Please
read chapter 6. After reading the chapter, please respond to the following
questions:
(Note: to
help with organization points please keep the numbering)
1a) What topic
did you find interesting?
1b) Why was it interesting to you?
2a) What person
did you find interesting?
2b) Why were they
interesting to you?
3a) What
do you think of the overall message of the chapter?
3b) Was it interesting to you? Why or why not?
4) What
did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in
understanding the history of psychology?
5) How,
in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to what you have already
learned about the History of Psychology or to material you have learned in
other classes?
6a) What
topic would you like to learn more about?
6b) Why?
7) What
ideas or questions related to what you were reading did you have while reading
the chapter?
8) Once
you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in
your post.
Let us
know if you have any questions,
--Dr. M
1a) The first thing I found interesting in this chapter had to do with the inequality of education for women and minorities in the early days of psychology and higher learning in general coming to America.
1b) This topic is interesting because it shows how these negative views on women and minorities were common place in this time period. Basically the works of people like Francis Galton who studied individual differences influenced the general populous to the point where the common ideas on the mental function of women and minorities were skewed by ideas such as periodic function. This idea was that when a women was on her time of the month, she was unable to function at a normal level intellectually. This idea also had roots in Darwin’s theory of evolution through a hypothesis defined by variability. This is the thought that in order for natural selection to be able to take place, there needed to be a noticeable variance between members of a certain species in order to be able to select the fit members to carry on the positive characteristics.
2a) The second thing I found interesting in the chapter had to do with William James and his various interests in the areas of science,religion, philosophy, and the study of nature.
2b) The reason this man’s history is so interesting to me is how many major areas of the educational realm he was a part of. He began with the goal of being a chemist. However, he soon became unhappy with his efforts in this area and turned to a similar field of biology. The book points out how he closely linked religion with the research and data collecting he did. His goal was to prove Darwin’s theory wrong by finding characteristic in species that would point out the flaws in this theory. According to the book, he ended up finding similar results as Darwin and eventual converted his view on this idea. After collecting many samples for his research, he realized that he enjoyed being in nature more so than actually conducting studies. As an avid outdoors enthusiast, I love the fact that he converted from the scientist laboratory guy to someone who just enjoyed the nature aspect of studying animals. Later in life he suffered from depression and as a result of his struggle with it came to the understanding of free-will and its functional value which he termed pragmatism.
3a) I found the topic of James’ study of spiritualism to be strange yet intriguing.
3b) The reason I found fascination with this subject was because of the odd nature of the topic. Once he dealt with his depression and established a firm thought process around his idea of free-will. He had more of an open mind to ideas that may not have been popular with the general scientific community. The idea of spiritualism centers around the idea the people still have a consciousness that survives physical death. He became accustom to the ideas of communicating with the dead through medium. I think that his background in religion coupled with ideas that he picked up in his study of philosophy helped spark the pursuit of these ideas surround spiritualism for James.
4a) I didn’t really like how the chapter went topic by topic through the textbook James wrote.
4b) The reason I didn’t like the books approach to this topic is simply because the topic itself is too big to summarize like they did in chapter 6. While I understand that his textbook has significant historical value for the study of psychology. I didn’t see how giving such a brief overview of the textbook did any justice to his contribution in this area of his life.
5) Obviously from how much I have already written on James, this was the most important topic that I think is important to understanding the history of psychology. James’ study of ideas like introspection, consciousness, and emotion all have important ties to present-day research in the field of psychology.
6) This chapter built of previous chapters, especially chapter 5, by pointing out the shift in ideas from the common belief in God as the answer to the different species. Also, this chapter pointed out how the ideas of natural selection and individual differences influence the culture of the time and how these ideas negatively affected both women and minorities in their pursuit of education. Also, the chapter is logically following the progression of psychology as it devolved and moved into America in the 1700-1800’s. I think the book does a great job of logically progressing through the development of the scientific thoughts of psychology and it really helps to solidify how ideas came to be and what influenced them over time.
7a) I would like to learn more about faculty psychology and what influenced the shift from this type of thinking to the more modern ideas promoted by James.
7b) I feel like the 2-3 paragraphs on the topic didn’t do justice to the ideas that were present from studying human psychology in this manner. Also, it would have been nice to have a little more background in the idea of faculty psychology so that we could compare and contrast it to James’ ideas with a better understand of both ideas.
8) I mostly though about how far we have come as a society in promoting educational equality for women and minorities. Its hard to believe that a whole society could be so primitive to have the ideas that they did on women and minorities being of such lower mental functioning than white males. I’m glad that we have seen such a radical change in thinking toward them. I realize we have not completely erased those lines as a society but I think the progress we are making toward equality says something about the character of present-day society and its’ willingness to correct the faulty thinking of the past.
9) Terms: periodic function, variability hypothesis, natural selection, species, individual differences, positive characteristics, pragmatism, free-will, functional value, spiritualism, introspection, consciousness, emotion, faculty psychology.
Courtney Wiese
Chapter 6
1a) What did you find interesting? The section on women education
1b) Why was it interesting to you? I enjoyed reading the section on women’s education in the 19th century, as it was seen as outside of their gender sphere at this time. Women’s roles were to be wives and mothers, and they were to take care of their home. At explained in the chapter, it was believed that women should not be educated, as it was the belief at the time that learning more would hurt their reproductive organs, and make it difficult or impossible to bear children. Not only that, but the periodic function also gave women a handicap. Finally, the variability theory, which stemmed out of Darwin’s theories and differences made it seem that women had less variability than men, and thus less intelligence. I was interested to read also, that although women had all these things going against them, they still managed to find some opportunities. I was intrigued to find out that universities that were only for women opened during the late nineteenth century, which is where some of the first women psychologists came from. I had no idea that there were so many women’s only colleges in this time period.
2a) What did you find interesting? William James
2b) Why was it interesting to you? First William James was interesting because he didn’t want to be considered a psychologists, and didn’t really care for the “New Psychology”, which is funny because he is known as the “First Psychologist” as well as being the one that brought about the “New Psychology”. Second, William James’ life was just so interesting! Many people today have not, and probably will not, travel as much as he did! And that was back in the 19th century before planes! I also thought he was interesting because he really reminded me of kids today. James had no idea what he wanted to do with his life, like many 18 year olds today. So, he did what a lot of 18 year olds to do, go to college. There he tried a bunch of different ‘majors’ from chemistry, to a long trip on the Amazon as a naturalist, a medical degree, and he really wanted to be an artist, and then he wanted to study philosophy. I just found him super relatable, which makes it more interesting to read. James, of course, also published the first textbook on psychology, The Principles of Psychology, which was a best seller and what he is really known for. He also believed in introspection as the first method one should use in studying psychology. James probably liked introspection and pushed for it, because he hated laboratory work. This is where critics didn’t care for him, as laboratory work, or as he referred to it as brass instrument psychology, had just become the big thing to use. I also found the James-Lange theory of emotions was interesting, as I had never thought how emotions happen. The James-Lange theory states that bodily changes occur at the same time emotions are felt.
3a) What did you find interesting? G. Stanley Hall teaching philosophy
3b) Why was it interesting to you? I enjoyed reading about Hall and his teaching philosophy because as a secondary education major, I find teaching philosophy interesting. I also find that his theory on “active learning” to be interesting. As in active learning, children should explore for themselves on how to solve problems, or they should have activities that they are involved in. He did not like the rigidness of many classrooms. I found this interesting because I didn’t realize that the idea about active learning was started in the late 19th century. This surprises me because so many classrooms today STILL use a very rigid approach to learning, where the teacher just goes and lectures the class. I just don’t understand how we are still using such an old, boring approach to learning when the idea of active learning has been around for over a century!
4a) What one (1) thing did you find the least interesting? George Trumball Ladd
4b) Why wasn't it interesting to you? I just found his section boring, I didn’t feel like he did a whole lot. It seemed a bit dry. I also wasn’t too interested in Baldwin either. Basically, I didn’t find it very interesting when it was just about people who wrote about psychology, although I found James more interesting because of his life. I guess they didn’t give much detail at all about Ladd, which made me not really care about him, if that makes sense.
5) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology? I think basically just learning about the original “pioneers” of American psychology will be important. It will also be important to know how psychology was in the late 19th century, and the beginnings of laboratory research in America.
6) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters? This chapter discussed the influence of Darwin on American psychologists, including William James. It also talked about how James went to Europe and got to hear psychologists talk, such as Wundt in Germany. All the previous psychologists helped to influence the new psychologists in America.
7a) What topic would you like to learn more about? The rise of spiritualism in the United States
7b) Why? I just thought that was an interesting subject, as I wasn’t aware that that was a big movement in the 19th century. I think it would be an interesting topic to learn more about, and why it became so popular at that time.
8) What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter? In the beginning of the chapter I thought about the roles of women in society, as that is an area that has always interested me. While I was reading, I thought about how ideas about women and gender changed in such a short amount of time in the early years of the United States. In the late 18th and early 19th century, women often ran their own businesses and were a major function within the household and societal economy. However, the ideas of women changed in the mid-19th century, as Industrialization allowed men to move away from farm production and move into cities, and women began staying home. The other thing I thought about was how despite the gender roles women were supposed to abide by, there were women who chose not to. I say this as there were many women in this time period that had no choice, and literally had to go to work to support their family. However, the women who attended these colleges were from, more than likely, an upper middle to high class family. They chose to go against gender norms, and that is very interesting, and pretty cool, to me.
9) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post. Periodic function, Darwin, variability, introspection, brass instrument psychology, James-Lange Theory of Emotion, spiritualism, G. Stanley Hall, Ladd, Baldwin
1) I found that William James was interesting. I liked learning about how he was the first psychologist in American History; however even though he was he didn’t necessary train as a psychologist. He trained in medicine and viewed himself as a philosopher. James did one of the largest things for the field of psychology as a whole when he wrote, The Principles of Psychology in 1890. James believed in the idea of free will and within his book he wrote and took a stance on the views of consciousness staying it should not be viewed as elements but in analogous to a steam.
2) G. Stanley Hall was interesting because of his stances on professionalizing psychology. Hall did some major works towards being psychology to a new level within the American eye he was the first president at Clark University. He was extremely interested in the genetic side of psychology and this lead him to being the first to do experiments on mice and their ability to navigate mazes, I found this interesting because this can be viewed as the start of or around the start of animal psychology. Last interesting thing that Hall did was he was the first to deem adolescences as a stage in the development process.
3) I found that Mary Whiton Calkins was interesting because of how she was able to challenge the male dominance that existed at the time. Calkins was never an official student at Harvard yet she completed a dissertation there on a study of memory. She was the first women elected president of the APA then she shifted her interest to philosophical works and became a president of that APA, this is cool because for her time women did not have much opportunity yet she was the president of two major associations both the psychological and philosophical.
4) I found that reading about some of educational opportunities for males compared to females and then also compared to minorities to be a little dual. I likely connect this little interest to the fact that throughout any American child’s life in every history class we are reminded and retaught these oppressed times. However we do learn from our histories so it is in a way a good thing we are reminded of this so we may never be as oppressive to another minority again.
5) I think that learning about the different American psychologist will all aid me in the understanding the history of psychology. America seems to be more and more the nerve center of psychology today, much like the Germans used to be. Knowing the history of specific American psychologist helps someone who wants to know about the history by showing them the specific history of the new central place in psychology.
6) This chapter related to the previous chapters by shifting the view to when the next big things will be happening in psychology, here in America. As most of us should know the twenty century in America made some major break though to all the fields of science so seeing the shift from the major works in Germany to where a lot will happen now in America helps.
7) I would like to learn more about Francis Sumner, he was the first African-American to earn a PhD in American. This is ground breaking because the Civil Rights Movement didn’t happen until the early 1960’s so for an African-American to earn a PhD in the 1920’s is huge for that time. In the 1920’s women were barely able to attend school and most African-Americans still largely oppressed.
8) While reading this chapter I thought about a few things. One was that when Calkins receiver her PhD and worked to become the president of both APA’s women were still fighting for their basic rights and the same goes for Francis Sumner and his PhD. How is it that in such a white male driven society did a women and African-American both receive PhDs? I by no means think it was wrong but it was amazing that they were allowed to both do the work to earn a PhD and never have credit stolen by a male.
9) William James, free will, consciousness, genetic psychology, G. Stanley Hall, animal psychology, adolescences, Mary Whiton Calkins, memory, Francis Sumner.
Blake Wedeking
1) I found Stanley Hall to be interesting because he is credited for having the first psychology laboratory in America, credited for the first academic journal, and starting the American psychological association. I learned that Hall was responsible for the child study movement and dealt a lot with the development into adolescence and later on into adulthood. Hall was actually credited for identifying adolescence as a stage of development and characterized adolescence as a time of storm and stress for the young teenager. Hall was a strong encourager of development, abnormal, and comparative psychology. Later in life he invited Sigmund Freud to America which was Freud’s only trip to America. Hall was interested in genetic psychology which consisted of the study of the origin of consciousness and behavior. He relied heavily on the importance of evolution and Darwin’s work for his works of understanding.
2) I found it interesting that education for women and minorities groups was scarce during the development of psychology. Women were either to pursue an education or get married and have children. Women were still viewed in “the women’s sphere” in which their role was of wife and mother. Some believed that if women perused a career out of high school they would produce too much mental activity and case the retardation of their reproductive organs. People feared that if women pursued a career than what would happen to the human species as we know it. Women had a social view on them to bear children and raise them. They were often regarded to do the chores and make supper around the house as well. Women also had to take care of their elderly parents rather than the boys of the family. Women were treated as inferior to men and even referenced as being created from man in the bible. Minority groups struggled also especially African Americans in the wake of the Civil War. African Americans were considered inferior to the white people and had a hard time getting the opportunity to become educated. I found it interesting how recent these changes have been made and how we have greatly benefitted from women and minorities in our fields of study today.
3) I found the works of William James to be quite intriguing and interesting to learn about. William James thought of himself as a philosopher but was considered America’s first modern psychologist. He wrote the book Principles of Psychology which is regarded as the most important book in psychology’s brief history. He developed an approach called pragmatism in which the true value of an idea was a consequence of its functional value or usefulness. James referred to brass instrument psychology because he thought that laboratories apparatuses were often constructed of brass so he sarcastically referred to this type of psychology. William James sought to understand consciousness by rejecting the approach that presumed to understand consciousness it had to be broken down into its finer elements. James was also fascinated with spiritualism in which consciousness could survive death and those dead could be contacted by mediums, who in turn could convey messages from the dead to the living. Mediums were also said to be able to predict the future and to know the details of someone’s life. James became seriously interested in research into the phenomenon and discovered the Society for Psychical Research. I found this to be interesting because no one really knows for sure where we go after we die and the fact that psychologists were interesting in this was very appealing to read about for me.
4) I found this chapter to be very interesting and informative into the years of psychology in America and so therefore I would say the most uninteresting thing to learn about in this chapter is the end of the chapter when they touch briefly on contributing psychologists in America. If they are important, I would include more than a few paragraphs on the individual. For example, when the book talks about George Ladd it doesn’t go into great detail about him compared to the other American Pioneers of the time. I found his life the most uninteresting just for the sole fact that the book didn’t give the justification that I thought his contributions deserved.
5) I think that knowing the American pioneers in psychology will greatly help in understanding the history of psychology. Each individual in America put out great ideas and concepts that dealt with the understanding of psychology and so by studying these individuals we can better understand the field of psychology in general and explore what we are most interested in personally. Also, by knowing the time period and what was going on outside the field of psychology, we can better understand the restrictions and limitations that certain groups in society faced and why a lag may have occurred in the field with the cultural pressures on society.
6) This chapter builds on other chapters by discussing the ideas of development of the human species and what types of things they experience throughout their lifespan here on earth. This relates to Darwin's theory of evolution in which human beings have evolved over the course of many years and that through this evolution our development has changed as well. By understanding how we have evolved throughout the course of years we can better understand how we currently behave as the human species we are today.
7) I would like to learn more about the idea of spiritualism and why William James was so interested in it. I would like to know why he supported something that he could not clearly see or develop into rational thinking. It may be because we all want to know what has happened to the people on earth before us so this strikes a bit of curiosity in him. I would like to know more about the early origins of spiritualism and research it a bit more. I found it interesting that James started a society for this type of research and also believed that mediums could communicate with the dead, I would like to know where he got this type of interest and how it developed throughout his lifetime. I also know people who do this type of work into the unknown and would be interested to see if it is fake or if there is truly something that lies out beneath our realm of understanding.
8) While I was reading the section on women and minorities in education, I found it very unfair that these groups of people couldn’t pursue a career without society frowning upon them at that point in time. Thinking about this from my own perspective, I believe that everyone should be entitled to a proper education and that we should all have equal opportunity for employment in the workforce. I thought that if the women had the child that the father should take some responsibility for caring for the child as well. Women were thought to be intellectually incapacitated every month during menstruation which was referred to as periodic function which skewed their views some claimed. Knowing what I know now about a presentism and historicism point of view I know that the culture deemed these concepts as unfit because they didn’t know what we know now about women and minorities in their career fields. We now know that careers don’t affect the women’s reproductive organs or that African Americans actually have a great capacity for knowledge. I also thought about Halls contributions to the developmental psychology in which he actually developed adolescence as an actual stage for development and why this is important now to understand adolescent activity during this crucial period of development. Just coming out of adolescence, I know what type of behavior I experienced and why understanding it can be beneficial.
9) periodic function, pragmatism, consciousness, brass instrument psychology, spiritualism, William James, Stanley Hall, Women and Minorities.
Chapter 6
1)What did you find interesting? Why?
One of my favorite parts was reading about how William James, America’s first psychologist, grew up. I loved learning about his home life. I found it interesting that their father was in charge of their education and that he believed in the children gaining knowledge in different languages. I also love how they traveled to Europe several times and would spend over a year traveling there at a time. I think it is neat that by the age of eighteen William James was already fluent in three languages and working on two more. Also on a side note, I was very excited when I saw his only sister’s name was Alice. I have always enjoyed that name and thought it was interesting to come across it in a text book. I also found it funny that he married a girl with the same name, Alice Howe Gibbens, in July of 1878.
2)What did you find interesting? Why?
I decided to stick with William James because I found his life very interesting. His wife Alice was known to be a “stabilizing force” in his life, and was smart enough to be an intellectual colleague. On their honeymoon is when the writing of The Principles of Psychology started; this was the book that would be known as the “classic among classics in psychology’s history.” It was an immediate best seller, which I found surprising because I find encyclopedic books to be boring, but it was a different time back then. In the opening sentence psychology was defined as “the Science of Mental Life, both of its phenomena and their conditions.”
3)What did you find interesting? Why?
I wanted to choose one more thing to talk about considering William James, and I decided to talk about what he had to say on the consciousness. In his chapter, “The Stream of Thought,” he discussed the nature of consciousness. First it is personal, he stated that consciousness includes an element of self-consciousness, they exist within a person. Next it is constantly changing; he stated that no two states of consciousness are ever quite the same. Consciousness is also sensibly continuous. Consciousness is one continuous stream of thought, a stream that may be interrupted, but is still continuous all the same. It is also selective in that out of all the information it can select some to pay closer attention to. Lastly, he exclaimed that it is active, meaning consciousness is goal-oriented and purposive.
4)What one (1) thing did you find the least interesting? Why?
Anything outside of William James I honestly did not pay much attention to. I skimmed through it all, but I was so intrigued by William James that I got a head start on my topical blog and started researching more.
5)What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?
William James is very useful to understanding the history of psychology. He was the one who made the world of psychology more available to the public. They were able to read about discoveries and thoughts about psychology and decide things for themselves. I found his information useful and maybe when people, children, read it, they might have thought to themselves I want to be a psychologist someday, and then they might have made wonderful discoveries too.
6)How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters?
This chapter relates to the other chapters by talking about the man who wrote down the history of others. He made the first book that made other books possible to be thought of and written about. Now because of him we have many textbooks written about many wonderful and amazing people and it is written about all the wonderful and amazing accomplishments they made during their life time.
7)What topic would you like to learn more about? Why?
I want to research more about William James. I do not know why, but I find is life very interesting. I want to know more about him and his wife. I want to know how she influenced his life and how she might have pushed him to be the best he could be, since she herself was very intelligent and worked hard alongside him.
8)What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter?
While reading this chapter I wondered what it would be like to be the wife of such an intelligent man. What it would be like to help him in is discoveries. I thought that it might even help a relationship grow if it was done right, and people were given their fair share of credit. I think it would be nice to share discoveries with the one you love. I think it would make life a wonderful adventure.
9)Terminology: William James, Alice Howe Gibbens, The Principles of Psychology, Encyclopedic, Consciousness, Stream of Thought, Personal, Constantly Changing, Sensibly Continuous, Selective, Active.
1a) What did you find interesting?
1b) Why was it interesting to you?
I found the section on education for women to be very interesting. It was believed that women were meant to raise a family and take care of the elderly. They were thought not only to be inferior to men from an intelligence standpoint, but that higher education was physically harmful to them. This thought process came about from religion which believed that a woman was made from a small part of a man. The fact that many people believed this at the time doesn’t mean it was just a downright wrong and flawed belief. Mathew Vassar, the founder of Vassar College, wrote in 1865 that basically God made women as intelligent as men; and that they should be able to obtain a higher education. This is important because it shows the deep-rooted stereotypes that women had to overcome to gain rights that white men took for granted.
2a) What did you find interesting?
2b) Why was it interesting to you?
William James is an interesting piece of the puzzle of American psychology. He wrote what many believe to be American psychology’s most famous textbook, The Principles of Psychology. James was a Darwin supporter and went on a 2,000 mile Amazon trip that would support his views. The thing about James is that he hated laboratory work which seems odd to me. He was able to write a textbook but has little data to back up his theories. James came to believe in spiritualism and studied psychics. James was skeptical about the field and approached his studies with an open mind. He took flak from other scientists but never wavered. This is important in understanding who James was as a scientist. He was not going to let others influence what he believed in or studied.
3a) What did you find interesting?
3b) Why was it interesting to you?
Mary Whiton Calkins was interesting to me. This chapter talked about how women were thought to be less intelligent than men and could become ill from higher education study. Then arrived Mary Calkins to prove it all wrong. Although Calkins attended Harvard as an unofficial guest, she was able to attend the seminars of William James. She enrolled in a course, Physiological Psychology, with William James. There were to be her and four male students, but the male students dropped out of the class. If they were afraid she might have been smarter than them, they had good reason.
In 1885, William James and Hugo Munsterberg and others appealed to Harvard to grant her a PhD. Munsterberg described her as superior to all candidates and one of the strongest professors of psychology in the country. Harvard refused to grant her a PhD. Although Mary Calkins is important to the psychology field and even started her own lab a Wellesley College, to me she was even more important for doing what she did as a woman. She was able to prove that women can go to an all-male university, albeit unofficial, and do as well if not better than her male counterparts.
4a) What didn’t you find interesting?
4b) Why wasn't it interesting to you?
I guess I’m like William James; I am not interested much in laboratory work. I hated it in my science classes and couldn’t wait for it to be over. The maze section in the book did not interest me much. I just think watching animals going through a maze is boring and has limited use when comparing to human behavior.
5) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?
G. Stanley Hall and his work on developmental psychology is important to understanding psychology history. Hall’s studies with children and teenagers were way before its time. Hall basically stated that through his studies, he believed that a ridged classroom with strict rules was not the best learning environment for children. They would learn better in a classroom filled with activities or problems to solve. This approach would rely on the children’s curiosity of the world and the environment around them.
6) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters?
This chapter starts with the history of psychology in America. It ties in well with previous chapters of psychology in England and Germany. Many of the scientists in this chapter studied in Europe. William James studied Germany and even had a German scientist run his lab. This gives us an understanding that psychology was beginning to become a worldwide study that involved many important people.
7a) What topic would you like to learn more about?
7b) Why?
I would like to know more about the women and minorities in the psychology field. This would include how they came to study it and what challenges they faced and why. This chapter touched on it, but I think it is important to learn about the women and minorities that had to endure these challenges, as they paved a road for those who came after them.
8) What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter?
During part of this chapter I was thinking about women’s and Civil Rights. Although this chapter is talking about mid to late 1800’s, it really was not that long ago that these same ideas of women and minorities were still set in the minds of white males. The struggle for a quality education for women and minorities was a long one that followed the same course as achieving other rights did.
9) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
• William James
• G. Stanley Hall
• Mary Calkins
• Principles of Psychology
• Hugo Munsterberg
• Developmental Psychology
1a) What did you find interesting?
1b) Why was it interesting to you?
I found William James to be interesting. I found him interesting because he is known as “America's first modern psychologist.” One of his theories that sparked my interest was emotion. Every person experiences emotions from others and has emotions as well. I found this theory to be interesting because he believed that while portraying emotions, the body reacted. I thought of this as when we feel sad, we sometimes experience tears (crying). I also found his thoughts about spiritualism to be interesting because I too have the same beliefs. I do believe that mediums and spiritualists could be real and that when studying or observing them, it should be done without certain expectations. Those who study the topic should go into it with an open mind and not judge based off of previous judgments from others.
2a) What did you find interesting?
2b) Why was it interesting to you?
G. Stanley Hall tried to professionalize the field of psychology. He is the founded of three very influential parts of psychology. One being a laboratory at Johns Hopkins, which is also known as the first laboratory dedicated to psychology in America. Second is a journal that is dedicated to psychology. It was also the first one founded in America. Last, he founded the APA, or otherwise known as the America Psychological Association. Hall interested me because of how dedicated he was to psychology. He was not just interested in one topic in psychology, but instead he was interested in various topics. All of those topics were considered to be genetic psychology. He was interested in origins, behavior and the development of the mind. Evolution played an important role in all of his work. He was later known as a developmental psychologist and began doing child studies on development. He is known for determining that adolescence is a time of “storm and stress.”
3a) What did you find interesting?
3b) Why was it interesting to you?
Mary Calkins interested me because her worked was based around association. She did a lot of work with memory such as “paired association learning.” Using this method, she was able to determine vividness, frequency, ways that could make associations stronger and much more. But out of those findings, she made the conclusion that frequency played the biggest role in strengthening association. Calkins was a very important woman in psychology because she became the first president of the APA to be a woman. Later, she became interested in philosophy and was later the president of the American Philosophical Association. This was interesting because during those times, women were not seen as they are today. So for a woman to be recognized for her accomplishments, I think it is very interesting and some what exciting.
4a) What one (1) thing did you find the least interesting?
4b) Why wasn't it interesting to you?
I was least interested in the end of the chapter where it talked about other pioneers. I felt that it did nothing for me. Sadly, it felt just like an add on rather than useful information. For the most part I found this chapter to be pretty interesting.
5) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?
I honestly think William Jame's theory of emotion is useful because emotion play a huge role in our everyday lives. Have a better understanding of how they happen and why we react the way we do would be interesting. I think there are more studies we could do for emotion as well.
6) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters?
This chapter built off of previous chapters because it talks about development and how humans have progressed. It relates to Darwin in chapter five and his theory of evolution and how species learn to evolve. I think this relates more to G. Stanley Hall and his studies because he did most of his work with development.
7a) What topic would you like to learn more about?
7b) Why?
I would like to learn more about women in psychology because I thought it was really interesting how Mary Calkins was the first woman president. I think learning more about women and their accomplishments is knowledgeable because women have different view points than men. I also think learning about psychologists that are minorities would also help to learn different views points.
8) What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter?
While reading the section about William James, I thought about emotions. I thought about different emotions spark different reactions within the body. I was also thinking about different ways this could be studied and observed. I also was thinking about using William James as my topical blog. I also thought about women in psychology because back then women were rarely recognized, but now women are widely recognized for their work. I also thought a lot about Jane Goodall while reading the section about Mary Calkins because while I was growing up, she was mentioned quite often for her work with gorillas. I thought about how women tend to focus on certain fields of psychology where men tend to be more all over the place.
9) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
William James
emotion theory
Consciousness
G. Stanley Hall
Genetic Psychology
“storm and stress”
adolescences
Mary Calkins
memory
spiritualism
association
paired association learning
J.P.
1) I found William James to be a very interesting character, probably because I can relate to him. He struggled to find his niche throughout his life because the repetitive, tedious work involved in experimental psychology and science. His pragmatist approach helped to promote free will rather than reducing human thought to mere elements, seemingly undermining the human ability to act independently, beyond mere reaction and instincts proposed by nature and our environment. He seemed to be more interested in living rather than studying what living is like many of the psychologists presented in the text.
2) The James-Lang theory of emotion was briefly mentioned in my previous Intro to Psych course and this text did a good job of talking more in depth about it. It challenged the idea that we see something, have an emotional reaction, then our body reacts to it. The James-Lang theory on the other hand, that we perceive the experience, then our body reacts and emotions follow this almost immediately. This can be demonstrated by when we see something dangerous headed towards us: like a car about to hit us. We see the danger and our body reacts. We start to become afraid but don't fully realize it until after our body has already reacted and taken us away from danger.
3) Due to today's society and presentist thinking, it is hard to imagine how universities did not allow women to enroll there. They would let women such as Calkins, Franklin, and Washburn attend classes unofficially and learn just as much as their male counterparts, but they were not given degrees. The instructors recognized their ability and fought for their enrollment, but were ultimately denied before the 20th century. I found it interesting how it was thought that college would put too much strain on women and that it would affect them negatively. It is easy to jump on the presentist bandwagon and scoff at this notion. Yes, women had virtually no support for graduate education except in women-only colleges, but it is interesting to think about what society was like then. The book often mentions that women were seen as merely objects for creating children and taking care of them. To take up this objectification is to undermine the value of such women who happily marry and raise children, being a stay-at-home mom. Personally, my career is of little importance to me. Rather, I feel being a good husband and father to be of far greater importance. Unfortunately, we still fail to recognize the talents and ambitions of individuals and try to tell people what is best for them. Today, I would say many men often objectify women and many women let themselves be objectified, whether they realize it or not.
4a) What one (1) thing did you find the least interesting?
4b) Why wasn't it interesting to you?
This chapter was all extensive biographies of psychologists, which is fine for awhile, but about halfway through the chapter I got a little tired of it. Also, learning so much about one person and moving on to others and showing how they criticized each other becomes an overload on my limited brain.
5) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?
I think learning about the limits within the study of psychology in the 19th and early 20th century helps us understand why it took years to be considered a science, and why it still faces some of the bias it does today. It is still very young and so broad and dynamic, and coupled with the limited resources for experimental study in its early years, we still have yet to see what greater results it will yield in the future.
6) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters?
It continues to build onto the early psychologists understanding of how we consciously and unconsciously respond to our environments and learn from them. Furthermore, it challenges empiricism and association and brings these thoughts into comparison rather than conflict.
7a) What topic would you like to learn more about?
7b) Why?
I'd like to learn more about the James-Lang Theory of Emotion and what has since developed from that. I am interested in seeing how we respond to excitement, whether it be fear, happiness, or sadness.
8) What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter? I thought a lot about how much psychologists disagreed with each other and even mocked each other for their ideas. It becomes comical when the ones who are mocked end up being proved to be correct. Sometimes it is disappointing to see such highly regarded intellectuals behaving in a manner typical of toddlers.
9) William James, pragmatist, free will, James-Lang Theory of Emotion, presentist, Calkins, Washburn, Franklin, consciousness.
1a) What did you find interesting? 1b) Why was it interesting to you?
One thing I found interesting was when the chapter discusses education for women and minorities. This was interesting to me because finally in the second half of the 19th century women and minorities gained some opportunities in education. I really like reading about civil rights issues, especially when it has to do with the field of psychology or philosophy.
2a) What did you find interesting? 2b) Why was it interesting to you?
Another thing I found interesting was Mary Whiton Calkins and her struggle to gain opportunity within the field of psychology and philosophy. She was one of the first women to push to the top in her field and make a name of herself. It was amazing that she became a teacher through her struggle. Its ridiculous to think today that a woman wasn’t accepted to become a teacher when today being a teacher is a stereotypical women’s profession.
3a) What did you find interesting? 3b) Why was it interesting to you?
Another person I found interesting was Francis Sumner. Francis Sumner is interesting to me because of his interests in race psychology. He was an African American man who made his way to the top in education during a time where it wasn’t easy for a man of color to gain opportunities in the professional world of psychology and philosophy. I love reading about inspiring men and women who work hard for what the want and overcome struggles they face especially in such a hard time for minorities and women.
4a) What one (1) thing did you find the least interesting? 4b) Why wasn't it interesting to you?
One thing I found least interesting while reading Chapter 6 was when it talked about the different textbooks and content within those textbooks. I didn’t find this interesting because I cant relate the listing of Titcheners text book of psychology to what is going on in my life right now. Its a little unnecessary to write out all of the index and context in a psychology book into another textbook.
5) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?
I think that reading about all of the women and minorities that had the opportunities to go to college and become professors of psychology will be the most useful to my understanding of the history of psychology. I think that knowing more about these individuals will better help me understand history because it allows me to see where the beginning research from women and minorities came from.
6) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters?
This chapter builds on other ideas form previous chapters because of the advancement of psychology and philosophy. This chapter also talks about functionalism, as did the previous chapter. Materialism is also mentioned and discussed as previous chapters have talked about as well.
7a) What topic would you like to learn more about? 7b) Why?
I would love to learn more about the first women and minorities who broke the glass ceiling, per se, in the field of psychology and philosophy. I would like to learn more about these individuals because they made such a difference in the way the two fields are today. Without them and their contributions, where would we be today?
8) What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter?
I thought about where we would be today if it wasn’t for women like Mary Calkins, and men such as Francis Sumner. Why were women and minorities not given the same opportunities as white men of that time? Who was to say that women and minorities weren’t capable of the same success as white males? When did the idea of minorities and mean working the field along side white men start to diminish? What did Darwin think about the idea of women and minorities working beside him?
9) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Terms: Darwin, functionalism, materialism, Mary, Calkins, Francis Sumner, psychology, philosophy, and education in psychology
1) What did you find interesting? Why?
I found the struggles that Calkins, Ladd-Franklin, and Washburn went through very fascinating. To me, it is usually difficult to understand the situations of other eras. However, their stories were detailed enough to understand. As a feminist, it was wonderful to see how my higher education (especially in psychology) was attained. I allows me to better appreciate how I have been blessed with a higher education.
2) What did you find interesting? Why?
I found the James-Lange Theory of Emotion interesting as well. I feel as the theory is one of those concepts that after you learn about, you say, “Oh that makes sense.” One of those things was how different emotions are associated with different bodily actions. After reading and thinking about it, it was interesting to see the same information from a new perspective. I had never really thought about how complicated emotions could be. I also thought the sentence saying, “People whose facial muscles have been arranged to match certain emotions, for instance, tend to experience those very emotions, at least to a degree,” quite interesting. I had always heard this, but had never seen it backed up with research.
3) What did you find interesting? Why?
Another thing I found interesting was how Baldwin was arrested when police raided a prostitution house in Baltimore. I just found it funny how he thought he could get away with giving the police a fake name. It was also interesting to see how Baldwin was shunned from American Academia because of the situation. What I also found interesting was to compare his consequence vs. the consequences of someone doing that today. I guess the most interesting thing I thought of while reading this section was how he lost all of his credibility while famous people today don’t lose theirs even when they have done the same or worse.
4a) What one (1) thing did you find the least interesting? Why?
The thing I found the least interesting in this chapter was the section on consciousness. This section just did not appeal to me. I know a lot of psychology is based in philosophy, but I felt this concept was more philosophical than psychological. I am more interested in the biological psychology rather than the philosophical psychology.
5) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?
I think the information about how women and minorities (including Francis Sumner) struggled to get higher education. I think reading about them gave me a deeper understanding for the people of different eras. I think that now that I am beginning to see things from a different perspective, it will be easier to have a historical approach to studying the history of psychology.
6) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters?
This chapter tells a lot about the different people who were becoming interested in experimental psychology and began establishing their own psychology labs. Like previous chapters, the theories introduced in this section have been built upon theories from previous sections.
7) What topic would you like to learn more about? Why?
I would like to learn more about Hall’s trial sermon at New York’s Union Theological Seminary. If the sermon was bad enough for the president of the seminary to begin praying for Hall’s soul, then it must have been very interesting. I just wish I could know what Hall said that was so horrific.
8) What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter?
When I was reading about Baldwin’s scandal, I couldn’t help but think about other renowned people who have committed worse crimes than being found at a prostitution house. This also shows me how times have changed and how we have switched priorities. I think this section was helpful in also trying to take the historical approach to psychology.
9) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Calkins, Ladd-Franklin, Washburn, James-Lange Theory of Emotion, Baldwin, Hall, consciousness, Francis Sumner, historical approach
Please read chapter 6. After reading the chapter, please respond to the following questions:
Next you will be asked what three things from the chapter that you found interesting?
1a) What did you find interesting?
1b) Why was it interesting to you?
Something that I found to be interesting was that the main basis of the chapter was not based off of what new ideas were being found, but how the idea of psychology was being spread. There were figures, like Mary Calkins, that spread the study of psychology throughout the woman movement. Then there James Mark Baldwin that spread psychology through writing. Then G. Stanley Hall playing a big role in bringing labs and psychology to America. Even though there was many other figures in each movement I thought that is what made this chapter more unique than the rest because it showed that important things do not have to be new ideas, important things could be how ideas are spread and how a field of study can be spread to other areas. Without these people the ideas would not be born in America because the field would not be spread here, colleges would continue teaching the other fields without looking at psychology. So, I think that people view ideas from people that study psychology is being the more important innovations of psychology, but they do not see the situation as there had to be a movement to get the field spread out before people had the education and the ideas to study anything that has to do with the field of psychology and it is more important than people give credit for.
2a) What did you find interesting?
2b) Why was it interesting to you?
Something that I found interesting was the spread of psychology through the black community with Sumner. I found this to be interesting because of how fast it seems to have spread when Americans had a negative view point of the intelligence of minorities and African Americans, but Sumner is proving that to be wrong. Some of the studies that other Americans did to see the intelligence level of the minorities were completely wrong. One example would be when Bache had the study of reaction times and stated that Caucasians had slower reaction times because they were more intelligent and had to think more. I like that there were figures around the time that these experiments went on, like Sumner, that prove these to be wrong and show how wanting something to be right does not make it right, it can just shift the way people believe in some things.
3a) What did you find interesting?
3b) Why was it interesting to you?
Another thing that I found to be interesting was the section of consciousness and James Mark Baldwin. The thing that was interesting about this was the attributes of consciousness; personal, constantly changing, sensibly continuous, selective and active. To sum them all up, there are certain parts of consciousness that we remember, things we forget and things we choose to listen to or not when we do not even know it. I think it is cool how consciousness can work even when you do not know it is working, and when you want it to work it can selectively choose what it wants to pay closer attention to. An example of this would be reading a book, you might be conscious of reading the book the whole time, but the times that you come out with the most information is when you have your selective consciousness and you begin to read something that interests you. Everyone goes through the attributes daily without even knowing it because it is so natural, which is why I think it is interesting because something can be so natural you have no clue you are doing it.
4a) What one (1) thing did you find the least interesting?
4b) Why wasn't it interesting to you?
The thing that I did not find interesting because I do not agree with the decision of the college is when Mary Calkins completed her thesis for her PhD and she even had Munsterberg, James and other examiners that said she is suitable for a PhD. It upset me that America used to be so against women pursuing additional education that even with all of this to back her up they still denied giving her a PhD. I feel that no matter who it was, if they passed the exam and met all the requirements for the PhD, they deserve it and should receive it. Mary even had those important figures that appealed to Harvard for her, which still was not enough for them to overturn their decision of not allowing her to receive it. It just still shocks me that America was to that point where they would deny rewarding women for certificates they deserved due to the misconception that women with a higher education is not good for them and the country.
5) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?
That the best of any field is not always going to be new things or ideas that are brought to that field to expand the study area. Sometimes being able to expand the field through location could be crucial in the study do to more people knowing about the field, thus we see more people pursuing an education in psychology and resulting in a higher chance for new ideas.
6) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters?
This chapter related to the other chapters because we see figures like G. Stanley Hall that relate to Wundt. I say this because like Wundt had laboratories in Germany, G. Stanley Hall also professionalized psychology and had laboratories built in America. We also see a lot of Germen influence with ideas that are brought to America and psychologists wanting to get a better degree in psychology go to Germany, which relates it to the previous chapters when it explained that most American psychologists pursued an education in Germany until America expanded its educational system.
7a) What topic would you like to learn more about?
7b) Why?
I would like to expand on the consciousness topic. I would like to because there is much more to learn about it, some examples would be like how does the brain react to certain attributes of consciousness and when do we notice it. I think I would like to know more about it because it was interesting to me, but it left me with many questions and I still do not fully understand what consciousness is.
8) What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter?
This chapter spent a lot of time of how psychology began to expand in America. It related a lot of the ideas coming from Germany and the labs from Wundt (mainly a lot of the expansion coming from Germany). Is there anything or any figure in America that received education or any ideas from Russia or other countries rather than Germany? It just seemed that the chapter was more focused on the Germany expansion of psychology in America and not so much of ideas coming from other countries.
9) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
G. Stanley Hall, Mary Calkins, James Mark Baldwin, Sumner, Bache, consciousness,
1a) What did you find interesting?
I found James explanation of consciousness to be pretty interesting.
1b) Why was it interesting to you?
It was interesting because it was like he was trying to define something that some people feel couldn’t be defined. It was odd because he didn’t do any empirical research on what consciousness is, but he still came to find 5 big attributes of consciousness. He claimed that consciousness is personal (thoughts don’t exist independently, they require the person), selective (it shuts out certain sensation information to better pay attention to what is at hand), and active (goal-directed). It is also constantly changing (no two states of consciousness are ever quite the same), yet sensibly continuous (our stream of thoughts is one continuous stream and flows from thought to thought). Then after all of this he ended up believing in weird spiritualism stuff.
2a) What did you find interesting?
I liked the effort Hall put in to distinguish psychology from psychic nonsense.
2b) Why was it interesting to you?
This was interesting to me because I’ve put a lot of thought into things like this in the past. I wonder if it is a responsibility of the intellectually superior to correct the misguided notions of people who believe whatever they are told, or if it isn’t hurting anybody should they just be left to believe what they want like a child believing in Santa. I like Hall’s approach. This pseudoscience was interfering with his advancement of psychology. So he became a magician and showed the people that what they thought was telepathy or clairvoyance was nothing more than well-played deception. This, to me, was the coolest way someone could tell other people that they are wrong.
3a) What did you find interesting?
I liked reading about recapitulation.
3b) Why was it interesting to you?
Evolution interests me a lot. When I took developmental psychology and saw that the embryo/fetus kind of illustrates mans evolutionary lineage I wondered if there was anything more to that or if it explained anything deeper. Recapitulation was a theory that said since we know people develop as they do in the womb relating their evolutionary past, their actions throughout life may be traced back along this evolutionary line as well. This theory didn’t hold up so well, but it was still interesting.
4a) What one (1) thing did you find the least interesting?
There were a lot of dates touched on that I didn’t find interesting.
4b) Why wasn't it interesting to you?
I actually do enjoy reading about the lives of these psychologists, but it seems they include a lot of time on dates and timelines. I understand that it’s a history text, but its less interesting to me.
5) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?
I think this chapter did a good job of showing how psychology came to and developed in America. That will probably help my understanding of the history of it the most.
6) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters?
They continually referenced topics that we have already discussed in previous chapters. They referred to Wundt and Descartes specifically.
7a) What topic would you like to learn more about?
I think I would like to learn more about the study of the consciousness
7b) Why?
This is a deep philosophical question and a great psychological one and I would like to learn more about the study of it and how it may actually be studied.
8) What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter?
As I read about the history and lives of famed psychologists, I can’t help but think about my career. I make patterns about who these people were before they went to get their schooling. I pay attention to where they get their schooling and what they expressed primary interest in. I look at what their main contributions were to psychology that landed them in the textbook. I then compare that stuff to my life, look at what I expressed interest in growing up, look at my major focus now, look at what I want to do. Then I wonder if I will end up doing what it is I set out to and if I will do anything to contribute to my field.
9) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Consciousness, spiritualism, recapitulation, G. Stanley Hall, William James, Descartes,Wundt
1a) What did you find interesting?
William James, primarily the section on his work discussing habits.
1b) Why was it interesting to you?
I found this interesting because everyone has habits, some of them are counter productive but we still continue to do them. So to me studying habits and applying that to psychology is really interesting. Thinking of what psychological “good” comes out of us forming habits.
2a) What did you find interesting?
Spiritualism
2b) Why was it interesting to you?
I thought this was interesting because there are still individuals today who believe in spirits and things of that nature. My roommate and I watch the television show long island medium all the time, not that I buy into the whole spirits notion I just think that it is an interesting thought. It also surprised me that James took such a large leap from psychology to this idea of spiritualism.
3a) What did you find interesting?
Hall and Psychoanalysis
3b) Why was it interesting to you?
Although the section on this wasn’t very large I thought that it contained some interesting information and I wish there were more on it. I was surprised to learn that Hall taught a class called “The Psychology of Sex”. I think that it would be incredibly interesting to hear about some of what he discussed in this class.
4a) What one (1) thing did you find the least interesting?
The thing I found least interesting was all the background information on the psychologists.
4b) Why wasn't it interesting to you?
I believe I didn’t find this interesting primarily because the information was not very useful. It doesn’t help me at all to know that Mary Calkins grew up in Buffalo, New York or that G. Stanley Hall’s mother was a teacher.
5) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?
I believe that all of it is important, minus the background information on the psychologists. It is important to know how the theories developed.
6) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters?
Much of the information in the past chapters was about psychologists who were not from America, in this chapter we got to learn about the individuals who brought psychology to the forefront in American.
7a) What topic would you like to learn more about?
Possibly spiritualism
7b) Why?
I just thought that it was really interesting that someone jumped from studying psychology to being interested in “the supernatural”. I think it would be interesting to learn more about this idea and what William James had to say about it.
8) What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter?
Much of what was said in this chapter is just new ideas and theories. But there were multiple mentions of how we would learn more in depth on the topics in the next chapter. So I was thinking about the next chapter and wondering what new information I would receive that would better help me understand the concepts in chapter six.
9) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
William James, Spiritualism, habit, Stanley hall, psychoanalysis, Mary Calkins,
1a) What did you find interesting?
- James-Lange Theory of Emotion: Theory holding that the strong emotions were in essence the physiological reaction that followed the perception of some emotion-eliciting event.
1b) Why was it interesting to you?
- I think it's interesting that they thought that emotion brought out the action. But, if you think about it you can change your actions by altering your mood. If you make yourself be happy, you are more likely to do thing for others than if you are in a bad mood.
2a) What did you find interesting?
- Spiritualism: Popular 19th-century belief in the afterlife and in the ability to communicate with the dead.
2b) Why was it interesting to you?
- Although there is no way to scientifically measure it, making it unprovable, there are instances throughout history where people referee to ghosts. If these things weren't happening you would think that they wouldn't continue to be important today. But once again, there is no way to scientifically prove the existence of this spiritual world; making spiritualism as a theory invalid.
3a) What did you find interesting?
- Recapitulation: Hall's theory taken from a similar idea in biology, that the development of the individual mirrors the evolution of that individual's species.
3b) Why was it interesting to you?
- I think this is particularly interesting, and relevant today. It makes me wonder how much we have evolved since the days of Hall. Our thought processes have surly changed, is that a result of our evolution?
4a) What one (1) thing did you find the least interesting?
-Periodic Function: Concept used in the early 20th-century to refer to a woman's alleged incapacity during the time of menstruation.
4b) Why wasn't it interesting to you?
- I can see why they would think that way, but they did not try to validate this belief with any scientific research, and its kind of frustrating that they would allow a theory to pass out of biased beliefs. I think it sets a bad example of the scientific process (although it shows what not to do). I was a little disappointed that the book spent so much time justifying why they thought this was an actual medical condition; but I wasn't too impressed with the writing of this chapter.
5) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?
- Paired-associate Learning: Popular learning procedure in which pairs of stimuli are presented; after a study time, stimuli are presented and the associated response must be given; invented by Calkins.
6) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters?
- We are finally, finally, getting to see early American psychologists that actually made a difference. This chapter builds on the previous in that we have shifted away from Americanized philosophy to Americanized psychology; which grew out of philosophy.
7a) What topic would you like to learn more about?
- Stanley Hall
7b) Why?
- I think he made extremely important contribution to American psychology, including the creation of the APA. Studying him would give me a greater understanding of how the field has advanced, and where it started in comparison to the German psychology.
8) What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter?
- I just kept thinking that these are the founders of the field. Seeing the way that the field of psychology has grown, or even the ways its stayed the same not only provide a deeper understanding, but they also allow me to understand the past model of psychology.
9) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
James-Lange Theory of Emotion, Spiritualism, Recapitulation, Periodic Function, Paired-associate Learning,
1a) William James is very interesting
1b) He is very interesting because he is a part of modern psychology. He believed that psychology has a ways to go before it can be claimed as a genuine science. He was a big part of modern psychology like I already stated and he came up with an idea called introspection. Introspection is careful self-observation and examination to reflect on consciousness that characterizes someone’s mental health. A person’s introspections cannot be verified by someone else. It is impossible to experience a mental process and introspect at the same time. Introspection relies on self-reflection to gain insight on the workings of the human mind.
2a) James-Lange theory of emotion is also interesting.
2b) This is interesting because I haven’t heard of this idea before. This theory is saying that strong emotions were the essence of a physiological reaction that followed the perception of an emotion-eliciting event. William James believed that each emotion we have has a unique pattern of bodily reaction. The example that the book gives is that our heart pounds uncontrollably before we even feel fear. If something is unsatisfying for us and essentially scary our stomach may drop and our heart will start pounding and it’s interesting that James came up with this idea that our emotions have their own bodily reaction.
3a) Calkins and her idea paired-associate learning was interesting to read.
3b) This theory is a learning procedure. With this, after a study time there is stimuli that’s presented and the associated response is given. Calkins did a study where she showed individuals color patches with numbers and they had to try to recall number responses when they were showed the colors. She would present the same color several times and then once with one number and then a few times with another number. Later this procedure became a method in memory research.
4a) I didn’t find the section on psychology in the nineteenth century interesting
4b) I didn’t find this interesting because it didn’t draw my attention like the rest of the chapter did. It wasn’t that I didn’t like this section by any means but it was just a little boring compared to everything else.
5) I think that William James and his ideas will be most useful in cognitive psychology.
6) This chapter builds on the others because it is adding to what we have previously learned in other chapters because we are just continuing to learn about more important individuals that had an impact on psychology.
7a) I would like to learn more about William James
7b) I would like to learn more about William James because he is more contemporary and has easier ideas to understand. I like all of the things that he came up with and they all seem to be interesting.
8) While reading this chapter I was thinking about what I already knew about William James and all of the new stuff that I learned from this chapter.
9) William james, consciousness, introspection, self-observation, modern psychology, self-reflection, james-lange theory of emotion, Calkins, paired associate theory.
1a) William James is very interesting
1b) He is very interesting because he is a part of modern psychology. He believed that psychology has a ways to go before it can be claimed as a genuine science. He was a big part of modern psychology like I already stated and he came up with an idea called introspection. Introspection is careful self-observation and examination to reflect on consciousness that characterizes someone’s mental health. A person’s introspections cannot be verified by someone else. It is impossible to experience a mental process and introspect at the same time. Introspection relies on self-reflection to gain insight on the workings of the human mind.
2a) James-Lange theory of emotion is also interesting.
2b) This is interesting because I haven’t heard of this idea before. This theory is saying that strong emotions were the essence of a physiological reaction that followed the perception of an emotion-eliciting event. William James believed that each emotion we have has a unique pattern of bodily reaction. The example that the book gives is that our heart pounds uncontrollably before we even feel fear. If something is unsatisfying for us and essentially scary our stomach may drop and our heart will start pounding and it’s interesting that James came up with this idea that our emotions have their own bodily reaction.
3a) Calkins and her idea paired-associate learning was interesting to read.
3b) This theory is a learning procedure. With this, after a study time there is stimuli that’s presented and the associated response is given. Calkins did a study where she showed individuals color patches with numbers and they had to try to recall number responses when they were showed the colors. She would present the same color several times and then once with one number and then a few times with another number. Later this procedure became a method in memory research.
4a) I didn’t find the section on psychology in the nineteenth century interesting
4b) I didn’t find this interesting because it didn’t draw my attention like the rest of the chapter did. It wasn’t that I didn’t like this section by any means but it was just a little boring compared to everything else.
5) I think that William James and his ideas will be most useful in cognitive psychology.
6) This chapter builds on the others because it is adding to what we have previously learned in other chapters because we are just continuing to learn about more important individuals that had an impact on psychology.
7a) I would like to learn more about William James
7b) I would like to learn more about William James because he is more contemporary and has easier ideas to understand. I like all of the things that he came up with and they all seem to be interesting.
8) While reading this chapter I was thinking about what I already knew about William James and all of the new stuff that I learned from this chapter.
9) William james, consciousness, introspection, self-observation, modern psychology, self-reflection, james-lange theory of emotion, Calkins, paired associate theory.
B.H.
1a) b) American Psychology’s first textbook made by Thomas Upham interested me because it was the first text in American colleges and universities that related to the course today that would be called introduction to psychology. The Elements of Intellectual Philosophy was organized and published by Upham in 1827. The book consisted of three main divisions the intellect (cognition), the sensibilities (emotion), and the will (action). Upham in his book described the mind as an active one and the book was distinctly functional to it. Uphams text went on to be the best seller until the end of the century when psychology had changed drastically.
2a) b) Education for women and minorities interested me very much because I knew men and women had their differences but I was unaware of the effects of it on education. One Harvard medical school professor even urged women to abandon education after reaching puberty because to much mental activity after that stage could retard their development of their reproductive organs. Since the belief back then was that women were inferior to men, it was considered to be horrible for a woman to be married and have a career. Women were even given the belief of periodic function, which was that women were intellectually incapacitated every month during this menstruation which was considered a handicap. Evolutionary theory relating to the variability hypothesis also fueled the fire. Members of a different species differentiated from each other and natural selection needed to do its work.
3a) b) I found James theory about emotion to be very interesting. James theory went on to be known as the James-Lange theory of emotion. Emotions followed a sequence: perception of some emotion-arousing event, which led to a subjective experience of emotion, which then ended with a bodily reaction. But James experimented and reversed the sequence. James went on to argue that bodily changes are emotions felt immediately upon the perception of an emotion arousing stimulus prior to the awareness of a cognitively recognizable emotion. Each emotion has its own unique bodily reaction.
4a) b) I wasn’t really that interested in the wok James Baldwin did, I was interested in the laboratories he found but I wasn’t interested in the work on child development because I have younger siblings and cousins and I already to a class on child development and it just never really interested me.
5) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology? When doing research and making self-observations, an examination and reflection on conscious ness that characterize one’s mental life is bias. One person’s introspections could not be verified by a second person.
6) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters? This book really does a lot of defining of consciousness. In the chapter before and other chapters, consciousness seems to be brought up a lot and each chapter seems to build on one another. It even goes on to talk about James and his idea of “structuralism” which relates to consciousness and will be brought up in the next chapter.
7a) What topic would you like to learn more about? Consciousness
7b) Why? Because each chapter has elaborated on the complexity of the idea of consciousness and unconsciousness. Just seems like this is a very important topic and I would like to know why it is so important to psychologists and philosophers.
8) What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter? Reading about women’s rights towards education made me think about how old fashion some families are. Some women still want to be the “trophy wife” and stay at home with the kids and take care of the family activities. But most women now are highly educated and compete with men to get high paying jobs and do the same things men do compared to back in the old days.
9) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post. American psychology’s first textbook, Elements of Intellectual Philosophy, Education for women and minorities, periodic function, variability hypothesis, consciousness, introspection, William James, emotion, James-Lange theory of emotion
1a) What did you find interesting? Too much mental activity after puberty for females can cause retardation of the reproductive organs, according to a Harvard Medical Professor.
1b) Why was it interesting to you? This struck me as surprising and interesting simply because I’ve never heard of this idea before and I believe after reading that thought that it is a bunch of nonsense. As we can see now, many years later, that there is no link between retardation of the reproductive organs and going to school for females. There is no problem with females gaining knowledge.
2a) What did you find interesting? Women were intellectually incapacitated every month during menstruation. (Periodic function)
2b) Why was it interesting to you? We all know that females go thru this function but why does that raise the idea that it puts us in an inferior category to males? It strikes me as an interesting assumption; yes, I know that back then they thought all females and minorities were inferior to males but why does the whole menstruation idea come into play?
3a) What did you find interesting?
3b) Why was it interesting to you?
Somehow I thought that with the way that William James’ father devoted so much time and effort into educating his children was somewhat interesting. Never have I had someone devote so much time into my education that it helped me but his father did so much for the five children that he did have. He must have wanted his children to be well kept and updated with the world. Although his daughter could not have used her knowledge to its full potential because she was a female she still got the learning she needed to survive as a female in the household.
4a) What one (1) thing did you find the least interesting?
4b) Why wasn't it interesting to you?
Reading so much about so many different people can get repetitive to where I just want to start skimming over the chapter and find the key details about every person. I can only take so much of learning the little points about someone. Yes a little bit of their background is needed to understand what they are to discover but not their whole life story is needed. I just want to find out what their contributions were to the field, not where they were born etc.
5) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology? Pretty much this chapter just brought up new ideas that men in the field contributed to, so I think everything I learned was great information and all of it will somehow contribute to me understanding the history of psychology more.
6) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters? This chapter does the same thing every chapter does in the book I believe. It brings up new people and new topics but then states something from previous chapters that also can be related to a person that we just learned about in this new chapter.
7a) What topic would you like to learn more about?
7b) Why?
I would like to learn more about genetic psychology just because I have always had an eye on that subject. Back then they thought that genetic psychology was more about the mind and the development of the mind etc. So I think that trying to figure out these things would be kind of interesting and also tying them into what we think genetic psychology is about today.
8) What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter?
Honestly the only thing that I thought about while reading this chapter was if it was almost over with or not. It got so repetitive towards the end of the chapter I could not take it any longer. Not a lot struck me as interesting towards the end because I was getting so tired of reading so much about one person.
9) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Genetic Psychology, Periodic Function, Psychology, William James
1a) What did you find interesting?
Francis Sumner
1b) Why was it interesting to you?
The plight of the African-American is not too different across social and educational status. The psychology community was no different than the rest of our culture in their treatment of African-Americans. I was actually surprised that universities allowed African-American males more readily than Caucasian females. Sumner obviously had the intelligence and talent to earn a PhD in psychology, but he did a few other amazing things. For instance, he got into Lincoln University at the age of 16. He was accepted two years earlier than most freshman now, unless I’m looking at this with a presentism lens. It is possible universities were more lenient with enroll, especially if it was solely a black college like Lincoln University. He earned two bachelor degrees from two different schools. I do not think there were many minority scholarships in the early 1900s, and I would even venture to guess getting student loans were more difficult to obtain for African-Americans. The book describes that most African-Americans that went on to graduate school returned to their area schools to be underpaid, overworked teachers. Sumner was no different; he taught German and psychology at Lincoln whilst completing his graduate work at Clark. One of my favorite acts done by Sumner was his doctoral dissertation. He openly questioned what Freud and other psychoanalysts were claiming, but Sumner often did this with most of psychologies celebrities. So not only was Sumner the first African-American to earn a PhD in psychology under the extreme and difficult social and economic time for African-Americans, but he was unabashed when criticizing psychologies most prominent figures of his time.
2a) What did you find interesting?
G. Stanley Hall
2b) Why was it interesting to you?
Probably because William James and Hall were adjacent sections of the chapter, I did a lot of comparing between the two. I was trying to determine who is more responsible to the evolution of psychology as we know it today. Of course psychology would not be the same without either one of them, but Hall seems to reflect more honestly what psychology is. Again, psychology would not be the same with James and The Principles of Psychology, but Hall had more of a direct influence and persistence in establishing it as graduate level work in some of the most prestigious schools. They’re attitude toward psychology was also interesting to read. I’m sure the few pages the text allots for each of these men is the best way to judge their attitudes, but James almost seemed reluctant to be apart of psychology. He sort of floated his way into the field, and wanted out because he did not like research. I do give him credit though for ignoring colleagues for criticizing his involvement with mediums and the undead. Ignoring the pressure put on by him from contemporaries would be stressful, but he liked what he was doing enough it did not both him. Hall however had an attitude I latched onto much easier. He was so into the field he studied it before teaching for the entire first half of his life. Maybe that was partially due to not wanting to grow up; I feel you Hall. Once he did take a job at John Hopkins, his heavily German influenced version of psychology took off. He had a very research oriented, practical, logical, systematic, vision of what psychology should be and was a major part of making it the way it is today.
3a) What did you find interesting?
Mary Calkin’s research on paired-association learning
3b) Why was it interesting to you?
I am taking cognitive psychology this semester as well, so when I was readying her study I thought it sounded really familiar. Of course I realize it is basically a staple cognitive psychology study about two sentences before the book announces that this kind of research was going to have a resurgence during the cognitive revolution. The research she did seems simple and standard for us, but it was truly ahead of its time. I think her research did have some problems, not within the study but social issues. Short and long-term memory play a role in these association tasks and there just was not a body of memory literature available to help support her research. Also, it was carried out by someone who did not even have a PhD, because she was a woman. For that same reason it was probably universally ignored.
4a) What one (1) thing did you find the least interesting?
Anything William James related.
4b) Why wasn't it interesting to you?
I understand his importance and respect what he, but imagine how much more he could have contributed to psychology had he had the enthusiasm of Hall. It would have more substantial than a textbook, no matter how viral that went.
5) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?
It is a tie between the small diversity movements into higher education, e.g. Sumner and Calkin, and the shaping of the science because of James and Hall. Each chapter of this book slowly describes what psychology is like today, but the contributions and efforts made by James and Hall among others have really molded this science into what Americans can call psychology. The beginning of these early minority psychologists helps pave the way for later minority psychologists. When you read about the “firsts” of a field, e.g. African-American, female, they sometimes do not contribute too much to their field aside from being the first. Psychology is not that way. Calkins, Sumner, Ladd-Franklin, and Washburn all made meaningful strides in psychology along with being influential minority figures.
6) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters?
Basically this chapter is about all those Americans that would visit Germany, rob them of their ideas, and spread it through American universities. But even these Americans started making major contributions to the science, like great textbooks and laboratories.
7a) What topic would you like to learn more about?
After reading about Calkins, I want to know what other research was done ahead of its time. It would be interesting to see if people had already conducted research some else is credited with years later.
7b) Why?
It would be interesting to see if people had already conducted research some else is credited with years later. Maybe ceratin social or other time related issues kept this research from reaching it’s full potential
8) What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter?
Did Calkin pay for the classes she attended even though they did not allow her to get a graduate degree?
9) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Francis Sumner, Mary Calkin, G. Stanley Hall, William James, Paired-association
1a) what did you find interesting?
1b) why was it interesting to you?
I found the idea of spiritualism to be very interesting because of the sole fact that even today people have strong feelings towards this belief. There are many people in our society who believe in spirits and even base their whole lives on this such thought which I find interesting in itself. I personally find these ideas to be intriguing as well. I’m not sure if I believe 100%, but there is definitely apart of me that thinks about it in a more intellectual way of making it able to be true. Shows, movies, and music have all seemed to mention this types of beliefs still to this day which to me means that it stuck and it was important enough to have an impact on our world’s society.
2a) what did you find interesting?
2b) why was it interesting to you?
I found the topic of Consciousness to be very interesting because it has to with the brain, and as I have stated in previous posts, I LOVE THE BRAIN and how it works. I thought it was really interesting to find out the consciousness is divided into different parts because I had no idea about that. Personal, constantly changing, sensibly continuous, selective, and active were the different parts and it was just something new that I learned from this part. It makes a lot of sense because in regards to the conscious brain all these parts seem to be correlated.
3a) what did you find interesting?
3b) why was it interesting to you?
I found the concept of education for women to be a minority. I realize that back in the day it used to be like that, but that’s not why I find it interesting. I find it interesting because it seems more and more common today for women to be in the psychology world compared to me. Men seem to be the ones that invented theories and ideas, but if one thinks about that, it makes a whole lot of sense since women weren’t considered allowed to be involved in such activities. But I do feel like there seem to be more women psychologist compared to me, at least in my personal opinion. I hate and love the fact that women were known to be the minority because it just gave us as women more opportunity to overcome ignorance and men per say to become a greater sex. It allowed women to overcome a huge road block kind of like African Americans.
4a) what one (1) thing did you find the least interesting?
4b) why wasn't it interesting to you?
Personal details about the psychologists seemed to be the least interesting to me per say. Yes, I think it could be useful in certain situations, but I didn’t really think that I needed to get that kind of information from reading these chapters. As long as the book was detailed enough to tell me about what each one of them they did in relation to the history of psychology, then I didn’t need to know where they were from or when they were born. I just felt like it was wasted time reading about that kind of thing. But like I said if I needed to look further into a specific person then that information would be useful, still boring but useful.
5) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?
I think that the most useful information would be the development of psychology in American. I think this is the most useful because it is important to know when and where psychology started, it’s a huge part of the history of psychology. It helps people understand how it all started and why in some cases. Knowing the origin of things seems to be very important in understanding things deeper.
6) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters?
I feel like in chapter 6, the author did a good job teaching me about the development of psychology in most cases. It built on how it came to the states and even as anything. I personally think this chapter should have been more in the beginning because it covered a lot that explained how it came to be per say. I also think that this chapter did another great job building upon the most important psychologists and relating them to each other like they have done in the past chapters as well.
7a) what topic would you like to learn more about?
7b) Why?
I would like to learn more about spiritualism because like I mentioned before it is still taken very serious to a large amount of people still today which is interesting to me since it was something that was introduced so long ago. I would also like to learn more because it is a topic or idea that seems to hold much controversy which I LOVE! I love seeing and hearing others inputs on issues many have different thoughts on. There probably isn’t much to learn about this idea besides the opinions of others, but I would still like to dig deeper in that issue/idea. Consciousness would also be another topic that I would like to further read into because it is just so interesting. I had no idea that it was sectioned into different sub categories and I love that brain, so learning more about that would really interest me.
8) What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter?
As a teacher, I thought a lot about the roles that women play in our today society in comparison to how it used to be. I think that women in general really did come a long way in the working world, but there is still definite stereotypes that ties in a women’s life and career. I kept thinking about how it wasn’t expected or even allowed for women to be teachers or educators, but the facts that teaching a very women prominent in today’s world. I just kept thinking about the rules and lifestyles of women.
9) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Spiritualism, Education for Women and Minorities, Consciousness
AS
1a) What did you find interesting?
I found William James interesting
1b) Why was it interesting to you?
I thought it was interesting that he had studied in Europe and that he could speak multiple languages. I thought it was interesting why his dad wanted him to learn multiple languages. I also found it interesting that James was interested in spiritualism. After reading about him, he did not strike me as the type of guy to believe in those things, so I was surprised.
2a) what did you find interesting?
I also found G. Stanley Hall interesting.
2b) why was it interesting to you?
I thought he was interesting because I was getting annoyed at him as I was reading about him. From the reading, it seems like he was the kind of guy who thought he was smarter than everyone else. I thought it was interesting how he wrote numerous books. More so, I thought it was interesting that he wrote one about children, one about adolescence, and one about aging. I liked that he wrote about different age groups, especially how he wrote about aging when he was in the later stages of his life.
3a) what did you find interesting?
I thought that Francis Sumner was interesting.
3b) why was it interesting to you?
I think it is interesting what Sumner was able to do after getting accepted into graduate school. I think it is awesome that he was able to make a name for other black people who wanted to pursue a higher education. I think it sucks that he seemed limited to a black college. However, he affected numerous scholars even after he died, just by giving them hope that they could go on to great achievement.
4a) what one (1) thing did you find the least interesting?
The one thing that I found the least interesting was the section on American Psychology’s First Textbook.
4b) why wasn't it interesting to you?
I did not find this interesting because, honestly, I don’t care. I could care less who wrote the first Psychology textbook, because it doesn’t affect me now. It is hard to be interesting in something that you don’t care about and that you cannot relate to. I know that if I wrote the first Psychology textbook, I would want everyone to know, so I understand why it is in the book, but that still doesn’t make it interesting to me.
5) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?
I think all of the information about the 19th century will be the most useful to me when studying the history of Psychology. I think that because it shows how far we have come in psychology. It also shows how hard it was for Psychologists back then, especially for black people and for women. Knowing how it was in the 19th century could also show us how much easier we have it now.
6) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters?
This chapter relates to previous chapters because the things that have been introduced in previous chapters are still being talked about. For example, faculties were mentioned in this chapter. Without having read the first chapters, I would not have known what that term meant.
7a) what topic would you like to learn more about?
If I could learn more about one topic, I would choose to learn more about Universities.
7b) Why?
I think it would be interesting to learn more details about what a university was like back then compared to now. Even though that is not directly related to Psychology, it would still be cool to see all of the different aspects of a school back then. It would be interesting to see the classrooms and the professors. It would be awesome to listen to a professor, such as James or Hall, giving a Psychology lecture.
8) What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter?
I thought about what I have talked about in my blog already. I thought that Hall seemed like a know it all, I thought about what a university would have been like back then, and I also thought that James and Hall may think that I am uneducated because by the time they were my age, they knew multiple languages and all I know is English.
9) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
William James, Spiritualism, G. Stanley Hall, Francis Sumner, Faculties
1a) What did you find interesting?
William James (emotion and spiritualism)
1b) Why was it interesting to you?
I found the sections discussing emotion and spiritualism very interesting. I always find it interesting to read about emotions. Also will reading the section on spiritualism I thought about the show on TV called Long-island Medium. James’s criticized contemporary thinking about emotion. He came up with the theory defined as James-Lange theory of emotion. James-Lange theory of emotion is defined as “theory holding that the strong emotions were in essence the physiological reaction that followed the perception of some emotion-eliciting event”. James believed our hearts would pound before we feel scared. James also believed people recognize different emotions because each emotion is associated with a unique pattern of bodily action. In James’s later years he becomes “fascinated” with spiritualism. Spiritualism became popular during the 19th-century. Spiritualism is defined as the belief in the afterlife and having the ability to talk to the dead. James strongly believed that spiritualism needed to be taken seriously. I still do not know how I feel about spiritualism?
2a) What did you find interesting?
Margaret Floy Washburn
2b) Why was it interesting to you?
I found Margaret Washburn interesting because she became known as the first woman to earn a doctorate in psychology. Washburn decided to pursue science of experimental psychology. This was something she was very interested in. Washburn applied for graduate school at Columbia University. This is where she faced some challenges because she was female. Washburn is later convinced to allow to Cornell which accepted women. Washburn was “accepted” into Tichener’s laboratory. However I found it interesting that she could no attend his experimentalists. Later on in her life, Washburn is a psychologist punished in several areas. Some areas were known as perception, imagery, social consciousness, and etc. However the area that stood out the most was her work on comparative psychology. I found this very interesting because we just discussed comparative psychology in our recent chapter. Washburn studied the perception of the color of fish. She later published a book called “The Animal Mind”.
3a) What did you find interesting?
Education for women and minorities
3b) Why was it interesting to you?
I found this section interesting because it discusses how during this time women could not have an education and a family. They had to pick between the two. However during this time women were socialized to believe they were created for the purpose of having a family. This meant the women were pressured to get married, have children, and play the “stay at home moms” role. I could not imagine picking between the two today. During this time women were known to be “intellectually inferior” to men. This created the definition periodic function. Periodic function is defined as “ the belief that women alleged incapacity during the time of menstruation. I found this to be completely ridiculous while reading this.
4a) What one (1) thing did you find the least interesting?
Mary Whiton Calkins
4b) Why wasn't it interesting to you?
I was not interesting in reading about Mary Calkins because I thought her section was dull. It discusses Calkins background which leads her to become the first women elected president of the American Psychological Association. I think the topic sounds really interesting, however I did not like how it was presented. Also it discusses Calkin’s major contribution to her self-psychology. I could not remember exactly what self-psychology was after reading it. Self-psychology is known that all consciousness is ultimately self-consciousness. I think this topics could have also been interesting if presented in a different way?
5) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?
I think this chapter lets you focus on the impact gender had during the 19th-20th century. Women were forced to decide between a family and education. However what were men forced to decide between? I think this chapter allows you to realize even though women were faced with obstacles they still influenced psychology today. Washburn became known as the first woman to earn a doctorate in psychology! It is important to know not only the definitions and theories, but have knowledge on the individuals as well. This chapter also allows you to realize psychology was first taught was mental or intellectual philosophy in America. This allows you to realize what took place back then to get where we are today.
6) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters?
The previous chapters talk about individuals and their influences on philosophy. This chapter shifts away from philosophy and starts to discuss the early beginning on psychology. It introduces new individuals but also refers to past individuals theories and work. This chapter now brings up a new issue dealing with gender. Before this was not an issue and was rarely discussed. Every chapter builds on all the individuals theories and ideas.
7a) What topic would you like to learn more about?
Emotion and Spirtualism
7b) Why?
I found these topics on William James to be very interesting. Even though I can a general understand of the James-Lange theory of emotion. However I am interested in learning more about this subject and want to examine more examples implying this theory. Also I am interested in learning more on why James believed spiritualism needed to be taken seriously. I found spiritualism to be very interesting. As I stated before I watch the TV show called Long-island medium. Sometimes this show just blows my mind, is this actually real?
8) What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter?
I thought about what it would have been like to be living in the 19th century. I do not know what I would have done giving the option to pick between education and family? Especially since women who chose education had a difficult time and had to face many obstacles. I also wondered why and how Washburn decided to study the perception of the color of fish?
9) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
William James, spiritualism, Margaret Washburn, comparative psychology, periodic function, Mary Calkins, self-psychology,
1) I found the section on the modern university interesting. Ever since I was raised, I was always taught that going to college meant getting a better job and more money. However, I never really knew when the up rise of education began to rise. I thought a lot of the rise of education came after the Civil War meant that maybe that was also when the emergence of minorities and women would be a big factor in the increase. However, I read in the next section that while they were offered an education, they faced many barriers.
2) Another section I found interesting was on Habit and William James views on it. He recommended making a pledge public about the habit that was going to be changed or developed. Also, people should not allow for any lapses to occur. Third, he urged people to arrange their lives to increase the opportunities to act on the new habit. I thought his 3-step procedure was cool in that it relates to how people can be successful today. It made me think of the show The biggest loser, contestants make their pledge publicly and are on a strict diet and workout schedule, yet what happens when they are no longer on the show and lost all of this weight, then sometimes their habits change when they go back to the reality of life.
3)The third section I found interesting was Hall and Psychoanalysis. It intrigued me because Hall was interested in sex and abnormal behavior, therefore leading him to become fascinated with Freud’s theories. I always thought that Freud was interesting from what I have learned about him in the past. I also found this interesting because he was looked down upon from his peers since it was kind of a controversy for one to have a whole book on The Psychology of Sex.
4) One thing that I didn’t find as interesting in the chapter was the section on Emotion. I have learned about the James-Lange theory already on it and was hoping to gain a different perspective but it was all kind of put dryly and the passage that was included was repetitive of what had already been said.
5) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?
I think that the great emergence of education at the turn of the 20th century played a huge role in everything that happened. More and more colleges were built, therefore more became educated and the idea behind education was it was the key to success. This idea is still prevalent today and definitely was a factor in allowing more American people to become educated since they no longer had to travel to Germany to get a full education.
6) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters?
This chapter starts with E.G. Boring describing that American psychology was the offspring of the new psychology created in Germany (as we read about in chapter 4) and then goes along to explain how American psychology did not begin until William James appeared. They also bring us back to empiricism and associationism discussed in chapter 2 from empiricists and how faculty psychology is the first fully empirical psychology in history. Also, they describe that Darwin and his theory of evolution had provided additional fuel in producing the variability hypothesis.
7a) What topic would you like to learn more about? 7b) Why? I would like to learn more about habits. I think it would be cool to see how James early ideas about how to approach habits relate or do not relate to what researchers are finding today. I know a lot of people including myself that get into good and bad habits and why we do them and what can be done about them.
8) What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter?
I was wondering how people would be able to get their doctorate degrees in two semesters? Did they meet for a longer period of time or would their doctorate degree not count by today’s standards? How much different was education set up compared to now? How was Hall able to borrow money to travel? Did they have government loans? How do habits form/why do they form? How can we change our habits?
9) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Modern universities, minorities and women on education, William James, Habits, Hall and psychoanalysis, Freud, The psychology of sex, James-Lange theory of emotion, E.G Boring, New psychology, Darwin, Evolution, empiricism, associatism, variability hypothesis, faculty psychology.
1a) What did you find interesting?
William James
1b) Why was it interesting to you?
Well unlike many others, I had never really heard of James before. It was neat to discover the first really American Psychologist in history. He had many different interests in many different fields of study as many people did in these days. He was very influential in Philosophy as well. He wrote a book “The Principles of Psychology” which is how he is most recognized and known. It was a very influential book for psychology. I thought it was interesting that he was very drawn to the newly developing science of psychology. He was interested in so many other science fields like biology and medicine, but somehow he decided that he really wanted to focus on the human mind and behavior. He also contributed a lot to the functionalists of psychology which we had talked about in the last chapter as well.
2a) What did you find interesting?
Women in the field
2b) Why was it interesting to you?
Well as most people know even now women are looked down upon in education and still seen as inferior to others. In the 19th century women didn’t have a lot of opportunities. Many women just were “stay-at-home” mothers because that was all that they knew and that at the time was what everyone believed they were best at and capable of. Because of the theories and beliefs of that time women weren’t seen as intelligent beings. They were seem as basically unable to be as smart as men and everything else. However women can do many great things. Many great psychologists went to the first all women universities that existed. Women have become essential to many different fields including psychology.
3a) What did you find interesting?
Stanley Hall
3b) Why was it interesting to you?
He had many firsts in the field of psychology. With the first psychological lab and the first American journal. I didn’t know that he had a lot of influence in development as well and created the adolescence stage of development. That is such a vital stage and at that point in history people didn’t really have a childhood, they worked all their lives, so to recognize that adolescence was a part of development then was a big deal.
4a) What one (1) thing did you find the least interesting?
I really enjoyed this chapter. So I can’t say that something was least interesting.
4b) Why wasn't it interesting to you?
5) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?
I think reading about James is important. Just to learn how Psychology started in our country and how it blends with so many other fields and interests. Psychology is such a broad science and it takes away things from many other fields and expands on it. I think it’s very valuable to learn that.
6) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters?
I would say it builds on other chapters with the ideas of Darwin and women being inferior. So natural selection and evolution have an impact on this chapter. I also would say it still brings in historicism from the first chapter and the impact of looking at situations from the time period. It also brings in a philosophical view with James who made many contributions to philosophy as well.
7a) What topic would you like to learn more about?
James
7b) Why?
I think he is a very interesting person and would like to learn more about how he got started on psychology and why he wanted to do more for the field. He’s an important figure in American psychology and yet I really don’t know anything about him beyond this book.
8) What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter?
How did James get interested in Psychology? What motivated him to expand the psychology field? How did these powerful women overcome all odds and succeed in the science field?
9) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
William James, Historicism, Stanley Hall,
1a) What did you find interesting?
1b) Why was it interesting to you?
The first topic that I found interesting in this chapter was about women in the field of psychology. Women psychologists were talked about numerous times throughout this chapter and I found much of this information very interesting. The first time women psychologists were brought up in chapter 6 was when it talked about education for women and minorities. As many people already know, minorities and women were treated differently in the past than higher-class men. This was especially evident in the world of education and psychology. In the past, the women’s role was seen as only a wife and mother. Their duties in life were to have kids and raise them, but not to be educated and have a job. There were even people that believed that education was harmful to their development or that women were not as smart as men. One famous psychologist that defied these stereotypes was named Mary Whiton Calkins. Mary Calkins was a woman psychologist in the 19th century. She grew up in Buffalo, New York but traveled often and knew a number of languages at a young age. Calkin was originally interested in philosophy and then was given the opportunity to further research laboratory psychology. Calkins was a very quick learner and easily impressed many people. She understood though that pursuing a field in psychology as a woman was going to be a long, frustrating road. She took many classes, one even that all the other males dropped because they didn’t want to be with a female. Calkin did a love of research on association and invented paired-associate learning. Paired-associate learning deals with memory how we make associations to better remember things like colors and numbers together. I thought this was interesting and great asset to psychology and it proves the great influence women have had on the science.
2a) What did you find interesting?
2b) Why was it interesting to you?
The second topic I found interesting in chapter 6 was about William James and his chapter on consciousness. In this chapter, James broke down consciousness to its basic elements. James believes, and is often quoted, saying that consciousness is a “stream of thought, of consciousness, or of subjective life.” He also stated that consciousness is personal, constantly changing, sensibly continuous, selective, and active. Consciousness is personal because our thoughts are part of ourselves. It is constantly changing because no two states of consciousness ever exist at the same time. When one starts, the other one ends. It is also sensibly continuous because we are constantly thinking and selective because we pick information that we find to be more important and pay closer attention to it. And finally, consciousness is active because it is goal directed and purposive. I found this topic very interesting because it deals with how people think. I enjoy learning about stuff like this and really breaking it down like William James did. I also think this is interesting because it seems like such an innovative idea during the time of William James. This idea of consciousness is really interesting and definitely pushed the science of psychology into the future.
3a) What did you find interesting?
3b) Why was it interesting to you?
The final topic I found interesting in this chapter was about mazes. Chapter 6 had a close-up dedicated to and explaining the idea of maze learning. Mazes have been used in experimental psychology for the longest time, and are a very important part of the science. Mazes have been used by Darwin and Thorndike but the first maze that used rats in it was created by Willard Small. Willard Small studied at Clark University. Small worked with another student named Linus Kline and together, with the help of their lab director, Edmund Sanford, created the specific maze design for rats. The maze they used was the Hampton maze, although the reasoning behind using this maze is unknown. Even though Kline was behind most of the ideas for the first maze, Small was the one who did the first study. This reasoning, again, is unknown. Small then published research about his findings, and now mazes are a very popular tool used in psychology. I thought that the information provided in this close-up was interesting because it was information that I did not previously know about. Everyone knows about rat mazes and how they are used to test many different ideas, but rarely do people know the history behind rat mazes. I found it interesting to read about it, and to also read about the psychologists behind these ideas.
4a) What one (1) thing did you find the least interesting?
4b) Why wasn't it interesting to you?
One topic in this chapter that I did not find very interesting was about G. Stanley Hall and his research in genetic psychology. After reading the sections about William James, I did not find the information about G. Stanley Hall as interesting. Hall was very interested in psychology and definitely helped the progression of the science. He personalized psychology in the US by founding laboratories and journals and did most of his work dealt with genetic psychology. While I appreciate everything that he did for psychology, it was not of much interest to me. I don’t think that genetic psychology is a very interesting field of psychology for me. I also found that the information about G. Stanley Hall was not written as well as the information about William James. While reading about Hall, I skimmed through a lot because I found a lot of what was written about him to be wordy and it lost my attention quickly. Hall did a lot of research in genetic psychology but also dealt with developmental psychology. This was a little more interesting that the section about what Hall did with genetic psychology. The section on Hall was long and uninteresting, which is why I chose to write about it for this chapter.
5) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?
I think that the information I read in this chapter that will be most useful to understanding the history of psychology is all the information about William James and everything he contributed to the science. William James is known as the first American psychologist, and this is huge for psychology in America. Along with that, he also brought the science of psychology a ton of new information and really progressed psychology in general. William James was the president of APA twice, because his peers elected him, and he also wrote a number of psychology books. Growing up, William James’ childhood was similar to Mary Whiton Calkins. His father had him travel a lot and he learned many languages at a young age. Because of all this, James was very smart and also very cultured. He quickly came onto the scene as a psychologist, even though he did not want to be known as that. Despite the fact that James hated being called a psychologist, he brought a ton of new information to the science of psychology. William James introduced ideas of methodology, consciousness, habit, emotion, and spiritualism. All of these new ideas are what I believe made William James the best information in this chapter that will be most useful to understanding the history of psychology.
6) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters?
A couple ideas show up in this chapter that relate to previous chapters. Wissenschaft, experimental psychology, William Wundt, and philosophy are all ideas that came up in this chapter that were also topics of discussion in previous chapters. This chapter talked about Wissenschaft in American schools, when in chapter 4 talked about it being popular in German schools. I think it is cool to see this idea come to America. William Wundt, who was the focus of chapter 4, was also talked about in this chapter in comparison to William James. Both of these psychologists rank amongst the most important contributors to psychology. The subject of experimental psychology comes up a lot in this chapter because William James did not like it because he did not enjoy working in a laboratory. James sarcastically referred to experimental psychology as brass instrument psychology because of the instruments used. The final idea, philosophy, came up a lot in this chapter as well. James wanted to be referred to as a philosopher, and Mary Whiton Calkins was interesting in philosophy before she came across psychology. This just goes to show how much of an effect philosophy had on the science of psychology.
7a) What topic would you like to learn more about?
7b) Why?
One topic I would be more interested in learning about was “race psychology.” This topic was mentioned under the section of education for women and minorities. Race psychology was studied by Francis Sumner and G. Stanley Hall. I think this would be an interesting topic to learn more about and study because I feel that it would be very eye-opening. I would enjoy learning the history about this topic of psychology because I enjoy learning about the different way people think. Along with learned about women in psychology, I think it would also be interesting to learn about the information and research people of a different race have brought to the science. I think it would also be interesting to learn more about Francis Sumner and what he did as a psychologist because he seems like an interesting person with innovative ideas.
8) What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter?
While reading this chapter, there were a couple different topics that made me think about other things. The first one was when the chapter was talking about the growth of colleges. I started thinking about how my high school was started and how UNI was started. I think it would be interesting to go back in time and see the amount of different schools popping up after the Civil War and how people reacted to all this new education. Another topic I thought about was languages. Both Calkin and James were fluent in many different languages and I am curious as to how this knowledge affected their research. I also find languages in general very interesting and I am interested to see how languages and psychology could be related. Also, I wonder if some information in psychology has language barriers so maybe people in China know more information in the science of psychology than we in America do. The last thing I thought about what James’ information on emotion and the James-Lange theory of emotion. I am in a motivation and emotion class this semester so I am curious to see if this is going to show up at all.
Terms: Mary Whiton Calkins, William James, consciousness, experimental psychology, mazes, Edmund Sanford, G. Stanley Hall, genetic psychology, Wissenschaft, William Wundt, philosophy, race psychology
1a) What did you find interesting?
Consciousness
1b) Why was it interesting to you?
What I found interesting about consciousness was William James’ explanation from his book. James made it clear that he vehemently opposed the analytic approach that presumed to understand consciousness by reducing it to its basic elements. James believed that trying to identify the individual elements of consciousness and then seeing how they could be constructed for form “mind” was a meaningless, artificial exercise.
He described the attributes of consciousness as:
Personal, thoughts don’t exist independently, constantly changing, not two states of consciousness are the same, sensibly continuous, our perception is that consciousness is a continuous stream of thought, selective, it shuts out certain sensation information to pay attention to specific information, and active, goal directed.
This to me was just an interesting explanation and it was also interesting to see someone put consciousness into words.
2a) What did you find interesting?
Emotion
2b) Why was it interesting to you?
I found the James-Lange theory of emotion interesting because it relatable, or familiar as mentioned.
James criticized contemporary thinking about emotion. At the time many believed emotions followed the sequence of, perception of arousing event – subjective experience of emotion – bodily reaction. James reversed the sequence. His argument was that the bodily changes that are the emotions are felt immediately upon the perception of an arousing event, prior to the awareness of a cognitively recognizable emotion. He argued that we recognize different emotions because each ones is associated with a unique pattern of bodily action.
I also found it interesting that he believed each emotion must have its own unique bodily reaction, and that how we recognize it. This of course is inaccurate.
3a) What did you find interesting?
Self-psychology.
3b) Why was it interesting to you?
Calkin’s major theoretical contribution was her self-psychology, which revolved around the idea that all consciousness is personal. Empathy is the primary tool for examining and understanding human development and psychoanalytic transformation. Psychotherapy and psychoanalysis have been dramatically changed by this movement and have woven empathy and fundamental human fulfillment together to create an effective outcome for the client. This technique strives to encompass all of the basic needs for healthy human development, and in particular the needs of the alter-ego.
I found this interesting because this idea started out so long ago and today it has evolved into a use psychoanalyses.
4a) What one (1) thing did you find the least interesting?
I found most of the chapter pretty bland.
4b) Why wasn't it interesting to you?
There was some interesting facts and looking back I can see how things have progressed and where one idea started lead to something still in use today. But still this was more of a strict history lesson then a psychology one. The people mentioned in the chapter definitely made a huge impact on psychology but there was just too much detailed information.
5) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?
William James helped in understanding the history of psychology. We are able to read about discoveries and thoughts about psychology along with anyone else interested. He made that possible. Many of his theories were interesting and over the years they have been improved on but still remain valid and are effective.
6) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters?
It builds on how we have come along in many different ways. This relates back to available knowledge, advancement of theories, and new trains of thought or ways of thinking.
7a) What topic would you like to learn more about?
Spiritualism
7b) Why?
I would like to learn more about spiritualism, because for one I find it relatable and I find myself not necessarily religious and just kind of wondering where I tie in with all of it, and two William James’ perspective on it. He supported spiritualism but could not fully rationalize it.
Spiritualists believed that consciousness survived death and that those who die could be contacted. To me that’s just wild but in other cultures and religions it is encouraged and found to be normal. Religion and spirituality have always interested me so I don’t usually pass up the chance to learn more about it.
8) What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter?
While reading I would always find myself thinking wow really. I find it amazing how far society and many cultures have come along. Many things have changed involving civil rights, theories (not just of the psychological kind), spiritualism, education, philosophy, basically everything that was mentioned in the chapter has changed or improved dramatically.
9) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Consciousness, the James-Lange theory of emotion, self-psychology, spiritualism,
1a) What did you find interesting?
James-Lange theory of emotion.
1b) Why was it interesting to you?
This was interesting to me because James also gave credit to Carl Lange, a Dutch physiologist. Both agreed that bodily changes that are the emotions are felt immediately upon perception of an emotion-arousing stimulus prior to recognizing the emotion. Both men reversed the original sequence of thought.
2a) What did you find interesting?
Spritualism.
2b) Why was it interesting to you?
This interested me because it was a popular movement in the 19th century and it is still around today. It is the believe that the consciousness survives after death and those who died could be contacted by mediums. It is spooky stuff, but also very interesting.
3a) What did you find interesting?
Developmental psych.
3b) Why was it interesting to you?
This was interesting because it was developed by Stanley Hall who promoted the study of children and aging. I think this was important because it helped us to understand much about how crucial childhood is on how socialized we are as adults.
4a) What one (1) thing did you find the least interesting?
Self psychology
4b) Why wasn't it interesting to you?
While it was intriguing at first it was hard for me to believe that someone could be their own psychologist. It just seems like there are to many factors that would contribute to a false or biased observation about oneself.
5) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?
Learning about the first Americans like William James, Stan Hall and Mary Calkins who brought psychology to the forefront in America is important. It is also helpful to know that many of the schools they were studying at are still power houses in psychology today and it is because of these people’s help.
6) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters?
The previous chapters mostly focused on Europe and where psychology started over there, this chapter moves across the pond to America where it was brought and furthered by some very intelligent people.
7a) What topic would you like to learn more about?
Genetic psychology
7b) Why?
Genetics are something that has always interested me because we are still learning and unraveling secrets to the genome and what we can do with it. If we could pin point specific markers in an individual’s genome perhaps one day we would know who the serial killers are before they kill or how likely a person may be to become alcohol or drug dependent.
8) What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter?
I kept thinking about all the women and minorities who were never given a fair chance back then. Many discoveries were being made during this time, but they were all being made by educated white men…because they were the only ones with an education. If women or minorities were given more opportunities back then who knows what else could have been discovered.
Terms: developmental psychology, genetic psychology, spiritualism, William James, Stan Hall, Mary Calkins,James-lange theory of emotion
1)What did you find interesting and why?
I found the section talking about Psychology in America to be sort of interesting. I learned in previous chapters that a lot of psychologists were being created in Germany, and that there were many different schools that taught psychology. There were few schools in the United States in the early 19th century that had curriculums in psychology, and the number of schools were even lower for women and minorities. These social groups were thought to be inferior in status and intelligence to the white man, so there were not as many opportunities for them. When women were finally allowed to go to college, their curriculums focused on family and home economics. Too much education was thought to retard women, which we now know is false. As far as minorities go, scientists let their prejudices stand in the way of collecting objective data. Their data would have disproved their theories, but they explained their findings in terms of minorities being inferior.
2)What did you find interesting and why?
William James seemed like a pretty interesting character. I could relate to him because he studied quite a few different fields, but decided against each of them. Many college students today start their major and then have doubts about if they are smart enough or like the subject enough to have a career in that field for the rest of their lives. James took art lessons in Paris, and even though he had raw talent for it, he could not see himself making a career of it. He also had medical training, but had no desire to practice medicine. He then discovered experimental physiology, which sparked his interest in psychology. Although he is thought to be a very important psychologist, he preferred to be called a philosopher.
3)What did you find interesting and why?
I thought the sections about mediums was comical. Around the time of the Civil War, many people took interest in mediums to communicate with the dead. Most mediums were found to be frauds, but James still believed that the practice of being a medium was a legitimate, scientific practice. Other psychologists were frustrated with James because they were trying to get psychology to be a legitimate science, and they were baffled that this man, who was supposed to be a “star is psychology” believed in, and expressed confidence in, mediums.
4)What did you find least interesting and why?
I wish the chapter would have covered more of women and minorities in psychology. The great majority of the chapter focused on William James and G. Stanely Hall, and then took about six pages to briefly go over the women pioneers in psychology. I realize that there may not have been much to go off of, because women were not allowed to have their own labs and therefore could not empirically test their theories, so they just remained theories. However, I find it a little odd that the author talked about how oppressed women and minorities were, but then let the majority of the content focus on white, educated men.
5)What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?
I think it is great how far we came in just a century. I feel like the 19th century was a very important century for psychology, and a lot of strides were made in increasing schooling for people in the United States, in respect to women and minorities. The number of colleges that existed at the beginning of the century and the number at the end were drastically different.
6)How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters?
This chapter progresses into the next century of psychology, and shows the development of psychology as a practice in America. It shows that Germany was the leader in psychology at the beginning of the century, but by the end of the century, more people were getting Ph.D.’s in psychology in America than in Germany.
7)What topic would you like to learn more about and why?
I think I would like to learn more about Mary Calkins because she was the first woman to be elected president of the APA.
8)What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter?
When reading the parts about how women and minorities were discriminated against, I was just wanting to laugh. That is my presentist thinking, but the thought of someone believing that just because someone’s skin was a different color or because someone is a woman makes them less intelligent is dumb. What’s more, there were studies that disproved this idea, but they (the people conducting the study) just made it seem that their study was not a good measure of intelligence, instead of it being that there are no different between African Americans and whites, or men and women.
9)William James, experimental physiology, mediums, New Psychology, G. Stanley Hall, Mary Calkins, APA, presentism
1a) What did you find interesting?
Women on education.
1b) Why was it interesting to you?
I thought that this section was very interesting because it really puts into example what women had to go through compared to now. Back then, women were only allowed to be a mother and wife. They were inferior to man and should never to the superior to a man. Women had no choice but to be happy with be a mother and a wife. Getting an education for a woman was one of the stupidest things at the time. What I found absolutely crazy was that if a woman was to try and get a degree that it would make their reproductive organs non-developable and they would risk the chance of not being able to bear children. Another idea that was just was crazy was that women have a periodic function that during their time of menstruation that they were fully incapable of intelligence. The fact that women had to go through this is horrible. They had no choice but to be happy with the traditional life style.
2a) What did you find interesting?
William James
2b) Why was it interesting to you?
I like how the book covered a lot on his life. I especially liked how they talked about his father and that he put his whole life into his 5 children’s education and moral development. Not many men at this time would have done this. I have a high respect for his father in that his children had an expectation of learning a foreign language. The idea of learning a foreign language would put light on that culture and then you could see life in their perspective. Just like James, I am not a fan of lab work in science and hated the details of science. William James’ wife had a very large role in his life. She was a very intelligent woman and she soon became James’ colleague. The idea of the James- Lange theory of emotion was interesting because the emotions are based off of psychological reactions.
3a) What did you find interesting?
Mary Whiton Calkins
3b) Why was it interesting to you?
I thought that she was interesting because at the time she challenged many males. It is said that women should not be intellectual. However, Calkins was very intelligent and was fluent in 3 langauages. She even studied with William James and Josaih Royce, two very smart men that were cheering for Calkins success. Calking had the idea of paired-associate learning. She also looked at a new idea of self-psychology. She pushed the idea that women should never have a say in anything and the only thing they should be doing is being a mother and wife.
4a) What one (1) thing did you find the least interesting?
There were way too many people that were mentioned in the chapter.
4b) Why wasn't it interesting to you?
When you add so many people, it can get really confusing because I felt as if I was everywhere and had to keep going back to make sure that I was on the right person and their ideas.
5) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?
I think that the section of women and education is very important to psychology. There were absurd ideas about women and now those could be completely proven wrong because we have evolved over time that women are not dumb and don’t have to always be in the kitchen or just a mother like how it was stated in the chapter. Women are no longer the inferior gender, women are just as equal.
6) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters?
It added more on the idea that we are where we are today because of what these psychologists did. Because of people like William James and Mary Whiton Calkins we have those ideas that have built the world of psychology such as the psychology book that James wrote.
7a) What topic would you like to learn more about?
The James-Lange theory on emotion.
7b) Why?
I really like learning about emotions and what they mean. I think that learning more about this topic will add on to some of the things that I know and make sense to some of things that I have learned.
8) What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter?
During this chapter I thought of how many of these people were not free. Women and minorities were not allowed to learn and if they did it was very limited.
9) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Periodic function
William James
James-Lange theory on emotion
Mary Whiton Calkins
paired-associate learning.
self-psychology
1a) What did you find interesting?
Education for women in the nineteenth century.
1b) Why was it interesting to you?
I’ll always find it interesting when hearing about how women and minorities didn’t have the same rights as others at one point. I would fall into both categories myself, and I could not imagine going through it. From way back then women who were interested in furthering their education or being anything other than a mother and wife, faced a number of challenges. The women’s sphere was a set of concepts centering the idea of woman as wife and mother, and although that was not every woman’s dream or goal, they were looked down upon if they did not choose to stick with this concept.
I found it interesting how it was believed that a woman pursuing a degree beyond high school would have adverse medical consequences. I would assume that it would probably be the other way around if there was ever research to be done on this. The book also mentioned that a professor at Harvard medical school believed that too much mental activity after puberty could retard the development of a woman’s reproductive organs.
I’m very proud that in the second half of the nineteenth century people somewhat started coming to their senses. The reason I would say somewhat is because even though women began being admitted into universities, they were enrolled in programs of study that “suited” them. A question I would ask is what programs are suitable for women and why? Teaching was a program that they were allowed to be trained in. I also think it’s interesting because even today teaching is a very popular program for women. I wonder if this is because women were encouraged to be teachers back then.
2a) What did you find interesting?
James-Lange theory of emotion
2b) Why was it interesting to you?
I found it interesting how James reversed the contemporary sequence of emotion which was emotion-arousing event, subjective experience of emotion, then bodily reaction. His theory actually made sense to me. I actually think both sequences make sense. They kind of remind of the whole idea of what came first, the bird or the egg? James believed that our hearts pound before we feel the emotion of fear.
3a) What did you find interesting?
Mary Whiton Calkins furthering education
3b) Why was it interesting to you?
The book mentioned that Calkins attended Harvard as well as Clark. The officials at both universities made it clear that they were not fond of her being there. I’m fascinated in the fact that she continued to do what she felt her calling was despite being discouraged. I tried to put myself in her shoes and I could honestly say that I probably would have given in. I don’t know if I would have had enough courage to remain somewhere I obviously was not wanted. Another thing I thought was interesting was that she was the first woman elected president of the other APA. I also am fascinated by the bravery of Christine Ladd-Franklin and Margaret Washburn. They were two other women psychologist who had to face the challenges of simply being women wanted to better themselves.
4a) What one (1) thing did you find the least interesting?
I would probably say I found the section about James Mark Baldwin finding two laboratories to be the least interesting to me. It could just be the way it was put in the book.
4b) Why wasn't it interesting to you?
I don’t normally find anything about laboratories to be interesting. I’m aware that a lot of important things take place there.
5) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?
I think everything in the chapter that discussed the struggle of women trying to get educated was very useful. I was aware of the difficulties that women faced in history, but to know now that psychology was also something that they were welcome to is very new information to me.
6) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters?
I think this chapter related to previous chapters simply because it progressed from previous chapters, as well as show us what still needed progress during the nineteenth century.
7a) What topic would you like to learn more about?
I would like to learn more about William James and the idea of him not wanting to be known as a psychologist.
7b) Why?
I thought it was interesting that he didn’t want to be known as or introduced as a psychologist. At the same time he was highly favored in the psychology world, being elected for presidency of the APA twice and being mentioned as the main reason that a lot of second-generation psychologists showed interest in psychology in the first place.
8) What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter?
I was thinking that psychology would definitely be a field of study that women were encouraged to study simply because a lot of males didn’t even think psychology deserved to be considered a science at one point in time.
9) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Education, women’s sphere, psychology, Calkins, James, James-Lange theory of emotion
1a) What did you find interesting?
1b) Why was it interesting to you?
I thought Francis Sumner was interesting because he helped establish Howard University’s leading psychology department. This was amazing first of all because he was an African-American and at the time not many African-Americans were able to obtain degrees. In addition to that, because of Sumner’s work at Howard University, around 300 African-American men were able to obtain doctorate degrees and around 60 in bachelor’s degrees and master’s degrees. In 1975, this was a huge accomplishment and a huge step forward to equal education.
2a) What did you find interesting?
2b) Why was it interesting to you?
Another person who helped further equal education was Mary Whiton Calkins. She attended a women’s college, Smith College, to obtain her bachelor’s degree. Calkins went on to teach Greek at Wellesley College, until Wellesley decided they needed to have a laboratory approach to psychology. At that time, Calkins was given a year off to learn about the approach. The colleges Harvard and Clark allowed her to tend lectures as a “guest,” not a student, so while she did not obtain a degree in the field she had the education equivalent to one. She worked in a lab with Hugo Munsterberg after her training and studied association. She eventually developed self-psychology and was president of the APA for a term. I think Calkins made huge strides in allowing for equal education for men and women.
3a) What did you find interesting?
3b) Why was it interesting to you?
Margaret Floy Washburn, like Calkins, attended classes unofficially as a guest of certain universities. Also like Calkins, she became president of the APA for a term. I think she was one of the first women to make advancements in psychology and to actually be in the field. Washburn edited the American Journal of Psychology, a respected journal that is still around today, and worked with comparative psychology.
4a) What one (1) thing did you find the least interesting?
4b) Why wasn't it interesting to you?
I thought the section on G. Stanley Hall was somewhat boring. There was a lot of information about him, and really I thought the only major point that we needed to know about Hall is that he introduced the U.S. to Freud’s work. He recruited Freud to make a trip to the U.S. in 1909. He also worked in developmental psychology and categorized adolescence.
5) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?
I think learning about how women and African-American men entered into the field of psychology is important to learn. These people made significant contributions to the field of history and they paved the way for others to enter the field.
6) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters?
In order to understand variability hypothesis, you have to know Darwin’s theories, which we learned about in chapter 5. This chapter also focuses on American education, and in order to understand the chapter we needed to know that these universities did not exist until this point and students were sent to Europe to be educated. We needed to understand the Lab Method developed in Leipzig by Wundt in order to understand why psychologists objected to James’ methodology.
7a) What topic would you like to learn more about?
7b) Why?
I think Mary Whiton Calkins would be interesting to learn more about. She was one of the first women to enter into the field of psychology, and, while the book provided some information about her, it would be interesting to know more.
8) What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter?
One of the things I was thinking about was that people like Calkins and Washburn made it possible for me to enter into the field of psychology. I am minoring in psychology, and if I were born when Calkins was, it would be so much harder for me to break into the field. I am grateful that other women before me made it possible for me to study things that I am interested in.
9) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Mary Whiton Calkins, Lab Method, James, G. Stanley Hall, Margaret Floy Washburn, Hugo Munsterberg, variability hypothesis.
posted for K.S.
1a) What did you find interesting? The modern University
1b) Why was it interesting to you? I found the way the universities evolved to be interesting because I would like to know where my education was founded. After the civil war is when the big rise in universities occurred. After that more people were acquiring high school diplomas hence were able to continue their education. This rise also meant a need for professors with a bachelor level. Most of these were located in Germany and that’s where people traveled for their education. Until the grant act provided every state with land to start a university within 5 years. This made way for universities and Ivy League schools to begin and give back to other thriving schools. The John Hopkins university was a major school at the time that was modeled after the schools in germany and many who graduated with doctorate degrees went on to be professors at over 30 different colleges.
2a) What did you find interesting? Education for women
2b) Why was it interesting to you? Being a woman I find it interesting that there was such a battle at first to bring women into the education system and allow them to thrive. During that time it was thought that the women had a role to fulfill regarding family and housework. It even went so far as to say that women shouldn’t learn because being educated after puberty could lead to problems with reproduction. Because of this and ideas on natural selection and the intelligence level a man could reach men were often thought of as the best suitors for higher education.
3a) What did you find interesting? emotion
3b) Why was it interesting to you? James-Lange theory has always interested me because I find emotion and the cause of it intriguing which is exactly why I find it interesting that he doesn’t believe in a sole emotion but rather other things that we classify as an emotion. These things include the physical aspects like a heart beating fast that occurs from the experience of the emotion which comes from the experience itself like a bear sighting. His argument though is that the body reacts as quickly as the experience occurs. For this to work the body must have a reaction to each emotion.
4a) What one (1) thing did you find the least interesting? Spiritualism
4b) Why wasn't it interesting to you? This section reminded me a lot of religion and thinking about what happens to us after death which is both things I try to avoid. So while it was interesting to know that they thought that those who died could be contacted I found it hard to fathom which makes it uninteresting.
5) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding Psychology? I found the parts about college and about William James to be of use because the information provides us a background to see where we are at today with the education system along with James having many ideas about college today and about things like consciousness and emotion and spiritualism
6) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters? In the part that I talked about with women and the educational system I mentioned natural selection which was mentioned by Darwin and talked about in the previous chapter. He talked about how individual members of a society differed.
7a) What topic would you like to learn more about? I would like to learn more about how the start of universities took place.
7b) Why? I think I would like to know how our education system came about even further along with where we are today because of its history.
8) What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter? Why did James have the idea of spiritualism and how many people came to believe what he believed.
9) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post. James-Langue theory, periodic function, consciousness, spiritualism
1a) What did you find interesting? William James
1b) Why was it interesting to you?
William James was born in 1842 to a wealthy and influential NY family and traveled much as a child. There seems to be a pattern with famous psychologists; many were wealthy or had an influential family. He enrolled at Harvard University and became a med student. He eventually became a philosophy and psychology professor and this is where he found interests in the term "consciousness". Consciousness is generally used to refer to an individual's awareness of his or her own thoughts, including sensations, feelings, and memories. He compared everyday experiences of consciousness to a stream that continuously flows, despite the odd interruption and change of direction. James’s philosophical interest was a major impact in the way that this concept was brought about. Plato and Aristotle also talked about the soul and body and believed that the two could not be separated. We know the meaning of "consciousness" so long as no one asks us to define it. He dug so dip into this idea that consciousness is not a thing, but a process that is constantly evolving.
2a) What did you find interesting? James-Lange Theory of emotion
2b) Why was it interesting to you?
In the early stage of James’s research into consciousness, he realized that the emotions play an important role in our daily lives and went on to develop, with his colleague Carl Lange, a theory about how emotions relate to our actions and behavior. This theory states that emotions arise from your conscious mind's perception of your physiological condition. He uses an example of seeing a bear and running away. Your conscious mind of running away tells yourself that you are scared. If a person were to stay when they saw a bear, they might not have the thought of being afraid and having fear of a bear. This theory is actually contradicts what most people think, but James’s view was that the mind's perception of the physical effects of running; rapid breathing, increased heartbeat, and perspiring heavily, is translated into the emotion of fear.
3a) What did you find interesting? Hall professionalizing psychology
3b) Why was it interesting to you?
Hall had many ideas about the process of evolution and what humans go through when we develop. Human development is determined by nature; it is a repetition of our "ancestral record". A child had animalike dispositions and goes through several growth stages. At adolescence, the evolutionary momentum subsides; this is a time when individuals begin to change. When we turned teenagers, this is the time in our life where we became sensitive and reckless and self-conscious; even prone to depression. Once we emerge as adults we become a more civilized higher-order being. Hall's thoughts on adolescents gave psychologist today their jobs. With children going through such phases at this "growing period" psychologist are able to analyze, talk, and listen to children that need help. Counselors are in schools are in the same category.
4a) What one (1) thing did you find the least interesting? Learning about American pioneers of psychology is interesting.
5) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?
Stanley Hall's concepts and thoughts about adolescents is a major reason why psychologists have careers. IF it were not for him, psychologists would only be doing research and teaching, but with his ideas about the tough stage of "puberty", he realized that it was necessary to analyze this field.
6) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters?
I think this chapter is just another chapter explaining the roots and birth of psychology; this chapter really being about the birth of psychological professionalism.
7a) What topic would you like to learn more about? James-Lange theory
7b) Why?
Sometimes for me it is hard to grasp why something so contradicted is such a major part of psychology. If so many people disbelieve this theory why is it still prevalent? I believe knowing whether a person's action are the cause of emotions is just an opinion.
8) What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter?
I thought about a lot of the psychologists that have their careers and wondered if it was ever necessary to see one when I was younger since adolescence is a very difficult stage.
9) Terms: james-lange theory, consciousness, adolescence,
1a) & 1b)
The chapter discussed how Scottish immigration had an influence on American Psychology and many of these immigrants played a crucial role in higher educations growth. During the beginning of the Civil War students had the choice of 182 colleges and faculty psychology dominated the curriculum of most of them. This surprised me as I didn’t think it had such a popularity at the time, especially to the extent of taking over the curriculum for most of these new colleges being developed. Another thing I found interesting concerned how modern American university actually started to develop. The Morril Land Grant Act was developed in 1862 was developed giving each state at least 30,000 acres of federal land, giving them five years to build a university and keep the land otherwise it would be reverted to the government. Before I had no idea that this is how Universities got their start.
2a) & 2b)
Another thing I found interesting was how James didn’t like the survey method and figured that future generations of psychologists would see these questionnaires, “among the common pests of life.” This is funny especially as we use and rely on them quite a bit today. Another thing I found interesting and a bit shocking was even though Bache’s study comparing the reaction times of whites, blacks and native americans found whites to have the slowest times he decided to ignore the Galtonian idea which connected reaction time to mental quickness / intelligence. Stetson also put away his findings which showed whites and blacks ability of memory to be the same.
3a) & 3b)
I was very interested and couldn’t believe the thoughts about women that were discussed in this chapter! It was believed that pursuing a degree beyond high school would have adverse medical consequences and one Harvard medical school professor even urged women to abandon their education after puberty as too much mental activity after that stage would possibly retard the development of their reproductive organs. Another thing concerning would I read that was absolutely crazy was the belief that women were intellectually incapacitated every month during menstruation. It was referred to as the periodic function. Another thing I found interesting was how Hall was hired as a professor at Hopkins at the “generous” annual salary at the time of $4,000 which is nothing now.
4a) & 4b)
I found this chapter really interesting and one of my favorites so far. It went over a lot from the struggles of blacks and women to James and everything he accomplished for the field. The end of the chapter with sections on Ladd and Baldwin weren’t the most interesting. Nothing stood out to me like the other individuals discussed within this chapter.
5)
Boring argued that American psychology really didn’t even begin until William James appeared. James is the one who began psychology in America after recognizing the importance of this new experiment physiological psychology in Germany. In this chapter we also saw Thomas Upham who is the one credited with creating the first American Psychology textbook. This became the principal text in American colleges for classes that would be similar to Introductory Psychology today. Another useful piece of information was that Sumner, while at Howard, established the country’s leading Psychology department at a black institution. Also Calkin’s developed paired-associate learning which became a standard method in memory research. It’s nice to be able to connect people to theories and ideas we often learn about. William James was the prime mover in bringing about the emergence of new psychology. Also Stanley Hall was responsible for its evolving identity as a distinct academic discipline. He created APA as well as the American Journal of Psychology. Research Tolman and Hull did with ants or Thorndike who observed chicks launched the study of rats in mazes which was interesting to find out how that all began.
6)
The chapter opened up discussing Boring who we saw in the first chapter. It also mentioned from chapter two, empiricism and associationism as well as people who we have heard about already such as Locke, Berkeley, Hume, Hartley and Mill to name just a few. It discussed the concept of faculty which we encountered in chapter three. It mentioned as well Wissenschaft philosophy which we saw in chapter four. We learned about Darwin in the previous chapter. This chapter brought him up once again and his cornerstone theory. This chapter also mentioned how James was a strong advocate of the argument of design which we read about in chapter five. It mentioned as well Ebbinghaus and memory research which we saw in chapter four.
7a) & 7b)
I think it would be interesting to learn more about James and his theories dealing with emotion. He argued that bodily changes which are emotions are felt immediately upon the perception of an emotion arousing stimulus, prior to the awareness of a cognitively recognizable emotion, meaning for example that our heart pounds before we even feel fear. Ideas like this have always caught my attention so it would be neat to look more into depth into such theories. I’ve also always been interested in nature vs. nurture so looking into Hall and genetic psychology might be interesting as well.
8)
Each individual we learn about has a couple career interests before finally deciding upon psychology it seems. Also many of them we read about suffered some sort of illness. Also once again James father, like many we see, wanted his children to learn foreign languages. All of these famous individuals we read about had very intense educations growing up. I thought it was cool that James was the one who set up what eventually became Harvard’s laboratory of experimental psychology. It was also neat to connect James to the James-Lange theory of emotion which we hear about in classes. I found the section which talked about James and his belief in spiritualism and mediums interesting, especially with shows like Long Island Medium on T.V. today. I’ve never really known what to think about the concept. Also the picture on page 187, Figure 6.7 was really cool to see and be able to match all of these people we keep hearing about to their faces. It was nice seeing how people such as James and Sanford welcome Calkins into their seminars and labs as women weren’t given very many opportunities at the time. It was sad to see the struggles these women went through as well as blacks during this time as well.
9)
Terminology: Faculty psychology, Periodic Function, Consciousness, James-Lange theory of emotion, Spiritualism, Genetic Psychology, Paired-Associate Learning.
1a) & 1b)
The chapter discussed how Scottish immigration had an influence on American Psychology and many of these immigrants played a crucial role in higher educations growth. During the beginning of the Civil War students had the choice of 182 colleges and faculty psychology dominated the curriculum of most of them. This surprised me as I didn’t think it had such a popularity at the time, especially to the extent of taking over the curriculum for most of these new colleges being developed. Another thing I found interesting concerned how modern American university actually started to develop. The Morril Land Grant Act was developed in 1862 was developed giving each state at least 30,000 acres of federal land, giving them five years to build a university and keep the land otherwise it would be reverted to the government. Before I had no idea that this is how Universities got their start.
2a) & 2b)
Another thing I found interesting was how James didn’t like the survey method and figured that future generations of psychologists would see these questionnaires, “among the common pests of life.” This is funny especially as we use and rely on them quite a bit today. Another thing I found interesting and a bit shocking was even though Bache’s study comparing the reaction times of whites, blacks and native americans found whites to have the slowest times he decided to ignore the Galtonian idea which connected reaction time to mental quickness / intelligence. Stetson also put away his findings which showed whites and blacks ability of memory to be the same.
3a) & 3b)
I was very interested and couldn’t believe the thoughts about women that were discussed in this chapter! It was believed that pursuing a degree beyond high school would have adverse medical consequences and one Harvard medical school professor even urged women to abandon their education after puberty as too much mental activity after that stage would possibly retard the development of their reproductive organs. Another thing concerning would I read that was absolutely crazy was the belief that women were intellectually incapacitated every month during menstruation. It was referred to as the periodic function. Another thing I found interesting was how Hall was hired as a professor at Hopkins at the “generous” annual salary at the time of $4,000 which is nothing now.
4a) & 4b)
I found this chapter really interesting and one of my favorites so far. It went over a lot from the struggles of blacks and women to James and everything he accomplished for the field. The end of the chapter with sections on Ladd and Baldwin weren’t the most interesting. Nothing stood out to me like the other individuals discussed within this chapter.
5)
Boring argued that American psychology really didn’t even begin until William James appeared. James is the one who began psychology in America after recognizing the importance of this new experiment physiological psychology in Germany. In this chapter we also saw Thomas Upham who is the one credited with creating the first American Psychology textbook. This became the principal text in American colleges for classes that would be similar to Introductory Psychology today. Another useful piece of information was that Sumner, while at Howard, established the country’s leading Psychology department at a black institution. Also Calkin’s developed paired-associate learning which became a standard method in memory research. It’s nice to be able to connect people to theories and ideas we often learn about. William James was the prime mover in bringing about the emergence of new psychology. Also Stanley Hall was responsible for its evolving identity as a distinct academic discipline. He created APA as well as the American Journal of Psychology. Research Tolman and Hull did with ants or Thorndike who observed chicks launched the study of rats in mazes which was interesting to find out how that all began.
6)
The chapter opened up discussing Boring who we saw in the first chapter. It also mentioned from chapter two, empiricism and associationism as well as people who we have heard about already such as Locke, Berkeley, Hume, Hartley and Mill to name just a few. It discussed the concept of faculty which we encountered in chapter three. It mentioned as well Wissenschaft philosophy which we saw in chapter four. We learned about Darwin in the previous chapter. This chapter brought him up once again and his cornerstone theory. This chapter also mentioned how James was a strong advocate of the argument of design which we read about in chapter five. It mentioned as well Ebbinghaus and memory research which we saw in chapter four.
7a) & 7b)
I think it would be interesting to learn more about James and his theories dealing with emotion. He argued that bodily changes which are emotions are felt immediately upon the perception of an emotion arousing stimulus, prior to the awareness of a cognitively recognizable emotion, meaning for example that our heart pounds before we even feel fear. Ideas like this have always caught my attention so it would be neat to look more into depth into such theories. I’ve also always been interested in nature vs. nurture so looking into Hall and genetic psychology might be interesting as well.
8)
Each individual we learn about has a couple career interests before finally deciding upon psychology it seems. Also many of them we read about suffered some sort of illness. Also once again James father, like many we see, wanted his children to learn foreign languages. All of these famous individuals we read about had very intense educations growing up. I thought it was cool that James was the one who set up what eventually became Harvard’s laboratory of experimental psychology. It was also neat to connect James to the James-Lange theory of emotion which we hear about in classes. I found the section which talked about James and his belief in spiritualism and mediums interesting, especially with shows like Long Island Medium on T.V. today. I’ve never really known what to think about the concept. Also the picture on page 187, Figure 6.7 was really cool to see and be able to match all of these people we keep hearing about to their faces. It was nice seeing how people such as James and Sanford welcome Calkins into their seminars and labs as women weren’t given very many opportunities at the time. It was sad to see the struggles these women went through as well as blacks during this time as well.
Terminology: Faculty psychology, Periodic Function, Consciousness, James-Lange theory of emotion, Spiritualism, Genetic Psychology, Paired-Associate Learning.
1) The first topic that was interesting to me was the section about education for women. As a woman, the history of how we gained relevance in the “man’s realm” has always been interesting to me. In the book, the author talks about the “woman’s sphere,” a set of beliefs that told women their primary duties were to be a good mother and wife (Goodwin, 2014). My mother and I will graduate together in the spring. When my dad told my grandma, his mother, about my mom going back to school, she said, to him, my siblings and I, that she should just stay home, and even remarked how it was “selfish” that she went back to school before my dad (who has no desire to go back, by the way) and left him to “keep up the housework.” The stigma against women in education still exists to some degree, and while it is accepted, for the most part, for women to receive an education, there is still room to improve.
2) Another topic that was interesting to me was William James’ study of consciousness. In his preliminary sketch of consciousness he described five attributes. Consciousness is personal, constantly changing, sensibly continuous (constantly having thoughts except while sleeping), selective, and active (Goodwin 2012). The final attribute was most interesting to me. James explained the “active” attribute by describing what is now known as the “tip-of-the-tongue” phenomenon. In his description, James explains that while there is a gap in the mind where you cannot recall, say, someone’s name, that gap is active. It is constantly working towards an answer. I find this interesting because this phenomenon is something that everyone has felt as some point in their lives.
3) The final topic that I found interesting was the James-Lange Theory of Emotion. I love the study of emotion. It is an interesting topic that I feel benefits everyone no matter what you do in life. Understanding why you feel what you feel will help you in every realm of your life. The James-Lange Theory states that your body reacts before you realize your emotion. For instance, say you are walking home in the dark and someone approaches you. Your body will react in fear (e.g. heart pounding) before you actually feel the emotion of fear. Now we understand that there are differences between some emotions, but most of the strong emotions have similar reactions in the nervous system (Goodwin 2014).
4) The topic that I found least interesting was the discussion of the first psychology textbook. It’s not that I didn’t find it interesting at all; it simply was at the bottom of the list for me. I think the reason was that it was more of a factual read rather than a, “How can I apply this to later learning?” understanding.
5) I think the topic that I read that will be most beneficial to me would be the understanding of women and minorities in education. It will help me, as I move forward in this class, to understand the great accomplishments that women and minorities provided on top of the stigma that others had put on them for receiving an education.
6) This chapter is definitely building off of Darwin’s contribution to individual differences especially with women and minorities in education and the variability hypothesis. The hypothesis stated, based off of Darwin’s theories, that men were more intelligent than women and, therefore, better suited for higher education (Goodwin 2014).
7) I would like to study more about the history of women in education. I find this topic very interesting, and want to learn more about what women went through to break the barriers for women, like myself, to go to college.
8) While reading this chapter, I thought about the movie X-Men First Class. At the very end, when they are questioning the agent on what she remembers about Professor Xavier and the mutants’ whereabouts, she goes on about how she only remembers certain things like “a kiss.” All the men in the room grumble, and one basically says that this is why you don’t send a woman to do a man’s job. This comment refers to the belief that women are irrational and emotional, and that men are not like this. That scene just kept popping into my head.
9) Key Terms: Education for Women, Women’s Sphere, William James, Consciousness, James-Lange Theory of Emotion, Darwin, Individual Differences, Variability Hypothesis
1a) Consciousness
1b) I was interested in this topic because of how James put in his book that before consciousness was thought of as a train or chain of thought. He looked at it as more of a never ending process, he called it a stream of thought. I was interested in this because in everyday life, I say or I hear other people say “I lost my train of thought”. That isn’t a really big statement that people say, but it does suggest that we have parts in our thoughts that do not flow together, but rather after you think of one, it then connects to the other. It may seem like the same thing, but really it is not. I never would have thought of consciousness as a continuous stream of thought, I was under the impression that one thought lead to another. Also I was interested in the similarities with consciousness and free will according to James, he said that consciousness was what caused you to make your decision, so free will and consciousness go hand in hand. I also would have never thought that you could connect consciousness with Darwinist thinking, James did just that, he linked it together saying that the most conscious thinker will be able to adapt to changes easier.
2a) Spiritualism
2b) I am very interested in this topic because my family has had a history of spiritual encounters. Even though it is hard to believe from an outside perspective, but I believe it whole heartedly. What I found interesting about this section though, was how James tried to test it using so called “real mediums” in the late 1800s. He found that most of them were fake, but one was very peculiar in the way she talked to the dead, and was one of the very few that was believed to be legit. I find it interesting because it is interesting to me that someone could have a spiritual power to talk to the dead. Though it would be easy to disprove the medium for being a fake, I do believe that there is some power that a few people have, and they prove it by being able to know the things that they do. One thing that really caught my attention was when the book talked about how James was very skeptical about the whole thing, even though he was very open minded. He was so skeptical because of how insignificant the things the dead were saying through the mediums, he thought if they were actually speaking through the medium then they would say more significant things.
3a) Mary Whiton Calkins
3b) I found her very interesting, not because of all of the amazing work she did, but with how she rose through the ranks if you will to be one of the most influential psychologists ever. In the late 1800s and early 1900s women were not really able to rise up to very respectable positions in any field, besides the very few instances. What is cool that everything was going against her but she broke through the glass ceiling and rose up. She went to graduate school at Harvard University then went to Clark, her whole life was a very monumental achievement going against all odds of the times and making a lasting impression on psychology as a whole, and also leading the way for other women to higher education.
4a) Habit
4b) I wasn’t too interested in it because I don’t think that it covered all that it could have. I feel like it could have been one of the most interesting topics in the whole book. With that said I don’t think that the book did it justice. I just wish it had more on it.
5) I think reading about Calkins will be the most useful, I say that because after her, she broke the stigma around women and minorities for higher education and the glass ceiling holding them back. So now I know you will see a lot more of a variety of psychologists popping up in research everywhere.
6) I think it builds on the last chapter in the way that people are still using Darwin as a basis of their thinking and going off of his teachings. The last chapter really laid the pavement for how psychologists will think for a certain period of time.
7a) I would like to know more about Spiritualism
7b) I think it is a really interesting topic top to bottom, and I would like to know more about a lot of different studies done on this topic.
8) I was thinking about where each of these topics will lead to the next one. Like what will be the next step to this research, because I know that someone would look at it and think of a way to further it. That’s one of the things I love about psychology, it is a never ending process.
9) Spiritualism, Consciousness, Calkin, Darwin, Habit, William James, glass ceiling
1a) One thing that interested me in this chapter was that women were told that education beyond puberty would damage their reproductive organs- and this was said by a Harvard medical school professor. As well as damaging their organs, they we’re intellectually incapacitated while menstruating, or also known as the periodic function. “the women’s sphere” explains that women are just meant to provide a family.
b) This is so crazy to me! It’s interesting to me probably most likely because who it was said by. So here we expect our professors to know what they’re talking about, and they’re saying garbage like that. You know everyone believed it because he was a medical school professor too. I wonder how many women decided against going to school because of this bologna. Maybe this guy got his diploma from one of those schools mentioned- where you could get your PhD. In two semesters.
2a) Another interesting area was the studies done among different races. Particularly the reaction time done between white people, black people and Indians by Bache, and the studies involving white and black kids.
b) I think I found this interesting because like the last thing, its total bullshit. I like how people during this time are able to understand parts of the brain, and human anatomy, but still can’t understand racism isn’t okay. I find it amazing how people got away with turning the evidence into something that suits them. Instead of seeing that white people we’re the slowest reactors, they turned it into white people being ‘reflective’ and black people and Indians being immature and backwards. Pretty sure we all know if it were white people reacting the fastest it would be that the other races are slow. Then the kids studies just not being relative after they find that black kids memorize just like white kids. Goodness, it just makes me laugh how people can turn things around like this.
3a) Another interesting thing to me was William James and how he was raised. He was raised by his controlling father to become something different, or you could say his father expected something more out of him than to become like everyone else. I feel his dad held high expectations and thought his children were able to achieve greatness at another level than other children of that time.
b)I like that way other thinking. From one perspective I think his father must have been a great man. I bet he was a very neat person, to push culture and free thinking onto your children. This is great especially for that day, when that wasn’t the norm. I’m disappointed to see that his dad didn’t expect the same from his daughter. While the times didn’t stop him from wanting more out of his sons, they did limit what he wanted out of his daughter; which was to be a woman and nothing else.
4a) Least interesting part of this chapter would probably be all the inserts from the different textbooks, or the information on what was in the books people wrote.
b) This is uninteresting to me because it is something I will never read, or even remember. In fact, I’ve already forgot the names of the textbooks mentioned, and couldn’t tell you what person wrote what book.
5) History is always changing. People rewrite stories and textbooks change throughout the years. Something I read that reminds me to remember this and gives me a better understanding how this happens is the two studies I discussed earlier in this assignment. Two studies we’re twisted in order to prove the better outcome. This is important to remember when thinking of history. Understanding this not only makes you better understand psychology, but everything in history. We wonder why there weren’t so many women or minorities discussed so far, well now we know why. Women and minorities we’re made to feel inferior to white men and weren’t really allowed to do so.
6) While we are still discussing some of the same people that we’re brought up before, we now bring them into America and how their contributions helped psychology in this country. The previous chapters were based on figures of psychology all over the world, and more the formation of many ideas. This chapter brings what we previously learned into America and showed how America students interpreted and progressed with the ideas.
7a) One topic I would like to learn more about is spiritualism.
b) I’ve always been interested in supernatural things, and learned a bit about spiritualism in a death and dying class I took a few years back. I think one reason it interests me so much is because it’s not talked about a lot, or at least not in a formal like environment. Of course you can watch shows and read things about it but not so much in a educational way. There is a branch of psychology called parapsychology that is taught in only a few schools in the world that is extremely neat to me.
8) While reading this chapter I thought about things I learned in a cultural anthropology class regarding women in other cultures, and where they stand. It was in that class that I learned that the word hysteria came from women having uterus and was interconnected. I thought about my death and dying class and what we learned about spiritualism. As well as parapsychology which is an area I am interested in.
9) spiritualism, the women’s sphere, periodic function, William James, Bache,
1a-b) One thing I found interesting in this chapter was reading and learning about the first American psychology text book. It is interesting because I am a psychology major and we always learn things that psychology had discovered but we this is a first to learn about where psychology has all started so it’s cool to read about the first book and when it was written. The fact that it was published in 1827 seems pretty late to me so it’s cool to learn about a subject that hasn’t been around that long.
2a-b) Another thing I found interesting was reading about women’s struggle into getting education. I found it interesting because I’m a women and growing up in the time I did it has been pretty fair for women and men. There is still a lot that needs to be addressed because there are still sexist people out there who don’t think women can do as good as a job as men can. I found it ridiculous that women were encouraged to stop their education after puberty because some idiot thought that too much mental activity would cause a woman’s reproductive organs to become retarded. Back then they believed there a woman’s sphere where women existed only to take care of the family and have kids. The book also mentioned the periodic function basically saying girls turned into dumbies when they were on their periods. They thought the variability hypothesis that came from evolution added on to this theory in their favor. I’m glad people don’t think that now days!
3a-b) Another thing I found interesting was after reading about the opinions on women’s lack of intelligence, I liked reading that woman helped write “The Principles of Psychology.” This book took 12 years to write and had two volumes with almost 1400 pages. It was a best seller! I found this interesting because if they didn’t think women were as smart back then, then I wonder what they thought about this woman contributing to this huge book that became a best seller. It was James wife who helped, and then James wrote the rest. She obviously proved a lot of sexist people wrong!
4a-b) One thing I did not find interesting was reading about James later years, He turned from psychology to philosophy and that was all they really had to say about it. It wasn’t that interesting because they didn’t give a lot of facts or information about his life later on. They just mentioned that he started to devote most of his time to philosophy.
5) I think reading about how women’s and minorities education was so limited back then helps in the formation of this history of psychology because it explains why there isn’t a ton of contribution to psychology from women and minorities. There may be some but it is nothing compared to how much is contributed by white men.
6) This chapter doesn’t relate as much to the other chapters than they did to each other before. It doesn’t talk about one specific subject that psychology has studied, but it talks about where psychology started out and when the first book was written and published. So it still ties in with the entire book because it is still the history of psychology, but it isn’t necessarily about a certain topic or subject, but just as a whole where it started.
7) A topic I would like to learn more about is possibly spiritualism. Along with this came the belief of mediums where they thought certain people could connect with the dead and communicate messages back and forth with them. I watch a TV show about a medium and it is very entertaining to watch! I don’t believe in the whole thing, but it is an interesting theory and it would be interesting to learn more about it.
8) Like I mentioned before, while reading about spiritualism I started to think about that show that I watch about the medium. She is a lady who claims that throughout her whole life spirits have communicated with her and when she meets someone who has had someone that they knew died would come through to the lady and communicate with their friends/families through her. It is a very entertaining show to watch and it can be very convincing, but it is just a TV show so you never know how much is scripted. Also reading over how women and minorities did not have as good as an education back then because they were deemed as less intelligent made me think about how far minorities and women have come in our world today. We can all vote and get any job we want and as much education as we want!
9) periodic function, variability hypothesis, William James, spiritualism.
1.
a. I found William James and his early life the most interesting.
b. The reason I found William James so interesting is because not only was he one of America’s first psychologists, but he also has a very interesting childhood. The coolest thing about him is that he really left no legacy, but he’s still known as such an important figure within psychology’s history. And to top that off, he didn’t even want to be known as a psychologist, he preferred the term philosopher.
2.
a. I found Mary Calkins to be very interesting.
b. The reason I found Mary to be so interesting is because she grew up in a time where women were believed to be intellectually inferior to men as well as the women stereotypes of today, were nothing less than true during this time. Despite the many hindrances Mary faced, her determination earned her a degree from Smith College in western Massachusetts and a long-term job at Wellesley College.
3.
a. The Periodic Function
b. To tag off of number three, periodic function is the belief that women were intellectually incapacitated every month, during menstruation. The reason I found this so interesting is because looking at it from a presentist point of view, this is absolutely insane, but if you look at it from a historist point of view, you can understand that at this point in time they knew little to nothing about the human brain, mental functions, emotions, and behavior, so almost any theory with slight research was accepted.
4.
a. The belief about women.
b. The reason I didn’t like reading about this is because higher education was believed to actually harm women and their assumed roles, which is absurd. It’s odd to think that so many people accepted such an intellectual difference between men and women, and from these stripped them of many opportunities and advancements.
5. The thing I believe to be most useful in studying the history of psychology is the gist of “American Pioneers”. I think this because although not many of them are commonly known in psychology’s history, they began to pave the paths to many findings and changes that led psychology to where it is today.
6. This chapter builds on the previous chapters, because many of the “pioneers” we read about in this chapter made huge contributions to old beliefs within psychology, yet many of them did not receive credit today.
7. I would like to learn more about the progress of women in the history of psychology. The reason I would like to learn more about this is because one, I am a women, and two I feel as though it has been such a long and extraneous process for us in history,
8. While I was reading this chapter, I couldn’t help but think about how many people were probably doing the same research and same thinking at the same time, yet someone beat them to the punch, but in the same sense, some figures within the history of psychology just didn’t get the credit they deserved.
9. Presentist, Historist, periodic function, Mary Calkins, William James.
1a) What did you find interesting?
1b) Why was it interesting to you?
Recapitulation: This theory originalated with a proposition that an organism’s stages of development, from a cell to an individual. At one stage of a developing human fetus resembles a fish, which reflects a point of evolutionary history where the human species had aquatic ancestors. This interested me because I wonder what other things they have tried to explain about the human race and how we derived from certain ancestors.
2a) What did you find interesting?
2b) Why was it interesting to you?
Spiritualism:
Spiritualists believed that consciousness survived death and those who die can be contacted through mediums. I thought this was interesting because I wonder if you can be a spiritual person and not believe in death and be able just to feel certain vibrations that you sense or things that trigger your consciousness to feel spiritual feelings. I always wondered if spiritualism was just a misperceived notion of a sense.
3a) What did you find interesting?
3b) Why was it interesting to you?
Introspection: I thought this was interesting because I wonder what all we can speculate in our consciousness with all the factors that can change our perception or interpretation. Emotions can change our perception and memory can change our interpretation of any given out come. I also wonder how much we can remember on each stream of consciousness we produce and find out what are the most logical reasons that made us have each thought.
4a) What one (1) thing did you find the least interesting?
4b) Why wasn't it interesting to you?
Genetic psychology: This was not that interesting to me because the last chapter went over evolution in general. In a sense it was pretty much a review from the last chapter.
5) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?
Periodic Function: this would be most useful for me in history of psychology because it was a sexist concept where women would intellectually incapable because they would have their periods. This would remind me how sexist usually men were back then, mostly based on, not giving up tradition and power. This will also let me see things that are similar that are still going on today to rethink what they are really trying to convince you.
6) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters?
There were a few things that were related in the last chapter, one of them was genetic psychology: the study of evolution and development of the human mind, it includes comparative, abnormal and developmental psychology. This was related because it a part of evolution on the psychological level.
7a) What topic would you like to learn more about?
7b) Why?
Self-Psychology: I want to learn more about self-psychology because some consciousness is more questionable than others, like sub-consciousness. I would like to learn about more dreams and see where these sub consciousness derive from. Some things in dreams seem like they are a memory from your past in an abstract view.
8) What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter?
I was wondering if spiritualism would be a version of introspection of ones consciousness because such a topic is not able to be explained about environmental means. We are not capable to use technology that will allow people to see or hear the supernatural. So it seems to me spiritualism is more like within ourselves, just like God is mostly from within ourselves. Most religion tries to show you the way within yourself to reach God but in a sense it may just result to an interpretation of what God is to each person, even if there is a God.
9) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Self Psychology
Genetic Psychology
Spiritualism
Recapitulation:
Self-Psychology
Introspection
Periodic Function
1a) The Modern University
1b) Because the public high school was established, the emergence of a college and having a sufficient amount of students attending was made possible. The colleges grew because of these high school graduates and in turn, the colleges needed more staff and faculty. America lacked faculty members with a higher degree than that of a bachelor’s, which is essentially why individuals would travel across the country to receive these degrees from higher educated individuals. However, America soon began producing colleges of higher standards. By 1890, multiple American colleges were available to attend and receive a high degree. This modern university was established after the Civil War. A big factor in making it possible for colleges to be available was the Morrill Land Grant Act of 1862, giving each state a specific amount of land for their own use of building a university. There were rules about the land, one in particular, which the state had to produce a university on the land within 5 years, otherwise the land would be back under the federal governments control. Many universities were given money from the wealthy to get up and running. Even though these universities were established and built, doesn’t mean they were open to all Americans. Women were viewed at this time as merely individuals who were made for child rearing and housekeeping. Odd theories were established as to why women shouldn’t pursue a higher education. Periodic function was based on the fact that women became ‘intellectually incapacitated’ during menstruation. The variability hypothesis expanded on this saying it was about natural selection and the individuals without variable traits seemed to be unapt to accomplish higher advancements in education. And women couldn’t possibly have a family and a career at one time. This was simply out of the question.
2a) William James
2b) William James never fully established his position within the psychology field. He didn’t consider himself as producing anything that didn’t need to more elaborate on. A man who respected the arts decided to attend Harvard when he realized he wouldn’t achieve anything extensive in the art world. His father always wanted him to pursue a career in science, but deciding against pushing his children into something they didn’t necessarily enjoy, Henry James Sr. allowed his son to choose his own path. James took part in the Darwin theory argument, especially because it was in the heart of his years. He went against his instructor and decided to believe in evolution and the Darwin theory. He soon pursued medicine. He took several trips to Europe where he was able to meet Helmholtz, Wundt, and even Emil du Bois Reymond. He wasn’t interested in studying medicine thoroughly, and became distressed, until he found physiology and psychology. He focused on free will. Pragmatic approach to free will gave him a feeling of usefulness.
3a) Principles of Psychology
3b)The book produced by William James touches on multiple aspects of psychology and how it relates to the mental life. In the book he used different approaches; methodological, experimental, analytic, and comparative. He spoke of consciousness being structuralism, which was helpful when talking about reaction time and psychophysics. He didn’t believe consciousness was a set of integrated parts. He goes on to talk about habit and how it helps consciousness focus attention on whatever parts are important, almost like a hierarchy. Emotion based on the James-Lange theory of emotion, still in place today.
4a) The rights of minorities and women
4b) It never fails we are taught to remember the times where equal rights was not such a thing. However, I find it difficult to enjoy reading about these specific things knowing how far we have come today. Of course it is a way for us to not repeat history or at least prevent it from happening, but it is still difficult to want to continue to focus on where we were years ago instead of looking at today’s accomplishments. Men and women still aren’t completely equal today, and this will forever be something school educated individuals will be taught.
5) Understanding how the textbook was established for psychology and how universities became so populated in America is interesting. If the government didn’t provide land and push people to create schools on the land, I am unsure our country would have as many colleges as they do today.
6) This chapter focuses more on the actual development of psychology. Instead of speaking of how we came to establish psychology we are focusing more on how it is building itself up over the years. Also, it is more about the United States and it’s accomplishments within the psychology field.
7a) Johns Hopkins College
7b) Through my years in college I haven’t heard much about John Hopkins. I would like to come to a better understanding of who in particular studied there and why it was such a prestige’s college to attend at the time.
8) I thought about how we have developed our own world of psychology in the United States over the years. Even though the department and field didn’t start in America, we did produce quite a few individuals with high publications and accomplishments. We are still making milestones within the field in America, but so are other counties.
Periodic function, variability hypothesis, universities, Morrill Land Grant Act of 1862, free will, pragmatism, methodological, comparative, James-Lange theory of emotion
1a) What did you find interesting? 1b) Why was it interesting to you?
The first thing I found interesting in this chapter was the section regarding education for women. During the time when psychology was just starting up, women faced many barriers in education. The woman’s sphere was a concept stating the idea that women were only supposed to be a wife and a mother. People believed that women seeking higher education would have medical consequences. A Harvard professor argued that women should abandon education after puberty, because too much mental activity after this stage could hut their reproductive systems. Another belief at this time was that women were intellectually inferior to men. This concept came from the biblical story about the first woman being made from a man’s rib. This idea also went helped develop the argument of periodic function. This was the argument that women were intellectually incapacitated every month during menstruation. This concept also fed the concept of the variability hypothesis. This idea stated that men had a higher degree of variability. Men were also believed to be better suited for education than women. This interests me because when using presentism, some of these arguments seem outrageous. It is also unbelievable that a Harvard professor thought women should stop their education after puberty, because they could damage their reproductive systems. Giving today’s perspective, it is hard to believe that these ideas were believed and practiced by women across the country.
2a) What did you find interesting? 2b) Why was it interesting to you?
The next thing I found interesting was the lifestyle of William James in his childhood. His father, Henry James Sr., devoted his life as his children’s primary educator. He raised his five children in liberal household. He allowed his children to study whatever they wanted to. For his only daughter, Alice, it was harder for her giving the circumstances at the time. His primary expectation for his children was foreign language. William James did not attend school formally until the age of ten, and even then his attendance was sporadic. James, by the age of eighteen, knew the essentials of Latin, how to read German, and was fluent in French. He had a strong passion for art, but realized that he was going to achieve anything with it. I think William’s upbringing is interesting because he was not taught in strict circumstances. It seemed like his father was flexible and did not put much stress or criticize what William wanted to do with his life. It was interesting to see that someone could make such a significant effort in a field, after only attending school formally when he was ten.
3a) What did you find interesting? 3b) Why was it interesting to you?
The last thing I found interesting was William James’s idea of emotion. James challenged a prior theory of emotion and created his own challenging the old theory. Carl Lange’s theory of emotion stated that emotions happen in the following order: perception of an emotion-arousing event, subjective experience of the emotion, bodily reaction. William James thought to reverse the sequence. He put the bodily reaction first, and the perception of an emotional event last. For example, when you get scared, your heart races first, then you feel fear. This is interesting because I never thought about it before. It is interesting to think that your body reacts to an event first, and then you receive the emotion.
4a) What one (1) thing did you find the least interesting? 4b) Why wasn't it interesting to you?
There was a large array of interesting topics in this chapter. I thought this chapter was by far the most interesting, but I did find something that I was not interested in. The topic I found least interesting was the section about faculty psychology. I could not really grasp the idea. The textbook did not go into detail of what faculty psychology was, and did not give a good explanation. I felt like I was left in the dark about the topic.
5) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?
I think the most useful thing in the chapter was the section about William James. He was the guy who brought psychology to America. I also thought it was important that the chapter talked about women and minorities. It touched base on the idea that so many white men influenced psychology because they did not face the hardships of minorities and women. The section explained that there were a lot of great women and African Americans, but they are not heard about because of the great struggle they faced to get an education.
6) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters?
This chapter builds on to previous chapters because in Germany, Wilhelm Wundt started psychology in Germany, and in this chapter William James influenced psychology in America. It also relates to previous chapter’s because E.G. Boring was the psychologist that influenced both of these great contributors to psychology. His work got both men interested in the field.
7a) What topic would you like to learn more about? 7b) Why?
The topic I would like to learn more about is William James’s research findings on habit. The textbook says that habits happen automatically, so they enabled the consciousness to focus attention on other problems. I would like to learn how to break habits, and form better habits. The concept of habits interests me.
8) What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter?
During this chapter I thought about my biopsychology class, because we learned about consciousness. After reading the section regarding consciousness, I noticed a few overlaps in information. Although, we did not learn about William James in biopsychology, it was interesting to read about his findings on the topic.
9) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Women’s sphere, periodic function, variability, presentism, faculty psychology, consciousness
1a) What did you find interesting?
Women’s Education
1b) Why was it interesting to you?
I knew that back in the day, girls weren’t exactly pushed to get an education, but I had not idea how badly people tried to keep them from it. I thought it was crazy that women’s periods were seen as a handicap. This was referred to as periodic function. It was thought that that week out of every month, women were not mentally stable which made them unfit to have a decent job. Also, girls were expected to drop out of school after reaching puberty because getting an education would push the mind too far and their reproductive system would suffer.
2a) What did you find interesting?
William James
2b) Why was it interesting to you?
William James was one of the first modern psychologists. He had the first psychology lab in America. I thought this section was interesting because it talked about James’s study of consciousness. He came to believe that consciousness was personal, selective, and active. This means that when you are conscious, you are thinking about and focusing on specific things in order to reach a goal, and those thoughts would not exist without someone to think them up. Also, consciousness is always consistently changing because of the experiences of everyday life. Introspection, or self-analysis, is something that James came up with. This is used to examine one’s own thoughts and mental processes.
3a) What did you find interesting?
Stanley Hall
3b) Why was it interesting to you?
I thought it was interesting how he took advantage of the movement of psychology to America by building labs and making psychology a more professionalized field. He was the one that brought Freud’s ideas to America.
4a) What one (1) thing did you find the least interesting?
Some of the biographies
4b) Why wasn't it interesting to you?
I enjoy reading about the lives of the psychologists that shaped history, but I feel like the amount of information that is given can be a little much. It is tough to remember specifics about where all of them grew up and went to school, so I tend to space out during those parts, unless their upbringing majorly affected their studies later on.
5) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?
This chapter talks a lot about modern psychology and introduces American psychology. Psychology coming to America was a big deal, and it helped to transform the field into what it is today.
6) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters?
This chapter, like the others, talks a lot about prominent scientists in the field. This chapter is a little different because it talks about American psychologists. Before this point, all of the other psychologists had been from other countries.
7a) What topic would you like to learn more about?
William James and his study of consciousness
7b) Why?
I just think studies of the consciousness and unconsciousness are really interesting, and I would like to read more about what James discovered.
8) What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter?
I couldn’t help but think about how crappy women and minorities had it back then. They were discriminated against in so many ways. Everyone deserves an education, and I’m glad that society has changed for the better.
9) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
William James, consciousness, introspection, periodic function, G. Stanley Hall
1a&b) First American Psychology Textbook. I found the section that included details of the first American Psychology textbook to be interesting because it is pertinent to my future career interests of becoming a professor of psychology. Thomas Upham’s Elements of Mental Philosophy was interestingly enough patterned to the Scottish faculty approach. I also found the topics which were mentioned in the textbook to be very different than those you would find in ours today. Some of topics which no longer abide in current textbooks include things like “instincts, appetites, propensities” and the sectional layout involving ‘the intellect’, ‘the sensibilities’, and ‘the will’. I also found it of note that this section mentioned how most psychology professors at the time were ministers and how this deistic perspective affected the teaching of morality.
2a&b) Women’s higher education. Being a woman who I’d like to say has a good grasp on current events and societal understanding; I am educated enough in the terminology to call myself a feminist. This being said, I was inevitably interested in the section which details the emergence of the acceptance of women into higher learning environments. The text notes that women had to overcome both the ideas that higher learning was unhealthy for them, and that because of their ‘periodic function’ women were mentally inferior to men. Learning also about the origins of colleges such as Vassar beginning as women’s colleges was fascinating to me in that these went on to become highly respected and selective universities.
3a&b) Mary Whiton Calkins. The previous paragraph remembered; I was yet again drawn to a name that I have begun to become familiar with as a feminist in the field of psychology. The story of Mary Calkins is a remarkable one that is very inspiring to me as a female in the field of psychology. Calkins had already earned a degree from Smith and was teaching at Wellesley when she became interested in receiving higher education and discovered the hardships that went along with doing so as a woman in the 1880-90’s. She eventually came to have her own laboratory and become the first woman president of both the American Psychological Association and the American Philosophical Association. Her remarkable advancement within her chosen fields and recognition within her lifetime, I feel shows the changing social climate within American Psychology during the early 1900’s.
4a&b) I honestly found everything within the chapter very interesting. If I had to pick one thing that was less so to me than others it would have been the section on William James. While I understand his importance to American psychology and its history, the section on his life and work seemed to drag on and to take up most of the chapter.
5) I think the most important takeaway from this chapter regarding the history of psychology for me was again that as a woman in psychology I must appreciate the opportunities I am gifted with through the hard work of those who have come before me. It was never as clear to me as it is after reading this chapter that while I do appreciate education as a privilege, I never truly was able to grasp the fact that had I been born just a few generations earlier all of these things would have been lost to me. This is really a valuable piece of history for all students, not just women, to understand at some level.
6) Now that the text has covered the philosophical background along with the achievements of the German and English psychologists it really brings the American psychological history into perspective. This chapter gives insight into the American university as an institution at the time of psychology’s American pioneers and the changes happening in regard to woman’s rights and fight for equality in the field. More broadly perhaps this chapter builds on the others in that we see experimentation and its methodology evolving, and also what is being taught regarding this in universities.
7a&b) I would like to study further in depth and be able to extrapolate upon the women who, besides Mary Calkins, were the women pioneers in American psychology. I am interested in this because I feel that I am obligated to have a deeper understanding of my own history being a woman who is striving toward working in psychology. I find also that these stories of women to be singularly inspiring and also thought-provoking as to what sociocultural elements could have occurred at the time that made it possible for them to succeed while so many in the past had failed? These are questions that I will have to answer in my Wednesday post.
8) Thoughts that I had about this chapter that didn’t involve feminism or my desire to learn more about the early women pioneers in psychology (because I feel I have written at length on that already) were mainly about how the university system in America has vastly changed over time. I feel that there have been changes for the worse and the better but overall I would have to say that I am not particularly happy about the system at the moment. Learning about how psychology fits into the scheme of change is more optimistic however; throughout the years it seems like the discipline has grounded itself in science and become a popular and legitimate choice for aspiring scholars. I feel as if the pioneers mentioned in this chapter would be proud of the advancements of psychology in universities today, and urge us to continue our very important work.
9) *terms*Thomas Upham, Elements of Mental Philosophy, periodic function, Mary Whiton Calkins, William James
1a) What did you find interesting?
Inequality in education
1b) Why was it interesting to you?
I already knew that there was some extreme inequality against women in the field of education back during this time period, but learning the specifics about it was interesting. The fact that it was being said that women being educated past puberty was considered a medical risk was funny if anything. My question is what even made these doctors decide educating women was a medical risk. Where is there proof that college some how stunted the development of a woman's reproductive system.
2a) What did you find interesting?
William James
2b) Why was it interesting to you?
The main reason that I found James to be interesting was due to the fact that he was a pioneer in American psychology and yet he considered himself more of a philosopher than a psychologist. He wrote so many different books and journals on psychology; he was even the president of the American Psychological Association twice.
3a) What did you find interesting?
Emotion
3b) Why was it interesting to you?
The James-Lange theory of emotion argued that the bodily changes were felt immediately when the emotion-arousing stimulus occurred. This theory was basically the opposite of what was previously thought of emotion. Prior to this the bodily reaction was thought to have occurred much later in the emotion process.
4a) What one (1) thing did you find the least interesting?
I felt as though some parts of the different biographies were a bit dull and drawn out.
5) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?
I think that James and Hall will be most useful in understanding the history of psychology just because they were covered in such detail throughout this chapter.
6) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters?
This chapter mentioned many different psychologists that were mentioned in previous chapters and linked them to the psychologists we discussed now.
7a) What topic would you like to learn more about?
I think I would like to learn more about consciousnesses and emotion. Those are two different parts of psychology that I find to be interesting to learn and read about.
8) What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter?
Basically, I thought about how much times have changed since this point. The thoughts on psychology and the way we see women and minorities has changed dramatically.
9) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
William James, Hall, emotion, consciousness, James-Lange Theory
1a) What did you find interesting?
Faculties of the mind
1b) Why was it interesting to you?
Faculties of the mind has always stood out as something interesting to me, and seeing one of the original theories about it done by Thomas Reid was cool. It was a breakthrough idea, and almost primitive in the initial theory looking at it now, these had two main categories in intellectual and active faculties.
2a) What did you find interesting?
Reaction Time Study and discriminating conclusion
2b) Why was it interesting to you?
Hearing about the discrimination and mindsets of past times is not unheard of and not too surprising, however in a study done by reaction time where a group of white males was compared to groups of black and Native Americans the findings and conclusion were shocking. In the study it showed that black people and Native Americans had faster reaction times than white males, and since this was an unacceptable finding they attributed it to the white males being reactive creatures whereas the other groups were more primitive. This conclusion is what made it stand out to me.
3a) What did you find interesting?
G Stanley Hall
3b) Why was it interesting to you?
He was a man that was incredibly successful and had ties to everyone and was a big name himself in the field. A man, or even woman, of his stature is always interesting to hear about and has a commanding presence even in text. He had connections that most people try to obtain in a lifetime just by being a man of conviction.
4a) What one (1) thing did you find the least interesting?
Paired Associate Learning
4b) Why wasn't it interesting to you?
Memory and learning where things that didn’t particularly interest me, and when the chapter discussed a way to better recall things I wasn’t too interested in the idea or experiment. It’s important and I understand that, however it wasn’t my number one interest with the chapter.
5) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?
The understanding of the foundation of psychological labs in America and the expansion of the practice as compared to the same thing that had been established in Germany for years is highly important. This allows a comparison to see the growth of universities and PhD programs between the two countries and allows the understanding of American colleges programs in contrast to the European counterparts to be looked at.
6) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters?
Chapter 4 was heavy in Wilhelm Wundt and his college lab and doctoral program. This chapter shows the growth and basis of his labs into American colleges. This will build the foundation for the later chapters as it is not possible to get a PhD without a college to offer one.
7a) What topic would you like to learn more about?
Thomas Reid
7b) Why?
Seeing philosophers always is interesting to me when I don’t recognize them, and the idea of a realist philosopher that questions reality is something that always had interested me in previous classes.
8) What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter?
I was listening to Human Nature by Michael Jackson during the time I was reading the chapter and typing up this blog post, so I found the title of the song to be highly relevant to psychology as it made me think about nature vs nuture. Beyond that, I did not have many relevant thoughts to what I was reading.
9) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Faculties of the mind, Thomas Reid, Reaction Time Study, G Stanley Hall, Paired Associate Learning.
1a) What did you find interesting?
American Psychology’s First Textbook
1b) Why was it interesting to you?
In 1827, Thomas Upham was the first to publish and psychology book in America. It was consisted of his lecture notes. I think that I find this so interesting because I thought it would have come sooner. This book would continue to grow and reach three volumes, and the title was given a more general theme, Elements of Mental Philosophy. It became the main text for colleges all around the U.S. This book was organized into three sections by Upham; intellect/cognition, sensibilities/emotion, and will/action. By the 1900’s psychology would have changed quite a lot, replicating Borings ideas.
2a) What did you find interesting?
Methodology
2b) Why was it interesting to you?
In William James book he took a methodological approach. He used introspection, which was careful and precise self-observation of consciousness that makeup one’s mental life. With this method there could be the possibility of lots personal bias. A lot can be happening at one time so one has to have a great memory. I think that this whole way studying mental life can be very difficult and possibly not a very accurate way of study. And the question that I have then is; what are other ways of studying mental life that are different and could possibly be better?
3a) What did you find interesting?
James on Emotion
3b) Why was it interesting to you?
I think what I found to be so interesting was that it is the same theory that will still use today. I think that it’s interesting how it has been barely modified and mostly holds true. I feel like a lot that research has changed so much overtime and this is not the case for the James-Lange theory of emotion. The theory is that some stimulating event takes place, then the person experiences an emotion, and the body reacts. One of the things that I also found interesting was that our body reacts first, our heart starts pounding before we are fearful. I did not know that and I think it was a really interesting thing to learn.
4a) What one (1) thing did you find the least interesting?
William James Early Years
4b) Why wasn't it interesting to you?
I thought the information on him growing up and his early life to be boring. I didn’t really have much interest and found his discoveries, theories and works to be much more ingesting. I don’t really care to learn much about how he grew up.
5) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?
I think that it will be useful now knowing the framework of American psychology. Before there wasn’t much or even anything really being done in psychology in America. And I think that it was good to learn about the early years of American psychology so we can compare it to later psychology.
6) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters?
I think that this chapter builds on how psychology is growing. Psychology started out in Europe and in Germany and now in this chapter it is expanding to America. I think that the works of these American psychologists are building on the theories of the psychologist before them in Europe.
7a) What topic would you like to learn more about?
William James.
7b) Why?
I think I would like to learn more about him because he was really the first psychologist in America, and I would like to look more at his discoveries and the impact they had on American psychology, and also look at who he influenced.
8) What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter?
One of the things that I thought about was how it seemed to take a while for psychology to start popping up in America. It makes me curious we there others that we don’t know about studying psychology here in America before we even had somewhat of an idea of what it was.
9) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Thomas Upham, William James, introspection, Methodology, James-Lange theory of emotion,
1) One thing that I found interesting in this chapter was the section on American psychology’s first textbook. I thought that this was very interesting because I hadn’t really given much thought to where textbooks come from; as a college student, I just buy and usually read what the professors tell me that I should. Thomas Upham is the man credited with writing this first textbook when he published his lecture notes in 1827 and called it “Elements of Intellectual Philosophy.” Eventually, his test was expanded to three volumes with the general title of “Elements of Mental Philosophy.” The text makes frequent references to ‘the deity’ and religion, which was very common of the time. Upham’s book was organized into three main categories: the intellect (cognition), the sensibilities (emotions), and the will (action). His book became very common in classrooms during the 1870s, but by the 1900s newer books were gaining more favor.
2) Another interesting topic from this chapter was the section on Mary Whiton Calkins. I think that she is a very interesting woman because she is the one of the very few women in the history of psychology that has been mentioned thus far. I admire her for challenging much of the male dominance that was prevalent at the time. She completed her dissertation on a study of memory at Harvard, even though she was not an official student. Calkins was the first woman to ever be elected president of the APA, American Psychological Association in 1905. Thirteen years later she was also elected president of another APA, American Philosophical Association.
3) I also thought that the section on spiritualism was very interesting. Spiritualism is the idea that when we die, our conscious lives on and can be contacted through a medium. Mediums were also said to predict the future and know the details of people’s lives as well as communicate messages from the dead to the living. Because of this unique ability, there were many who claimed to be mediums but were disproven. I thought that this section was very interesting because there are many people who still believe in things like this today. In fact, there are some mediums out there that make a profit on their services with the creation of TV shows such as Long Island Medium.
4) Something that I did not like from this chapter was the idea of self-psychology because it did not really make sense to me. At first, the idea sounded very intriguing. However, there are just too many factors at play for it to make any kind of sense that someone could be their own psychologist. I could have used some clarification on this topic.
5) I think that it is important to remember that things don’t ways have to be hugely memorable for them to be important. For example, the text states that Upham is USUALLY credited with writing the first textbook. I had never heard of him before reading this chapter. And even the chapter only talks about him in reference to his books.
6) This chapter builds on the previous chapters by moving to America. Before this chapter, the text talked about psychological study and discoveries in Germany and England. Also, many of the psychologists mentioned in this chapter had studied in Europe before moving to America so it only makes sense to transition between chapters this way.
7) I would like to learn more about women and minorities in psychology. They are not mentioned very frequently thus far, which makes sense with the time periods that have been discussed. However in all of my knowledge about psychology, I think that I could only name about five female psychologists that have discovered something memorable.
8) While reading this chapter, I couldn’t help but think about the inequality in the education system. Mary Calkins was never officially admitted to Harvard or Clark. This was because women were not allowed to be students there. She got permission to do her dissertation at Harvard only if she was considered and unofficial “guest” of the university. Francis Sumner was given much of same treatment as a black man. I know this is before the equality movements, but I still feel as though this is incredibly unfair.
Terms: Thomas Upham, “Elements of Intellectual Philosophy”, Mary Whiton Calkins, APA, spiritualism, medium, self-psychology
1a) William James
1b) I found William James interesting because he was America’s first “new” psychologist. It interested me that he did not want to be called a psychologist yet he is one of the most important psychologists of all time. He wanted to be referred to as a philosopher. I find his opinion about psychology fascinating when he states “no science, it is only the hope of science”. James is a big contributor to the modern day psychology here in the U.S.
2a) Methodology
2b) Methodology was interesting to me because James used this approach towards findings on mental life. Mental life has always grabbed my interest. His theory on introspection by self-observation, examination and reflections on consciousness can lead to break down one’s mental life. It came down to all introspection must rely on memory which is fascinating. A persons introspections can’t be tested by another. This is because it’s almost impossible to experience a mental process and introspect to it at the same time. The human mind and its workings are well known due to James and his methodology research approach.
3a) Mary Whiton Calkins
3b) I find Mary Whiton Calkins very interesting because she challenged male monopoly. I look up to any women that stood up for what they believed in because they are why women are where they are in today’s world. Back then it was a belief that women did not have an education and their career was marriage and taking care of people. It was believed that an education could harm women. Women started to go to college in the late 19th century yet the male dominance for higher education was still taking place. Mary fought against that and she obtained a doctorate in psychology.
4a) American Psychology’s First Textbook
4b) I did not find this section of the chapter interesting. It explained the different volumes and such to the book and when certain volumes were published. I find findings and research approaches and people more interesting.
5) Reading about William James in my opinion will be most useful to me in understanding the history of psychology. He was a huge contributor to today’s modern psychology.
6) This chapter can relate to the previous chapters because it focuses on how all the previous psychologists have built what the modern psychology is today. This chapter keeps building on that with William James.
7a) William James
7b) As I was reading about him I wanted to know more. I found him and his findings very interesting. He fascinates me with his approaches and theories to modern psychology.
8) While reading about women and education back then I kept thinking how blessed I am today with the education I have offered to me. I take that for granted. I look up to women who have fought for our rights in today’s world.
9) William James. Methodology. Introspection. Mary Whiton Calkins.
It was interesting to read about education for women and minorities during the 19th century. I figured that most minorities and women would be discriminated against when it came to education but I had no idea how bad it truly was. Woman had to face the women’s sphere which mainly focuses on women becoming a wife and a mother and nothing else. Society shaped women to believe that their only purpose was for reproduction and taking care of children. Women wanted more education to get a degree and have a career, but too many opposed them with even one doctor saying it is physically harmful to a woman and damage her reproductive organs. It came down to the zero-sum choice where a woman had to decide between a family or education and couldn’t have both. I couldn’t imagine how hard it must have been for these women who just wanted to have an education and do something with their life that they wanted to do and not what someone else wanted them to do. If I was in their position I don’t know that I could continuously fight back and get what I want when everyone is opposing me. Although if it weren’t for some women to fight for their right to learn it could have taken longer to allow women higher education.
Mary Whiton Calkins was another part of this chapter that I really liked. Her family was very adamant that their children learn multiple languages which was very important for her. It gave her an edge up on many other women trying to obtain degrees in higher education. She wanted to become a student at Harvard to gain the knowledge needed to teach psychology. Harvard didn’t allow her to enroll as a student and only allowed her to attend seminars as an unofficial guest, as well as Clark University. Although while at Clark she met Edmund Sanford who allowed her into his laboratory. She eventually was able to enroll in William James’s Physiological Psychology course at Harvard. Calkins still wanted to further her knowledge and came back to Harvard again as an unofficial guest to work with James and Hugo Munsterberg who at the time couldn’t speak English very well. She was fluent in German and so they became colleagues. Her biggest contribution to psychology was her research on association. Mary created paired-associate learning, which found that recall was enhanced by frequency, vividness, recency, and primacy of which frequency was the most important factor.
Another section in this chapter that grabbed my attention was the emotion in relation to William James. The James-Lange theory of emotion was the essential theory of emotion that is still used today. It suggest that physiological changes that are emotions are not felt after oneself recognizes the stimulus causing the emotion, but immediately upon the perceived emotion causing stimulus. In essence the heart will beat rapidly before we even feel fear, or know that we are afraid. James then soon began to wonder if he was able to force emotions that in turn would produce specific bodily reactions which actually has been supported.
The least interesting thing about this chapter was about faculty psychology because it was such a limited section and modern psychology was beginning to replace this type of psychology with more modern theories. The Scottish Realist philosophers were challenging these ideas that violated simple common sense, soon faculty psychology fell to the wayside.
I think that the major contributors like William James and Stanley Hall provided so much for American psychology but I felt that the most useful part of the chapter to understand how psychology grew in American was due to the fact of modern universities because without these schools psychology wouldn’t have had a foothold in American. It was the Morrill Land Grant Act of 1862 that spurred the growth of universities across the country. It gave every state a minimum of 30,000 acres of land to which a state could build a university within 5 years, and keep the land, otherwise the government would own it after the 5 years. Many universities were built most notably the Ivy League schools were created during this time period.
This chapter further built upon the previous two chapters. America wanted to get in on the psychology field and create prominent universities, so they began to encompass the ideas of evolutionary psychology from Darwin and Wissenschaft from the Germans. Those ideas were discussed in both chapter 4 and 5 and now was incorporated into universities all across America.
I would like to learn a lot more about both Mary Calkins and her work with association partly because I would like to see her studies on the four factors that affect recall and because she was one of the first women to obtain degrees to say that she is equally capable as men to obtain higher education. I would also like to learn more about the modern universities and why the government chose to act in 1862 to create universities at that particular time rather than sooner or even later.
A few things popped into my head while I was reading this chapter. I was thinking about the creation of UNI during the spurt to create universities after the Land Grant Act of 1862. While reading about James and Hall I was stunned to find that neither wanted to be labeled as psychologists but philosophers which made me think of other prominent figure in psychology and most of them too never saw themselves as psychologists, yet they did so much for psychology.
Key Terms; Morrill Land Grant Act of 1862, Wissenschaft, Darwin, Evolutionary Psychology, Modern Universities, Ivy League Schools, William James, Stanley Hall, Faculty Psychology, Scottish Realist Philosophers, Mary Whiton Calkins, James-Lange Theory of Emotion, Edmund Sanford, Hugo Munsterberg, Harvard, Paired-Associate Learning, Women’s Sphere, Zero-Sum Choice.
1a) What did you find interesting?
Francis Sumner
1b) Why was it interesting to you?
With the uprising of psychology in educational departments and as a new science, along with industrial revolutions, it amazes me that the cultural revolution had not occurred during this time period as well. What amazes me more is to see certain individuals rise above racial pressures and systematic inequality and press on against the current to achieve a high level of authority in knowledge - reading about Mr. Sumner had an uplifting vibe to the text.
2a) What did you find interesting?
William James
2b) Why was it interesting to you?
Although I generally find long historical tidbits very tedious to read through, I enjoyed reading and learning about William James, probably due to his quirky and unique character. His unorthodox methods when approaching certain aspects of psychology's "standard procedures" were amusing to hear about.
3a) What did you find interesting?
Mary Whiton Calkins
3b) Why was it interesting to you?
Similar to Sumner, I was interested in Calkins primarily due to her rise above societal pressures. As a male, I can't imagine what it's like to live in a society that undermines the importance of a certain gender - or even a race now that I think about it - but unfortunately, it's a society that is still a reality today. Calkins had played a fine role in play the protagonist in combating sexism and correcting the already-in-place wrong facts in psychology about women.
4a) What one (1) thing did you find the least interesting?
G. Stanley Hall
4b) Why wasn't it interesting to you?
It may have been due to attempting to read the chapter in one sitting and I had reached some type of reading fatigue, but as I can see Hall's contributions for Psychology being very important, I really did not enjoy reading this part of the chapter. It may have been due to the way he was portrayed, exhibiting a very narrow-minded almost antagonistic mindset towards William James (whose section I did like)
5) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?
Despite certain research projects and contributions being made, psychology was still very young as an uprising science topic in the world, let alone America. It was only through numerous contributions by a numerous amount of people that allowed psychology to become the notable topic that it is today.
6) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters?
The previous chapter had presented an overview over German psychological researchers and their contributions. This chapter connects with the previous by showing the apparent need for more contribution and the American take on psychology.
7a) What topic would you like to learn more about?
William James and his ideas on consciousness.
7b) Why?
I had a talk with my philosophy professor about the definition of consciousness. While he had presented a clear definition and explanation of his opinions on what consciousness truly is, I had a hard time wrapping my mind around the truth.
8) What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter?
Talks with my philosophy professor over consciousness; societal and cultural pressures growing up in certain eras of time or locations, systematic inequality.
9) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Francis Sumner, William James, consciousness, Mary Whiton Calkins, G. Stanley Hall
1a) What did you find interesting?
The first thing I found interesting was, Thomas Upham.
1b) Why was it interesting to you?
He was the first person to produce and publish an American psychology textbook, which today would be equivalent to a intro to psych class. I thought this was very interesting because the structure of his book is very similar to what we would use today in an introductory course in psychology. One part I found extremely interesting in his text was the section on, “disordered intellectual action: insanity” (Goodwin, ch 6, pg 163). I have always been very interested in mental disorders and have learned in previous classes that back during that time those people were thought to be insane. I just found it interesting that it was actually discussed in the first American psychology text book as well!
2a) What did you find interesting?
The constant rise in greater education that started during the Civil War.
2b) Why was it interesting to you?
The huge change in education I found interesting, but even more so than the increased collegiate attendance and the newly growing graduate programs, the attitudes people had towards women wanting a higher education was very eye opening. Specifically the idea that getting a higher education could affect their ability to have children in the future. The book later discusses how women’s higher education opportunities would become more accepted after a man named Matthew Vassar would create an all women’s school, breaking away from the original ideas of this period.
3a) What did you find interesting?
Francis Sumner and his influence he had while teaching at Howard University.
3b) Why was it interesting to you?
Over the summer I worked in Washington, D.C. and had never heard of Howard University until a fellow co-workers had mentioned that that is where they went to school. They studied behavioral sciences, to become a social worker. I am curious to know if they learned a lot about Sumner and his teachings while attending Howard. I also thought the number of African Americans to receive the doctorates during 1975, almost a third of them received their BA or MA education while studying under Sumner.
4a) What one (1) thing did you find the least interesting?
The section on George Trumbull Ladd was the section I found to be the least interesting.
4b) Why wasn't it interesting to you?
I thought mentioning his name in a larger section would have been sufficient enough. I didn’t find this section to be something that needed to be this elaborated on.
5) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?
I think understanding how quickly the study of psychology was emerging in America will be important to understand and how the previous beliefs of women and minorities were now being more accepted and giving a greater amount of people the ability to get a higher education.
6) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters? Wissenschaft was discussed in the beginning of chapter six to explain the reason for Americans studying in Germany before the German psychology ideas were adopted and brought to America. The variability hypothesis that was accepted relates back to the previous chapter, on Darwin’s natural selection theory. Also, thinking of women as less intelligent than their male counterpart, was not a new idea and has been mentioned in previous chapters. Previous chapters also discussed psychological firsts, but this chapter was building off of how these were now accepted and taught in American schools.
7a) What topic would you like to learn more about?
I would like to learn more about Mary Calkins.
7b) Why?
Not only was she a women in a male dominated educational society, but she chose to prosper even when she was not accepted as a student as most of her places of study. I would like to learn more about her experiences, research, and findings, and how she paved the way for many of our ideas today.
8) What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter?
I thought about how this psychologists and their findings did now happen all that long ago. Psychology is a very fast paced field and I think it is very interesting that ideas and theories can pave the way for others to learn from so quickly. I also think it is interesting how much it has changed in such a short period of time. I also thought about the first all women colleges and thought it was interesting that UNI started out as a all women college as well.
9) Terms: Thomas Upham, Matthew Vassar, Francis Sumner, George Trumbull Ladd, wissenschaft, variability hypothesis, Darwin’s natural selection theory, Mary Calkins
1a) State what your topic is.
Francis Cecil Sumner
1b) Discuss how the topic relates to the chapter.
Francis Sumner had been an advocate for minorities and education reform, thus assisting psychology in its growth to be an accepted degree.
1c) Discuss why you are interested in it.
Despite advancements in psychological contributions and its growth in educational departments and college, these new-age ideas had been created amongst a segregated clutter of people, still ignorant over ethnicity and color. Francis Sumner had been the first African-American to receive a Ph.D in psychology, regardless of societal pressures.
2)
Francis Cecil Sumner had achieved the status of being the first African-American to receive a Ph.D in psychology, without even having a high school education, and had set a bar for fellow minorities to meet while also paving pathways for their future through his advocacy of education reform. Beginning his psychology education at Lincoln University and graduating the top of his class, Sumner had attended Clark University to achieve a degree in English.
After college, Sumner had worked as a teacher of psychology and German as a transitional job until he had been accepted by G. Stanley Hall to work and learn under his guidance at Clark University once again. At the time of his receival of his graduate degree, he had published, under the guidance of Hall, his dissertation named “Psychoanalysis of Freud and Adler, a critical interpretation of Freudian and Adlerian views on psychoanalysis, netting Sumner nods of approval from Hall through the means of dissecting and locating flaws in the work of higher authority.
Sumner’s life after graduate school had consisted of being a professor at multiple universities and advocating for education reform and minority rights. He published articles that dealt with the inequality and disproportionate ratio amongst African-American populations within U.S. universities. His final standing was at Howard University, as professor and appointed chair of the once combined with philosophy, but now thanks to Sumner’s efforts to create distinction, Psychology Department. Sumner had been involved with many organizations, including, but not limited to: American Psychological Association, American Educational Research Association, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. His efforts and contributions were centered on racial and religious problems, falling into the category of social psychology.
3)
http://legacy.earlham.edu/~knigher/Professional%20Biography.htm
Offers a professional overview of Francis Sumner, including his educational resume along with organizations that he belonged to.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Sumner
Provides an easily accessible summary of Sumner’s life.
http://www.apa.org/pi/oema/resources/ethnicity-health/psychologists/sumner-prosser.aspx
Proof of Sumner’s membership at the APA, with a short summary encasing his most notable contributions.
(I feel so stupid! I forgot to hit submit on Monday evening!)
1a) What did you find interesting?
I thought that periodic functioning was very interesting. Periodic functioning is the idea that women become mentally unable to function during their periods. This also was involved in what was referred to as the “women’s sphere” which was basically the idea that women could only be wives and mothers, and they could only really be in those roles and needed to be content with them.
1b) Why was it interesting to you?
I’ve always known that women were viewed as lesser than men in history, but I never knew exactly what it was called. I had no idea that women were supposedly unable to function on an intelligent level during their periods, and I find it hilarious that some people still hold this viewpoint. Especially given the recent talk in the news about abortion and birth control access. I just find it incredibly funny how men (typically old, white men) feel that this is still the 19th century and that they have any right in how I, as a woman, decide to control or not control my body. Darwin seems to be right about the variability hypothesis, but instead of men being more intelligent than females, as the author states, there seems to be a higher probability of a higher proportion of mentally incompetent men; unfortunately, these are the men that somehow got elected to run our country (not that all men are like this).
2a) What did you find interesting?
I found spiritualism to be very interesting. Spiritualism is the belief that consciousness can still be found after death and that the dead can be contacted through mediums who can then pass these messages on to the living. This movement was also fueled by the wireless telegraph, and William James became interested in this and started the Society for Psychical Research.
2b) Why was it interesting to you?
This was interesting to me, because I thought that this movement started many hundreds of years previously, and I remember watching mediums on television with my mom when I was younger. It was always really interesting, and the idea of being able to communicate with loved ones who have died has always been comforting, and I feel that many people share that comfort, which is probably why it’s still a pretty lucrative business if you know how to market, even though many people have been exposed for fraud. I don’t really know what to think of mediums, and if they can even be real. I think the majority of them are fake, but it’s kind of like believing in ghosts or in aliens, you can stand on either side of the fence, but if something weird or abnormal happens, it makes you question, since there hasn’t been sure science to prove or disprove them (at least not to my knowledge). I can definitely see though why believing in consciousness existing after death would be appealing to psychologists, and many other people.
3a) What did you find interesting?
I thought that excerpt on maze learning was super interesting, because I used to have pet rats, and so this was always something I was interested in. I have always wanted to do a maze study or simulate one in college, and so to find out how it originate was fascinating to me. I think that it is also interesting that Small gets the credit, when it was Kline who suggested it, and Sanford who came up with the initial maze.
3b) Why was it interesting to you?
I used to have pet rats, and I always wanted to make a maze for them to go through, and you see this a lot on cartoons (obviously the more educational ones) and so I think it would be really fun to do. I used to put my rat in a large hamster ball and ‘trap’ the ball and watch as she would get it unstuck, and how she knew to stick to the walls or the sides of furniture so as to not be in the way of the dogs or of us walking around. The amazing things we have learned from such small creatures always amazes me.
4a) What one (1) thing did you find the least interesting?
I didn’t really find the text about Christine Ladd-Franklin to be that interesting.
4b) Why wasn't it interesting to you?
Although she was one of the few founding pioneer psychologists who were women, I guess I didn’t find her story to be as interesting as some of the others. I think it is great that she was outspoken for women’s rights on the professional level, I think that she sort of used her marriage to gain position, although I couldn’t tell you if that was for sure or not. She also did very little work in the labs and was mostly theoretical, which is nice, and most of her work was centered on vision, which I’m just not that big on.
5) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?
I think that the maze studies will be really beneficial to know about as we get farther and farther along in the text and start in on more and more animal studies, since this was kind of a big deal as far as education and building upon things goes. The maze studies were really beneficial to psychologists such as B.F. Skinner, who used rats in his behavioral studies.
6) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters?
This chapter continues to build upon psychology in America, and begins to show women in the field, exposing us to a shift in the times, and how technology has begun to advance even more. I think that William James was a huge contributor to psychology, and he met with Emil du Bois Reymond, who worked under Muller, who was talked about extensively in Chapter 4.
7a) What topic would you like to learn more about?
I’d like to learn more about Spiritualism.
7b) Why?
I think that is a really interesting, and I like hearing about how people are exposed as frauds, and I like thinking about these kinds of practices and beliefs since they are almost considered taboo in our culture. Plus, it’s getting close to Halloween, so it’s definitely more on my mind at this time of the year than at any other time.
8) What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter?
I was thinking about Spiritualism, and how odd it is that a lot of the psychologists that we are learning about tend to start their careers off strong and then as they get older seem to kind of drop off and become less and less relevant and are almost viewed as a joke by their peers by the time they die. Which is really sad. Romanes, for example, wrote about animal intelligence and tended towards anthropomorphism and Morgan totally just bashes him, even though he provided a lot of other useful information. It just really bothers me that people discredit someone who does a lot of good for the scientific knowledge based either on previous follies or ones as they get older and turn their attention to something a little more extreme. It makes me nervous to study anything, because what if I make a mistake? Will I be ostracized for it the rest of my days?
9) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Periodic function, variability hypothesis, women’s sphere, William James, Spiritualism, Small, Maze learning, Christine Ladd-Franklin, Romanes, Morgan, Muller
1a.The first thing I found interesting was the opening section on William James and his formative years. William James did not really do a lot for the field of psychology, but what he did do was enough to make him a leader of the field in his era. At some points of his career he actually detested being a psychologist and would have rather have been known as a philosopher. James was raised by a father who was wealthy from inheritance and he was basically allowed to study what he wanted and do what he wanted because of his father’s more liberal parenting style. He attempted to study many subjects. He studied chemistry at one point and found it too tedious, he learned many languages, he attempted to become a master artist, he dabbled in biology but found it to be just as tedious. He attended Harvard for a time where he got his medical degree, which was a low point for him because he did not want to practice medicine. He had an interest in philosophy as well and his philosophical point of view combined with his scientific knowledge drove him to the point of depression. He often mused that if all we are is just matter moving through space following physical laws than there is no room for free will. The text states that he even contemplated suicide. His life changed when he read philosophical text by Renovier which changed his perception on what free will was and he was able to will himself to continue his study of physiology and psychology. His new point of view has been deemed pragmatism and it established James to become a leader in the functionalist movement in American psychology.
1b.I found this interesting because William James had the chance to study and pretty much do whatever he wanted because of his father’s wealth. He was able to become competent in many subjects and eventually went on to become the author of psychology’s most famous text book. He was an impressive guy who had the chance to choose any direction to take his life.
2a. There is an interesting section in this chapter that discusses William James’s foray into spiritualism. Apparently James developed an interest in spiritualism in his later years, a movement that considered the conscious still alive after death. He believed that mediums could contact people who have died and convey the deceased’s messages to the living. This movement became popular in his era due to the great increase in deaths during the civil war and because technology, such as the telegraph, spurred the idea that people could be contacted by some new “invisible” process. Despite being criticized by many psychologists for believing in a field that was very unscientific, his interest and belief in spiritualism persisted for his remaining years. James once did a case study on a medium from Boston. From his study he concluded that her the medium’s séances were indeed real and that he could find nothing fake about them. At the time many mediums were busted as frauds, but apparently not the medium in James’ study. The only thing James did question was the apparent trivialness of the messages that mediums delivered. He thought that if spirits actually were to communicate then they would have more profound things to communicate than what was reported. His scientific peers, who revered him as a leader in most other aspects in psychology, found his belief in spiritualism a major set-back to the field as a whole.
2b.I found this interesting because despite William James’s undeniable scientific contribution to the field of psychology, he still went against the grain and advocated for a pseudo-scientific perspective such as spiritualism. He was definitely his own individual.
3a.Another section that was interesting was the section on the educational opportunities for females and minorities before, during, and after the Civil War era. Needless to say opportunities for women and minorities in almost all aspects during this era were limited, but after the Civil War things seemed start progressing for both parties. In this time period it was thought impossible for women to be educated and raise a family. One rather ridiculous saying in the book is that a doctor actually claimed that if a woman continues her education past puberty she “retards” her chance at becoming pregnant because of the increased mental activity required to study higher education. Even if a woman was single and tried to continue her education she also had the burden of being the one who was expected to take care of their aging parents. Another downside for women at the time was the biblical belief that because women was made from man that she was inferior. Furthermore, it was then thought that for a week when a woman menstruated she was mentally incapacitated. This was labeled periodic function. Darwin’s emerging evolutionary perspective also added injury to insult because of the variability hypothesis which said that the male species’ intelligence varied more greatly than women’s which explained why more males were mentally retarded than woman and why men could also be more brilliant than woman. Somewhat better developments happened for both woman and minorities during the latter half of the 19th century when all women colleges and all black colleges were erected in some states. The only stipulation about these colleges is that the area of studies offered were usually limited to certain areas such as education and home economics.
3b.I found this section interesting because it seems almost laughable that so many people in this country had such a degrading view of women and minorities that they could not even get a semi-decent education. Less than 100 years ago equality was something people dreamed of and in that amount of time things have improved vastly, although work can still be done.
4a. The section I found least interesting was probably the section on Margaret Washburn. Margaret was a gifted woman who graduated from Vassar in the late 19th century. She was interested in both science and philosophy but decided to try and pursue the new experimental psychology. She tried to apply for graduate school but much like many other women of the time she was either denied or only allowed to attend unofficially. She studied at Colombia for a time unofficially but was recognized for her talent by one her professors. With the help of the professor Washburn got accepted as graduate student at Cornell under Tichener. She went on to become the first woman to earn her doctorate in psychology.
4b.While Washburn was an impressive person the section did not describe her research or anything really interesting that she studied. The section was more just a brief description of her, unlike the other sections that really elaborated on the people.
5. I think the most important thing to understand in this chapter is that American psychology and the pioneers of it were mostly influenced by the wave of new psychology from Europe. I think it accentuates the point that to understand the research in psychology going forward from this point that it is important to look at the roots of where the field of study came from.
6a. This chapter continues to expand on pioneers in the field of psychology. The people that were introduced in this chapter were influenced by theories put forth by people we have read about in past chapters. It all sort culminates and is interconnected. You can trace one person’s views to various views of past thinkers.
7. I would like to look more into William James.
7b. William James was a free thinker, not held down by the criticisms of anyone. He let his interests dictate his direction and I think that is a very interesting thing to be able to do in that time period.
8. While reading this chapter I thought about how almost every person we’ve read about can linked to another person we’ve read about. It’s astonishing how everyone is connected and how many people actually teach each other and are friends of acquaintances.
9. periodic function, variability hypothesis, pragmatism, spiritualism.
1) What did you find interesting? Why was it interesting to you?
William James idea of Introspection. I have heard of introspection many times, but had no clue where the idea actually came from. I have trouble agreeing with most abstract ideas in psychology because there is little basis to study them, especially ones that seem to be more philosophical like this. However, introspection is an exception to this. It is one of few abstract ideas in psychology that is still relevant and referred to today.
2) What did you find interesting? Why was it interesting to you?
Habits. Obviously, I have heard of habits before, but never referred to in psychology (except possibly in behavioral psychology and trying to ween people off of bad habits). He lists his advice on forming good habits, but I wonder what he would’ve thought if someone had suggested operant and classical conditioning as ways to influence habits.
3) What did you find interesting? Why was it interesting to you?
Spiritualism. The after life is fascinating to me, as it is to most people. I am surprised that the afterlife has never came up whenever I’ve studied psychology in the past, except maybe in my developmental psych courses. This really speaks about James’ character. Even though he received a lot of criticism and hurt his own credibility for studying spiritualism and visiting mediums, he continued to do for himself. For his own personal knowledge. I really respect that.
4) What one (1) thing did you find the least interesting? Why wasn't it interesting to you?
Although many of William James’ findings were interesting, I became bored reading information on him after awhile. It was especially difficult reading the, “Formative years” section because I was particularly interested in his discoveries, and not so much his adolescence.
5) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?
This chapter addresses some of the most influential psychologists in American history, which as an American is pretty important to know. Although many discoveries were made in Germany and psychology was somewhat born there, America became highly interested in the subject as well and tried to further develop the science.
6) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters?
Scottish realism is discussed on page 161, which ties in several philosophers and their ideas from chapter 2, including Locke, Berkely, Hume, Hartley and Mill. This chapter also relates to chapter 4 and brings in the influence of German psychology to American psychology.
7) What topic would you like to learn more about? Why?
Important females in psychology. This chapter lists several of them, but I hope that there will be more we’ll learn about in future chapters. I know at the time women were not typically credited for scientific discoveries so this may be hard to uncover, but I’d like to learn about women in psychology that have been uncovered.
8) What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter?
This chapter wasn’t very interesting. I was interested to learn about the topic, but while reading this this was one of the most difficult chapters to read. I did like the section on women who contributed to psychology because we don’t often hear about women in this science, or in science in general. I was surprised how much of a contribution William James actually made to psychology because in my basic psych courses I had only heard about him in regards to the James-Lange Theory of emotion.
Introspection. Habits. Spiritualism. Scottish realism.
1a) James-Lange theory of emotion
1b) It was interesting because James had simply named the reaction to emotions and it was called a psychological phenomenon. It is interesting however, given that how he theorized that different emotions have different reactions, such as how one might flinch if they’re afraid or if they’re angry their nostrils may inadvertently flare. On his remarks on how people may react to the certain stimulus even if that stimulus isn’t present, I find that I relate that to phobias. A person may be phobic of spiders, however they might get scared of just a picture or the mere mention of ‘spider’ without even being close to one. Or how everyone is afraid of sharks, everyone has this general fear of how dangerous they are. They are of course, but it may deter people from going deep sea diving, or even taking a cruise for that matter, even if they’re not in any immediate danger.
2a) Francis Sumner
2b) Francis Sumner is interesting to me, not because he was the first black man to receive PhD in psychology, but rather because I feel like a lot is missing from his life. While what he achieved was a great achievement, given the absurd racism present, I feel like that outshined any achievements or contributions he actually gave to the field of psychology. Did he come up with a theory in psychology that is noteworthy? I don’t think we’ll ever know because all we hear about him is that he was the first black man to receive his PhD in psychology. I hope to find out if he actually did do something other than that, however, outside of his dissertation of psychoanalyzing Freud and Adler, I never found anything that marked him as super spectacular in the field. I do not believe that one should be remembered simply for their race, and, for Sumner’s credit, I hope that he feels the same for that is a very shallow thing to be remembered by.
3a) Spiritualism in psychology
3b) I find the entire incident in of itself to be very interesting. How a psychologist of the time, having the idea that ‘Psychology is purely science based now’ would’ve been so finely engrained in his mind noting in which how hard the community was trying to enforce that. However, William James still went along with it and believed it very much to the point of actually crediting it as an actually noteworthy practice. I found it entertaining when the book said that he, “believed that psychologists, with their expertise in the powers of the mind and their training in the scientific methodology, would be ideally suited for such investigations.” As much as I enjoy thinking that psychology is more than just science, personally believing that a lot of it has a lot to do with philosophy, I have to agree with the embarrassment of James’ fellow colleges. They were trying to establish psychology as a noteworthy practice and James, a big star in the field at the time, was turning it into a joke.
4a) The one thing that I found uninteresting in the chapter was probably how it kind of jumped around from topic to topic. I realize that ‘American Pioneers’ is a pretty vague topic in itself, but I wish it had followed a direction at least instead of skipping from how blacks and women were treated to spiritualism to how the maze experiments were founded.
5) Probably the reiteration of how seriously they were trying to take psychology at that point. The best example of this was probably when how William James was trying to promote spiritualism and the rest of his colleges would have nothing to do with it. They had moved from the idea that philosophy or spirituality intermixed with psychology. They had become stuck in the mindset that psychology was strictly scientific.
6) This chapter discussed the influence of Darwin on American psychologists, including William James. The chapter also talked about how James would travel to Europe to hear other psychologists’ views on matters, such as Wundt’s and his practices with psychology in Germany. All the previous psychologists helped to influence the new psychologists in America.
7a) I would like to see if there were any other conflicting theories circulating psychology that didn’t quite make the cut given that it wasn’t ‘scientific’ enough or wasn’t popular enough within the community.
8) As I found it the most interesting, I was thinking of how amazed people were at the practices of spiritualism. I thought of the old parlor tricks of the table shaking or the lights flickering.
9) James-Lange theory of emotion, phobia, Francis Sumner, Francis’s dissertation of psychoanalyzing Freud and Adler, William James, spiritualism, Darwin, Wundt
1a) What topic did you find interesting?
The topic I found very interesting was the variability hypothesis, and the perspectives on women when it came to pursing a higher education.
1b) Why was it interesting to you?
The reason why I find this interesting is because it shows the mindset of the times. Now in 2015 we know that it is not true, but when this idea came into air in the 19th century. The variability hypothesis states that men have a greater deal of variability in traits like intelligence than women. It meant that mean were more equipped for a higher education than women. Due to the ‘women’s sphere” it was not there place to go and get a better education. “The women’s Sphere” refers to the set concepts putting women as wife and mother only. They were socialized to believe that this was their only purpose. That if a women wanted to pursue a higher education that there could even be adverse medical conditions. The idea that women were inferior to man, was even further to proven by the bible that women was made from man.
2a) What person did you find interesting?
The person I found interesting is Mary Whitton Calkins.
2b) Why were they interesting to you?
In the beginning of this chapter it talked about how a demand for higher education emerged and how because of the views of women at that time, they were not encouraged to go on. Mary had a hard time getting into Harvard and Clark University. Even though she can speak, German, French and Greek. That she was allowed as an unofficial guests but not as a student. That even though she had a difficult time pursing her higher education, she still made contributions to psychology. She had invented paired-associate learning. Which eventually became the standard method in memory research.
3a) what do you think of the overall message of the chapter?
The overall message of the chapter was how America study psychology before the arrival of William James, it described how new universities came to be. Since more schools were being built and more individuals wanted to study psychology, it had a high need for teachers. It went on to describe on how William James did make his contributions in this new psychology.
3b) Was it interesting to you? Why or why not?
It was somewhat interesting, it was nice to finally see how psychology came about. That how the drive for a higher level of education pushed so many new people.
4) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?
The most useful is how psychology started out in a way of pure philosophy and philology. That now because of German psychologist there is a drive for knowledge based on research.
5) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to what you have already learned about the History of Psychology or to material you have learned in other classes? In my other psychology classes we talk about William James and what he discovered but we never went into how he came about, just what he did. It’s nice to know and understand the full background.
6a) What topic would you like to learn more about?
I would like to learn more on how women found their way into getting a higher education.
6b) Why?
The reason being is that, the chapter talks about the ideals of the time but does not really go on and further explain it.
7) What ideas or questions related to what you were reading did you have while reading the chapter?
What eventually changed society minds about women? What allowed a new idea that women can get an education without damaging her reproductive organs?
8) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Paired associate learning, Mary Calkins, variability hypothesis, the women’s sphere
1a) In chapter six, the first thing I found interesting was the education for women.
1b) I thought it was very interesting to learn that most people thought women were intellectually inferior to men, and that’s why women could not get higher education. A woman’s job was to get married and take care of the home and children. If they wanted to work or seek higher education they would not be able to get married. They had to choose what kind of life they wanted, which surprised me because today women are multi-taskers and do a very good job dealing with work and taking care of the home and children.
2a) The second topic I found in this chapter to be interesting was education for minorities.
2b) I have always known that back then minorities such as blacks did not have the same rights as whites did. If you were a white man you had endless opportunities. I thought it was very unfair that even if a black person got a higher degree, a masters or doctorate, the only choice they had for a career afterwards was going back to a university for minorities only and teaching. While doing this they would have no benefits, and earn minimal wages. What was the point of obtaining a higher degree? They had spent all that time and money just to find that they would still be treated unfairly.
3a) The last topic I found interesting was the creation of America’s most famous textbook of psychology written by William James with help from his wife, Alice Howe Gibbens.
3b) This textbook was the most famous of Psychology in America, called “The Principles of Psychology.” After reading about it, I found that it took James twelve years to complete it, and I think that is reasonable time because it contains two volumes and 1,400 pages.
4) I didn’t particularly enjoy reading about Stanley Hall and all about the education he received and the different schools he attended. I understand that it is probably important information to know, but I thought it was boring and could not stay focused while reading about it.
5) This chapter was full of useful information about Psychology. I think by reading about the education that minorities and women received will help me to better understand the history of psychology because women like Mamie Phipps paved the way for women. It is important to know how and why things were changed in order for women and minorities to be a part of something such as Psychology.
6) All of the chapters in this textbook relate to each other some way or another. In the past chapters we learned more about what people have done to contribute to the sciences and philosophy. Now, we are learning more about psychology and who and what has been done to improve psychology.
7a) I would like to learn more about the education of women and minorities back then.
7b) I really enjoyed reading about this topic because it surprised me the way that they were treated. I couldn’t believe that people thought women were intellectually inferior to men. It somewhat angered me.
8) I got angry and a little annoyed when a Harvard professor said that women should avoid higher education because it would mess up their reproductive organs. That was the dumbest thing I have read in a long time.
9) Psychology, Mamie Phipps, William James, Alice Howe Gibbens, The Principles of Psychology, minorities.
1a) What topic did you find interesting?
I found the section about education for women and minorities to be the most interesting.
1b) Why was it interesting to you?
I thought this was interesting because of the concept of “the women’s sphere”. This concept states that women are to only be wives and mothers. It was believed that women who went on to get higher education would have too much mental activity and that it would slow the development of the reproductive organs. Another reason I find this interesting, is because it shows how far we have come as a society when it comes to equal rights for men and women.
2a) What person did you find interesting?
William James
2b) Why were they interesting to you?
I found him to be the most important because he was the author of the most famous psychology textbook, The Principles of Psychology I also find it interesting that before he studied psychology he started out studying art and chemistry. He was very well rounded and had a good understanding of the world. He had traveled to Europe several times and could speak approximately 5 languages. He studied a variety of subjects within the field of psychology, such as habits, emotion, and in his later years he studied spiritualism
3a) What do you think of the overall message of the chapter?
I think the overall message of the chapter was to explain how the study of psychology reached America, and how it was taught at schools of higher education.
3b) Was it interesting to you? Why or why not?
This was interesting to me, because up until this point all of the people we have talked about were from other countries. It is interesting to see of the study of psychology first started in America, as well as being able to see how far we have comes as the years have gone by.
4) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?
I think most useful thing from this chapter is how the universities were formed and what was taught. This is the most useful, because it shows how we got to where we are today, and came maybe still help us see how we can improve our education system.
5) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to what you have already learned about the History of Psychology or to material you have learned in other classes?
This builds on what we have already learn because it takes what we know and now talks about how it was brought to America and taught in universities.
6a) What topic would you like to learn more about?
Kenneth and Mamie Phipps Clark
6b) Why?
I would like to learn more about the doll study they conducted. I also find them interesting because they played a role in one of the most important Supreme Court cases in history, Brown vs Board of Education. They also both went on to be very successful in their careers and I would like to learn more about that as well.
7) What ideas or questions related to what you were reading did you have while reading the chapter?
I just keep wondering why the harvard medical school professor came to the conclusion that too much mental activity would slow the development of the reproductive organs.?
Terms: “the women’s sphere”, William James, The Principles of Psychology, habits, emotions, spiritualism, Kenneth and Mamie Phipps Clark
1a) one topic that I found interesting is the concept of faculty psychology.
1b) I find this interesting because unlike empiricism or associationism, faculty psychology sticks to the concept that the mind had an independent existence in reality and that it was passive rather than active and was made up of various interacin attributes known as faculties. there were two categories intellectual and active. intellectual included memory, reasoning and judgment and active concerned emotion and will.
2a)a person that I found interesting was William James.
2b)James was interesting to me because he was considered the first of the new psychologist. as a psychologist James produced no meaningful experimental research. near the end of his life he actually insisted on being called a philosopher rather than a psychologist. in his book Psychology: the briefer course he made it clear that "psychology had a long way to go before it could claim the status of a genuine science." although he did this when asked to rank their peers in 1903 James was ranked first on every returned survey. although he may not have had any major experimental research one big contribution he made was the book Principles of Psychology. overall what interested me is the way he looked at things like the field of psychology and made people think. he may not have known it at the time but he was a psychologist and had a great effect on the field as a whole.
3a) I feel that the meaning or message of this chapter was to talk about the transition from old psychology to new psychology.
3b) I found it interesting because it included the first people to do different things to bring forth this so called new psychology. for example Stanley hall founded the first psychology laboratory in America. the things in this chapter are important people and factors that played a role in the switch to new psychology.
4) as a whole I felt that this whole chapter was useful to me and my understanding of the field of psychology. I know this is a vague answer but I say this because I have not heard of any of these people in my other psychology classes. I have heard of the concept of new psychology but never anything to do with the movement to new psychology of the people that influenced it like William James, Stanley Hall, and Mary Whiton Calkins. this chapter gave a background and specified just what they did in this movement and that was interesting to me.
5) as I already kind of talked about above this built a lot on the things that I learned in other classes. in other classes I took I had heard of the concept of new psychology but never any of the names or what they did to get the movement to new psychology started. so this chapter built my knowledge a lot and helped me to understand better the movement to new psychology and what caused that to happen.
6a)I would like to learn more about Paired associate learning.
6b) I find this interesting because the experiments that were described had a kind of deception to them and I am interested in how people learn and remember things because I myself have never been the best at remembering things. also it makes me wonder if findings would have been different without the use of deception in the experiment.
7) this chapter just makes me wonder overall why there was all of a sudden this shift to new psychology. people seemed to have a lot yet to figure out with old psychology and its beliefs. so what caused this movement to happen? why did people disagree with the old psychology concepts or practices and start a movement to modern or new psychology?
8)William James
empiricism
associationism
faculty psychology
new psychology
Old psychology
Principles of Psycholpgy
Stanley Hall
Mary Whiton Calkins
Paired associate learning
1) I found the Baldwin effect to be interesting because it looked at social learning from an evolutionary perspective. I find anything evolutionary to be interesting, but it’s really interesting to see where certain ideas generated. I am really interesting in knowing about human’s evolutionary path specifically.
2) I found G. Stanley Hall interesting because he started psychology in America. He accomplished a lot of things that contributed to the solidification of psychology in America.
3) I think the overall message of this chapter was to inform us about the origins of psychology in the United States. This chapter discussed the shift from mental philosophical or scientific approach to a push for psychology. It explained the paths of different individuals and their contributions toward psychology. It explained the need for higher education and a shift in the education system. It then informed us about the splits in different aspects of psychology that were being created (e.g. genetic psychology, developmental psychology, memory, etc.)
4) I read about Hall’s contributions. I think Hall had great contributions toward the psychology as a whole. He practically created the whole field in the United States. He created labs, he wrote the first journal (American Journal of Psychology), he created the American Psychological Association, he brought important experimental concepts/practices to the U.S., he obtained the first doctorate degree in psychology and he pushed for a grad program in psychology at some colleges.
5) This chapter builds on the general information I’ve learned about in previous classes. For example, I knew what the APA was, but I did not know who created it. I knew about mazes used in experiments, but I didn’t know when or how they originated. Also, I knew the Baldwin effect, but I didn’t know much about the person who created it or why it was created.
6) I would like to learn more about the Baldwin effect because I find evolutionary psychology interesting and want to learn as much as possible about human origin.
7) While reading this chapter I was curious about how the many people found time to travel and do education so much. I just wonder how they made a living and also earned more than one higher education degree or even doctorate degrees. It makes me wonder about their family life. I also wondered about why I hadn’t heard more about Hall. I knew about a lot of his contributions in general, but why didn’t his name ring a bell to me.
8) Baldwin effect, G. Stanley Hall, genetic psychology, developmental psychology, memory, American Journal of Psychology, American Psychological Association, evolutionary psychology
1) I found the topic of women’s education during this era to me the most interesting, and also the most ridiculous. This topic was interesting to me because I have always been invested in that topic but I had never really heard it being referred to as it was in the text. This was really the first time I associated vocabulary terms with the discrimination of women and the first time I was able to learn about more reasons that they men attempted to use to justify their prejudice against females.
2) I loved learning about Matthew Vassar, who helped create Vassar College in 1865 which was one of the first colleges for women because it was nice to have a change of pace from the ridiculous ideas of the men viewing women at this point in history. But I was also really interested in learning about Thomas Upham and all he did for American psychology and about his theory of the Trilogy of the Mind.
3) I think the overall message of this chapter was just the integration of psychology and its evolution within America. This chapter was interesting to me because I could notice the different American pioneers that helped develop the field of psychology within the United States and how they were able to take the different theories and concepts from all over the globe and connect them together in order to develop the topic.
4) I think the overall message of America combining the different theories in order to develop the field will be most useful information in understanding the history of psychology because it will help to give me more basis of where the ideas originated from. The chapter state that American psychology is the offspring of new psychology that was created in Germany and British biology. America is known as a melting pot and I felt that that that label can be carried over into topics such as this and how the pioneers were able to connect theories and ideas from all over the world.
5) This chapter just gave me more information on the earlier stages of different and more well-known topics of psychology. It gave me a better understanding of the overall topics within the field because I am now more aware, and have a better understanding, of the origin of the dominating topics and theories.
6a) I would love to learn about more psychologist who were advocates for women in this era and more about how women were able to shed those stereotypical roles and start to be addressed for their value and intellect rather than as just child bearers. The chapter only covered the discrimination and ridiculous ideas about women’s intelligence not how they were able to overcome them and I wish they addressed that topic in more detail.
7) I would just be curious as to other’s opinions on what role the American psychologist played in the overall development of the field and what they feel is the most crucial discovery or development that was contributed to American pioneers.
8) Terminology Used: Matthew Vassar, Vassar College, Thomas Upham, Trilogy of the Mind, concepts, theories
1a) What topic did you find interesting?
1b) Why was it interesting to you?
It was interesting to read about the women’s sphere. The women’s sphere held the idea that women were intellectually inferior to men. The standards they held for women in the previous decades have changed immensely when compared to today’s standards. Back then, it was widely believed a woman’s place was in the home tending to the children and husband, not in the classroom. As time passed, women were allowed in colleges but only in specific areas of study, such as teaching. When we look at the present, women are allowed to study in any area but still may experience the “glass ceiling” when it comes to occupations. I am very passionate about this topic because it is something that I can relate to and have experienced.
2a) What person did you find interesting?
2b) Why were they interesting to you?
I enjoyed reading about Mary Whiton Calkins. She is an interesting character to read about because despite the prejudice and odds against her, she persevered and attended college. And she excelled at it! An interesting fact that I read about her is that she was enrolled in a Philosophy class with four male students. The males dropped out within a few days but Calkins stuck around to learn. She knew what she was passionate about.
3a) What do you think of the overall message of the chapter?
3b) Was it interesting to you? Why or why not?
The overall message of chapter six focused on the transition of psychology from Germany to the United States, the important schools which studied psychology, and the obstacles women and minorities went through to attain an education/conduct research in the field of psychology. It was very interesting to me because I love reading about minorities who rise above the racism and sexism to pursue what they want in life. In high school I wrote a paper about the women’s rights movement, some of what I read in this chapter overlapped what I had previously learned from that research paper project.
4) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?
I think it is very important to understand the sexism and racism that was produced in this era. This chapter explains where we started here in the United States. Prejudice was alive and is at the roots of psychology. It is useful to understand this because some studies could be considered biased considering a majority was conducted by only white males. Often times their subjects were also white males. I can remember reading in the chapter, a Harvard medical professor said it was important for women to not strain their brain with schoolwork because it would affect their reproductive organs. Was this scientifically accurate or was it said as a justification to keep women out of college? Interesting.
5) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to what you have already learned about the History of Psychology or to material you have learned in other classes?
This chapter related a lot to what I have learned and talked about in my Psychology of Gender class. In that class, we have talked about the sexism (and racism) in which psychology is founded on. I am glad this class talks about this because it is a very important topic which needs to be addressed, not ignored or looked over. In some aspects, sexism and racism is still alive. It is important to keep addressing these issues and recognizing how far we have come so we can abolish this issue for the future.
6a) What topic would you like to learn more about?
6b) Why?
I would like to learn more about the topic of Spiritualism. Spiritualist believe that our consciousness survives death and those which have died can be contacted by mediums. I’d like to learn more about it because I want to gather a deeper understand about why people believe in this. More than likely, it’s hard to research in an empirical, scientific way. Do people believe in such an idea as a way to deal with the loss of a loved one or to feel like they are in control of their lives once they pass on?
7) What ideas or questions related to what you were reading did you have while reading the chapter?
Other than my questions about Spiritualism, I did not have any further questions regarding this chapter.
8) Terminology: women’s sphere, Mary Whiton Calkins, Spiritualism.
Word count: 764
1a) What topic did you find interesting?
-The topic I found most interesting out of the chapter was about education for women and minorities.
1b) Why was it interesting to you?
-This topic was interesting since I am bias since I am a female, and also racially mixed. So naturally I thought it was an interesting read that is about my type of gender and race. I also thought Galton’s nature of intelligence was interesting in the last chapter so this topics builds on from that. I was not a fan that he believed that men are naturally more intelligent than us females, and intelligence cannot be due to nurture. I disagree. I am no feminist though, but I do find the topic of women and minorities fascinating. I like that we have come a long way from the “women’s sphere.” It is interesting that some colleges finally allowed women to enroll, but only in classes that “suited” them, like home economics, teaching, nursing, or to become a secretary. I am very pleased that education has grown since then, or else I would not be able to be in this class today. I found the variability of hypothesis interesting as well since I find things I disagree with fascinating, so I can understand it better. I think it is unbelievable that people believed that men had a greater degree of variability than women on a number of traits including intelligence. This ties in with Darwin’s natural selection theory, which has me on the fence if I believe it or not. I also thought that part of this topic was interesting was about the Harvard medical school professor who urged women to abandon education after puberty, since then they’d have too much mental activity, which could lead to reducing their reproductive organs. There was the fear that if women became educated after high school, then they could not reproduce, and then how would our species continue to survive. I just don’t understand how a very intelligent professor could believe such a thing. I guess I am bias, and think that things that influence my minority are interesting since it is part of the group I am affiliated with. We tend to find things interesting that we can identify with.
2a) What person did you find interesting?
-I found William James interesting in this chapter.
2b) Why were they interesting to you?
-James is interesting to me since I like how he was one of the first new psychologists in America. I like reading about people that helped bring and educate our country instead of the typical German or British psychologists. I liked his philosophical position on pragmatism, since I find the topic of free will interesting, since I am a Christian and that is one of the main things we have learned is that God allowed all humans to have free will. The main contributions of James’ research that I found more fascinating was on introspection, consciousness, habits, and the James-Lange theory of emotion. I have studied these things before, but I liked learning more in depth of these topics. I thought it was interesting that he started to become fascinated with spiritualism and studied a Boston medium and found no trickery in her. I’m sure not many were as open-minded to some of these beliefs back in that era, so he stood out to me for these things.
3a) What do you think of the overall message of the chapter?
-I think that it accomplished the objectives of explaining what is was like to study psychology in America prior and post to William James. It also accomplished my understanding of many influential psychologists like James, Stanley Hall, and Mary Whiton Calkins who challenged the male monopoly with others like Christine Ladd-Franklin and Margaret Floy Washburn. I think that the main overall message of the chapter was about bringing psychology to America and educating the minds here in the U.S. All of the people mentioned above helped contribute to modern psychology that we know and study today, and has helped with me understanding why we study the history of psychology.
3b) Was it interesting to you? Why or why not?
-I found most of this chapter interesting since it talked a lot about what psychology was like starting in America and what types of methods that the psychologists came up with that have helped shaped modern psychology. I liked how it also discussed how women and minorities challenged the white male dominance in education. I am appreciative of those people, and I enjoyed learning how and who contributed to the transition. I did not find reading about Miles and the invention of the stylus maze though interesting.
4) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?
-I think that the majority of this chapter has shaped psychology in America and modern psych today. Without knowing who and what contributed to the aspects of psychology, how could we know and build on from their research. I think that personally what really was useful in the understanding of the history of psych was about how women and minorities overcame their suppression from the male monopoly in education. If others never knew how this was accomplished, it could not be perfected and then there would have been no advancement possibly.
5) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to what you have already learned about the History of Psychology or to material you have learned in other classes?
-I actually have learned about each person from this chapter in my other classes, but I do think that the text from this class builds on from what I have learned, and gives more of their biography and more details on their research and theories. Instead of just being like oh yeah I remember hearing that person’s name before, I can actually remember exactly who they are and what contributions that they have made.
6a) What topic would you like to learn more about?
-I would like to learn more about other people that were minorities and their accomplishments in overcoming their suppression back then when it came to education, and how they were treated.
6b) Why?
-I think it is interesting to know more than just a few who really stood out in history. I’m sure there were others who helped with the cause, but did not receive as much recognition as the others. I like to know more than just the jist of who was most important, maybe the less recognized people have a more interesting background of treatment than the others.
7) What ideas or questions related to what you were reading did you have while reading the chapter?
-Why would people believe that women who were educated would not be able to reproduce?
-Also, why would an intelligent professor believe such a thing that I stated up above on my first question? He was a medical professor at Harvard, I would have thought that he would have thought that theory was absurd. So makes me wonder why he would believe such a thing.
-Was coming up with the theory of educated women and lack of reproduction a conspiracy to keep women “in their place” and not try to go on and become just as smart or more intelligent than men?
8) Galton, nature of intelligence, variability hypothesis, Darwin, natural selection, William James, pragmatism, introspection, consciousness, habits, spiritualism, Stanley Hall, Mary Calkins, Christine Ladd-Franklin, Margaret Washburn, Miles/stylus maze, and the James-Lange theory of emotion
word count-1,267
1a) The topic I found the most interesting in this reading was the topic of education for women and the ideas that people had pertaining to this topic.
1b) It was interesting to me first of all because I am a woman. But also, it was interesting for me because of how it still relates to some of the present arguments about the nature of intelligence and learning when comparing men versus women. I felt a little infuriated by the notion that Galton believed men are naturally more intelligent than women. But, it was interesting to see how the differences of sexes has come to adapt to today, although not by much.
2a) I found the section on Matthew Vassar very interesting.
2b) I found him very interesting because he did a lot of work towards women equality, especially by opening up one of the first women's colleges. It is always enjoyable to read about someone who values and strives toward equality.
3a) I think that the overall message of the chapter was to inform the reader about the history of psychology in the United States and to tell who contributed to what was first studied.
3b) I felt that it was very interesting to me because of how the concepts and ideas that they studied are very relevant still and the methods they used have helped to shape what psychology is for us now.
4)I think that the issue of sexism and racism in this time period really influenced a lot of the studies back then, not always contributing solid evidence. To be able to understand that there should be no bias, that is how psychology should be performed, and this history has taught us that it is improper to do that. But, we have to understand that that is how it was back in that time.
5) This chapter relates to what I have learned in my Intro to Psychology class but has never gone back this far and given as much information as this chapter did on American psychology origins. This chapter also slightly relates to my Women and Gender Studies class because of the idea of women being inferior to men and how the development has society has shifted to allow more equal and free thinking.
6a) I would like to learn more about the minorities and how they have overcome some of their oppression in this field.
6b) This topic was not discussed very much and I feel that it would be interesting to learn more about them and to see how their treatment relates to others, such as women.
7) I would like to know how the different eras of psychology changed and if they overlapped in a way. How did things in the psychology field start to change and why was the movement started?
8) nature of intelligence, Galton, Matthew Vassar, sexism, racism, minorities, oppression, eras of psychology
1) I thought that the topic of education for women and minorities was interesting. I always knew that women and minorities were discriminated against, but I never really knew why. I also thought that the idea of the women’s sphere was interesting. This basically meant that women during this time period were socialized to think that their only role in life was to be a wife and a mother. They also had to be happy with these roles. Women were even discouraged from trying to better themselves by going to college or getting a job. At the time, it was thought that having too much mental activity after puberty would cause a degradation of the development of the reproductive system in women. It was also thought at this time that men were more intelligent than women, according to the variability hypothesis.
2) I thought that William James was interesting. He was interesting because he was one of the first psychologists to study new psychology in America. He was an important psychologist, but he wanted to be called a philosopher instead of a psychologist. This was because he thought that psychology wasn’t a real science yet. James also wrote one of the most famous books in psychology, The Principles of Psychology. I also thought that James’s psychological theories were interesting. He thought that the way the consciousness was being studied was completely wrong. Psychologists at that time were thinking of consciousness as pieces that worked together while James thought that consciousness had no pieces. He compared it to a river. James also had an interesting theory on habits. He thought that habits were adaptive. He thought this because habits usually occur automatically, so that our mind can focus on things that were important to survival. The only theory of James’s discussed in the chapter that I had actually heard of was the James-Lange theory of emotion. This theory states that emotions occur from a stimulus. You perceive the stimulus, have an emotion about the stimulus, and then your body reacts to the emotion. He argued that our body reacts before we can process our emotions, and thus we associate bodily reactions with certain emotions.
3) I thought that the overall message of this chapter was to show us how psychology came to America and to show us the transition from old to new psychology. I found it interesting because all of the chapters we have read so far were about psychology in other countries, so it was interesting to see how it came to the country we live in.
4) I thought it was very useful to read the section about education with minorities and women. I think that it is good for everyone to know what was going on in America when new psychology was introduced to the country.
5) I knew that women and minorities were discriminated against, but it was interesting to learn the different reasons why they were discriminated against. It was just good for me to read the entire chapter because I didn’t know anything about how psychology was introduced to America. Really the only thing I knew about prior to reading this chapter was the theories about emotion.
6) I would like to learn more about evolutionary and genetic psychology. I have always found those topics interesting.
7) When reading about women and minorities, I was curious as to how many of them overcame the discrimination and went on to do great things with their lives.
8) education, women, minorities, discrimination, women’s sphere, variability hypothesis, William James, new psychology, The Principles of Psychology, consciousness, habits, emotion, genetic psychology
1a) I found Mary Calkin’s paired associate learning interesting to read about.
1b) I found this topic interesting because I like how this was an idea that is still looked at as true today and that it has to do with our memory. I like how she went over the odds to come up with this great idea.
2a) I found William James interesting.
2b) William James was interesting to me because he contributed a lot to the world of psychology and most of his ideas stuck. I think the ideas he researched were very interesting, especially the ideas of feelings and reasonings. I like how his ideas were very popular and he helped write a bestselling book on the ideas and concepts of psychology with Henry Holt and then wrote a smaller version of it later called Psychology: The Briefer Course.
3a) Overall I really liked reading this chapter because it seems to explain the time where psychology kind of turns into the modern psychology we have now. There are still people uncovering ideas and such but it’s showing the turn of psychology.
3b) I liked reading this chapter a lot because I like seeing how psychology has changed from what we have been reading so far this semester. It interests me that females are now being more known in the world of psychology and their ideas are being heard.
4) I think reading about the developmental aspect of psychology will help me understand the history more because I can see where people have learned from their mistakes with certain things. Learning about the findings developmental psychology can help me see that there are positives and negatives from each finding and history can teach me when and how to use ideas effectively. It tells us how we got to where we are now and gives us building blocks to go off of.
5) This chapter relates to previous classes because I have learned about Mary Calkins before. Other classes that deal with psychology bring up Mary Calkins and her contributions but I never knew the extent of her troubles within the science world. She had a lot of hardships about being a woman and stood up for herself by not settling for less than what she deserved. For example, she never got her PhD.
6a) I would like to learn more about the Baldwin effect.
6b) I would like to learn more about the Baldwin effect because I know I have heard this term before in classes throughout high school but I want to know why it was so important to the psychology world. I want to know more specifically what it is and how it has impacted our world.
7) When I was reading this chapter I kept having the idea and thought that there was a lot of ideas and findings during this period by many different people and they all had a significant impact on the way we see psychology. There were a lot of terms covered in this chapter that I had never heard of before so reading this chapter helped me understand more.
8) Terms: Baldwin effect, Mary Calkins, paired associate learning, William James, Henry Holt, Psychology: The Briefer Course
1a) What topic did you find interesting?
I found the "doll study" interesting.
1b) Why was it interesting to you?
I found it very interesting that given the choice children choose the white colored skin doll over the dark colored skin doll. It was also very sad to me that when given a choice to draw themselves children also tended to draw themselves in a lighter skin color than what they actually had. I believe I also found it so interesting because it allowed researchers to see the negative affects of segregation on children and their self esteem.
2a) What person did you find interesting?
William James
2b) Why were they interesting to you?
William James was interesting to me because of the textbook that he was able to write that became the most famous that he was able to write. He write the Principles to Psychology, this work was thousands of pages long and had had endless information in the book. I also found him most interesting because he acknowledged even by the end of his life that in order for psychology to be its own science it would take more work and innovation for it to get there.
3a) What do you think of the overall message of the chapter?
I think that the overall message of this chapter was the innovation in the United States and the progression of education and how it furthered psychology. The chapter also really focuses on women and the innovation in the psychology field from those women.
3b) Was it interesting to you? Why or why not?
This chapter was very interesting to me and I felt that I connected to it better than any of the other chapters simply because I was able to connect to the location of where the colleges were and where most of the process happened.
4) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?
I think reading about how minorities struggled during the time in regard to education and how many of the findings that minorities made changed how we look at psychology. This is very important to the history of psychology because I believe this helps us understand the we can be wrong in our assumptions and findings and that there is always need for innovation and re-examinations of our ideas.
5) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to what you have already learned about the History of Psychology or to material you have learned in other classes?
This chapter really built on previous aspects of the text in this class for example reaction time studies we talked about in this class before, also the ideas about comparative psychology. I have also heard a lot about the doll studies but it really built on the concept of why it was so important to understand how segregation negatively effects self concept.
6a) What topic would you like to learn more about?
I would like to learn more about what genetic psychology was
6b) Why?
Hall's ideas about genetic psychology seem to relate a lot to what we learned about last class in terms of evolution. I also have never heard of the term genetic psychology so I would like to learn more about where Hall got the idea from and why we no longer stress the idea or category of genetic psychology.
7) What ideas or questions related to what you were reading did you have while reading the chapter?
One of my main questions revolves around women in psychology. This chapter really focuses on women, where in the past two chapters specifically the one focusing on Germany no women were mentioned. My question is were women in psychology or was it truly the United States were women were predominately starting to work in psychology.
8) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post
Doll studies, evolution, genetic psychology, comparative psychology.
1a) What topic did you find interesting? 1b) Why was it interesting to you?
I found it very interesting that there were a set of beliefs about the women’s sphere, an integrated set of concepts centering on the idea of woman as wife and mother. Nineteenth century women were taught to believe that they were created for the purpose of perpetuating the family. A Harvard medical professor gave what he thought was a valid scientific reason for women not to pursue a degree after high school, which was that too much mental activity after that stage could retard the development of their reproductive organs. He continued to make the point that if education could reduce the chances of bearing children, then what would happen to the human species if too many women pursued higher education? It was considered to be out of the question for women to pursue a higher education. I thought this was very interesting because immediately when I read that I was just like what, why in the world would people believe that? But then I started thinking and decided that there is probably something a large amount of us believe now, or are being told to believe, that we will disprove in the future. We might think people were crazy for believing it too, when now it seems completely normal.
2a) What person did you find interesting? 2b) Why were they interesting to you?
I found Kenneth and Mamie Phipps Clark very interesting people, because of their accomplishments and the circumstances under which they achieved them. They both earned their bachelor’s and master’s degree from Howard University. As a research team, they played a role in Brown vs. Board of Education decision in 1954. In that 7-0 decision, the court ruled that “in the field of public education the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.” The Clarks contributed their research showing that segregation in schools had adverse effects on minority children. I thought it was fantastic that not only did they pursue degrees in higher education, but they also did significant research that contributed to doing away with segregation in public schools.
3a) What do you think of the overall message of the chapter? 3b) Was it interesting to you? Why or why not?
Overall this chapter talked a lot about the new psychology that was developing, how women and people of color were able to overcome the educational oppression and pursue a higher degree past high school and really contribute a lot to psychology and other fields. It is interesting to me because feel like this chapter has a lot of very inspiring people that not only made incredible discoveries but also didn’t get to that point easily.
4) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology? Its great to understand where psychology came from and how it got started, for example how introduction to psychology classes and books came about and what they are based off of. Thomas Upham is credited as the author of the first American psychology book, which eventually evolved into those introduction to psychology books.
5) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to what you have already learned about the History of Psychology or to material you have learned in other classes? This chapter finally focuses on when psychology reached America, but first we had to know where it originally started and what they had already discovered.
6a) What topic would you like to learn more about? 6b) Why?
I thought the information in the book about habits was very interesting and wouldn’t mind learning more about their adaptive function, and how they occurred more or less automatically to enable consciousness to focus attention on other more important problems.
7) What ideas or questions related to what you were reading did you have while reading the chapter? I wondered what life was like for Kenneth and Mamie Phipps Clark and if they ran into a lot of prejudice and oppression, and how difficult it was for them to persevere under such circumstances to be able to accomplish such great things.
8) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
women’s sphere
new psychology
adaptive function
consciousness
Kenneth and Mamie Phipps Clark
Thomas Upham
1a) One topic I found interesting in this week's chapter was paired-associate learning.
1b) I found this to be interesting because it was a method of memorization and was invented by Calkins, a female psychologist. She would pair numbers and colors together and see how good recall was. She found that the three main factors in determining how well something was recalled was primacy, frequency, vividness, and recency. She also took all these factors and tested which one was the very best for recall and found that frequency was the best. This went along with William James' research and helped show how practice matters a lot and how it can help form habits.
2a) The person I found to be the most interesting was Mary Whiton Calkins.
2b) I found her to be the most interesting because she was one of the pioneers of psychology especially regarding women. Calking helped a lot in advanced training in education for women since there was little available at the time. She also expanded a lot on William James' ideas as well as other people's ideas at this time and helped improve psychology in this way as well. One of her main contributions was the idea of self psychology. This again was off of William James who said that psychology was about mental life and processes but Calkins added on the aspect of self. She also shifted her focus toward including philosophy as well in her studies.
3a) I think the overall message of the chapter was to show how psychology came from a later time period and started to advance and become new psychology. It also showed how it came to America and the pioneers of psychology in America who helped further advance what psychology is all about. It also highlighted some women who were very important in the development of psychology as well.
4) I think the thing that will be most useful in learning about the history of psychology from this chapter will be how psychology grew and what contributions Americans made. I also think it is important to recognize the women who helped psychology because a lot of the time the men are highlighted, such as in the great man theory, yet women also significantly contributed to psychology as we know it today as well. I think the past chapter have shown the past of psychology and how it was developing in other countries but now we get to see it from an American perspective, one we know better, and see who contributed here and what they did to further advance psychology.
5) This chapter built on what I had learned about a lot when it came to William James. I had definitely heard about him and studied him in some of my previous psychology classes but they did not go in depth as much as this chapter did. I also thought it helped a lot to hear about Calkins (who I had not known much about before) and show how many of her ideas stemmed from James thought. Many of the women in this chapter I really had not heard about at all and that kind of got me thinking because I felt that they perhaps should have more recognition and this should not be the first class I heard about them and their contributions in.
6a) The topic I would like to learn more about is the James-Lange theory of emotion.
6b) I thought this topic sounded really interesting because I like to learn about emotions and how they work and what the science is behind all of that. I found it interesting in the book to be reminded how often our heart beat speeds up and then we feel fearful and how our body knows how we feel and then we consciously recognize the feeling or emotion. I always find this so interesting how the body connects to the mind and which aspects come first. I think it would be interesting to do more research on this and see how these studies were done and what findings came out of this work.
7) The only questions I really thought about while reading this chapter were wondering more about emotions and that theory as well as why the contributions of women seem to be more overlooked in psychology than those of men.
8) James-Lange theory of emotion, Calkins, William James, self psychology, paired-associate learning.
1a) What topic did you find interesting?
I found how developmental psychology was developed to be interesting.
1b) Why was it interesting to you?
I have always found developmental psychology to be interesting. I never knew how it started or who it was started by. I learned in this chapter that both Hall and Baldwin were both considered founders of developmental psychology.
2a) What person did you find interesting?
I found Mary Calkins to be interesting.
2b) Why were they interesting to you?
I found her interesting because of the fact that she was a woman that was able to succeed in a time when women were thought to be inferior to men. I thought it was interesting to learn how she got her education and how she was give the opportunity to attend school but she wasn’t a student. I found her work on paired-associate learning to be interesting. She was building off of the previous research done by Ebbinghaus. She would show people numbers and colors and would then show people colors and see if they could recall the numbers associated with the color.
3a) What do you think of the overall message of the chapter?
I thought the overall message of the chapter was interesting.
3b) Was it interesting to you? Why or why not?
I thought it was interesting because it was a focus on how psychology started in America. This chapter was all about American psychologists. All the other chapters before this were all about foreign psychologists. I find it interesting to learn about psychologists that were from the same country as me. William James was interesting because I had never heard of him but people rank him as one of the most influential psychologists. I thought it was interesting that he challenged the idea of new psychology. It was interesting that he came up with his own theories on emotion called the James-Lang theory of emotion. I found it cool to learn about how the APA was developed and that it was developed so long ago.
4) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?
I think learning about what contributions Americans made to psychology. If I know what Americans were able to contribute then I can have a better understand of how psychology grew here. I also have somewhat of an understanding of how psychology grew in the academic settings in America.
5) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to what you have already learned about the History of Psychology or to material you have learned in other classes?
As I stated above it shows what Americans were able to bring to psychology. It showed how we took what other people were doing and developed it here. Americans were also able to come up with new ideas and theories and challenge the other countries.
6a) What topic would you like to learn more about?
I would like to learn more about paired-associate learning.
6b) Why?
I find it very interesting that Calkins was able to come up with this theory. She didn’t get the best education and men thought that she was inferior to them and yet she came up with this theory that we still use today. I would like to learn more about what she did and how she tested it.
7) What ideas or questions related to what you were reading did you have while reading the chapter?
8) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post. Developmental psychology, G. Stanley Hall, Baldwin, Mary Calkins, Ebbinghaus, paired-associate learning, William James, James-Lang theory of emotion, new psychology, APA.
1) One topic that I found interesting in this chapter is William James ideas of consciousness. I find this topic interesting because of how James changed the idea of what consciousness was originally perceived. Before consciousness was perceived as being a collection of individual parts that psychologists could study individually. I feel like this was the accepted idea because consciousness is a complicated topic and by breaking it down into individual parts that can be studied individually makes it much simpler and easier to grasp. James countered this idea by comparing consciousness to a river in that consciousness flows rather than it being a set thing. James also included 5 attributes to consciousness; it is personal, constantly changing, sensibly continuous, selective, and active.
2) An individual who I found interesting was Mary Calkins. I found her interesting because of the barriers that she broke down in the field and her work with paired-associated learning. She was able to become the first female president of the American Psychological Association and the American Philosophical Associated. As far as her work goes, she is credited with creating the creation of a memory procedure with paired associated learning. She did this by pairing colors with numbers and the subjects had to recall the number responses when they were shown the color that it was initially paired with.
3) I think that the overall message of this chapter was to highlight the works and advancement of American psychology. The previous chapter hit on how German psychology added to the field and was kind of the base for modern psychology and I feel that this chapter showed how the field is expanding to the United States and the individuals who continued to build of the field. To me, this chapter was not that interesting to be. Reading about individuals does not really interest me so this chapter was kind of boring. Reading chapters that cover concepts and how they are applied are the ones that interest me the most
4) I think that a topic in this chapter that can be most useful is Mary Calkins and her creation of paired-associated learning. I think that this is going to help me learn more about the history of psychology because this is a technique that is still used today so I can only assume that this technique has been tweaked and modified throughout the years.
5) This chapter added to my knowledge of psychology by discussing anther view of consciousness. Everything that psychology majors learn early on is the Freud approach to consciousness and how there is a sexual theme to it and that it can be broken down into basic elements. After reading about William James, I learned about a new perspective on consciousness and that it can be thought of as always changing and more flowing than a set thing.
6) One topic that I would like to learn more about is James and his work with consciousness. I feel that the textbook went over a brief over view of his work with this concept and I would like to learn more about his ideas on the matter, how the differed from other psychologist, and how his ideas of consciousness changed the field of psychology and how we view consciousness today.
7) Why was it so difficult for women to attend Harvard back during this time? How did German work in the field of psychology make its way over to the United States and did that change Germany being the leader in modern psychology?
8) Terms: William James, Mary Calkins, consciousness, Freud, paired associated learning, American Psychological Association, memory
1a) I found the topic of spiritualism to be interesting from this chapter.
1b) I found spiritualism to be interesting to me because it is still something that is prominent in our world today. Spiritualism is the belief that consciousness survived death and that those who died could be contacted by mediums, who could then convey messages from the dead to the living. Today, we have TV shows that pertain to this subject, which has only increased it’s popularity even more. The thing I found most interesting is that William James wanted to try to study this from the viewpoint of a psychologist who is well educated about how the mind works.
2a) The person I found to be most interesting was Stanley Hall.
2b) I found Hall to be interesting because of all that he accomplished for the field of psychology. He is credited with creating the first experimental psychology laboratory in America, and founded the American Journal of Psychology. Hall focused on experimental psychology in his early years and conducted a great deal of research, but in the mid-1890’s he began to have an interest in evolution and supported research in comparative psychology. His work with comparative psychology resulted in Hall creating a piece of laboratory equipment that is still considered standard today, the maze. He also made contributions to developmental psychology and psychoanalysis.
3a) The overall message of this chapter was that American’s have made great contributions to the field of psychology.
3b) I found the overall message of this chapter to be interesting because even though America is a relatively young country, we are still able to produce citizens that can make contributions that make impacts all over the world.
4) The creation of William James’ The Principles of Psychology is what struck me as being the most helpful in understanding the history of psychology. This encyclopedia gave a definition of psychology and explanation of psychological processes and phenomena and circumstances in which they occur. This text was extremely popular when it was first published and is still widely used in psychology courses today.
5) Topics that were discussed in this chapter I have learned about in previous courses such as: the James-Lang theory of emotion, spiritualism, The Principles of Psychology textbook, consciousness, and Mary Whiton Calkins. I have heard or learned about all of these topics in other psychology courses, but only learned the basics of each one. Reading about these topics in this chapter gave me a better understanding of why we still need to learn about them today, and how they came to be such a contribution to the history of psychology.
6a) I would like to learn more about James Mark Baldwin.
6b) I would like to learn more about Baldwin because of his work with general learning abilities and the process of evolution. There is a strong connection between these two things that I find to be very interesting.
7) Did Baldwin perform any more research dealing with learning? or was his main focus evolutionary theories? What prompted the psychology popularity in America? If there were not great advancements made during this time, would psychology still be at the point it is today?
8) Terms: spiritualism, William James, Stanley Hall, experimental psychology, evolution, comparative psychology, developmental psychology, psychoanalysis, American Journal of Psychology, James-Lang theory of emotion, James Mark Baldwin, general learning abilities.
1a) I found the research on mazes to be interesting.
1b) I found this interesting because I think mazes are cool and using them for psychological research would be fun to see or carry out. Rats were first used in mazes by William Small from Clark University. They were studying the rats home finding skills using the Hampton Court maze design, which was a maze in England made of six foot tall hedges. It makes me think of Harry Potter and I would love to try and find my way through a maze like that someday. Small made three 6 x 8 ft mazes with walls made of wire mesh. With his observations he came to the conclusion that tactile motor sensations were the most important factor for the rats recognition and discrimination used in forming the specific associations to find their "homes".
2a) I found Mary Whiton Calkins to be the most interesting person of this chapter.
2b) I found her interesting because of her refusal to accept the honorary PhD that Radcliffe college tried to reward her with. Harvard wouldn't give her one because she was a women. When she "attended" Harvard the men that were originally in her class all dropped out because there was a women in their class. She studied and worked under many famous psychologists including William James and Hugo Münsterberg. She went further than ordinary self-observation with her research on frequency, recency, vividness, and primacy. She also stated that laboratory results might not be representative of ordinary trains of association, meaning that just because a certain result was found in the lab doesn't mean that it has real world applications. She was also the first female to be president of both APA's.
3a) I think the overall message of this chapter is about forming the new psychology in America and the pioneers of this time.
3b) I think it was somewhat interesting. There were so many people at the time making discoveries, the chapter talked about hints of a multiple with the mazes, showing that there were many brilliant minds.
4) I think the most important thing to take away from this chapter is how people upon each others ideas.
5) This chapter adds and continues on what we have learned about like the new psychology and I think it just continues to develop out understanding of how psychology came to be what it is today.
6a) The topic of Spiritualism is something I wouldn't mind learning more about. They believed that the dead kept their consciousness and could be contacted in the after life by mediums. This is something James stood by even after he was ridiculed for believing in it.
6b) I wouldn't mind learning more about it because I believe in the same concept.
7) My ideas and questions deal with spiritualism. There was evidence that James found that supported and refuted the concept of mediums. I don't like that one phony can ruin things for people with true ability.
Terms: Mazes, Clark University, William Small, Mary Whiton Calkins, William James, Hugo Munsterberg, APA's, new psychology, multiple, spiritualism, mediums
1a) What topic did you find interesting?
I found developmental psych interesting
1b) Why was it interesting to you?
I want to work with kids when I finish school. I found developmental psych interesting mainly because it relates to what I want to do and I felt like it was something that I actually needed to know for a change.
2a) What person did you find interesting?
Mary Whiton Calkins
2b) Why were they interesting to you?
I found Calkins interesting because you often times don’t hear about women in history. It was so difficult for them to make movements at all possible because of the gender discrimination that I find it very empowering when I do see a woman make a change in history.
3a) What do you think of the overall message of the chapter?
I think the main message of this chapter is to explain much of the early part of psychology. It talks about the American people who made contributions to psychology and what exactly they did.
3b) Was it interesting to you? Why or why not?
I found it semi-interesting. I liked that it showed strictly American contributions. I think many times we do not take the time to consider what Americans do to contribute to history and society as we know it. When we take the time to do so I think it sets it apart from all other founders.
4) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?
I think that learning about the first textbook is beneficial to my learning of psychology. It might not give a huge sense of how certain things in psych developed, but it helped me understand how they formed it into a book.
5) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to what you have already learned about the History of Psychology or to material you have learned in other classes?
I wouldn’t say it really builds on what I have learnt so far. I think that it relates to other classes for the sole purpose of learning how things come together and get organized to learn others and the different areas of psychology.
6a) What topic would you like to learn more about?
I would like to learn more about the women in history.
6b) Why?
I think that learning about how women made their mark in history is so intriguing. They all have such different backgrounds and often times were rather sneaky as to how they were able to reach their accomplishments. It may sound cliché, but I find it so empowering to see women break through at a time where they were viewed so differently than in today’s world. It makes me thankful for them pushing to allow for us women to have a different way of life now.
7) What ideas or questions related to what you were reading did you have while reading the chapter?
Do any of these people have any relation to one another? Like did ideas of one pioneer spark ideas and theories in others?
8) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post
• developmental psych
• Mary Whiton Calkins
• first textbook
• women in history
1a) What topic did you find interesting?
The topic that I found most interesting was paired-associate learning.
1b) Why was it interesting to you?
I thought that this topic was interesting because it built off of some of the information I had already learned when I researched Ebbinghaus and his learning and forgetting curves. This research done initially by Mary Calkins was interesting first because it was done experimentally with more than one subject, thus giving it potentially more credibility. Secondly, it hit on the brain’s ability to form associations which is a major factor in an individual’s ability to accurately recall information. Not only did she test the recency, primacy, and frequency effects but also that of associating two stimuli with each other in order to aid in recall. It also surprised me that when paired-association was done both simultaneously and successively, there was no difference in one’s ability to repeat the information. Finally, I was interested in this type of learning because the experiments performed relating to the subject have shown that frequency may be the most important factor acting on the ability to remember information. This, in my mind, reinforces certain learning tools such as doing times tables over and over again or practicing flash cards.
2a) What person did you find interesting?
The person I found most interesting was William James.
2b) Why were they interesting to you?
James, the focus of this chapter, was interesting to me for several reasons. First, it intrigued me that the boy who would grow into such an influential man did not attend much school in his early years. Instead, it seems that other experiences such as study abroad or the learning of a new language can also contribute to one’s intelligence and success later in life. I also found it interesting that despite his large influence on psychology, especially new psychology in America, James did not hold the highest view of the field. He didn’t even want to be considered a psychologist which I found slightly ironic. Even more surprising to me was that even though he seemed to bring experimental psychology to America, he was often bored with laboratory work, even going so far as to call this method the brass instrument psychology. Given how highly regarded he was in the field of experimental psychology, it was interesting to me that he preferred introspection and took a more empiricist view of the field than many of his contemporaries. This was most evident in his opinions on consciousness which he believed could not be studied in a lab but had to be looked at through experience only. What I most admire after reading about William James, however, is his pragmatic nature. He was one to ask the question that often forms the basis of many of our class discussions, “so what?” It was these questions exactly which led him and others to further research and to a true understanding of various research findings. After all, a conclusion is much more important if we can understand its purpose in our lives and the world.
3a) What do you think of the overall message of the chapter?
I think that there were several messages in this chapter all of which I found rather important to my knowledge of history. Through this chapter I was able to see the rise of the modern education system in America, how experimental psychology gained ground in the States, and the various obstacles faced by those pursuing degrees in psychology especially women and minorities. These are all very relevant to today, so I actually enjoyed reading through this chapter.
3b) Was it interesting to you? Why or why not?
The message was very interesting to me. I liked how the author included a brief background of what education and the field of psychology looked like in the States before the rise of experimental psychology. It was important to see that it took a lot of effort from many men and women to even establish psychology programs in this country which could compete with the rest of the world. To read about these people, their background and accomplishments, really makes the history of psychology more personal. Finally, I was interested in the message of this chapter as it made a point to speak to the adversity faced by minorities and women of the time. This just helped me put their accomplishments into perspective as well.
4) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?
I think the most important part of this chapter to me was coming to understand that the rise of experimental psychology in America was not an easy one. More than the names and eventual contributions is the work that went into building the foundation of the field. Remembering this going forward is going to be most important for me as it gives me perspective on the field.
5) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to what you have already learned about the History of Psychology or to material you have learned in other classes?
The previous chapter discussed the development of experimental psychology in Europe, particularly Germany, and this chapter simply expands that development to America. It was helpful to have already learned about the rise of new psychology elsewhere as this had a large influence on the development in America. Because of this, many of the experiments discussed in this chapter related to previously discussed research.
6a) What topic would you like to learn more about?
I would like to learn more about spiritualism.
6b) Why?
The topic of spiritualism has always been of interest to me. This is a whole other realm which I do not have much knowledge of including the use of mediums. I know that mediums still practice, so I was wondering what populations tend to be interested in contracting the services of a medium and the powers that they claim inform their work.
7) What ideas or questions related to what you were reading did you have while reading the chapter?
As I was reading the section about Brown v Board of Education, the author mentioned that psychological research played a role in the ultimate decision to end segregation. I was wondering what other major cases have also called on the field of psychology and the role of psychological research in the courtroom.
8) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Paired-associate learning, Mary Calkins, William James, brass instrument psychology, introspection, consciousness, pragmatism, spiritualism, mediums, new psychology
1a) The topic that I found interesting was the section of cats in puzzle boxes.
1b) This was interesting to me, because I always find experiments that use animals to be entertaining. The fact that testing animals to find out more about humans has always helped me to understand psychology better, so when he said that cats used trial and error learning, I have and have seen many other people use this type of learning too.
2a) The person that I found interesting was Edward Thorndike.
2b) Thorndike was interesting to me because of the experiments he did. Like I stated in question 1b, I have always learned about psychology better when I can learn about the experiments that have been done on cats, and then relating them to humans. It is an ethical and interesting way to do experiments, and Thorndike did several of them. So, when I read through his section of chapter 7 and it talked about the experiments he did with the chicks and the cats, I was really interested in the work and the results of his work.
3a) I think the overall message of the chapter was distinguishing structuralism from functionalism.
3b) I would say that the message was interesting. The reason I think it was interesting, was because defining these two words was an important part of psychology's history. The more I read in this class the more I understand where certain theories and experiments originate from, and these theories and experiments help us get to where we are and how much we know today, which is pretty interesting to me.
4) The thing I read in the chapter that I think will most help me understand psychology's history is when it differentiated structuralism from functionalism, like I said in question 3a and b. The reason I think this is because people who were structuralists asked the question what is consciousness, and people who were functionalists asked what is consciousness used for? These types of questions led people to study a broad range of psychology topics, and led them to individual differences and how psychology could be used to solve everyday problems.
5) This chapter builds on what I have previously learned about the history of psychology, because in the last chapter, people were beginning to experiment and test on heredity of humans, and figure out ways to get the best humans possible, specifically Galton's theory on eugenics. Now in this chapter, we have moved away from that, and tried to focus more on the human brain and why everyone is different and what makes people do the things they do. So, scientists are building off what other people have done to find out new ways to understand why we do the things we do.
6a) The topic that I would like to learn more about is the main elements of conscious experiment.
6b) The reason that I would like to learn more about this topic, is because of the main elements that make up consciousness, which is sensation, images, and affects. The way that these three things are described in the book is pretty interesting, and it would be cool to learn more about and be able to understand my own conscious.
7) One idea I always have when I think about the conscious is if people perceive and see things the way that I do. You really only know what is going on in your own mind, and can only process the things you see, and I always just wonder if people see things exactly the way that I do. I think it's pretty safe to say they perceive it the exact way that I do, so it would be cool to see how other people think and process things in their minds.
8) Terms: Conscious, sensations, images, affects, Galton, Eugenics, Thorndike, structuralism, functionalism
1a) A topic I found interesting was women education pre and post civil war.
1b) I think it was interesting because it shows just how far women have come, but it also shows how much progress there is left. I think it was interesting to learn about the “woman’s sphere.” We’ve all heard the jokes about a “woman’s place”, but it was interesting to hear about just how these jokes came to be. I also thought that it was interesting that researchers would skew their results or just choose not to believe them if they weren’t in line with the researcher’s beliefs.
2a) The person I found interesting was William James.
2b) I thought he was interesting because he was relatable. William James wasn’t completely sure what he wanted to do with his life, so he went to different colleges, all with different specialties. He eventually pursued a career in psychology. He wrote The Principles of Psychology, which took him 12 years to complete. He then wrote a condensed version of it called Psychology: The Briefer Course.
3a) I think that the overall message of this chapter was to teach us about how psychology came to the United States and how it was received.
3b) I thought it was interesting because it gave us a view of psychology that was closer to home. It was interesting because they talked about how it interacted with major points in US history, such as the Civil War. I also thought it was interesting because it gave examples of people who rose above their predicaments and became professors at different colleges.
4) I think that the most useful thing in the understanding of the history of psychology was the way that universities taught psychology and how the students learned psychology. It shows how much psychology has grown and how much it has expanded. In this chapter we read about some of the first labs in classrooms, now we have labs in all different classrooms, and many different types of labs.
5) I think that this chapter builds on what we have learned in other classes about Kenneth and Mamie Phipps Clark, who conducted the doll study. I had heard about this study in a different class, but I had not heard about who conducted the experiment or any of their backgrounds. I think that knowing their backgrounds and understanding who they are makes the study a little more clear, even if we only know their names, what college they came from, and what they looked like.
6a) I would like to learn more about the topic of the doll study.
6b) I would like to know if there were follow-ups and what their results were. I would also like to know more about the study, such as the participants and how long they were given to answer their questions.
7) Many of my questions revolved around the question of, why did men think that women who received a higher education would not be able to reproduce? Why did the women have to do all of the household duties, while the men were the only ones able to further educate themselves?
8) “Woman’s sphere,” William James, The Principles of Psychology, Psychology: The Briefer Course, Kenneth and Mamie Phipps, doll study.
RA7
1a) Habits.
1b)William James wrote a book on psychology that extended over 1400 pages. I haven’t had the opportunity or time to read this book, but based off the section read I would want to first examine the pages of habits. I am curious how habits evolve and dissipate. With this would include the topic of motivation which is an all-time favorite for me.
2a) William James
2b) Learning about James’ father makes me think about how I would want to raise my kids. James was taught to follow his own passion in life. I would think that I would also want to teach my kids the same concept. James life in general was inspiring for me because of his philosophical background. He is a deep thinker and I want to know how deep he goes.
3a) The overall message was the growth of psychology in America. This section showed us the men who contributed and how psychology was able to grow in a time period where new ideas weren’t accepted very easy.
3b) It was interesting because I like to learn about the process. I learn a new perspective along with a new respect for the topic that I have learned to love over the years. This chapter has helped me learn just how much goes into the accomplishment that the men who fathered psychology endured.
4) When I read about the faculty psychology I learned about the different perspectives. I read about the tree concept and how the different men viewed the tree. This made me think about psychology and why people study what they do. I can only imagine the continuous arguments that people must have when they talk with others in their line of work.
5) This chapter mostly reminds me of empirical studies in research methods. When I think about the credibility of the people in the chapter I think about what people have to prove before people accept what they say. I can only picture the frustration I would have when people would deny what I said and make up some other reason for what I believe to be true. But it’s all about following the correct process and following the studies in a way that presents factual information.
6a) I want to look more into what James thinks about motivation I am curious of what his perspective is.
6b) I am curious about motivation and what he thinks motivation should be used for. I like learning about new perspectives in motivation and what methods should be examined the most
7) Agassiz and James had opposite views regarding Darwinian thinking. I am curious why they went on the journey they did and if there was any friction during the journey.
8) Terminology: William James, Agassiz, Faculty Psychology
1a) What topic did you find interesting?
1b) Why was it interesting to you?
I found the James-Lange theory of emotion to be interesting because this was one of the first looks at how emotions work. They asked the question “do bodily reactions happen first then the emotions hit or is it the other way around?” I am very interested in emotions and I find it interesting that the James-Lange Theory still holds true today. “Bodily changes that are the emotions are felt immediately upon the perception of an emotion-arousing stimulus,” (p. 152) is an example of what William James thought about emotions and the way they happen.
2a) What person did you find interesting?
2b) Why were they interesting to you?
I found Mary Calkins interesting because she fought for her education, and developed the first procedure to study memory called paired-associate learning. I also find this interesting because I think memory and improving memory is interesting and she took what Ebbinghaus did and expanded upon it by evaluating more people. I also think the fact that she was bi-lingual and fought to get into Stanford and Harvard is interesting because if she hadn’t fought to get an education, things might have been different for women trying to get an education now.
3a) What do you think of the overall message of the chapter?
I think the overall message of the chapter was how the expansion of education in the United States also lead to the expansion of psychology. The growth of education, getting more schools, having schools for women and minorities, and making more psychology laboratories seemed like it all happened around the same time and if that had not happened, where would we be today?
3b) Was it interesting to you? Why or why not?
I found this interesting because it hits closer to home. The fact that women and minorities had to fight for their education is interesting to me because if they hadn’t fought, it would be hard to imagine where we would be without their discoveries. I like playing the “What if,” game when it comes to the United States side of history because our country is so young. Since all of psychology is relatively young, what if Mary Calkins couldn’t get into graduate school? How far behind would we be in memory research if it wouldn’t have been for her?
4) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?
I think reading about the expansion of education, graduate schools, and more opportunities for women and minorities in the psychology field will be the most useful in understanding the history of psychology because if Calkins, Kenneth and Mamie Phipps Clark (the people who found that segregation of schools had adverse effects on minority children), and Christine Ladd-Franklin (woman who fought for more psychology positions for women) would have never stood up for what they believed in, psychology and education would be drastically different. Since they were willing to stand up to people, psychology and education is what it is today.
5) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to what you have already learned about the History of Psychology or to material you have learned in other classes?
I already knew that women and minorities had it rough when it came to U.S. history but this chapter really brought out how bad it was. Also I didn’t know how bad the lack of graduate schools was and the fact that the expansion of education also brought on the expansion of psychology in the United States.
6a) What topic would you like to learn more about?
6b) Why?
I would like to learn more about James and his investigations on Mrs. Leonore Piper the Boston medium and the spiritualism movement. I am interested in this because I want to know how the studies were done and why there hasn’t been proof saying that this phenomenon does or doesn’t happen. I am really interested in this kind of thing because paranormal things spark curiosity and disproving paranormal things is interesting too because if Mrs. Leonore Piper was a fake, how did she get so many people to believe her?
7) What ideas or questions related to what you were reading did you have while reading the chapter?
Why have people stopped investigating the spiritualism aspect of psychology? If so many people are claiming to have powers of some sort, shouldn’t we be investigating them to make sure they don’t have some sort of schizophrenia or even manic episodes?
8) Terms: James-Lange Theory of emotions, William James, Mary Calkins, paired-association learning, Ebbinghaus, Kenneth and Mamie Phipps Clark, Christine Ladd-Franklin, Spiritualism movement.
1. I found the topic of spiritualism to be interesting from this chapter because it is not very common to see such a serious field of study such as psychology delve into a rather controversial field. Mediums and psychics are a field that even today lacks true validity with some cretics, and to read about a major contributors interest in the field raises a lot of questions. It was also interesting to learn that it's popularity grew/ came into existence after a great tragedy such as the civil war.
2. I found William James to be interesting because of his wide range of studies. Just with his early work in composing his book he looked into topics such as; consciousness, which he defined as a flow rather than chopped up separate pieces, emotion where he developed his theory with Lange changed the idea of what emotions are, that are bodies react first, then emotions set in. Even his later work is fascinating, where he delved into the murky world of spiritualism.
3. I think the overall message of this chapter was to focus on the advances that took place in the U.S., and how the transition form old thought to new was slowly being made. This chapter was interesting to me because it is very interesting to see where modern psychology began in its infancy.
4.I think this entire chapter showing the transition of thought in psychology is an excellent example of understanding the importance of history in psychology. To see that a change in thought can and has happened is an eery thought, and thinking about when and if it has even happened already in our society is even more so.
5.This chapter expanded on my knowledge from a previous chapter by going into more depth about Mary Calkins life, work, and struggle.
6. I would like to learn more about James' theory of emotion. While I can some what grasp the definition he gave in his own book, I don't know if I am completely understanding it because I am finding myself not agreeing with his ideas.
7. Reading about all the work that was being done in this time period made me wonder what sort of leaps forward is happening in our own society.
8. Spiritualism, William James, consciousness, James-Lange theory of emotion
1a) A topic that I found interesting was the James-Lange Theory of Emotion.
1b) This topic was interesting to me because I remember learning about it in my high school psychology class. It talks about how emotions are reactions to an event that elicited the response. However the Cannon-Bard Theory states that we experience the arousal and the emotion both at the same time. I have learned about both of these many times, but I still don’t know which one I agree more with.
2a) The person that I found most interesting is Mary Whiton Calkins.
2b) The reason why I found Calkins the most interesting is because you don’t really hear much about women psychologists in textbooks. Most of the time, it’s men and what they have contributed to the field. She also actually developed important ideas like the paired-associate learning and self-psychology.
3a) I think the overall message of the chapter was talking about how the field of psychology shifted from being intellectual or mental philosophy to becoming the “New Psychology” by incorporating research laboratories and revolutionary ideas.
3b) It was a little interesting to me because it talked about how women added to psychology. However, the rest of the chapter was still more about history and people and terms and definitions and all the stuff that I dislike about history.
4) I believe that this chapter can help us understand the history of psychology better because it shows how history has developed over time. New ideas come about and then they spin off of each other and add onto what has already been discovered. Without the history, and understanding what we already know, we are not able to move forward.
5) Since history is all about learning and building onto what we have already discovered, each chapter in this book keeps on adding onto what we have read about in the previous section. Comparative Psychology has grown into new psychology and laboratories.
6a) I wouldn’t mind learning more about William James and how he added many contributions to what psychology is today.
6b) I find this interesting because he was America’s first new psychologist. A major chunk of the chapter was all about WIlliam James and his contributions to the history of psychology. He added ideas to multiple areas and dimensions pushing psychology in the right direction.
7) I was wondering about how consciousness fits into the whole new psychology thing. It was discussed in the book, but I don’t understand why it is being talked about again. It was talked about more earlier when Sigmund Freud was mentioned, so why is is being brought up again?
8) Terms: James-Lange Theory of Emotion, elicited, Cannon-Bard Theory, Mary Whiton Calkins, new psychology, comparative psychology, William James. consciousness, Sigmund Freud
1a) What topic did you find interesting?
I found the topic of educating women and minorities interesting.
1b) Why was it interesting to you?
I found the section on Kenneth and Mamie Phipps very impressive. The fact that they were able to achieve as much as they did is astounding with the amount of boundaries and hardships they faced. They worked in a time where race was a larger issue than it is now (although, race is still a prevalent issue it has improves slightly, not enough, but at least there has been some improvement). The part about giving southern slaves the idea that they could be free as a way to block them from education is ludicrous. I was probably most interested in this section because I do not like when there is not a level playing field. In other words, equality is the only correct route, prejudices have no place in society.
2a) What person did you find interesting?
I was interested in William James while reading this chapter.
2b) Why were they interesting to you?
I had not known that he was responsible for the first major compilation of psychological work. I also had not known his background—I had no idea that he had a wealthy family or that his brother was the famous author Henry James. I found it fascinating that two individuals from the same family could find so much success in their lifetimes. It seems like there was little that William James could not accomplish if he set his mind on achieving a goal—he was even a talented artist!
3a) What do you think of the overall message of the chapter?
I found the overall message of the chapter to be positive. The author chose this chapter to showcase talented American psychologists in the past, as Goodwin had done for German psychologists. I feel that Germany was where the roots of psychology formed and America was where it flourished.
3b) Was it interesting to you? Why or why not?
I am always interested to learn more about famous individuals from this country. I find it pleasing to know that America contributed something positive to society.
4) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?
I think understanding the thoughts of the day and comparing them to today’s research is a good way to ‘double check’ one’s work. I feel that psychology should be a collaborative field where scientists work together to establish new, effective research.
5) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to what you have already learned about the History of Psychology or to material you have learned in other classes?
Near the end of Chapter 6, a summation of the chapter explains that psychology in the 19th century was strongly influenced by new psychology in Germany (basically, less philosophy, more own psychology domain) and Darwinian thinking. Both German psychology and Darwin’s biologically-based influence were accounted for in earlier chapters.
6a) What topic would you like to learn more about?
I would like to learn more about the way in which mazes were used and how frequently they were used (stylus maze, etc.).
6b) Why?
If I am learning about a topic I like to know as much information about it as possible; the who/what/when/where/why/how. I would like to learn more about the evolution of maze learning for the purposes of psychological study.
7) What ideas or questions related to what you were reading did you have while reading the chapter?
I wonder: is German psychology more advanced or better overall than American psychology? I know that the author stated that by the end of the 19th century, psychological training in America had improved, but—I wonder—does it remain at an equal level or is one better than the other?
8) Terms: education, minorities, Kenneth and Mamie Phipps, racial boundaries, prejudice, William James, maze learning, stylus maze
1a) What topic did you find interesting?
I found the topic about women to be very fascinating to me.
1b) Why was it interesting to you?
It isn’t a new concept that women and minorities had a harder time when it came to trying to become educated but I found the length that men took to keep them down was shocking by today’s standards. First it was believed that a woman receiving an education at a level higher than high school was bad for her health, in fact in Harvard medical school professor urged women nit to continue with their education after puberty because it would slow down their reproductive organs. Another thing was that women were thought to be intellectually inferior to men. The thought was that men had a greater variability to women according to the variability hypothesis. But even with their barrier women in the latter half of the nineteenth century started to get some opportunities of education. But even then their coursed of study were limited to thing like home economics and teaching
2a) What person did you find interesting?
I found G. Stanly Hall to be interesting to me.
2b) Why were they interesting to you?
He was interesting to me because of his accomplishment in the field of psychology. He is known for his work in professionalizing psychology. He founded the first laboratory in Americans and also founded the American Journal of Psychology and the American Psychological Association which are very important in psychology today. He was interested in a lot of topics under genetic psychology, behavior, the study of the origins and development of consciousness. He led the way to the child study movement and identified adolescence as a distinct stage of development.
3a) What do you think of the overall message of the chapter?
I think the overall message of this chapter was to introduce Americans, women and minorities in psychology and some of what they had to contribute. In this chapter we saw the introduction of the first psychology textbook, Elements of intellectual (mental) Philosophy by Thomas Upham. It talked about how after the Civil War, America was very focused on higher education and the development of graduate school. It showed us how opportunity for minority and women began to arise and show use how they began to contribute to the field, like Mary Whiton Calkin who contributed to the theory of self-psychology became the first women to be elected as the president of the APA.
3b) Was it interesting to you? Why or why not?
I found the chapter to be interesting because finally we begin to see diversity on the contributors to psychology and we begin to talk about thing that make psychology what it is today like APA and the Journal.
4) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?
I actually found reading about Calkin and other minorities who contributed to psychology to be very helpful to me because they serve as inspirations. Just seeing all that they accomplished even at a time when it wasn’t acceptable for them to even get an education and weren’t even considered equal to men.
5) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to what you have already learned about the History of Psychology or to material you have learned in other classes?
This chapter adds on to the previous chapters because it was showing moving from Europe and showing what America contributed to the field of psychology. The people that were talked about in this chapter used concepts and idea from people of the previous chapters and just built on to them.
6a) What topic would you like to learn more about?
I would like to study more about women and minorities in psychology.
6b) Why?
Mainly because as advance as we would like to think we are we still have a long ways to go on equality and I feel like important contribution that we here about are still just from upper-middle class white males even though there is great work being done by women and minorities.
7) What ideas or questions related to what you were reading did you have while reading the chapter? Did women and minorities face the same struggles in Europe as they did in America?
8) Variability hypothesis, G. Stanly Hall, American Journal of Psychology, Elements of intellectual (mental) Philosophy, Thomas Upham, Mary Whiton Calkin
1a) I found the topic of genetic psychology interesting. 1b) It was interesting because genetic psychology was so broad. It used to include some very important, separate, parts of psychology. It was all categorized under genetic psychology.
2a) I found Mary Caulkins to be the most interesting. 2b) She was interesting because she was the first to really stand up against the male monopoly in psychology. She took women one step closer to being seen as equals. She made contributions to memory research with a method she developed. She was the first woman to be elected as president in the American Psychological Association. She stood her ground when Harvard wouldn’t give her the PhD that she deserved and didn’t accept a PhD from a different college. She symbolized a lot in women’s rights in my opinion. It’s why I found her to be so interesting. She was one of the few women of her time to really try to change the way women were viewed.
3a) I liked this chapter. The message was good and informational. I learned some new facts I didn’t know before that I thought was cool. 3b) This chapter wasn’t as interesting as a few of them have been. I liked the section on Mary Caulkins. Overall, however, the chapter wasn’t my favorite.
4) I think just a few of the important parts of this chapter is the information on Caulkins. She symbolized a lot during this time for women. Without her having stood up and making a change, I don’t think someone would have come along until much longer after that. She really broadcasted the importance of women being equal to men. I think another important factor of this chapter was the information on the other contributors during this time, for example Stanley Hall. He founded the American Psychological Association. He made so many advances in the branches of genetic psychology and many other things.
5) It brings up how important events are in history. Without someone like Caulkins, we wouldn’t have jumped as far as we need with women getting higher education just the same as men.
6a) I think I would like to learn more about the evolutionary theory of color vision. 6b) The chapter didn’t express too much information on the topic. It seemed really interesting and it offered a lot to evolutionary psychology.
7) I wondered through the end of the chapter that if women like Caulkins, Ladd-Franklin, or Washburn didn’t exist if would have taken longer for women to advance or if it would have started anyway? Caulkins was the first to be elected in the APA, would another woman have made this achieve instead?
8) TERMS:
Caulkings
Ladd-Franklin
Washburn
Stanley Hall
American Psychological Association
Color vision
Genetic Psychology
Evolutionary Psychology
1). A: I think James work with consciousness and spiritualism was the most interesting.
1). B: I think these topics interest me the most because they are something that I have learned a little about but to learn about them into more depth was very interesting to me. I think James’s work with other psychology makes his work more interesting to me because it is multiple peoples opinions and work going into the work.
2). A: I found William james to be interesting.
2). B: I enjoyed reading about William James because the work he did was very influential to psychology. He created brass instrument psychology, His work with consciousness, spiritualism, his work on the textbook. I think he did a lot of things for psychology and he is important to study. I enjoyed learning about all his work.
3). A): I think the overall message of this chapter was very good I enjoyed reading this chapter because the topics were interesting.
3) B: I think this chapter was interesting to me because it was topics that I didn’t know much about before I read this chapter. Such as William James, textbooks that were first created.
4). The information about all the psychologist in this chapter. I think Calkins work with education for females will help me learn more about the history of psychology and how the females came into the picture in psychology. I think this chapter had a lot of great information to build on simple knowledge of history in psychology that I had before. I enjoyed reading more about less well-known people because they aren’t the people that are covered in my other classes so to learn about where some of the information that I am learning comes from and the history behind it. The work that Hall did at johns Hopkins really helped with psychology and that made learning about it really helped my knowledge of psychology.
5). This chapter relates to what I have learned because I have learned about maze learning in biopsychology. I have learned a lot about psychoanalysis in a lot of my classes. I think this really helped build on knowledge that I have of James and Hall.
6). A: I think I would like to learn more about Hall and psychoanalysis.
6): B: I would like to learn more about the history behind this topic because I know what it is things about it but I do want to learn about the history behind it. Psychoanalysis is a very interesting topic and it relates to many aspects of psychology and I think it would be very interesting to learn more about.
7). One question I had is Calkins the only person that did a lot with female education and research?
8). William James, consciousness, spiritualism, brass instrument psychology, Calkins, Hall, Johns Hopkins, psychoanalysis,
1a)
1b)
I really enjoyed the pairing of pragmatism with spiritualism by William James. I think it is important in psychology to question legitimacy and accuracy of all theories especially when there’s so much that we don't understand about the mind or consciousness. When I was first reading about pragmatism I would have thought it strange for the person to coin that term to be interested in spirituality, but as I realized that value of ideas were rated by how it helps you adapt to a new environment I found that it had less to do with practicality. I also found it interesting that when innate ideas are brought back to interest of philosophers, in this case from Faculty psychology, they tend to use it to take advantage over others in society with ideas like the variability hypothesis, which suggested women to be inferior innately. I also found that the introspective method of determining physiology of emotion was very interesting. I think that it is a good asset to self psychology as a means to understand consciousness and what order it falls in.
2a)
2b)
I thought G. Stanley Hall was an interesting person in the chapter. Stanley contributed a lot to psychology, enjoyed his work, and was even the president of the first psychological group in the US. He had a few firsts in his career including the first American academic journal of psychology, and the famous maze-learning studies. A lot of psychologists have used maze learning for substantial advancement in behavioral processes and Hall used it for advances in genetic psychology. Hall was also responsible for introducing a very important field of psychology, adolescent psychology, which thankfully survived the backlash of a failed, but very thought provoking theory on evolution and development. Recapitulation, although heavily criticized, is another interesting product of early attempts at advanced thinking, which may have been incorrect, but allows us to get on the right track in terms of further advanced thinking.
3a)
3b)
The message of the chapter was to show that American psychology took some time to become prevalent but that it was an advancement for psychology nonetheless. What we see in most of the book is that psychological thinking was present long before the United States' existence, and that much of it's focus is in Europe. This is a humbling chapter for Americans that also helps us remember that although we may not be the forefront of everything in the world, we did make a contribution.
4)
When reading about what psychology classes were called in the past, I get a better understanding that even though some people were trying to establish it as its own category of science, that couldn't really be done until there is a clear shift from philosophical theories to scientific evidence and studies.
5)
I learned that maze learning studies could tell a lot more about subjects than the quintessential behavioral studies.
6a)
I want to find out more about comparative psychology, as I believe it has more implications than I previously thought and it isn't as cut and dry.
7)
My questions are expressed in the topics I would like to learn more about.
8) Spiritualism, pragmatism, conscious, introspection, variability hypothesis, self psychology, genetic psychology, recapitulation, Faculty psychology,
1a/b. I found the James-Lange theory of emotion to be interesting because I had heard of the theory but wasn't extremely sure of what it was or even who created it. I think emotions and reactions occur so quickly that we don't really even think about it. It has been obviously been proven to be the way before William James gave his argument, that we experience the emotion then have the bodily reaction, but it's still good to know that he thought something different and tested it.
2a/b. Stanley Hall was pretty interesting to me just because he professionalized psychology in the United States, like Wundt did in Germany. I also was unaware that he was the founded of the American Psychological Association. I also always like to know how psychologists get into the field because they weren't always aware of it, unlike students are now.
3a/b. I feel like the message of this chapter was to show how psychology came to be as a field in the United States. I thought this was kind of interesting because, like in the chapter on Wudnt, I usually never think of how other countries are advanced in fields that many usually think are US born.
4. Like I said, it's interesting to see the fields that psychologists were in before they developed a career in psychology, and it seems that most started out in philosophy, which shows that without the distinction between philosophy and psychology, we still might not have the field of psychology; at least not the way it is.
5. This chapter built on to the ideas that many psychologists are fascinated with the affect of sex on individuals, biologically and the activity.
6a/b. I would like to learn more about genetic psychology because it's something that has just always interested me, but I just never looked into. Plus, I have heard and learned little bits and pieces in my previous psychology courses.
7. NA
8. William James, James-Lange theory of emotion, Stanley Hall, genetic psychology
1) What topic did you find interesting? Why was it interesting to you?
I found the topic of education for women and its relationship to women's success in the field of psychology interesting because I have an interest in women's rights movements.
2) What person did you find interesting? Why were they interesting to you?
I found William James interesting because he has become known as the most important psychologist in America. However, he viewed himself as a philosopher, not a psychologist, he did not conduct significant research, nor did he have a large amount of committed students to continue his work. William James simply became known as the most important American psychologist because of the book, "Principles of Psychology." This actually makes me more interested in the book than William James himself.
3) What do you think of the overall message of the chapter? Was it interesting to you? Why or why not?
The overall focus of the chapter was on American psychologists and women and minorities in psychology. I found some of the ideas within the chapter to be interesting, such as the spiritualism, a movement in support of the belief that consciousness survived death. However, the focus on the people who study psychology was less interesting.
4) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?
I think understanding William James' contribution to psychology is most useful in this chapter. If his book made him the most influential American psychologist, I think understanding the ideas presented in the book and how they influenced psychology is very important.
5) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to what you have already learned about the History of Psychology or to material you have learned in other classes?
Previous chapters of the book discussed the development of new psychology from philosophy. This chapter discusses G. Stanley Hall and his contribution to making new psychology a more professional field. Hall created the first psychology laboratory in America, America's first academic journal, and the American Psychological Association.
6) What topic would you like to learn more about? Why?
I would like to learn more about the variability hypothesis, the idea that males have more variability in abilities than females. I want to know how this theory develop, its effect on women, its effect on psychology, and if has an effect on today's society.
7) What ideas or questions related to what you were reading did you have while reading the chapter?
Where did the idea of spiritualism come from? Did it develop from religious ideas? If so, why did psychologist have an interest in studying it?
8) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
variability hypothesis
William James
spiritualism
1a) What topic did you find interesting?
The foundation of the APA in 1892 by G. Stanley Hall
1b) Why was it interesting to you?
Because i never really knew about the foundation of the APA before, but it plays a major role in the lives of us psychology majors. It is kind of that overseeing big brother that tells you what publications to trust, how to cite your papers, and basicly what you as a psychologist should aspire to do/become. I guess i never really payed attention to when it was founded, nor by who it was founded. I just assumed infantilely that it was there from the birth of psychology as a science, as a begotten omnipresence that awaited the rise of psychology. We are taught in some psychology classes that the word/decisions of the APA is law in our field.
2a) What person did you find interesting?
I found William James interesting.
2b) Why were they interesting to you?
I just kind of liked the guy, he chose free will for himself as his first act of free will. He experienced the world in a great way, as in he seemed to choose for himself what to believe and what not to. When psychology was new in the world he fully admitted that “psychology had a way to go before it could claim the status of a genuine science- it was “‘no science, it is only the hope of a science”’’. I also liked his sculpture metaphor on how to explain that we make our own realities. In a twisted way his contemplation of suicide made me respect the guy a little more, it showed he was human, had cracks and flaws. When history looks back at people it rarely recognises that these great men struggled with anything like Depression, Anxiety, Suicidality, Seasickness (in darwin’s case). I like how this book gives you that insight, and lets you realise that these men were infact just that, men… human… liable to error. Not “Gods of Psychology” that gave us the knowledge we use today like Promitious giving mankind fire. They were students and psychologists like you and I.
3a) What do you think of the overall message of the chapter?
that building psychology up to the science it is today took hard work, dedication, and we musn’t forget that at one point it was at an even more infant state than it is now.
3b) Was it interesting to you? Why or why not?
Yes, i was intrigued by some points the chapter made, over all it was an okay chapter but there were certain highlights that peaked my interest.
4) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?
Probably the stuff about the foundation of the APA
5) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to what you have already learned about the History of Psychology or to material you have learned in other classes?
well the chapters are in order for a reason like this one brought up how Darwin’s theory of Evolution influenced the psychology world at that time.
6a) What topic would you like to learn more about?
Probably something to do with William James.
6b) Why?
because he peaked my interest the most out of this chapter.
7) What ideas or questions related to what you were reading did you have while reading the chapter? none
Free Will, Reality, APA, G. Stanley Hall, William James,
1a) The topic that I found interesting was paired associate learning.
1b) The reason that this was interesting to me, was because it was a new memory procedure at the time, that looked at the frequency, recency, vividness, and primacy to strengthen it. Memory has always been something I've been fascinated with, so to see one of the first ways it was tested, and the ways to enhance it was interesting to me.
2a) The person that I found to be interesting was Mary Calkins.
2b) Calkins was interesting to me for two reasons. The first reason is because like I stated in question 1, I am interested in memory, and she was the person that came up with those tests to strengthen memory. The second, and more important reason why I thought she was interesting was because she is a huge part of psychology's history. She was the first woman to become president of the APA in 1905.
3a) I think the main point of this chapter was to talk about some of the big names in psychology that started movements in the 19th century. It talked about the first black man to get a PhD, and the first woman to become president of the APA, and then it also talked about William James who was considered the first modern psychologist, and G. Hall, who founded the first psychology lab. All these people were a first for something, and they really developed psychology, and got it to where it is today.
3b) I would say that this chapter wasn't that interesting to me, due to the fact of the Great man theory like we have talked about in the past. I think it is great what these people had discovered, and definitely helped out psychology as a whole, but at the same time I am more concerned what they found out, rather than about them. I think somebody else could've been just as capable of finding those things out, they just didn't think to get it out to the rest of the world.
4) The thing I read in chapter 6 that I think will be most useful in the understanding of history, is that it is okay to fight and learn about what you believe in. With Calkins being the first female APA president, and Francis Sumner being the first African American to earn a PhD, it shows that anything can be done. It has been done in history so why can't it happen now. If you have something that you want to discover or get out to the world don't be afraid to do what it takes to get there.
5) This chapter builds on what we have already learned by showing some of the people and the things those people did, and how psychology was beginning to become accepted as a whole population, rather than just a few men that had had some psychological theories, like we have discussed in other chapters. We have moved from them, to accepting psychology as a modern science, and doing experiments with it, and taking the input from people of all different races, and genders as well.
6a) The topic that I would like to learn more about is paired associate learning by Calkins.
6b) I read about the experiments she did in the book, but I would like to get a little more in depth analysis of the experiments she did to strengthen memory, and see some of the data she collected, because I think that would be interesting to read about.
7) While reading this chapter one thing I thought of that I am very thankful for is that there isn't any stipulations really anymore about race or gender. If someone, anyone, wants to go on to get a degree of higher education, everyone is supportive of that. There isn't any "women should stay back and do the things a woman should do," or "people of a race other than white probably aren't capable of completing a program of grad schooling." That is one of the reason the people in this chapter are important, because they paved the way to getting people like them to follow them and discover new realms of psychology. If it weren't for these people in the text, anybody wanting to go to grad school may not be as widely accepted as it is today.
8) Terms: Mary Calkins, William James, Francis Sumner, G. Hall, Paired associate learning, Great Man theory