Theoretical Psychology
Lecture 1: From phrenology to scientific theory
Famous psychologists
Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920):
- Suggested career at school: postman
- Three Nobel prize nominations
- First psychological laboratory: 1879 in Leipzig
- First psychological journal: Philosophische Studien
- Had 188 doctoral students
- Wrote approximately 50,000 pages
- Challenged 2,500-year-old theory of association
Lightner Witmer (1867-1956):
- Student of Wundt
- Founder of clinical psychology
- First psychological clinic (1896)
- First journal: The Psychological Clinic (1907)
Mary Calkins (1863-1930):
- Student of William James
- Designed technique of paired associates (1896)
- First female president of the APA (1905)
Helen Thompson (1874-1947):
- Performed first studies of differences between men and women (1910)
o Helped the emancipation of women at universities
- Used experimental methods in these studies
,William James (1842-1910):
- Started out as a painter
- Brother of Henry
- Bestseller: Principles of Psychology (1890)
- Integrated psychological knowledge
Robert Woodworth (1869-1962):
- Bestseller: Experimental Psychology (1938) (‘The Columbia bible’)
- Still taught in his mid-eighties
The ‘Millers’:
Instruments used in psychology:
Pre-scientific approaches
Associationism:
, - Associationism: mental processes proceed by way of associations
- Aristotle: information from specific senses is combined in our common sense
- Locke:
o Blank state (‘white paper’): we are born without built-in mental content
o Sensoristic: all mental content is sensory in nature
o Atomistic: these elementary sensations are the building blocks of more
complex contents
o Associative: more complex contents are created by means of association
Law of contiguity:
- Law of contiguity: basic law of associationism (Aristotle)
Long-term potentiation:
- Neuronal basis of the law of contiguity
- Hebb’s law (1949): if two nerve cells are simultaneously stimulated for a period of
time, the synapse binding is strengthened
- Long-term potentiation: a prolonged rise in the efficiency of a synapse resulting from
a change in the neuronal structure
o Discovered in 1973 in the hippocampus of rabbits
Connectionism:
Lecture 1: From phrenology to scientific theory
Famous psychologists
Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920):
- Suggested career at school: postman
- Three Nobel prize nominations
- First psychological laboratory: 1879 in Leipzig
- First psychological journal: Philosophische Studien
- Had 188 doctoral students
- Wrote approximately 50,000 pages
- Challenged 2,500-year-old theory of association
Lightner Witmer (1867-1956):
- Student of Wundt
- Founder of clinical psychology
- First psychological clinic (1896)
- First journal: The Psychological Clinic (1907)
Mary Calkins (1863-1930):
- Student of William James
- Designed technique of paired associates (1896)
- First female president of the APA (1905)
Helen Thompson (1874-1947):
- Performed first studies of differences between men and women (1910)
o Helped the emancipation of women at universities
- Used experimental methods in these studies
,William James (1842-1910):
- Started out as a painter
- Brother of Henry
- Bestseller: Principles of Psychology (1890)
- Integrated psychological knowledge
Robert Woodworth (1869-1962):
- Bestseller: Experimental Psychology (1938) (‘The Columbia bible’)
- Still taught in his mid-eighties
The ‘Millers’:
Instruments used in psychology:
Pre-scientific approaches
Associationism:
, - Associationism: mental processes proceed by way of associations
- Aristotle: information from specific senses is combined in our common sense
- Locke:
o Blank state (‘white paper’): we are born without built-in mental content
o Sensoristic: all mental content is sensory in nature
o Atomistic: these elementary sensations are the building blocks of more
complex contents
o Associative: more complex contents are created by means of association
Law of contiguity:
- Law of contiguity: basic law of associationism (Aristotle)
Long-term potentiation:
- Neuronal basis of the law of contiguity
- Hebb’s law (1949): if two nerve cells are simultaneously stimulated for a period of
time, the synapse binding is strengthened
- Long-term potentiation: a prolonged rise in the efficiency of a synapse resulting from
a change in the neuronal structure
o Discovered in 1973 in the hippocampus of rabbits
Connectionism:
