Study Guide #4--Key Terms

Phenomenology: The disciplined study of experience itself. “A descriptive, introspective analysis in depth of all forms of consciousness and immediate experiences: religious, moral, aesthetic, conceptual, sensuous [sensory]” (Angeles, 1981, p. 210).

Epistemology: “Theory of knowledge. The study of (a) the origins, (b) the presuppositions, (c) the nature, (d) the extent, and (e) the veracity (truth, reliability, validity) of knowledge” (Angeles, 1981, p. 210).

Natural Attitude: The naïve assumption in everyday life that perceived objects really exist in a real world. (Mentioned in Wolfgang Köhler’s chapter “A Discussion of Behaviorism.”)

Genetic subjectivity: The idea that all knowledge is subjective or experiential, that is dependent on a nervous system. The point is to distinguish the physiological point of view from the conventional use of the term to distinguish between subjective and objective knowledge. (Mentioned in Wolfgang Köhler’s chapter “A Discussion of Behaviorism.”)

Phenomenological:

objectivity/subjectivity

Intersubjectivity

Refer to the diagram in Art Warmoth, “Introduction to Psy 306, History of Modern Psychology” (in the first Reading Packet).

Bracketing: “The suspension (‘bracketing off”) of the presuppositions and abstractions implicit in the sciences, such as “matter of fact, ‘physical cause/effect relationship, ‘material object’ ” (Angeles, 1981, p. 27). The point is to provide for a rich, unbiased description of direct or immediate experience.

Intentionality: In phenomenology, the thesis that “all consciousness is consciousness of objects [of something]” (Angeles, 1981, p. 136). This usage is associated with Brentano and Husserl.

Gestalt: From the German: “’form,’ ‘configuration,’ ‘organized WHOLE’ ” (Angeles, 1981, p. 109). The term is difficult to translate, which is why the term “Gestalt psychology” is used in English

Holism: A theory first articulated by Jan Christian Smuts and taken up by various Gestalt and humanistic psychologists that argues that the system properties of a whole can determine the functioning of its parts. This is particularly true of living systems.

Principles of perceptual organization:

Principles embodied in the nervous system that organize more or less disorganized stimuli into meaningful perceptions.

Figure-ground

Closure

Similarity

Proximity

Continuity

Inclusiveness

See Diagram, Fig. 14.2, on page 415 of Hergenhahn (in the Reading Packet).

Field Theory: 1) A theory that deals with psychological and social phenomena as organized wholes. A name given to Kurt Lewin’s personality theory. 2) The branch of physics that studies how energy distributes itself within physical systems argues that energy will distribute itself evenly within the available field of physical structures. The Gestalt psychologists believed that the brain was an organized energy system, and that this related to the organized character of perception and cognition.

Psychophysical Isomorphism: Any process observed in the mind (experience) must be correlated with a corresponding, formally similar or analogous process in the brain (central nervous system).

Reference

Angeles, P. A. (1981). Dictionary of Philosophy. New York: HarperPerennial