The New Psychology: Early Physiological and Experimental Psychology and Structuralism

The New Psychology: Early Physiological and Experimental Psychology And Structuralism Psy5102-8 Dr. Kornfeld By: Janelle Jumpp Table of Contents 1. What do you consider to be the proper subject matter of psychology? 2. What methods should psychology use to approach the subjects it studies? 3. What do you expect will be your most lasting contribution to the field of psychology? 4. What do you consider to be an appropriate role for the field of psychology in society? 5.

What particular personal challenges or characteristics, or conditions in the society and the profession of psychology had the greatest impact upon your development as a psychologist? It is with great pleasure that I was able to talk to five of the greatest psychiatric minds William James, John Dewey, Charles Darwin, G. Stanley Hall, and Leta Stetter Hollingsworth. These five psychiatrists contribute majorly to the field of psychology. I was blessed with the chance to be able to ask each of them a question. Allowing me to see these great thinkers in their element of greatness.

I started by asking William James – born in New York city in the year of 1842, and considered the “Father of American Psychology”, graduated from Harvard’s Medical School in 1869. I asked him what he considered to be the proper subject matter of psychology. He responded that the proper subject matter is human behavior. The study of: • Truth • theory of knowledge • pragmatism The opposing of introspection of structuralism, the mental breakdown of the smallest elements of events, environmental behavior. The knowing of how to overlook the inevitable whether you want to or not.

The knowing that there are two major parts of the environmental behavior: Classicism- is the effects as coarse and tawdry, and preferring the naked beauty of the optical and auditory sensations. • Romanticism- immediate beauty. • Purity of a sensible quality and the secondary emotions which are grafted upon. This is the answer that he provided for me. I then moved on to asking John Dewey- born in Burlington, Vermont on October 20, 1859. Becoming an American psychologist, philosopher, educator, social critic, and political activist. He made contributions in basically every field and topic of philosophy and psychology.

Also was a major inspiration for several allies movements that have shaped the twentieth century including empiricism, humanism, naturalism, contextualize, and process philosophy. The voice of liberal and progressive democracy has also shaped the destiny of America and the world for over fifty years. I asked him what methods psychology should use to approach the subjects it studies. John Dewey answered that the approach that should be used is research. By researching the subjects that are up for study will give more accurate prognoses to the hypothesis at hand.

Researching a number of people and recording the findings will give a better result. I then spoke to Charles Darwin- the “father of evolutionary theory”, who set the foundation for the theory of evolution by natural selection. He also logged in over four thousand write-in votes during Georgia’s tenth congressional district race. Making two major contributions of enormous impact to the evolution First, he substantially marshaled the evidence for the theory of descent modification. The kinematic theory treats non-casual relations between things and ideas and the pattern of evolution.

Second, he proposed that the mechanisms observe patterns using the dynamic theory (involving mechanisms and casual relationships deals with the process of evolution). I ask Darwin what did he expect will be his most lasting contribution to the field of psychology? Darwin said that his most lasting contribution would be his theory of evolution. Using the theory of descent with modification and the theory of modification through natural selection. The interest that Darwin has in natural history developed during college and escalated turning into the theory of evolution.

Saying that essentially all organisms has descended from a common ancestor continuing the process of branching out. Life evolved from one kind of organism or a few simple kinds of organisms. That each species arose in a single geographical location from another species that preceded it in time. I then spoke with G. Stanley Hall- who was born on February 1, 1844. Growing up on a farm in Ashfield, Massachusetts. Beginning a career as a teacher in English and philosophy and eventually taking a position as a professor of psychology and pedagogic at John Hopkins University.

Then becoming president of Clark University in 1889, where he remained working for twenty years. Hall was elected the first president of the American Psychological Association and his primary interest was in the evolutionary of psychology and child development. I asked him what he would consider to be an appropriate role for the field of psychology. Considering that psychology plays a part of everyday life it is hard to say that is has a particular role. However the appropriate role is just that. It has to do with everyday life.

That it shows the development of children, and even adult development. It plays a part in evolution and environmental behavior. Psychology is a crucial part of life and any other field. It has the potential to be anything because it is the basis of everything that we deal with. We use psychology in everything we do and do not do. Psychology is the fundamental basis of everything and anything that a person does in life. Finally, I was able to finish off my questioning with Leta Stetter Hollingsworth- an assistant principal of School District No. 6, in Saline County, Nebraska.

Teaching at McCook high school. She worked as a clinical psychologist at Bellevue Hospital and then became a consulting psychologist to the New York Police Department in 1915. Hollingsworth also wrote the first comprehensive text on the gifted and taught the first college course on the gifted. Also commenced one of the first systematic studies of children with intelligence quotients (IQ) above one hundred and eighty. I asked what particular personal challenges or characteristics, or conditions in psychology had the greatest impact upon your development as a psychologist?

The greatest impact that upon my development, as a psychologist is the study of psychology of women and exceptional children. When it came to women there are two common beliefs. First, was the acceptance of many general members of society that women were mentally incapacitated during menstruation (especially the women in power). While testing this hypothesis I found that women’s performance on several cognitive, perceptual, and motor tasks were similar to that of males, even during menstruation.

Second, was that women as a group were more similar to men. That man has a wider range of talents as well as defects than do women. Using this proposition to explain why more men were geniuses as well as more men who had mental deficiency and instutionalized. This premises correlated that women will never be able to achieve the highest achievements and will settle for meritocracy. The study of one thousand male newborns and one thousand female newborns were examined. The findings were that no greater inherent variability was in males than in females.

During the 1920’s the study was shifted to children, particularly the exceptional children. The acknowledgement of inheritance in giftedness and believed that education and environment factored in as a major role in their developmental potential. The interest was in how to properly nurture this giftedness and how to appropriately educate these gifted individuals. One of the most noticeable studies regarding this giftedness was sparked on November of 1916 when a child tested above one hundred and eighty on the Stanford-Binet IQ test for the first time.

This was found to be intriguing and for the next twenty-three years there was only eleven other children fount, in New York City, with such an intellectual giftedness and attempted an in-depth study of their genius. Noticing that those of whom tested above the one hundred and eighty on the Stanford-Binet IQ test all characterized by a strong desire of personal privacy, seldom volunteer personal information, do not like to have attention drawn to their selves or their families or homes.

They are also afraid of potential ramifications of being labeled as special in society standards. In conclusion I was very pleased that I was able to have the opportunity to ask these great minds and scholars the questions that I did. Also receiving the answers that I did allowed me to look at the psychological field in a whole new way, and light. References (Cherry, G. Stanley Hall Biography) (Cherry, William James Biography) (Human Intelligence) (dew) (inf) (mny)