these nervous pathways. Wundt’s ideas formed the basis for structuralism however his own ideas formed voluntarism. Wundt’s discoveries provided additional information that further contributed towards the theory of sensory perception including vision, comatose inference, and the reaction time of an individual. Wundt’s ideas focused more on overall perception. Wundt believed that individuals perceived things as a result of perception and apperception. Percept referred to an automatic and voluntary response to a stimulus. In apperception however an individual has a full attention and the sensory information is interpreted based on past experiences (Fancher, 1996). Edward Titchener built on to the ideas introduced by Wundt creating another school of thought under voluntarism which was called structuralism. Hence, many of the ideas of Titchener were actually derived from voluntarism however there are still few differences present. Unlike Wundt’s ideas, Titchener’s ideas focused more on the individual components of experience. Wundt looked at the idea of perception as a whole: an individual perceiving the sensory information and then interpreting it based on experiences. Titchener’s ideas focused more on the individual elements of consciousness. He used the approach of introspection so as to break down perception into its individual elements. Titchener believed the study of the structure was more important than getting involved in the functionalities (Fancher, 1996). 4. What are examples of higher order processes that Wundt argued could not be studied experimentally? a. How did Ebbinghaus challenge Wundt's view about this? The approach used by Wundt basically involved lower order psychological processes that studied variables such as reaction time and other thresholds. His experiments concerned mainly with perception an sensation. According to Wundt, higher order processes including thought and memory were best if they were investigated through a non-experimental methodology which he referred to as volkerpsychologie. This was a non-experimental methodology that used collective cultural products so as to measure higher order variables. Wundt believed that since language and other aspects influenced learning and memory, they could not be measured experimentally (Fancher, 1996). While Wundt felt that higher order processes such as learning and memory could not be experimentally studied, Hermann Ebbinghaus proved him wrong as he studied memory and learning through an experimental methodology. Ebbinghaus used statistical data and analyzed memory by using nonsense syllables which were a set of three letters that an individual did not have a previous association to. The nonsense syllables were in the order of consonant, vowel, and consonant and used himself as the subject to observe the results. He constructed a learning curve using the results from his experiment. The curve illustrated how the material that has been learnt is forgotten within the first few hours of learning after which the rate of forgetting the material slows down (Fancher, 1996). Ebbinghaus tried to work on a scientific method so as to study higher order processes. His research using experimental science was the first of its kind experiment and was a successful example of a systematic study of higher order processes including memory and learning (Fancher, 1996). 5. Historians argue that people like Galton were influenced by Darwin's work. (make a case that this argument is in fact true). Many theories before Charles aimed at answering how the world and its creatures have been made. Uniformitarianism was one of the earliest theories that said that the present features of the earth have been a result of long processes that stretched over millions of years. According to Uniformitarianism, such processes continue to take place and will continue taking place just as before. Catastrophism suggests how a huge catastrophe during the formation of the earth brought about its geological features. Paley even suggested that the way organs have been made so perfect that there must have been some all-knowing being that designed these as flawless products. And according to Lamarck’s theory species evolved by means of voluntary changes that occur and are therefore transferred from parent to child. However, all these theories presented a raw form of explanation for the creation of the world and the evolution of species. Charles Darwin presented his theory of evolution in his famous book stating how a number of environmental factors including biotic and abiotic factors, affected the survival of the animals and humans. He named how competition for food, predators, diseases, natural disasters and other factors helped balance the population at a constant level which would otherwise increase exponentially if they were left unchecked by environmental factors. Also, he mentioned the relationship of the modern man with his animal ancestors that share similar mental functioning. Galton distantly related to Darwin initially faced a crisis within himself but upon developing his ideas about eugenics or genetically perfect beings, he was able to resolve it. Three aspects of his contributions have been influenced by Darwin’s theory: nature-nurture dichotomy, behavior genetics, and intelligence testing. According to nature-nurture dichotomy, both factors including environment and hereditary factors are important in determining the characteristics of an individual. This takes its influence form Darwin’s theory where the interaction between the genes and environment was central for the expression of genes. Therefore, characteristics resulted from both nature and nurture. References Fancher, R.E. (1996). Pioneers of Psychology. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. Read More