Wundt & 19th Century German Psychology
I.
The 19th century and the beginnings of a scientific psychology
Synthesis
of one discipline of psychology from two
others: philosophy and physiology
Philosophy:
Studies in epistemology, metaphysics, logic and ethics
Physiology:
Experimental science of the
functions of the body
Empirical
grounding of consciousness in matter
Experimental methods on knowing
Psychology
and Physiology: many views developed over time (Leahey, 2001)
Gall
(1758-1828): Phrenology
Flourens (1794-1867): Whole brain
Galvani (1737-1798): Electrical impulses
Bell (1744-1842) Magendie (1783-1855)
Bell-Magendie Law: Ascending sensory (dorsal)
and descending motor (ventral) pathways
Broca (1824-1880): Localization (1861)
Fritz & Hitzig (1870): Electrical "mapping" of brain
Bain (1818-1903): Associationism
Taine (1828-1893): Parallelism
Lotze (1817-1881): Dualism
III. The
Germanic tradition: Synthesis of philosophy and physiology
A)
Philosophy:
Gottfried
Wilhem von Leibniz (1646-1716): Monadology
Co-inventor
of calculus (with Newton)
Monads:Consciousness is the essence of all things.
Monads are "point sources" of consciousness
Degrees
of consciousness in all things
Parallelism: Mind
and body move together but independently
Immanuel
Kant (1724-1804): Rational Empiricism
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Intuition
of Self as noumena (things as they are)
through phenomena (experiences)
(Dialectics)
Influenced Hegel's
Phenomenology
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Johann
Freidrich Herbart (1776-1841): Mathematise psychology
Apperceptive mass of
consciousness (ideas) through assimilation
1870:
Unification of Germany and support for
state universities in both research and teaching
Tradition of Romanticism: Will
Bildung: "personality development" through understanding languages and cultures
B)
Physiology:
Johannes
Muller: Doctrine of "Specific nerve energies"
Vitalism and the "Blood-pact"
-Ludwig, Du Bois-Reymond, Brucke &
Hermann
von Helmholtz (1821-1894): Grand Scientist
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-Expert
in physics, optics & acoustics
-Measured speed of neural impulses
-Theory of conservation of energy
-Theory
of unconscious inference
-Developed a Trichromatictheory of vision
- Cloud formations(liquid dynamics) |
Ewald
Herring (1834-1918): Colour vision
Opponent
Process theory of colour vision
Negative afterimages
Christine
Ladd-Franklin (1847-1930):
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-Evolutionary
theory of colour vision that integrated Helmholtz & Herring
-Logician comparable to Aristotle
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Gustav
Theodor Fechner (1801-1887): Psychophysics
(1860)
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-Developed
E.H. Weber's (1795-1878) work on:
"Two-point threshold", "Just Noticeable Difference",
and "Spatial Sense"
Psychophysical
parallelism: Mind and Body
are "two sides of the same circle"; seen from two "standpoints" an idea reminiscent
of Aristotle's Dual-aspect monism
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Humanities
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Natural
science
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Psychical
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Physical
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Qualitative
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Quantitative
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"Internal
standpoint"
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"External
standpoint"
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Two kinds of
sensations:
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Intensive
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Extensive
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Common
(pleasure, hunger)
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Objective (light & sound)
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Psychophysics:
An exact science which
establishes mathematical relationships between
physical and psychic
magnitudes
Weber's Law: dR/R = K
--- J.N.D.
Weber-Fechner
function: S = K log R
Absolute
Threshold: Limen (Boundary)
of minimal intensity for conscious sensation
Difference
Threshold: Change in intensity for a JND
Establishment
of methods of psychophysics: through three methods
- Method
of just noticeable differences (Limits)
- Method
of right and wrong cases
- Method
of average error
Held spiritualistic "Day view" over materialistic "Night
view"
Wilhelm
Wundt (1832-1920): Voluntarism
|
 Active
in politics: "Fireside conversations" to Workers Education
League.
Spoke "On Time", Speed of thought,...
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-Arnold
family tradition of physiologists
-Studied under J.Muller & Du Bois-Reymond, and was an assistant to
Helmholtz
Voluntarism:
All psychic phenomena are products of creative synthesis or "acts of will."
"Trieb":
Mind & body drive
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Unity
of creative synthesis through
three principles -
- Principle
of psychical resultants: synthetic
- Principle
of psychical relations: analytic
- Principle
of psychical contrasts: association
Psychological
parallelism:
"[S]tarts
with the assumption that there is only one
experience" which can be viewed in two manners
Psychic
Actuality: Immediate experience of inner
phenomena
Physical
Substantiality: Mediate experience
of outer phenomena
Psychical
causality: Qualitative creative
synthesis of the whole of consciousness
Physical
causality: Quantitative cause and effect
Voluntary
action: (Psychically
caused) precedes involuntary action
Attention:The process of active synthesis involving
a broad field of apprehension and a narrow focus of apperception
Assimilations:
Passive associations
Experimental
Psychology
1879: First
psychological laboratory in Leipzig
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Reaction times, judgments of size, intensity and duration
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Goals
are to establish the Laws of psychology
through a careful study of consciousness or immediate
experience
Experimentelle
Selbstbeobachtung: Experimental
self-observation
Observers "are exposed to standard repeatable stimuli and situations and are
asked to respond in simple quantifiable ways" |
Range of topics
for psychology using both experimental
and historical methods
Sensation
and perception
Memory,
attention, imagery
Thinking, affect,
voluntary activity, social psychology
Laboratory
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Social Worlds
Natural Science - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - Human Science
Tension between
subject matter and methods
Volkerpsychologie
(1900): Psychological anthropology
Historical
studies of outer (mediate) phenomena
Language, Religion (& Myth), and Custom:
Expressions of the "common sense" or worldview
(weltanshauung) of a social group
Four Ages of
Mankind:
Primitive, Totemic, Age of Heroes & Gods, Humanity
Volkgeist "Folk mind": Synthesis of an order
higher
than that of the numerous individual creative syntheses
Actualized towards
willful purposes of the "overindividual"
Haeberlin (1980): Gesamtgeist
(social mind) and
gesamtwille (social
will) as "overindividual syntheses"
which correspond to the individual mind and
will
Gave rise to contemporary Cultural Psychology
Repudiation
of Wundt
Danziger
(1990): Charcot (France) and Galton (Britain)
offered alternative models of scientific psychology
In
Germany too: Ebbinghaus (1879) studies on memory
Oswald
Kulpe (1862-1915) and the Wurzburg School:
Systematic Experimental Introspection
More
complex methods than Wundt:
problem
solving and reflection on the process of thought
Revealed
that one experienced "imageless thought"
Sparked controversy over methods of introspection
Determining
tendency: Task directs itself through "mental set"
Titchener
(1867-1927): Structuralism
Anglicized
Wundt's work in translation
Psychology
is the study of the elements of conscious content
Sensations,
images and affections are examined for:
quality, intensity, extensity, protensity (duration)
Perspective
invovles:
Reductionism, Associationism & Materialism
Three
tasks for experimental psychology:
- Complete
description of sensory elements
- Determine
the connections between elements
- Need
to explain consciousness in physiology
Stimulus
error: Confusing the stimulus object with the conscious experience
Foundations
to Gestalt Psychology:
Christian
Ehrenfels (1859-1932)
Alexis Meinong (1853-1920)
