PSY 4130 Study Guide - Final Guide: Hugo Münsterberg, American Psychological Association, John Dewey
15 May 2018
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Department
Course
Professor
PSY 4130 Exam Review
Characteristics of functionalism:
• Opposed to the elementalism of structuralism
• Focus on the function of the mind, to help the organism adapt to its environment
• Psychology should be practical science not a pure science
• Broadening of psychology
o Subjects: animals, children, abnormal humans
o Methodology: any method that is useful
• The why of mental processes, motivation
• Accept both mental processes and behaviour as subject matter of psychology
• More interested in individual differences than similarities
• All directly or indirectly influenced by William James who was influences by Darwin
William James (1842-1910)
• Principles of psychology
• Subject matter of psychology
• Functionalist atmosphere
• Stream of consciousness
• Methods of psychology
• Pragmatism: the meaning of ideas are found in their practical consequences (the validity of an
idea must be tested but its practical consequences)
• Theory of emotion
• Habits and instincts: repetitive action that involves the nervous system, habits are formed by
nurture early in life, by 30 most habits are set
• The self
• Free will
• Psychology defined as science of mental life
G Stanley Hall
• Known for a lot of firsts:
o Obtained the first American doctoral degree
o Claimed to be the first American student in the psych lab course
o 1st psychological lab in the US
o 1st American journalist of psychology
o 1st president of the American psychological association
o One of the first in applied psychology
• Was’t iterested i Wudt's ideas
• Psychological study of the child should be a major component of the education of teachers
• Founded the American Journal of Psychology
• Made Clark more receptive to women and minority studies
• He admitted women as graduate students and junior faculty
• Encouraged Japanese students to come to the US
• Restricted hiring of Jewish faculty and encouraged African American to graduate
• He was interested in evolution, his work was governed by the conviction that the normal growth
of the mind has evolutionary stages and one of the things that he talks about is the Recapitulation
Theory
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o Idea that the psychological development of the child repeats the development of the human
race as a whole (mirrors evolution of the species as a whole)
• Contributed more to educational than experimental psychology
• Sometimes referred to as a genetic psychologist due to his interest with adaptation
• Interested in developmental psychology, he made the study of the child the core of his
psychology, his ideas influenced developmental psychology
• Started the child development movement in the US
o Developed and administered questionnaires leading to the formalization of the child study
movement
• Published a book on adolescence which was controversial at the time because of its focus on sex
and studied elderly later on
Hugo Munsterberg
• Stereotypical German professor
• Main area of focus is applied psychology
• Founder of applied psychology in the US
• Accused of being a spy because he was openly defending Germany
• James enticed him
• Involved in issue of prohibition of alcohol (argued against this)
• Controversial beliefs of women, thought that graduate work was too demanding for women but
he supported the oe that did, thought the should’t e traied for areers, teah i shool
or be in jury because it took them away from home, they weren't good role models and they
ould’t ake ratioal deisios
• Promoter of Industrial psychology (employment, motivation, affect of fatigue on job performance)
• Selection of workers for positions that match their abilities, skills, mental abilities and
personalities results in greater productivity, satisfaction and performance, done by developing
proper selection techniques
• Promoter of Forensic psychology which deals with interaction of psychology and the law
o Administering test to identify guilty people
o Eye witness testimony
o Conducted research on simulated crimes and asked people to identify what just happen
(subjects disagreed on details even though it was fresh in their memory)
• Believed that mental illness was an adjustment error
• Disagreed with Freud about their being an unconscious
• Therapeutic approach involved supressing undesirable behaviour and urging the patient to forget
• Did’t forulate a theories
• Believed that Psychology should be useful and it should be applied to other research
Inferior education for African Americans
• 1940 more than 100 segregated schools
• Focus was on teacher training
• Psychology was part of the curriculum but not a specialty in it
• Very few laboratory courses
• Very few African American students that could graduate
• Prospects for employment were not the same for them
African American Psychologists:
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Francis Sumner
• Home-schooled by father
• Earned two bachelor degrees at two different schools
• Studied race psychology with Hall
• 1st African American to complete a PhD in Psychology in area of psychoanalysis
• Limited to teaching in African American Colleges
Kenneth Clark and Meme Fitz Clark
• Both attended Howard university
• Together came under influence of Sumner and both completed masters and doctoral degrees
• Racial identification (The Doll studied)
o Involved early school aged black and white children who were shown 4 dolls, a female and a
male with light or dark colored skin and they were asked a series of questions (which would
you like to play with? Which look like you)
o African American tended to prefer white dolls and labels black as bad, consistently colored
the color of the dolls lighter than their own skin
o Studying self-esteem in African American children
o This research was used in a court case, segregation in schools unconstitutional which led the
way to later rights
o Their research was used in the case as it demonstrated adverse affects of segregation on
young students
Early women Psychologists:
Margret Floy Washeburn
• Graduated from Women's university and pursued experimental psychology
• Cattell saw her potential and encouraged her to apply to Cornell, where she encountered
Titchener, she was his first PhD student
• President of APA in 1921
• Perceptual imagery and social consciousness
• Best known for work in comparative psychology
Mary Winton Clikins
• Attended seminars with James and worked with Munsterberg
• Learning and association
Functionalism Universities
1. University of Chicago
a. John Dewey
• Important in area of education
• Writings in psychology formed the basis of functionalism
• We need a educational reforum
• Studied under philosophy and psychology under Hall
• Offered chairman ship at university of Chicago
• Psychology and pedagogy
• Criticized Reflex arch concept, stressed that a response and the idea that occur in a
functional context could not be separated
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