Review Questions for In-Class Discussion and Exam Preparation

Psy 5950

Review Questions for In-Class Discussion and Exam Preparation

Based on King, Viney and Woody (2009)A History of Psychology: Ideas and Context.

Chapter 1

1. List and summarize at least five reasons for studying psychology’s history.

1. List and summarize three hypotheses regarding the pattern or direction of history.

1. Summarize and discuss the Zeitgeist theory and the Great-Person theory of history.

1. Identify and discuss specific developments of the late 20th century that advanced scholarly work devoted to the history of psychology.

Chapter 2

1. Define epistemology.

1. Define and distinguish a priori knowledge and a posteriori knowledge. Cite an example to illustrate the distinction.

1. Define nativism and empiricism. Discuss examples to distinguish these two perspectives.

1. Identify and summarize five methods or approaches to assess truth.

1. Identify key philosophers who were advocates of empiricism and those who were advocates of rationalism.

1. Summarize Karl Popper’s views regarding features that distinguish legitimate science from pseudoscience.

1. Summarize Kuhn’s perspectives on the development of science.

1. Define normal science and paradigm, according to Kuhn.

1. Contrast Feyerabend’s and Kuhn’s perspectives on what constitutes “normal science” and discuss the implications of each of their views regarding the status of psychology as a science.

1. Summarize Aristotle’s theory on causation. List and define four types of causation according to Aristotle.

1. Define and distinguish intrinsic teleology and extrinsic teleology.

1. Summarize the free-will vs. determinism debate and list representative advocates from psychology’s history for each perspective.

1. Discuss arguments that support determinism and alternative arguments in defense of free will.

1. Define and differentiate monistic and dualistic perspectives regarding the mind/body connection.

1. Identify and discuss at least two monistic approaches and two dualistic approaches to the mind/body connection.

Chapter 3

1. Discuss some of the documented evidence of early psychological thought from ancient Chinese and Egyptian cultures.

1. Define cosmology and list some of the ancient Greek cosmologists.

1. Who was Thales? For what is he most remembered and what natural phenomenon did he predict mathematically?

1. Identify the primary substance according to each of the following: Thales, Democritus, Anaximander, and Anaximenes.

1. Contrast Heraclitus’ theory of becoming from Parmenides’ theory of being.

1. Identify and briefly describe some of the major contributions of Pythagoras.

1. Summarize Zeno’s paradox of motion.

1. Briefly summarize the treatment of illness in ancient Greek civilizations prior to 500 B.C. To whom did people turn for such treatments?

1. Trace the development of early Greek medicine and describe the contributions of Aesculapius, Alcmaeon, Empedocles, and Hippocrites.

1. Who is often regarded as the “father of medicine”? Whattypes of causes did he attribute to illness and psychological conditions?

1. Define relativism and sophism. Identify a well known sophist from ancient Greece and briefly summarize his views.

1. Describe the Socratic Method. For whom is this method named?

1. Briefly outline Socrates’ main contributions to psychology.

1. Summarize Plato’s conflict model of mental disorders.
2. Summarize Plato’s theory of forms. Cite examples to demonstrate your understanding of this theory.

1. Summarize Plato’s views on memory, perception, and motivation.

1. Briefly summarize the basic premises of Plato’s Republic.

1. Discuss and differentiate Plato's and Aristotle's approaches to knowledge and truth.

1. Summarize Aristotle’s views regarding three functions of the soul.

1. Summarize and discuss Aristotle’s theory of memory. Identify three principles of association described by Aristotle.

1. Summarize Aristotle’s positions on sensing and imagination.

1. Discuss Aristotle’s naturalistic account of dreams.

1. Discuss reasons why Aristotle’s work remains an important foundation in psychology’s history.

Chapter Four

1. List and define four temperaments described by the Roman physician Galen. Identify the ancient Greek physician whose ideas clearly influenced Galen.

1. Briefly summarize the vitalist perspective of Galen. Discuss reasons why this perspective went unchallenged for many centuries.

1. Identify the three vital principles, according to Galen. Relate this to the three functions of the psuche, according to Plato.

1. List four major philosophical systems of the Roman period and identify representative individuals for each system. What was the primary focus of these philosophical systems?

1. Summarize and compare some of the teachings of Epicurus, Zeno of Cyprus, and Pyrrho.

1. Identify some of the philosophers associated with neo-Platonism and summarize some of their contributions.

1. Who was Hypatia and for what is she remembered?

1. Discuss the general intellectual characteristics of the Middle Ages. Cite evidence that the medieval period was a period of intellectual regression. Also note some extraordinary exceptions that represent discovery and progress during this period.

1. Summarize and discuss the significance of St. Augustine’s Confessions to psychology.

1. Summarize Augustine’s views on infant motivation, grief, dreams, and habit breaking.

1. Identify and discuss medical and philosophical contributions from Islam during the middle ages. Specifically, note some of the major contributions of Rhazes, Avicenna, Averroës, and Alhazen.

1. Compare Avicenna’s views on the soul to those of Plato and Aristotle.

1. Summarize Maimonides’s main message in his Guide of the Perplexed.

1. Discuss the impact of the establishment of universities in Europe by the 12th century.

1. Summarize Peter Abelard’s views regarding faith and reason.

1. Identify the four causes of human ignorance and error according to Roger Bacon.

1. Describe the contributions of Thomas Aquinas. What did he do for Aristotelian philosophy?

1. Summarize Aquinas’ views on the soul-body relationship.

1. Summarize Ockham’s Razor .

Chapter Five

1. Describe five general characteristics of the Renaissance period.

1. Summarize the social and economic impact of the mid-14th century plague in Europe.

1. Summarize the debate between geocentrism and heliocentrism. What is the implication of these world views for a science of human nature.

1. Summarize and discuss Galileo’s major contributions to science.

1. How did the view of mankind’s place in the universe change during the Renaissance?

1. Some of the greatest books ever written appeared during the Renaissance era. Describe one of these works, including the following information: author, title, general topic, lasting significance.

1. Two major scientists of the Renaissance era were from England: Newton and Harvey. Describe what each of these men did and explain how they changed the perspectives of future scientists.

1. Discuss the importance of Machiavelli to the history of behavioral and social sciences.
2. Summarize the contributions of Vives to psychological thought.

1. Summarize da Vinci’s views on perception. Discuss ways that his work contributed to the growth of empirical studies.

1. Summarize Montaigne’s skeptical arguments and discuss the impact of his work to the development of modern science.

1. Summarize and discuss the contributions of Juan Huarte to the study of individual differences.

Chapter Six

1. List and describe Bacon’s four idols.

1. Summarize Francis Bacon’s approach to scientific methodology.

1. List the British Empiricists and Associationists.

1. What are the two sources of ideas according to John Locke?

1. Define and distinguish primary and secondary qualities according to Locke.

1. Distinguish George Berkeley’s views from those of Locke regarding primary qualities.

1. Summarize David Hume’s approach to the problem of causality.

1. Discuss the development of empiricism from an epistemological method under Bacon to an ontological position with the work of Berkeley and Hume.

1. Summarize the contributions of Condillac and Helvétius to empiricism.

1. Define utilitarianism. Summarize the implications of this political/social perspective for a science of human nature.

1. Summarize David Hartley’s contributions to associationism and summarize his perspectives on pleasure.

1. Differentiate James Mill’s and John Stuart Mill’s views on mental association.

1. Summarize the impact of J.S. Mill toward the development of applied psychology.

1. Summarize and discuss the contributions of the empiricism movement toward the development of psychology as a formal discipline.

Chapter 7

1.Summarize the basic tenets of rationalism. List at least three critical distinctions between rationalism and empiricism.

2.Define and differentiate inductive reasoning and deductive reasoning and summarize Descartes’ views regarding these methods of reasoning.

3.Summarize Descartes’ views of the human body. Define dualism and summarize Cartesian dualism.

4.Distinguish Spinoza’s conceptualization of the mind/body relationship from the views of Descartes and from the views of Leibniz.

5.Summarize Leibniz’s concept of monads. Distinguish his views of the mind/body relationship from Spinoza’s views and from Descartes’ views.

6.Identify key works published by Immanuel Kant and summarize his primary contributions to philosophy and psychology.

7.Summarize and discuss Kant’s distinction between analytic and synthetic a priori knowledge.

8.Identify the categories of understanding according to Kant.

9.Summarize Kant’s theory of moral development. Define heteronomy and autonomy.

10.Summarize Herbart’s main contributions to philosophy and to psychology.

11.Identify rationalist philosophers concerned with the concept of threshold and discuss the significance of this concept to later developments in psychology.

Chapter 8

1. Define and summarize the philosophical position of mechanism and briefly describe the relevant contributions of two advocates of this position.

1. Summarize and discuss the mechanistic aspects of Descartes’ work.

1. Describe key discoveries of Jan Swammerdam and discuss the significance of his work.

1. Summarize key developments in the 18th century toward a more modern conceptualization of nervous system physiology. Include descriptions of pioneering work by Hales, Whytt, and Unzer.

1. Summarize some of the major breakthroughs in the 19th century in mapping the functions of the nervous system.
2. Summarize the concept of localization of function.

1. Summarize the Bell-Magendie Law. Describe the research of Charles Bell and Francois Magendie and briefly summarize the debate between them over priority of discovery.

1. Briefly describe the contributions of Volta and Galvani to the electrical nature of the nervous system. Differentiate the conclusions derived by each of these scientists.

1. Identify 19th century pioneers of modern experimental physiology.

1. Summarize Johannes Müller’s concept of specific nerve energies.

1. Identify and briefly summarize the contributions of Hermann von Helmholtz to the study of sensory physiology.

1. Note the major the significance of Helmholtz’s research on the nerve impulse to psychology as an experimental science.

1. Who first introduced Phrenology and who were some of its major supporters?

1. Despite its fatal flaws, what were some positive lasting impressions of phrenology for psychology?

1. Briefly describe the contributions of Pierre Flourens to the study of the CNS. Summarize his views of CNS function.

1. Summarize the contributions of Paul Broca. Discuss the impact of his work on the localization of function debate.

1. List three techniques developed in the mid-19th century still in use today to study the CNS. Name at least two individuals associated with each technique.

1. Identify some of the key figures who used electrical stimulation in the 19th century and summarize their major contributions.

1. Summarize the work and accomplishments of Golgi and Cajal.

1. Francis Galton was a man of many firsts. Describe at least three of Galton’s key contributions.

1. Summarize Francis Galton's views on the nature of intelligence.

1. Summarize Galton's work with mental tests and describe five different measures that Galton obtained in his anthropometric testing.

1. Summarize Galton's pioneering work with statistical methods. What statistical tools did Galton use to measure human characteristics?

Chapter 9

1. Define naturalism.

1. Identify key developments in the theory of organic evolution prior to Darwin.

1. List and characterize four technical features of Darwin’s theory of evolution.

1. Outline the significance of evolutionary theory to the development of psychology.

1. List at least three types of evidence Darwin used to support his theory of natural selection.

1. Summarize the impact of Charles Darwin’s work on psychology. Discuss reasons why Darwin's work is considered an antecedent to functional psychology, and specify example to illustrate how Darwin's work was a major force in shaping modern psychology.

1. Identify the names and publication years of at least three of Charles Darwin’s major works.

1. Identify six major social reform movements of the 19th century.

1. What was Malleus Maleficarum? Briefly describe its contents and discuss its impact.

1. How did Descartes and Spinoza challenge beliefs in witchcraft?

1. Identify three early “cures” for mental illness. Briefly describe the rationale behind each cure, and mention whether or not they exist in any form today.

1. Summarize the contributions of Benjamin Rush, Philippe Pinel, and Dorothea Dix to the reforms in treating and understanding mental illness.

1. Summarize and discuss the contributions of Women’s reform movements of the 19th century.

Chapter 10

1. Identify and summarize two extreme positions concerning the relationship between external objects and subjective experience of these objects. How did early developments in psychophysics challenge these two extreme positions?

1. Define psychophysics. Who first introduced this term and developed the methods of psychophysics?

1. What is the two-point threshold and who first introduced this concept? Describe his research on this concept.

1. Define just noticeable difference (jnd) and identify the individual who first described this concept. Describe his research methods.

1. State the formulas for Weber’s Law and Fechner’s Law. Summarize these laws in your own words.

1. List and briefly describe three of Fechner’s psychophysical methods.

1. Summarize Helmholtz’s contributions to studies of color vision and audition.

1. Who is credited for formally founding psychology as an academic discipline? When and where?

1. Name some of the individuals with whom Wundt studied during his early career.

1. What was Wundt’s first published book? What was his longest work, published between 1900 and 1920.

1. How did Wundt define psychology? Identify three main subdivisions of psychology outlined by Wundt.

1. Describe the primary research activities of Wundt’s laboratory.

1. List the four explicit rules Wundt established for his research participants.

1. Define and distinguish immediate and mediate experience, according to Wundt.

1. How did Wundt distinguish perception and apperception?

1. List three fundamental characteristics of sensation identified by Wundt.

1. Describe Wundt’s research on emotion and summarize his tridimensional theory of feeling.

1. Name some of Wundt’s students who contributed to applied psychology and summarize their accomplishments.

Chapter 11

1.Summarize Titchener’s definition of psychology and the goals or tasks he delineated for psychology. Summarize his views regarding the method and scope of psychology.

2.Identify the three elementary states of consciousness and four attributes of sensations, according to Titchener.

3.Summarize Titchener’s views regarding the mind-brain connection.

4.Summarize Titchener’s theory of meaning.

5.Summarize Titchener’s views on emotion. What criticisms did he have of the James-Lange theory of emotion?

6.Discuss key differences between Wundt’s and Titchener’s systems of psychology. Note differences between their views of the mind and their experimental methods.

7.Who was the first American woman to receive a PhD in psychology, and under whom did she study? Summarize her main contributions to psychology.

8.Name three researchers from the University of Würzburg and summarize their main opposition to Wundt’s approach to psychology.

9.Name Brentano's system of psychology. Outline his classification of mental phenomena.

1. Summarize Stumpf’s contributions to the psychology of music. Distinguish his work on tone psychology from Wundt’s ideas.

1. How were psychological acts investigated by Külpe and his colleagues? Give specific examples of the sorts of research conducted in his laboratory.

12.Define imageless thought, according to Külpe. Why was the work of the Würzburg school on imageless thought crucial to the psychologies of Wundt and Titchener?

1. Describe the contributions of G.E. Müller to psychology.

1. Summarize at least two important experimental findings from Ebbinghaus’s research on memory.

Chapter 12

1.List key distinctions between functionalism and structuralism.

2.Briefly state William James's main opposition to structuralism. What was the goal of psychology, according to James?

3.Name at least three significant published works of William James. Which of these was especially influential on the new American psychology of his time?

4.Define pragmatism and summarize the pragmatic philosophy of James.

5.Identify and briefly summarize key concepts to Jamesian Psychology.

1. Identify the metaphor James used to describe consciousness and list five characteristics of consciousness according to James.
2. Summarize the James-Lange theory of emotions.

1. List some of the "firsts" achieved by Granville Stanley Hall. Summarize his major accomplishments and list at least two of his published works.

1. Summarize G. Stanley Hall’s contributions to developmental psychology. How was Hall's work influenced by Darwin's evolutionary theory?

1. Briefly summarize Hall's theory of human development.

1. Identify two of the leading universities associated with functionalism. Note the leading functional psychologists who worked at each of these universities.

1. Name John Dewey’s most famous literary contribution to psychology. Summarize Dewey's concept of the reflex arc as expressed in this article.

1. State three major points highlighting characteristics of functional psychology pronounced by Angell in his APA presidential address in 1906.

1. Define adaptive or adjustive behavior as discussed by Harvey Carr. List the research methods Harvey Carr considered appropriate for psychology.

1. James McKeen Cattell is often described as psychology’s great publisher, promoter, and businessman. Give evidence to support each of these three qualities. How did Cattell contribute to the scientific stature and visibility of psychology?

1. Identify the name given to Robert Sessions Woodworth's approach to psychology. What did Woodworth believe should be the subject matter of psychology? Identify at least two of his influential published works.

1. Who was Mary Whiton Calkins? Under whom and where did she conduct her graduate studies? Summarize her contributions to psychology.

1. Identify American women who contributed to the development of applied psychology in the United States and summarize their accomplishments.

1. Describe the variability hypothesis and summarize the research by Leta Hollingworth that opposed this concept.

1. Summarize Alfred Binet’s approach to the study of intelligence. How did this differ from previous attempts?

1. Where and with whom did Walter Dill Scott complete his doctoral work? Summarize his contributions to applied psychology.

Chapter 13