What's the problem? - Consciousness in psychology

13 important questions on What's the problem? - Consciousness in psychology

What is the history of psychology?

  • 18th century: the term psychology first appeared, to describe the philosophy of mental life


  • 19th century: psychology became a science, based on empirical data

What are ‘The principles of Psychology?’

William James – psychology is the science of mental life.

Consciousness was at the heart of his psychology. He pointed out that consciousness can be abolished by injury to the brain and altered by alcohol and drugs. He assumed that a certain amount of brain physiology must be included in psychology.

What is ‘a stream of consciousness’?

An ever-changing and flowing succession of thoughts, ideas, images and feelings
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Who is Herman von Helmholtz?

He made the first measurement of the conduction speed of nerve signals. He proposed the idea that what we see is determined by inferences and expectations.

Who is being called the father of experimental psychology and why?

Wilhelm Wundt – because he founded the first laboratory of experimental psychology. He studied subjective experience, through introspection or self-observation. He wanted to build a psychology based on the inside.

According to Wundt, which kind of physical elements exist?

  • Sensory elements: elements/simple sensations, such as tones, heat, light

  • Affective elements: simple feelings; sensory (dis)pleasure that might accompany the simple sensations


-> every conscious experience depend on a union of these two types

What happened from phenomenology to behaviourism?

Phenomenology faced serious difficulties, because reporting thoughts and feelings is not an objective measurement. So, behaviourism became successful.

What is behaviourism and who was the founder?

Prediction and control of behaviour


1913 – John Watson. He said: psychology is a purely objective, experimental branch of science. He was inspired by Pavlov

Which kind of conditioning do exist?

  • classical conditioning: repetition increases the probability of various behaviours (Pavlov)



  • operant conditioning: learning by being rewarded or punished for the actions (Skinner)


What happened from behaviourism to cognitive psychology?

Behaviourism was successful in explaining kinds of behaviour, especially learning and memory. But it abolished the study of consciousness and the mind-and-body- approach. In the 60s is was losing its power, cognitive psychology took over

What is cognitive psychology?

Internal representations and information processing

When and why did consciousness came back?

1990s – there were big questions about spirituality, drugs, hypnosis, paranormal and mental illness.

What is radical empiricism?

Experience as the heart of philosophical experiments – meaning and physical data

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