...CHAPTER 4 WUNDT AND GERMAN PSYCHOLOGY The book which I here present to the public is an attempt to mark out a new domain of science. —Wilhelm Wundt, 1874 PREVIEW AND CHAPTER OBJECTIVES Chapters 2 and 3 describe the context out of which modern psychology emerged in the nineteenth century. Philosophers, interested in the same fundamental questions about the human mind and behavior that occupy psychologists today, began to speculate about the need to examine these issues scientifically. At least one nineteenth-century British philosopher, John Stuart Mill, even proposed the development of a scientific psychology. Meanwhile, physiologists and physicians in Europe made great strides in furthering our understanding of the physiology of the nervous system and, in particular, of the brain. This chapter examines how this experimental physiology combined with philosophical inquiry to create a new experimental psychology in Germany in the late nineteenth century. The chapter opens with a brief discussion of some aspects of German education that made it attractive to American students, and then continues with a look at how Gustav Fechner’s psychophysics provided a standardized set of methods for studying sensory thresholds. The creation of the ‘‘New Psychology’’ and its first laboratory by Leipzig’s Wilhelm Wundt forms the focus of the middle of the chapter. The chapter ends with consideration of three other important German psychologists, Hermann Ebbinghaus, G. E. Muller, and Oswald...
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...Discuss why Joe’s employees need to understand the importance of how people form perceptions and make attributions. I think is because the Joe's employees may be more effective by building relationships of trust with customers. Joe could do an analysis of the organizational culture of his own company with them. Anonymously or directly he could ask their employees what is the perception they have about the Company. After that ask what in their opinion may have generated this perception In this discussion could be approached the way the company does business with its customers. It is an ethical way? We are looking for to meet the customers’ needs and their expectations or we aim solely the benefit of the Company? How the customer sees us? What did we to bring this customer perception towards us? Although it is more difficult to talk openly about the internal environment of the Company, Joe must find ways to understand the internal view that employees have about the Company. Do you feel part of the organization? Yours remarks are heard? How do you assess the degree of autonomy or freedom that exists in your department? What kind of attitudes or standards that the Company has that contribute to this vision that you have on it? Do you feel that the perception you created came from your departament or came from the Company as a whole? Mr. Salatino can show how these perceptions ultimately influence the organization both positively and negatively. He could address the differences...
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...Utah Symphony and Opera Merger Analysis In: Business and Management Utah Symphony and Opera Merger Analysis |Utah Symphony and Utah Opera Merger Proposal| || 4/23/2012|Organizational Management Analysis| |This project will look at theories of motivation relating to the merger as well as discuss positional and personal power concepts. A discussion will also address the musician’s concerns which could potentially jeopard Bill Bailey is the current chairman of the board of directors for the Utah Opera Organization and could pose a significant roadblock to merger the approval process if he does not publicly or privately support the merger. One area of the merger where Bill Bailey already has expressed concern is regarding the potential inequity between the two groups in a post-merger environment, which directly relates to Adam’s equity theory. In order to understand Bill Bailey’s potential concerns, it is imperative to understand the principal and philosophical logic behind equity theory. As the name implies, equity theory is model of motivation that describes the feeling that interpersonal relationships should be fair and equitable in the workplace. More specifically, Adam’s motivational theory seeks to explain how an individual’s motivation to behave in a specific manner may be fueled by perceived inequity or lack of justice. There are two components to Adam’s equity theory; inputs and outcomes. Input can be things such as high caliber work, seniority...
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...Social Perception Social perception, or the way one individual views others, affects behavior within an organization. Management expert Joseph Champoux writes in his book "Organizational Behavior" that an individual's social perception can be described in terms of a "target," or what is being perceived, and a "stimulus threshold," a certain level of information that must be received in order to make a perceptive assumption on an individual, work process or any other target. Wrongful social perceptions, such as fundamental attribution error that arises when one person mistakes another person's characteristics as the cause of a negative event, can lead to problems in organizational behavior. Perceptions Affecting Motivation A worker's social perception of others within the organization can affect his motivation to complete work effectively to a large degree. Motivation within an organization remains high if a worker perceives that there are opportunities for personal development or professional advancement, if he feels capable of completing tasks correctly and is involved with various organizational decision-making and goal-setting processes. Motivation can be reduced if the worker perceives a lack of opportunity for growth, a lack of involvement or a lack of opportunities to demonstrate any creativity. This holds true in volunteer organizations as well, as described in Miami University's student leadership material, "Why Volunteers/Group Members Lose Interest." Related...
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...Experimental psychology is an area of psychology that utilizes scientific methods to research the mind and behavior. While students are often required to take experimental psychology courses during undergraduate and graduate school, you should really think of this subject as a methodology rather than a singular area within psychology. Many of these techniques are also used by other subfields of psychology to conduct research on everything from childhood development to social issues. What Do Experimental Psychologists Do? Experimental psychologists work in a wide variety of settings including colleges, universities, research centers, government and private businesses. Some of these professionals may focus on teachingexperimental methods to students, while others conduct research on cognitive processes, animal behavior, neuroscience, personality and many other subject areas. Those who work in academic settings often teach psychology courses in addition to performing research and publishing their findings in professional journals. Other experimental psychologists work with businesses to discover ways to make employees more productive or to create a safer workplace, a specialty area known as human factors psychology. The History of Experimental Psychology * 1874 - Wilhelm Wundt published the first experimental psychology textbook, Grundzüge der physiologischen Psychologie (Principles of Physiological Psychology). * 1875 - William James opened a psychology lab in the...
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...documents in order to compare the disciplinary differences in styles of expression. The research paper is an important example of the research genres and a typical way of constructing new knowledge in academic discourse. According to Giltrow, successful writing depends upon readers’ recognition of features of genre. Therefore academic writers do not only need to make the results of their research public, but also persuasive. (Ken hyland, 1999) Citation, which is one of the most remarkable features appearing in scholarly articles, brings out a common ground shared by readers and writers to review the validity and novelty of both previous and current argument.(Ken hyland, 1999; Giltrow, 2009) The relationship between different citation forms and different disciplines has been investigated by many researchers. Hyland, who is a professor of applied linguistics, has done immense amounts of research in investigating the similarities and variability of citation in 8 disciplines. He suggests the disciplinary convention of citation usage and the motives behind those patterns. However, Hyland neglects the variation of citation practice that may occur in journal articles of different research directions within a discipline. The main purpose of this study is to examine the potential citation patterns of introduction sections employed by the articles in clinical and experimental subfield of psychology. Method This paper is...
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...Social Psychology and the Self Cynthia Durham Social Psychology/400 University of Phoenix “Social psychology is a science that studies the influences of our situations, with special attention to how we view and affect one another. More precisely, it is the scientific study of how people think about, influence, and relate to one another. Social psychology lies at psychology’s boundary with sociology. Compared with sociology (the study of people in groups of societies), social psychology focuses more on individuals and uses more experimentation. Compared with personality psychology, social psychology focuses less on individuals and uses more experimentation. Compared with personality psychology, social psychology focuses less on individuals’ differences and more on how individuals, in general, view and affect one another Sociology is the study of people in society. Social psychology is all about your life, beliefs, attitudes, and relationships. (Myers, D. 2010)” “The discipline of Social psychology is that it uses scientific methods that an individual can understand and explain how the thought, behavior and feelings are influenced by the actual, imagines or implied presence of other beings. Social psychology extends a wide range of social topics, including but not limited to social groups, social perception and social interaction are also vital to understanding social behavior. Social psychology is also closely related to three other discipline; sociology, personality...
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...field of psychology was conducted. In this paper three different professional psychology sub-specialties fields were explored by gathering information from various websites. The three sub-specialty fields discussed are an Experimental Psychology, Industrial/Organizational Psychology and Health Psychology. Experimental Psychology The experimental psychology field is one that conducts research in cognitive behaviors of humans and animals, neuroscience and personalities. The field does this research using the scientific method. The experimental psychologist work setting can widely range from college and universities, to government and facility based settings. The information gathered is used in a variety of ways, including therapeutic methods, work related production issues, employee wellness and even employee safety issues. The methods used for the research also vary depending on the area being studied. The models all follow scientific methodology, utilizing group settings, manipulating independent variables, collecting the data and then forming a hypothesis (APA, 2012). The education preparation and training for an experimental psychologist is usually focused on research and how to conduct this research. The minimum education needed is a master’s degree in general psychology or experimental psychology. To advance in research, certain schools/Universities or salary a doctorate degree in psychology is almost always required (APA, 2012). The Careers for an experimental psychologist...
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...Social Psychology and Multicultural Psychology Jennifer Wolf Psych/620 Instructor- Jean Thorndike Social Psychology and Multicultural Psychology This paper defines social psychology and multicultural psychology. Described within will be the primary research strategies used in social psychology. Provided will be examples of each strategy. An explanation regarding how social and multicultural psychology are related and what separates social and multicultural psychology into two distinct fields will be provided. Social Psychology Social psychology is “the scientific attempt to explain how the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of other human beings” (Fiske S. , 2010). Social psychology tries to explain how an individual reacts to another individual whether the individual is present or not. Social psychology also attempts to explain how an individual acts in a group setting as well as how an individual acts when a person (s) of authority is (are) present. Primary Research Srategies1 The three primary research strategies used in social psychology are descriptive research, correlational research, and experimental research (Fiske S. , 2010) Descriptive research “aims to depict accurately some characteristic in a population of interest” (Fiske S. , 2010). Descriptive research deals with one variable at a time and averages the responses to said variable. For example, a public opinion survey such as...
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...I.Introduction Experimental psychology is an area of psychology that utilizes scientific methods to research the mind and behavior. While students are often required to take experimental psychology courses during undergraduate and graduate school, you should really think of this subject as methodology rather than a singular area with psychology. Many of these techniques are also used by other subfields of psychology to conduct research on everything from childhood development issues. II.Objectives 1. To know how did experimental psychology start. 2. State the psychologists who pioneered in experimental psychology. 3. Having knowledge about the instruments used in experimental psychology 4. To know the methods used in experimental psychology. 5. What are the processes used in experimental psychology? III.Definition of Terms Experimental Psychology - refers to work done by those who apply experimental methods to the study of behavior and the processes that underlie it. Stereoscope - The first stereoscope was invented by Wheatstone in 1838.It presents two slightly different images, one to each eye, at the same time. Typically the images are photographs of the same object taken from camera positions that mimic the position and separation of the eyes in the head. When one looks through the stereoscope the photos fuse into a single image that conveys a powerful sense of depth and solidity. Colorimeters - These determine the color composition by measuring...
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...Social Psychology James McCormick PSY/400 Robert Hunsaker May 2, 2013 Social Psychology Social psychology like many other fields of psychology has a relatively long history but is still a very young field in the science community. In psychology the social psychology field uses research to determine how individuals view and affect each other. Social psychology is often mistaken for personality psychology can overlap in sociology, and clinical psychology because of the view on personal development and mental well-being of the individual. experimental research, survey research, and correlation research are the three main fields of research in the field of social psychology. Each field addresses the person and the person’s aspect of life situations. Main Ideas of Social Psychology Social psychologists study a set of strategies for answering questions related to attitudes and beliefs, how we construe our world, and conformity and independence; rather than simply an objective compilation of findings. Some of the main ideas that social psychology seeks to address are: 1) the construction of our social reality; 2) social intuition; 3) how social influences, personal attitudes, personality, and biology shape our behavior; and 4) how social psychology’s principles can be applied in everyday life (Myers, 2010). The construction of our social reality rests on the materialistic assumption that an objective world exists quite separate from our subjective interpretation of that...
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...Social Psychology is branch of psychology which has long history and its relatively young in the field of science community. Social psychology is somewhat misunderstood because of the fact that some believe it overlaps with clinical and sociology due to personal development and mental well being of individual. It can be said that social psychology has different branches and field for example, Forensic psychology is the subfield of social psychology that deals with the searches of mind and behavior of criminals in collaboration with judicial and law enforcement system. Stanford prison experiment was the major experiment conducted for the purpose of social psychology. Social Psychology Defined Social psychology is defined as the branch of psychology that deals with the scientific study of “how people think about one another, influence others and relate to others” (Meyers,2010). For example, how a person looks the world, he or she devises the situation and how individuals look at each other is social psychology. According to Allport, (1985), “Social psychology is the discipline which uses scientific methods to explain the behavior of individuals, their thoughts and feeling, also how behavior influences individuals by the actual or imaginative presence of others”. When it comes ...
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...Social orientation is the recognition of human psychology and behavior. The emphasis on human thought, emotion, and behavior was to represent the thought, emotion, and behavior of members of a social group. Thomas Hobbes declared that the social groups are nothing more than a collection of individuals and that of social thought, emotion, and behavior, governed by the pursuit of pleasure and avoidance of pain (Greenwood, 2009). Cognitive psychology represents the distinction amongst the human mind and a computer that suggest that humans have the ability to process information from around the world just as computer. Cognitive psychology is not old but the newest part of psychology where the information we receive through our senses is then administered through the brain. Cognitive psychologists try to develop explanations of cognitive development, memory, attention, artificial intelligence, perception, and social cognition. The laboratory methods used to determine the outcome of a controlled circumstance are memory test and research studies. During the early 21st century, it appears that experimental psychology is healthy and growing; likewise the crisis in theories and progress is of discern. At this time there is not a crisis in psychology, nevertheless psychology can be described as an interregnum period, with much activity and no major leading directions or theoretical commitments (Mandler, 2011). The first crisis shown in psychology was seen in 1899. There was an argument of...
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...Commentary on Cronbach’s ‘The Two Disciplines of Scientific Psychology’ In this paper Lee Cronbach delivers his visionary presidential address to the American Psychological Association (APA), calling for the unification of experimental and correlational psychology in which he argued that psychology continues to this day to be limited by the dedication of its investigators to one or the other method of inquiry rather than to scientific psychology as a whole. He discusses the two streams on branches of psychology that have run through the last century. One stream being the experimental and the other correlational psychology. He describes the essential features of each approach to asking questions about human nature and he strongly hints at the benefits to be gained by unification. Put simply, Cronbach sees this as a puppet show where the experimentalist manipulates the puppets to arrive at a successful outcome while the correlationist watches the interaction of the puppets as he would people, to see how environment, social elements and the like affects them. Cronbach is proposing a coming together of these two strands of psychology to compliment each other and arrive at a more complete solution. The experimenter is more concerned with situations that he can closely control i.e. experiments with laboratory animals in a closely confined situation where he can introduce variables and see how his subjects react to stimuli and measure the responses. The correlationist is...
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...Social Psychology Social psychology is the study of how individuals perceive information and in return act and behave towards other individuals. It also touches on what influences and persuades other individuals based on ones actions or behaviors. One could argue that social psychology is within close proximity to sociology since the study of sociology elicits the study of groups, societies and people. Social psychology has everything to do with an individual’s belief, their attitude, and their relationships with others. Social psychology is a studied discipline, “which utilizes the scientific method to understand and explain how the thought, feelings, and behavior of individuals are influenced by the actual imagines or implied presence of other beings” (Cherry, 2013). Furthermore, it is how people think and act based on their relation and influence of others. Within social psychology there is a large variety of social topics. Some of the social topics are the following; social groups, social perception, leadership, non-verbal behavior, conformity, aggression and prejudice. Social psychology isn’t based solely on an individual’s social influences it is also based on social perception and social interaction when attempting to learn about social behavior (Cherry, 2013). While addressing multiple avenues of the broad subject social psychology looks to define the our social reality, how social influences, personalities, personal attitudes, and biology shape our behavior;...
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