Chapter 4:

Psychology in the Laboratory

PSK306-History of Psychology Assoc. Prof. Okan Cem Çırakoğlu okanc@baskent.edu.tr

Transitions of the 19th Century

• In the 19th century, Europe and North America were going through significant social and economic changes

Psycholohy: Social, Economic

and Cultural Context of 19th Century

What People Knew About Psychology:

An Overview

Psychology

Experimental Science

Mental Philosophy

Psychology as a subject of studies developed in the 19th century within at least two fields. One was experimental science, including physics, biology, physiology, or medicine. The other was so-called mental philosophy.

Psychological Knowledge in mid-1800

• Sensation

• Emotion

• Intellect

• Volition

• Limited knowledge on brain functions

• Physics and biology (sensation)

• Consicous and uncosncious processes

Psychology:

Science and Popular Beliefs

• A fashion, a trend, and a faith—spiritualism was a belief that the living could correspond with the deceased through special channels of communication.

• Clairvoyance or clear seeing, stood for the supposed extrasensory power of an individual, that is, the power to see or feel objects or events that could not be perceived by the senses or measured objectively.

• Phrenology (or cranioscopy) A theory connecting the size and shape of the brain with human behavior and the individual’s personality. Gall divided the brain into two large groups and 37 zones representing emotional characteristics (such as desire to live, reverence, or imitation) and intellectual characteristics (such as order, calculation, and comparison).▫ Phrenology turned into a popular movement, with dozens of

phrenology societies formed in Europe and the United States. In the 19th century, phrenology became a big business: people were willing to pay money to get evaluated.

Psychology:

Science and Popular Beliefs

Case In Point

• 150 years ago people believed in extrasensory perception and other supernatural abilities

Given the statistics shown in the box in your book, why do you think there are relatively large portions of people maintaining such beliefs?

Studies of the speed of nervous

impulses

The membrane theory of nerve

conduction

The all-or-none principle of

nerve conduction

Theories of the eye convergence, binocular vision, color blindness

Studies of dark and light

adaptation

The new method of staining

individual nerves and cell

structures

Identification of the visual and

speech centers in the brain

Studies of reflexes of the brain and the

spinal cord

Identification of several motor

areas in the brain

Some Discoveries of the 19th Century

Physiology that Impacted Psychology

Early Measurements in Psychology

• The existence of remarkably consistent differences in measurement between any two observers had been established in several experiments and was labeled as personal equation.

• The beginning of experimental studies of the reaction time. The main finding of these studies was that personal psychological characteristics such as attention or anticipation could significantly affect reaction time and behavior in general.

Early Measurements in Psychology

• Psychophysics, according to Gustav T. Fechner(1801–1887) was an exact science of the functionalrelations of dependency between body and mind.

• In 1850, Fechner suggested a possibility that subjectiveestimations of measurements such as weight or lengthmay develop in an arithmetic series in response to ageometric series of physical changes. He found thesupporting evidence in experiments on weights,brightness, tactile perception, and visual differences.

Gustav Fechner

• Gustav Fechner was physicist, philosopher, writer, poet, and scientist who wanted us to enjoy the beauty of his carefully crafted experiments

• Fechner’s main work, Elements of Psychophysics, was published in 1860.

• Fechner’s law states that the magnitude of a subjective sensation increases proportional to the logarithm of the stimulus intensity

S = subjective experienceI = physical intensityk is a constant

S = k log I

(1801-1887)

Major Findings by

Hermann Ebbinghaus (1850-1909)

Wilhelm Wundt

• Wilhelm Wundt was founder of the first psychological laboratory in Leipzig, Germany. Thirty-three American and scores of students from other countries worked on their doctoral degrees under Wundt’s supervision.

• Oswald Külpe, Hugo Münsterberg

• Vladimir Bekhterev, Ivan Pavlov

• Stanley Hall, James McKeen Cattell, LightnerWitmer, E. B. Titchener

(1832-1920)

Wilhelm Wundt’s Academic Accomplishments

Resistance to Experimental Psychology

• Financial limitations

• Cultural-ideological obstacles

▫ Chemistry, physics, engineering supported more

▫ Reluctancy to technical side of exp. psy

Laboratories in the United States

• In the United States, psychologists found a favorable environment. A combination of public financial support, tuition, and private donations created an infrastructure with available resources for experimental research and training of future psychologists. Two great psychologists, Stanley Hall and James Cattell, were among the first returning American students who, after studying with Wundt, brought back their experiences and aspirations.

• The first laboratory of psychology was organized by G. Stanley Hall at the Johns Hopkins University in Maryland early in 1883.

• James Cattell formally opened a psychology lab in 1887 at the University of Pennsylvania.

Experimental Psychology in Selected Countries

Experimental Psychology in Selected

Countries, cont.

Wilhelm Wundt’s Views

• 1. Body and Mind Interaction

▫ Measurable variables should be products of

Sensory activities

Movements

• 2. Concept of Psychological Compounding

▫ Basic parts of experience: sensations and feelings

▫ The process by which these elements connect is psychological compounding

▫ Process of organizing mental elements: apperception

• 3. Method of Experimental Inspection

• 4. Higher mental process

Goals for Psychology

• The analysis of elements of consicousness

• Finding the manner of connection of theseelements

• Finding the laws of this connection

• Physiological Psychology: The study of experiences functionally related to physiological processes.

• “Second Psychology”: The psychological study of experiences that are incarnated in the brain and the nervous system and appear in the form of myths, fairy tales, and beliefs.

Wundt’s Psychologies

Wundt’s Legacy

Psychological Acts According to

Franz Brentano

William Titchener

• The nature of psychological phenomena is in mental elements, those elementary “bricks” from which the larger mental structures are created. The problem was to identify how these complex structures were formed.

• The task of the psychologist is to describe these elements and learn how they interconnect. In the process of introspection, a scientist should not use common labels, such as, “I see the table and it is brown.” Instead, the scientist should describe the elements of his or her conscious experience.

• Sensations as mental elements have four basic characteristics: quality, intensity, duration, and clearness

(1867-1927)

Birth of the

American Psychological Association

In December 1892 at the University of Pennsylvania, the first annual meeting of the American Psychological Association took place, representing 31 original members (18 had attended the first meeting). The composition of the association was diverse and included psychiatrists, philosophers, experimental psychologists, and experts in education (called pedagogists). They were all men. The average age of the members was 35, with the most mature 54 years old.

G. Stanley Hall1844-1924