Deck 5: The Early Schools of American Psychology

Question 1

The first two schools of the new science of psychology in America were named structuralism and functionalism. Those names were coined by

A)William James
B)Edward Titchener
C)William James & Edward Titchener
D)William James & James Angell

Answer 1

B

Question 2

The first North American psychology laboratory was founded in 1883. By 1900, approximately how many psychology laboratories were there in the United States and Canada?

A)10
B)20
C)30
D)40

Answer 2

D

Question 3

"Pure science" refers to research that is conducted

A)in the natural sciences as opposed to the social sciences
B)using quantitative rather than qualitative methods
C)without any pre-existing biases on the part of the researchers or the subjects
D)without regard to any practical benefits of the work

Answer 3

D

Question 4

Many of the psychology laboratories founded in North America at the end of the 19th century were established by individuals who had trained with what two psychologists?

A)Hall and James
B)Wundt and Ebbinghaus
C)Wundt and Hall
D)James and Cattell

Question 5

Titchener defined the sum-total of mental processes occurring in the lifetime of an individual as ____________, whereas the sum total of mental processes occurring at any given time he called __________________.

A)mind; consciousness
B)consciousness; mind
C)experience; awareness
D)awareness; experience

Question 6

Which of the following was NOT a goal of Titchener's psychology?

A)identify the elements of consciousness
B)discover how these elements are grouped
C)determine the causes of the element groupings
D)discover the purposes of the various elements

Question 7

According to Titchener, the final task of a science of psychology was to make connections between the elements of consciousness and their

A)functions
B)underlying physiology
C)adaptive consequences
D)motives

Question 8

According to Titchener, functionalism was not science but instead was

A)technology
B)reductionistic
C)psychophysics
D)philosophy

Question 9

Titchener relied almost exclusively on a single research method. What was it?

A)the experiment
B)introspection
C)the questionnaire
D)mental tests

Question 10

When training his students to use introspection as a research method, Titchener cautioned them not to confuse what was being observed with the basic elements of that stimulus. He referred to this mistake as the

A)stimulus error
B)psychophysical error
C)threshold error
D)functionalist error

Question 11

According to Titchener, affections (feelings) can be described in terms of

A)mediate and immediate processes
B)the functions they serve for consciousness
C)quality, intensity, and duration
D)perceptual and emotional constancies

Question 12

Although sensations can be defined in terms of four attributes, one of those is said to be the most important because it distinguishes a sensation from all others. That attribute is

A)intensity
B)duration
C)quality
D)clearness

Question 13

Titchener's first doctoral student, Margaret Washburn, is best known for her book on

A)structural research methods
B)comparative psychology
C)depth perception
D)introspection

Question 14

The principal reason that Titchener formed his group called "The Experimentalists" was because

A)he was unsuccessful in getting elected president of the American Psychological Association (APA)
B)he wanted to keep women from attending
C)he was dissatisfied with the quality of the science presented at the APA meetings
D)he had been expelled from the APA because of his dogmatism

Question 15

Titchener's most important publication was a series of four books, commonly called the "Manuals." These books were important because they

A)were the definitive statement of his structural psychology
B)addressed the four principal areas of applied psychology that Titchener pioneered
C)were used to train a generation of American psychologists in research methods
D)provided a theoretical account relating the elements of consciousness to their underlying physiological processes

Question 16

Charles Darwin proposed that _________________ was the mechanism by which species evolution occurred.

A)variation
B)natural selection
C)individual differences
D)acquired adaptation

Question 17

James Angell identified three conceptions of a functional psychology. Which of the following was NOT one of them?

A)functionalism studies mental operations
B)functionalism studies mental elements
C)functionalism seeks to identify the fundamental utilities of consciousness
D)functionalism is a psychophysical psychology

Question 18

Robert Woodworth's dynamic psychology was especially focused on what leads people to feel and act as they do. Consequently, his psychology emphasized the study of

A)perception
B)sensation
C)learning
D)motivation

Question 19

Woodworth's psychology is often described as an S-O-R psychology with the "O" standing for

A)objective variables
B)optimal variables
C)operational variables
D)organismic variables

Question 20

Woodworth argued that the only method that could determine cause-and-effect relationships was

A)correlation
B)the experiment
C)introspection
D)apperception

Question 21

Whereas the structuralists emphasized sensation and perception in their research, the functionalists were more interested in

A)learning
B)personality
C)motivation
D)physiology

Question 22

The study of learning was deemed to be critical in the study of consciousness because learning was the mechanism

A)that ensured that memories existed
B)that created habits
C)by which consciousness facilitated adaptation
D)that ensured the full development of native intelligence

Question 23

Compare and contrast structuralism and functionalism in terms of their definitions of psychology, their methods of research, and the subjects they studied.

Question 24

Robert Woodworth's psychology was largely focused on the question of motivation. Discuss his system of psychology in the context of the components of a functional psychology as described by Angell.

Question 25

The conflict between structuralism and functionalism was partly about pure science versus application. Discuss that conflict focusing on the ideas of Titchener and Angell