Practice exam for Fundamentals of Psychology, partial exam 2
Practice exam part 1 Fundamentals of Psychology
Fundamentals of Psychology; Book and Lecture Notes Interim Exam 2
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Universiteit van Amsterdam (UvA)
Psychologie
Fundamentals of Psychology
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Fundamentals of Psychology - lectures
Lecture 1: Riet van Bork
The first questions: prehistory and the classical antiquity (chapter 1)
What is this course about?
Big questions!
History of psychology: how did we get where we are now?
Philosophy of mind: how does the mental world relate to the physical world? (mind-brain)
Philosophy of science: What is scientific?
Psychology and society: how does science relate to the world around us?
The aim of this course is to make you aware of the roots of our thinking.
You need people to move forward, to improve things. But you also need people to look back: why are
we doing what we’re doing? Suske & Wiske time machine; used to go forward or back.
Book: Brysbaert & Rastle, Historical and Conceptual issues in psychology.
Articles on Canvas. Two partial exams. Essay. Exercises.
Learning goals:
- Explain the views of the most important thinkers in the history and philosophy of psychology
- Point out the main question in the most important foundational problems and describe
possible answers to this question
- Independently form an opinion about fundamental issues
Book lends itself well for individual reading. All exam material, except for chapter 12. You have to
study both for the exam.
Where to start? This course tells the story of how humanity discovers science, and eventually turns it
on itself. So, this story starts with the beginning of humanity. Homo sapiens: man who knows.
Prehistory
No deciphered written sources from this era. Ancient Egypt was for a long time part of prehistory.
Now we know, so now it’s gone from prehistory to history.
The beginning of language: important for science. Started in eastern Africa. 50.000 years ago. 40.000
years ago: cultural explosion, then also images. Image. Started to use words. Then writing.
Independently of each other in China, Europe, America. Stone of Rosetta brought Ancient Egypt into
history. Contained three translations/languages: Egyption, hierogliefen and another one.
Then numbers. Now thoughts and relation not only in images and words, but also in relation
between numbers.
What do all these inventions share with each other? They all use science to depict meaning.
Man discovers representation, in which things are denoted with symbols and relations between
things are represented with relations between symbols.
In this period of time, with language a representation can be brought from one head to another.
With writing, representations can be brought into someone’s head without the other being
physically present.
It becomes possible to have shared representations: ideas can easily spread and can also be
sustained over generations.
Religion becomes possible! You can believe the same thing. And money: shared belief of the value
of the coins. And also: complex social structures.
Forward in time: still very important in philosophy. When you have representations, it suddenly
stands out that some of these are “correct” and others are not. We thus get the concept of “truth”.
The question of what it is that makes some representations true and others false is a central issue in
philosophy. This part of philosophy concerns “theories of truth”.
,The meaning of representations is a guiding theme in the philosophy from Plato to Wittgenstein. The
fact that your thoughts “relate to something” (they are focused on the world, they are “about
something”) later became known by Brentano as intentionally. A puzzling phenomenon that is not
well-understood. This part of philosophy concerns “theories of meaning”.
Social developments
Through the discovery of agriculture, man can stay in one place and thus establish settlements. And
produce more food than is needed to feed everyone, so not everyone has to constantly arrange food.
There is a possibility of creating a community in which different people fulfil different roles. A
hierarchy typically emerges, in which higher ranked individuals have time (to come together and talk
about it)
Greek antiquitiy
Classical antiquity
The birth of systematic research in Greece. Now we go into Europe, we don’t leave Europe a lot in
this course. This is because we can’t cover everything, so this choice was made.
Man encounters key questions in philosophy: what’s the world like? (ontology), how do we know
what’s true? (epistemology), what makes some things beautiful and others ugly? (aesthetics) & what
makes some deeds good and some bad? (ethics)
focus on ontology & epistemology, but others are also important questions in science.
Before and after Socrates: thinkers can be distinguished by this.
From the presocrats, we only have smaller pieces of text.
Heraclitus.
Socrates, Plato, Aristotle. Socrates didn’t write anything down, but he is often mentioned in the
works of others. That’s how we know his work.
Philosophy after Aristotle: the stoics, the Epicureans, the skeptics.
Plato = founder of rationalism
Aristotle = founder of empiricism
Socrates’ father was a sculpture. He asked people questions. Just got into philosophy. For him, it
wasn’t so much of having a certain philosophy, but for people to find their ignorance. Find the point
when people couldn’t answer his questions anymore. Downside to this?
Heraclitus (535-475 B.C.)
Heraclitus (“the Obscure”) doubts whether something ever stays the same. “No man ever steps in
the same river twice.” The only constant is change itself. This principle is known as Panta Rhei
(“everything flows”).
This idea had a big influence. Panta Rhei. We will see this back later. William James (psychologist)
saw the mind as something that flows.
Now much of science relies on invariance-principles: e.g. all electrons are interchangeable. But how
about psychology? Can you think the same thing twice? Are there psychological invariances? Are
people interchangeable like electrons? Thought = physical state of brain, then you probably cannot
have the same thought twice. But you can learn the same thought again (for instance when you have
brain damage).
Part II: rationalism and empiricism
Plato and Aristotle (both after Socrates)
Right: Plato, left: Aristotle. Aristotle was a student of Plato. Age gives it away (image). Plato points up
to the world of ideal forms, transcendental, spiritual “world of forms”. Aristotle points down, to the
earth, the physical world or “world of substance”. Very significant for their philosophies.
, Rationalism and empiricism
Two important positions:
- Rationalism: knowledge comes from reason, ratio
- Empiricism: knowledge comes from sensory experience
These two positions are a recurring theme in the history of psychology and philosophy.
The ultimate rationalist: Plato
Central thesis: knowledge comes (at least in a part) from the ratio (intelligence).
Knowledge is only partly based on observation.
Plato claims that real knowledge (about the good, the true and the beautiful) does not come from
observation.
Knowledge form reason is superior to knowledge from experience. Some knowledge can come from
experience, but this is less important.
Associated claim: there is innate knowledge (nativism)
Plato’s rationalism: what do we see here? A circle. Round. No end. Symmetrical. No corners/infinite
amount. Same distance from middle everywhere. Where did we get this knowledge? Did we see al
kinds of circles, and did we make sure this is a fact? But all objects that are circularly shaped don’t
actually have these properties.
Real knowledge cannot come from observation: after all, we only see imperfect form. Yet we can
“see” perfect forms in our mind. If that idea of a circle doesn’t come from perception, where does it
come from? “idea” and “idee” come from eidos which means form or image.
Plato’s answer: we “remember” these ideas from our divine origin. Knowledge is recognized and
therefore we know it must be true. Our mind is born out of the world of forms, which is a
transcendent world where the perfect forms are. Plato believed in reincarnation, used this to explain
our knowledge of perfect forms… for real knowledge should not turn to empiricism: you should
remember what you already know.
Plato’s cave. Metaphor for how a philosopher can get access to true forms. People are prisoners in a
cave. We can only see the wall in front of us. Behind us: fire. People walk with objects there. Fire
throws a shadow on the wall in front of us. All we see in our lives are shades. Make up words to
describe them. Words for the shadows. Prisoner sent free blinded by light. Then you start to
recognize the things you’ve seen. In the true world. Then come back to cave. Rough. That’s what
philosophers do.
Nativism is still relevant today. Psychological research suggests that very young children can reason
causally and that babies are surprised when natural laws are violated. Moreover, according to many,
language ability is innate. Contemporary nativism is not rooted in reincarnation but in the evolution
of the brain.
Empiricism
Central thesis: knowledge lies in observation
This is now the common sense view: if you want to know what’s going on, you have to observe.
Associated thesis: if all knowledge comes from experience, there is no need for innate knowledge.
Aristotle
Aristotle is seen as the founding father of empiricism. He was the first to think systematically about
how to gain knowledge from observations.
Rationalist: self-evident axioms cannot be rejected by observations.
But, these axioms are acquired through experience, they are not innate or shown to us before birth.
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