PSYC1001 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Max Wertheimer, Edward B. Titchener, Gestalt Psychology
2 Jul 2018
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15/03/2018 Building Blocks of Our Mental World
Wundt wasn’t too concerned with mental health or psychological problems, he was more
interested in the fundamental questions about the mental world
Use technique, introspection, to consider the brain and its structure
The brain synthesises information (auditory, visual, etc.) to create a memory structure
Edward Titchener (student of Wundt), did studies on introspection – his idea was, have a
good look at your own conscious experience in search for the basic elements that built up
this experience – these experiments were very subjective, had self-reports on sensations,
feelings, emotions, etc.
He had strict guidelines for reporting an introspective analysis – you could report the
characteristics but not the name of the object
Functionalism: William James said that the problem with structuralist approach is the
‘Stream of Consciousness’, introspection testing is too over-rated, must simplify it to simple
function
“What do you use it for? What is the function?”
Gestalt Psychology: Max Wertheimer said that the whole is other than the sum of its parts,
aka. You cannot study architecture by studying a brick!
Perceiving is not just sensations but a creative process of organising in the brain
Animal Research:
Classic Conditioning
Operant Conditioning
Learning by reinforcement
Learning by punishment
Little Albert and Conditioned Emotional Response
Child liked fluffy things, but children don’t like noise, so they gave him a dog to play with but
played a banging noise, making the child scared, child ended up being afraid of fluffy animals
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Wundt wasn"t too concerned with mental health or psychological problems, he was more interested in the fundamental questions about the mental world. Use technique, introspection, to consider the brain and its structure. The brain synthesises information (auditory, visual, etc. ) to create a memory structure. He had strict guidelines for reporting an introspective analysis you could report the characteristics but not the name of the object. Functionalism: william james said that the problem with structuralist approach is the. Stream of consciousness", introspection testing is too over-rated, must simplify it to simple function. Gestalt psychology: max wertheimer said that the whole is other than the sum of its parts, aka. You cannot study architecture by studying a brick! Perceiving is not just sensations but a creative process of organising in the brain.
