Multiple ChoiceHistory of Modern Psych, 3e: Study Guide, Chapter 22-1
1. Chapter 2 opens with the Ebbinghaus quote about psychology having a short past but a long history. What did Ebbinghaus mean?
a. he meant that it was important for psychology to break completely with philosophy in order
to become scientific
b. he meant that the issues of interest to psychologists could be traced to ancient times
c. he meant that psychology really has a lengthy history, but most people don’t
remember any of it so they believe that psychology has just a short history
d. he meant most psychologists don’t appreciate the importance of studying psychology’s history
2. On the mind-body question, Descartes believed that
a. mind and body were two aspects of the same essence
b. mind and body were two distinct, noninteracting essences
c. mind and body were two distinct essences that interacted directly with each other
d. mind could be reduced to body (i.e., brain)—thus, he rejected dualism
3. According to Descartes,
a. mind and body interact at a place in the body that is not duplicated anywhere else,
namely, in the area of the heart
b. animals are pure machines; humans have bodies that are machines, but they also have
rational minds
c. the sensory and motor components of the reflex occur in two different sets of nerves
d. the ideas of self and God are learned through the experiences of early childhood
4. John Locke was the first major British Empiricist. He is associated with all of the following ideas except
a. government is based on a social contract between the governors and the governed
b. the only reality we can be sure of is our perception
c. there are two sources of ideas: sensation and reflection
d. the mind at birth is like a white paper
5. Berkeley’s philosophy has come to be called “subjective idealism” or immaterialism. He believed that
a. all knowledge is innate but dormant; we have to use our reason to get at the knowledge
b. the uncertainty of the physical world meant that God probably didn’t exist
c. our belief in the existence of the external world depends on our perception of it
d. we learn mostly through experience, but visual phenomena like depth perception are innate
6. James Mill’s model of the mind (exemplified by the quote about complex and duplex ideas in houses) could be described as _____; his son’s model was more of ______.
a. traditional empiricism; a rationalist system
b. mental chemistry; a mental mechanics
c. mental mechanics; a mental chemistry
d. rationalism; an empiricist system
7. Suppose you hypothesize that having a flower garden reduces stress. Using Mill’s method of agreement, you would hope to find that
a. everyone with a garden has low stress levels
b. everyone without a garden has high stress levels
c. both alternatives a. and b.
d. none of the above
8. The French philosopher Leibniz argued that
a. animals are true “empirics” (blank slate at birth)
b. the human mind is more like veined marble than a blank slate, with the veins
representing our innate predispositions
c. both alternatives a. and b.
d. none of the above
Answers
1. a. he believed that psychology needed to recognize its roots in philosophy
b. CORRECT ANSWER – for example, the nature-nurture issue
c. at the time he wrote the sentence, psychology did not have a lengthy history
d. there may be some truth to this (unfortunately), but it is not what Ebbinghaus meant
2. a. this is a monistic position; Descartes was a dualist
b. Descartes believed the first part, but not the second – they interacted
c. CORRECT ANSWER – mind had direct influences on body, he believed, and the reverse was also
true
d. no, he was definitely a dualist
3. a. he believed the locus of interaction was the pineal gland, in the brain
b. CORRECT ANSWER – this is the “Cartesian dichotomy”
c. he believed that each nerve carried both sensory and motor information
d. he believed these were innate ideas, arrived at through our ability to reason
4. a. he believed strongly in this and he influenced the writing of the American Declaration of
Independence as a result
b. CORRECT ANSWER – this was not Locke, it was Berkeley’s belief
c. these were the two parts of our experience that shape our ideas
d. he believed that all our knowledge derives from experience
5. a. this is a rationalist position; Berkeley was an empiricist
b. the presumed existence of God (the Permanent Perceiver) was essential to Berkeley’s system
c. CORRECT ANSWER – this is his subjective idealism
d. depth perception was also learned, he believed
6. a. both were empiricists
b. the opposite of this
c. CORRECT ANSWER – the son’s model was more holistic
d. both were empiricists
7. a. CORRECT ANSWER – having a garden should accompany low stress
b. this would be the method of difference
c. this would be the joint method
d. not relevant
8. a. he agreed with Locke on this
b. this was his model, judged by history to be an improvement on Locke’s blank slate
c. CORRECT ANSWER
d. both a. and b. are true
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