BulletPointsummary of Chapters on History of Psychology by Van der Velde - 1st edition

How has psychology as a science developed? - BulletPoints 1

• Nature vs. nurture debate: The nature side of this debate assumes that the basis of human behavior is determined by hereditary factors, while the nurture side of the debate assumes that human behavior is determined by the experiences people have throughout their life. The nurture side therefore focuses a lot on the influence of the environment.

• Galileo discovered that moons orbitted Jupiter. So the other planets do not all orbit the earth and the earth was not the center of the universe. This led to many new ideas. Researchers and scientists also became less interested in understanding why the universe is as it is and became more interested in understanding how the universe operates.

• A mechanism arose from the above described change. The universe was no longer regarded as being full of planets. Instead it was regarded als mechanistic. This means that the universe was regarded as material (made from matter). The 'dead' objects in the universe move under the influence of a certain force.

• Mechanism has affected science, because: Wanting to know how something works led to the emergence of the analysis method. This meant that a researcher first dissects an object into smaller parts (such as atoms) and then tries to understand how these parts interact and explain how the object works. According to mechanistics, phenomena could only be studied if the elements that make up the phenomenon are quantified. Quantification was considered the only correct way to study phenomena, because it is objective (so the measurements are not dependent on the observer); The purpose of the mechanism is to explain, or reduce, all the behavior of matter in terms of the components that are found at the most basic level of organization: the atoms. This approach is also called reductionism. Reductionism is about reducing certain phenomena at a certain level of organization to phenomena that are at a lower level of organization.

Who were Descartes and Hobbes? - BulletPoints 2

• René Descartes (1596 - 1650) is considered to be one of the founders of a new form of mechanistic philosophy and science that originated in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. His ideas about the nature of man still influences the field of psychology.

• Descartes had three important ideas:

  1. Rationalism: This includes Descartes' ideas about how we can obtain knowledge, in particular knowledge that is indisputable.

  2. Mechanism: This includes Descartes' ideas about the nature of the universe, in particular objects and the human body.

  3. Dualism: This includes Descartes' ideas about the special place that people have in the world, in particular the special nature of the human mind.

• Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) was a British philosopher. He was influenced by mechanism and wanted to describe the mechanisms that determine how people work and how society works. He philosophized about the forces and motivations that encourage people to take action. He did not agree with Descartes, who stated that the human mind acts freely and is not driven by a certain force. Hobbes stated that the human mind was driven by certain forces (aversion and attraction) and that the mind functioned in a mechanic manner.

What is empiricism? - BulletPoints 3

• The political ideas of John Locke (1632-1704), like those of Hobbes, were influenced by the question of how people acquire certain knowledge. He wrote a book about this called An Essay Concerning Human Understanding that can be seen as belonging to cognitive psychology. In this book he rejects the idea that certain knowledge is innate and he shows that knowledge (certain knowledge) can be acquired without being innate. With this idea, he contradicts both rationalism and skepticism.

• Tabula Rasa is the Latin term for 'clean slate'. This term was first used by Aristotle, but later adopted by John Locke. In terms of the nature-nurture debate, this term represents the nurture side, because it sees people as being born with a clean slate, so without any knowledge.

• According to Locke, the basis of knowledge would stem from observations. He distinguished two types of observations: Sensations: observations of external objects; Reflections: inner workings of our mind.

What kind of science is or should psychology be? - BulletPoints 4

• Throughout the history of the psychology, there has been a lot of debate between two prevailing perspectives on how the human mind works. The difference between the two perspectives is that one states that the mind is 'active' and that the other perspective states that the mind is 'passive'. In Table 4.1 there is an overview of the characteristics that belong to the idea that the mind is passive and the characteristics that belong to the idea that the mind is active. A 'passive' mind means that people are taught everything from the environment and an 'active' mind means that human knowledge originates from the person himself.

• Charles Wheatstone was the first to describe how people perceive depth. He explained that one sees an object from a different angle from the left eye compared to the right eye. This is also called binocular disparity. The brain processes this as 'depth'. He also developed the stereoscope, with which one can perceive things in three-dimensional image by offering a different image to each eye. This is also the mechanism behind 3D movies in the cinema, where a different image is offered to each eye through the use of 3D glasses.

• Kant himself, however, was critical about that psychology could be a real science. He had three reasons for this: Mental processes cannot be directly measured; Introspection is unreliable. Introspection means that people report what they think and / or feel. According to Kant, it is impossible to objectively look at your own thoughts or feelings. If someone is scared, then he or she cannot look at these feelings objectively at that moment and therefore not report them objectively; Experimenting is not possible. For the quality of science, it is important that experiments can be repeated. Mental processes cannot be repeated and this makes it impossible to carry out experiments to the human psyche, according to Kant.

• Phrenology has never been taken very seriously throughout history, yet it has had important influences on psychology:

  1. Phrenology was an example of differential psychology. This was different than before, because the human psyche was first looked at in a general way. Gall, however, focused on the differences between people and this was later increasingly done in psychology;

  2. Psychological testing. Gall was the first to use a test to measure psychological characteristics. Testing later became an important part of psychology.

  3. Phrenology was an example of practically applied psychology. Phrenology was used in determining personality characteristics while hiring new staff. This showed that knowledge coming from psychology also could have a practical application.

  4. The pursuit of objectivity. Kant stated that it is important for psychology to be able to objectively measure. Phrenology was a first attempt to objectively measure the human psyche.

  5. Phrenology was the first step towards locating psychological functions in the brain, which is still being done in contemporary research. The difference with phrenological localization is that contemporary research is mainly involved with localising functional psychological functions such as speech, vision, memory and language.

How did pscyhology develop in the 19th and 20th centuries? - BulletPoints 5

• The evolution theory was created by Charles Darwin and by Alfred Russel Wallace. In 1859, Darwin, in collaboration with Wallace, published his book The Origin of Species. Darwin’s evolution theory is not the only theory about evolution. Lamarck also developed a theory about evolution.

• The discoveries of Charle Lyell, who was a geology researcher, also helped Darwin prepare his theory. For example, Lyell found out that geology changes over (a long) time. This was in line with Darwin's idea, which stated that animal evolution also took place over a long time through small changes. However, not much was known about DNA in Darwin's time. As a result, people did not know exactly what the mechanism behind evolution was. In other words, it was clear that species are evolving, but it was not clear how this occurred. This lack of clarity behind the mechanisms of evolution meant that different researchers came up with different explanations for evolution. Lamarck, for example, stated that evolution is based on goals. According to him, the main goal of evolution was to create species that are as perfect as possible. This means that organisms adapt as well as possible to their environment.

• According to Lamarck, organisms acquire new skills, which are then genetically passed on to subsequent generations. However, Darwin stated that evolution is not a goal-oriented, but rather a process based on chance. According to him, there were random variations between individuals. Sometimes these variations would help with survival or with adapting to a changing environment. This idea is what Darwin called 'natural selection' or 'survival of the fittest'. Individuals who obtained certain variations by chance have a better chance of survival. As a result, they are better able to reproduce and this leads to that these random variations are passed on to subsequent generations. So, according to Darwin there is continuity: this means that new species arise from current species. The older species are therefore the basis for evolution. According to Darwin, humans originated from animals.

• John Watson was one of the important representatives of behaviorism. He published a book in 1913 in which he stated that human psychology should be studied in a behavioristic manner. There were five key ideas in the book: Psychology should be viewed in the most objective way possible, just like in the natural sciences; Introspection as a research method must be rejected. According to Watson, reports given through the use of introspection are not scientifically testable and therefore this research method should be rejected; Consciousness should no longer be the most important subject in psychology. According to Watson, it was impossible to study consciousness in a scientific manner and therefore it should not be studied; Psychology must be about predicting and controlling behavior; According to Watson, there is no real difference between animals and human behavior.

• Gestalt psychologists have drawn up a number of laws that are also referred to as the Gestalt laws. These laws explain how people perceive things. In other words, these laws determine perception. The most important principles are similarity, proximity, closure and 'prägnanz' or law of simplicity. Similarity means that people perceive elements that look alike as a whole; proximity means that people perceive elements that are close together as a whole; closure means that people prefer 'closed' figures over 'open' figures, and the law of prägnanz or simplicity means that people perceive elements in the simplest form.

Who is psychoanalysis about? - BulletPoints 6

• Sigmund Freud is one of the most famous figures in the history of psychology. When he was seventeen years old, he enrolled in the study of medicine at the University of Vienna where he also took courses in philosophy and psychology.

• Freud found that it is not easy for all patients to express their thoughts freely. He called this 'resistance'. According to Freud, free association was suitable for recalling 'forgotten' memories that had been forgotten through a process called 'repression'. According to Freud, people would experience 'resistance' if free association came too close to their forgotten memories.

• Something was striking to Freud: on the one hand patients wanted to be treated, but on the other hand they sometimes resisted the treatment process. According to Freud, this demonstrated a psychological conflict: one part of the patient wants to heal and another part resisted this process.

• According to Freud, patients repress memories because they are too painful for them. He also noticed that many of the associations that people reported had sexual connotations. This led Freud to conclude that the painful memories that patients had, had to do with painful sexual experiences in their childhood.

• Freud formulated his 'seduction theory' of hysteria based on these ideas. This theory stated that symptoms of hysteria arise as a result of 'repressed' memories of sexual abuse in childhood. Through 'conversion' these repressed memories would lead to physical complaints. This theory was not well received by others. Finally, Freud developed a new research method: the interpretation of dreams.

• Freud published his book Die Traumdeutung (The interpretation of dreams) in 1990. This book is seen as one of his most important works. Freud looked at dreams in two ways. According to him, dreams contain both manifest content and latent content. A manifest content is what the person experiences and remembers in the dream. The latent content is the underlying meaning of this manifest content.