History of Modern Psychology Key Terms 11th Edition

History of Modern Psychology Key Terms 11th Edition Historiography - -The principles, methods, and philosophical issues of historical research Voluntarism - -The idea that the mind has the capacity to organize mental contents into higher-level thought processes (Wilhelm Wundt ) Mechanism - -The doctrine that natural processes are mechanically determined and capable of explanation by the laws of physics and chemistry Extirpation - -A technique for determining the function of a given part of an animal's brain by removing or destroying it and observing the resulting behavior changes (Marshall Hall & Pierre Flourens ) Zeitgeist - -The intellectual and cultural climate or spirit of the times Determinism - -The doctrine that acts are determined by past events Clinical method - -Posthumous examination of brain structures to detect damaged areas assumed to be responsible for behavioral conditions that existed before the person died (Paul Broca ) Mediate experience - -Experience that provides information about something other than the elements of that experience (Wilhelm Wundt ) Personalistic theory - -The view that progress and change in scientific history are attributable to the ideas of unique individuals Reductionism - -The doctrine that explains phenomena on one level (such as complex ideas) in terms of phenomena on another level (such as simple ideas) Electrical stimulation - -A technique for exploring the cerebral cortex with weak electric current to observe motor responses (Gustav Fritsch and Eduard Hitzig) Immediate experience - -Experience that is unbiased by interpretation (Wilhelm Wundt ) Introspection - -Examination of one's own mind to inspect and report on personal thoughts or feelings (Wilhelm Wundt ) Psychology Psychology Two-point threshold - -The threshold at which two points of stimulation can be distinguished as such (Ernst Weber ) Empiricism - -The pursuit of knowledge through the observation of nature and the attribution of all knowledge to experience Naturalistic theory - -The view that progress and change in scientific history are attributable to the Zeitgeist, which makes a culture receptive to some ideas, but not to others Structuralism - -E.B. Titchener's system of psychology, which dealt with conscious experience as dependent on experiencing persons Mind-body problem - -The question of the distinction between mental and physical qualities (René Descartes, ) Just noticeable difference - -The smallest difference that can be detected between two physical stimuli (Ernst Weber ) Tridimensional theory of feelings - -Wundt's explanation for feeling states based on three dimensions: pleasure/displeasure, tension/relaxation, and excitement/depression (Wilhelm Wundt ) Functionalism - -A system of psychology concerned with the mind as it is used in an organism's adaptation to its environment Reflex action theory - -The idea that an external object (a stimulus) can bring about an involuntary response (René Descartes, ) Absolute threshold - -The point of sensitivity below which no sensations can be detected and above which sensations can be experienced (Gustav Theodor Fechner ) Apperception - -The process by which mental elements are organized (Wilhelm Wundt ) Nonsense syllables - -Syllables presented in a meaningless series to study memory processes (Hermann Ebbinghaus ) Behaviorism - -Watson's science of behavior, which dealt solely with observable behavioral acts that could be described in objective terms Differential threshold - -The point of sensitivity at which the least amount of change in a stimulus gives rise to a change in sensation (Gustav Theodor Fechner ) Derived ideas - -Ideas that are produced by the direct application of an external stimulus (René Descartes, ) Psychology Psychology Gestalt psychology - -A system of psychology that focuses largely on learning and perception, suggesting that combining sensory elements produces new patterns with properties that did not exist in the individual elements Innate ideas - -Ideas that arise from the mind or consciousness, independent of sensory experiences or external stimuli (René Descartes, ) Psychophysics - -The scientific study of the relations between mental and physical processes (Gustav Theodor Fechner ) Act psychology - -Brentano's system of psychology, which focused on mental activities (for example, seeing) rather than on mental contents (for example, that which is seen) (Franz Brentano ) Psychoanalysis - -Sigmund Freud's theory of personality and system of psychotherapy Positivism - -The doctrine that recognizes only natural phenomena or facts that are objectively observable (Auguste Comte, ) - - Phenomenology - -Stumpf's introspective method that examined experience as it occurred and did not try to reduce experience to elementary components; also, an approach to knowledge based on an unbiased description of immediate experience as it occurs, not analyzed or reduced to elements (Carl Stumpf ) Systematic experimental introspection - -Kulpe's introspective m