,Name: Class: Date:
Chapter 1 - Essay
1. While humans have wondered about thought and behavior since the beginning of time, many link the origins
of psychology to the work of ancient Greek philosophers. In the last several hundred years, the field of
physiology emerged and further contributed to people's understanding of behavior. Taking those two fields as
the origins of psychological science, discuss the roles that philosophy and physiology played in the
development of psychology as an independent science.
ANSWER: Answers will vary. A complete answer may include the following information: The earliest origins
of psychology can be traced back several centuries to the writings of the great philosophers. More
than 2,000 years ago, the Greek philosopher Aristotle wrote extensively about topics like sleep,
dreams, the senses, and memory. Many of Aristotle's ideas remained influential until the
seventeenth century, when René Descartes, a French philosopher, came on the scene and proposed
interactive dualism—the notion that the mind and body were separate, but interacting entities that
produced sensations, emotions, and other conscious experiences. Philosophers also laid the
groundwork for the nature–nurture issue. Philosophers had debated which was more important:
inborn traits of the individual or environmental influences (that nurture the individual). These
philosophical discussions influenced the topics that would be considered in psychology. However,
philosophy could advance the understanding of human behavior only up to a point because of the
limitation of their methods. The emergence of psychology as a science hinged on advances in
physiology. Physiology studies the biology of living organisms, including humans. Initial interest
was in damaged brains, which were noted to produce a loss of function in the opposite side of the
body. In the 1800s, scientists began to suggest that different brain areas were related to different
behavioral functions. Taken together, the early work of physiologists established the foundation for
the scientific methods that were subsequently applied to better understand behavior and mental
processes.
2. Two of the early giants in the field of psychology were Edward Titchener and William James. How were
their approaches to psychology shaped, and how did they differ in their views of what psychology should study
and how to go about answering questions?
ANSWER: Answers will vary. A complete answer may include the following information: Edward Titchener
was one of Wilhelm Wundt's most devoted students. Wundt defined psychology as the study of
consciousness and emphasized the use of experimental methods to study and measure
consciousness. Titchener championed Wundt's ideas about the nature of psychology and created the
concept of structuralism, which acknowledges that even people's most complex conscious
experiences can be broken down into elemental structures, or component parts, of sensations and
feelings. Titchener developed his own approach, which he called "structuralism," the first major
school of thought in psychology. To identify these structures of conscious thought, participants
engaged in introspection. However, structuralism was criticized for relying too heavily on this
approach, and it disappeared after Titchener's death. In contrast, William James was heavily
influenced by Charles Darwin and took a more evolutionary approach to understanding psychology
and behavior. James's ideas became the basis for a school of psychology, referred to as
"functionalism," which stressed studying the purpose, or function, of behavior and mental
experiences. In contrast to the structuralists, functionalists did not limit their methods of data
collection to just introspection. They expanded the scope of psychological research methods to
include direct observation of individuals in natural settings, including education, child rearing, and
the work environment. Both structuralists and functionalists believed that psychology should focus
on the study of conscious experiences. However, functionalists had very different ideas about the
nature of consciousness and how it should be studied.
Copyright Macmillan Learning. Powered by Cognero. Page 1
,Name: Class: Date:
Chapter 1 - Essay
3. Discuss Charles Darwin's influence on William James and explain how Darwin's theory of evolution
contributed to psychology.
ANSWER: Answers will vary. A complete answer may include the following information: In 1859, Charles
Darwin's groundbreaking work, On the Origin of Species, was published. The book came to have a
profound impact on William James's thinking about the developing field of psychology. James
stressed the importance of adaptation to environmental challenges. He wrote his own textbook on
psychology that discussed brain function, habit, memory, sensation, perception, and emotion.
James's ideas became the basis for a new school of psychology, called "functionalism," which
stressed the importance of how behavior functions to allow people and animals to adapt to their
environments. Rather than trying to identify the essential structures of consciousness at a given
moment, James saw consciousness as an ongoing stream of mental activity that shifts and changes.
Functionalism's themes regarding the importance of the adaptive role of behavior and the
application of psychology to enhance human behavior continue to be evident in modern psychology.
4. Two of the first women in the field of psychology were Mary Whiton Calkins and Margaret Floy Washburn.
Who did they work with and what contributions did they make to psychology?
ANSWER: Answers will vary. A complete answer may include the following information: Mary Calkins
studied with William James. She completed all the requirements for a Ph.D. in psychology.
However, Harvard refused to grant her the Ph.D. degree because she was a woman, and at the time
Harvard was not a coeducational institution. Nonetheless, Calkins made many contributions to
psychology. She conducted research in dreams, memory, and personality. In 1891, she established a
psychology laboratory at Wellesley College and wrote a well-received textbook, titled Introduction
to Psychology. In 1905, she was elected president of the American Psychological Association—the
first woman, but not the last, to hold that position. Margaret Floy Washburn was the first U.S.
woman to earn an official Ph.D. in psychology. She was Edward Titchener's first doctoral student at
Cornell University. She strongly advocated the scientific study of the mental processes of different
animal species, and she published an influential textbook in 1908, titled The Animal Mind. She was
the second woman elected president of the American Psychological Association and taught at
Vassar College.
5. What contributions did pioneer Black psychologists Francis C. Sumner, Kenneth Bancroft, and Mamie
Phipps Clark make to psychology?
ANSWER: Answers will vary. A complete answer may include the following information: Francis C. Sumner
was one of G. Stanley Hall's notable students. He was the first Black American psychologist to
receive a Ph.D. in psychology in 1920 from Clark University. At Howard University, Sumner was
the chair of the psychology department when it produced more Black psychologists than all other
U.S. colleges and universities combined. Kenneth Bancroft Clark was a student of Sumner's. Clark
and his wife, Mamie Phipps Clark, researched the negative effects of racial discrimination. Their
work was paramount in the U.S. Supreme Court's 1954 decision to end segregation in schools.
Together, Kenneth and Mamie Clark founded the Northside Center for Childhood Development in
Harlem, New York. Mamie Phipps Clark also contributed to the founding of the Head Start
program, a part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which focuses on early
childhood education and health in lower income communities. In 1970, Kenneth Clark became the
first Black president of the American Psychological Association (APA). Sadly, Mamie Clark's
contributions were long overlooked, including the fact that segregation was initially her project,
rather than her husband's. Thankfully, Kenneth at least acknowledged her work when speaking
about their research to the Supreme Court.
Copyright Macmillan Learning. Powered by Cognero. Page 2
, Name: Class: Date:
Chapter 1 - Essay
6. What impact did Sigmund Freud have on the field of psychology and on the treatment of psychological
disorders?
ANSWER: Answers will vary. A complete answer may include the following information: Sigmund Freud had
a profound influence on the field of psychology, an influence that continues to be felt to this very
day. Freud was a physician in Vienna, Austria, who developed a theory of personality based on
uncovering causes of behavior that were unconscious, or hidden from the person's conscious
awareness. Freud's school of thought, called "psychoanalysis," emphasized the role of unconscious
conflicts in determining behavior and personality. Freud was trained as a neurologist, but his
thinking was strongly influenced by developments in psychology. Freud's psychoanalytic theory of
personality and behavior was based largely on his work with his patients and on insights derived
from self-analysis. Freud believed that human behavior was motivated by unconscious conflicts that
were almost always sexual or aggressive in nature. Past experiences, especially childhood
experiences, were thought to be critical in the formation of adult personality and behavior.
According to Freud, glimpses of these unconscious impulses are revealed in everyday life in dreams,
memory blocks, slips of the tongue, and spontaneous humor. Freud believed that when unconscious
conflicts became overwhelming, psychological disorders could result. Freud's psychoanalytic theory
of personality also provided the basis for psychotherapy. Many of the fundamental ideas that Freud
proposed in his theory of psychoanalysis continue to influence psychologists and other professionals
in the mental health field today. These are ideas such as the importance of unconscious influences
on behavior and the role of early childhood experiences on later adult development and
psychopathology.
7. Compare and contrast psychoanalysis and behaviorism, two of the early schools of psychology.
ANSWER: Answers will vary. A complete answer may include the following information: Psychoanalysis had a
strong influence on psychological thinking in the early 1900s, as did behaviorism, which emerged as
a dominating force in early psychology. Psychoanalysis emphasized the role of unconscious
conflicts in determining behavior and personality. The psychoanalytic theory of personality and
behavior was based largely on Freud's work with patients and on insights derived from self-analysis.
Freud believed that human behavior was motivated by unconscious conflicts that were almost
always sexual or aggressive in nature. Past experiences, especially childhood experiences, were
thought to be critical in the formation of adult personality and behavior. Freud believed that
unconscious impulses were revealed in everyday life in dreams, memory blocks, slips of the tongue,
and spontaneous humor. Contrarily, behaviorism rejected the emphasis on consciousness promoted
by structuralism and functionalism as well as Freud's ideas about unconscious influences on
behavior, since they are difficult to test. For the behaviorist, consciousness and unconscious
variables were not usable concepts. Instead, behaviorism believed that psychology should focus its
scientific investigations strictly on overt, observable behaviors that could be objectively measured
and verified.
8. What roles did Ivan Pavlov, John B. Watson, and B.F. Skinner play in the founding of behaviorism?
ANSWER: Answers will vary. A complete answer may include the following information: Behaviorism grew
out of the pioneering work of Russian physiologist, Ivan Pavlov. Pavlov showed that dogs could
learn to associate a neutral stimulus, such as the sound of a ticking metronome, with an automatic
behavior, such as reflexively salivating at the sight of food. Once an association between the sound
of the metronome and the food was formed, the sound of the metronome alone would trigger the
salivation reflex in the dog. Pavlov believed he had discovered the mechanism by which all
Copyright Macmillan Learning. Powered by Cognero. Page 3
Chapter 1 - Essay
1. While humans have wondered about thought and behavior since the beginning of time, many link the origins
of psychology to the work of ancient Greek philosophers. In the last several hundred years, the field of
physiology emerged and further contributed to people's understanding of behavior. Taking those two fields as
the origins of psychological science, discuss the roles that philosophy and physiology played in the
development of psychology as an independent science.
ANSWER: Answers will vary. A complete answer may include the following information: The earliest origins
of psychology can be traced back several centuries to the writings of the great philosophers. More
than 2,000 years ago, the Greek philosopher Aristotle wrote extensively about topics like sleep,
dreams, the senses, and memory. Many of Aristotle's ideas remained influential until the
seventeenth century, when René Descartes, a French philosopher, came on the scene and proposed
interactive dualism—the notion that the mind and body were separate, but interacting entities that
produced sensations, emotions, and other conscious experiences. Philosophers also laid the
groundwork for the nature–nurture issue. Philosophers had debated which was more important:
inborn traits of the individual or environmental influences (that nurture the individual). These
philosophical discussions influenced the topics that would be considered in psychology. However,
philosophy could advance the understanding of human behavior only up to a point because of the
limitation of their methods. The emergence of psychology as a science hinged on advances in
physiology. Physiology studies the biology of living organisms, including humans. Initial interest
was in damaged brains, which were noted to produce a loss of function in the opposite side of the
body. In the 1800s, scientists began to suggest that different brain areas were related to different
behavioral functions. Taken together, the early work of physiologists established the foundation for
the scientific methods that were subsequently applied to better understand behavior and mental
processes.
2. Two of the early giants in the field of psychology were Edward Titchener and William James. How were
their approaches to psychology shaped, and how did they differ in their views of what psychology should study
and how to go about answering questions?
ANSWER: Answers will vary. A complete answer may include the following information: Edward Titchener
was one of Wilhelm Wundt's most devoted students. Wundt defined psychology as the study of
consciousness and emphasized the use of experimental methods to study and measure
consciousness. Titchener championed Wundt's ideas about the nature of psychology and created the
concept of structuralism, which acknowledges that even people's most complex conscious
experiences can be broken down into elemental structures, or component parts, of sensations and
feelings. Titchener developed his own approach, which he called "structuralism," the first major
school of thought in psychology. To identify these structures of conscious thought, participants
engaged in introspection. However, structuralism was criticized for relying too heavily on this
approach, and it disappeared after Titchener's death. In contrast, William James was heavily
influenced by Charles Darwin and took a more evolutionary approach to understanding psychology
and behavior. James's ideas became the basis for a school of psychology, referred to as
"functionalism," which stressed studying the purpose, or function, of behavior and mental
experiences. In contrast to the structuralists, functionalists did not limit their methods of data
collection to just introspection. They expanded the scope of psychological research methods to
include direct observation of individuals in natural settings, including education, child rearing, and
the work environment. Both structuralists and functionalists believed that psychology should focus
on the study of conscious experiences. However, functionalists had very different ideas about the
nature of consciousness and how it should be studied.
Copyright Macmillan Learning. Powered by Cognero. Page 1
,Name: Class: Date:
Chapter 1 - Essay
3. Discuss Charles Darwin's influence on William James and explain how Darwin's theory of evolution
contributed to psychology.
ANSWER: Answers will vary. A complete answer may include the following information: In 1859, Charles
Darwin's groundbreaking work, On the Origin of Species, was published. The book came to have a
profound impact on William James's thinking about the developing field of psychology. James
stressed the importance of adaptation to environmental challenges. He wrote his own textbook on
psychology that discussed brain function, habit, memory, sensation, perception, and emotion.
James's ideas became the basis for a new school of psychology, called "functionalism," which
stressed the importance of how behavior functions to allow people and animals to adapt to their
environments. Rather than trying to identify the essential structures of consciousness at a given
moment, James saw consciousness as an ongoing stream of mental activity that shifts and changes.
Functionalism's themes regarding the importance of the adaptive role of behavior and the
application of psychology to enhance human behavior continue to be evident in modern psychology.
4. Two of the first women in the field of psychology were Mary Whiton Calkins and Margaret Floy Washburn.
Who did they work with and what contributions did they make to psychology?
ANSWER: Answers will vary. A complete answer may include the following information: Mary Calkins
studied with William James. She completed all the requirements for a Ph.D. in psychology.
However, Harvard refused to grant her the Ph.D. degree because she was a woman, and at the time
Harvard was not a coeducational institution. Nonetheless, Calkins made many contributions to
psychology. She conducted research in dreams, memory, and personality. In 1891, she established a
psychology laboratory at Wellesley College and wrote a well-received textbook, titled Introduction
to Psychology. In 1905, she was elected president of the American Psychological Association—the
first woman, but not the last, to hold that position. Margaret Floy Washburn was the first U.S.
woman to earn an official Ph.D. in psychology. She was Edward Titchener's first doctoral student at
Cornell University. She strongly advocated the scientific study of the mental processes of different
animal species, and she published an influential textbook in 1908, titled The Animal Mind. She was
the second woman elected president of the American Psychological Association and taught at
Vassar College.
5. What contributions did pioneer Black psychologists Francis C. Sumner, Kenneth Bancroft, and Mamie
Phipps Clark make to psychology?
ANSWER: Answers will vary. A complete answer may include the following information: Francis C. Sumner
was one of G. Stanley Hall's notable students. He was the first Black American psychologist to
receive a Ph.D. in psychology in 1920 from Clark University. At Howard University, Sumner was
the chair of the psychology department when it produced more Black psychologists than all other
U.S. colleges and universities combined. Kenneth Bancroft Clark was a student of Sumner's. Clark
and his wife, Mamie Phipps Clark, researched the negative effects of racial discrimination. Their
work was paramount in the U.S. Supreme Court's 1954 decision to end segregation in schools.
Together, Kenneth and Mamie Clark founded the Northside Center for Childhood Development in
Harlem, New York. Mamie Phipps Clark also contributed to the founding of the Head Start
program, a part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which focuses on early
childhood education and health in lower income communities. In 1970, Kenneth Clark became the
first Black president of the American Psychological Association (APA). Sadly, Mamie Clark's
contributions were long overlooked, including the fact that segregation was initially her project,
rather than her husband's. Thankfully, Kenneth at least acknowledged her work when speaking
about their research to the Supreme Court.
Copyright Macmillan Learning. Powered by Cognero. Page 2
, Name: Class: Date:
Chapter 1 - Essay
6. What impact did Sigmund Freud have on the field of psychology and on the treatment of psychological
disorders?
ANSWER: Answers will vary. A complete answer may include the following information: Sigmund Freud had
a profound influence on the field of psychology, an influence that continues to be felt to this very
day. Freud was a physician in Vienna, Austria, who developed a theory of personality based on
uncovering causes of behavior that were unconscious, or hidden from the person's conscious
awareness. Freud's school of thought, called "psychoanalysis," emphasized the role of unconscious
conflicts in determining behavior and personality. Freud was trained as a neurologist, but his
thinking was strongly influenced by developments in psychology. Freud's psychoanalytic theory of
personality and behavior was based largely on his work with his patients and on insights derived
from self-analysis. Freud believed that human behavior was motivated by unconscious conflicts that
were almost always sexual or aggressive in nature. Past experiences, especially childhood
experiences, were thought to be critical in the formation of adult personality and behavior.
According to Freud, glimpses of these unconscious impulses are revealed in everyday life in dreams,
memory blocks, slips of the tongue, and spontaneous humor. Freud believed that when unconscious
conflicts became overwhelming, psychological disorders could result. Freud's psychoanalytic theory
of personality also provided the basis for psychotherapy. Many of the fundamental ideas that Freud
proposed in his theory of psychoanalysis continue to influence psychologists and other professionals
in the mental health field today. These are ideas such as the importance of unconscious influences
on behavior and the role of early childhood experiences on later adult development and
psychopathology.
7. Compare and contrast psychoanalysis and behaviorism, two of the early schools of psychology.
ANSWER: Answers will vary. A complete answer may include the following information: Psychoanalysis had a
strong influence on psychological thinking in the early 1900s, as did behaviorism, which emerged as
a dominating force in early psychology. Psychoanalysis emphasized the role of unconscious
conflicts in determining behavior and personality. The psychoanalytic theory of personality and
behavior was based largely on Freud's work with patients and on insights derived from self-analysis.
Freud believed that human behavior was motivated by unconscious conflicts that were almost
always sexual or aggressive in nature. Past experiences, especially childhood experiences, were
thought to be critical in the formation of adult personality and behavior. Freud believed that
unconscious impulses were revealed in everyday life in dreams, memory blocks, slips of the tongue,
and spontaneous humor. Contrarily, behaviorism rejected the emphasis on consciousness promoted
by structuralism and functionalism as well as Freud's ideas about unconscious influences on
behavior, since they are difficult to test. For the behaviorist, consciousness and unconscious
variables were not usable concepts. Instead, behaviorism believed that psychology should focus its
scientific investigations strictly on overt, observable behaviors that could be objectively measured
and verified.
8. What roles did Ivan Pavlov, John B. Watson, and B.F. Skinner play in the founding of behaviorism?
ANSWER: Answers will vary. A complete answer may include the following information: Behaviorism grew
out of the pioneering work of Russian physiologist, Ivan Pavlov. Pavlov showed that dogs could
learn to associate a neutral stimulus, such as the sound of a ticking metronome, with an automatic
behavior, such as reflexively salivating at the sight of food. Once an association between the sound
of the metronome and the food was formed, the sound of the metronome alone would trigger the
salivation reflex in the dog. Pavlov believed he had discovered the mechanism by which all
Copyright Macmillan Learning. Powered by Cognero. Page 3
