Classic Experiments in Psychology

by Douglas Mook

Overview

The typical survey course in psychology has time for only limited presentation of the research on which our knowledge is based. As a result, many students come away with a limited understanding of the role of experiments in psychological science. Where do experiments come from and how are they conducted? What are the pitfalls and how can we avoid them? What advantages do they have over intuition, authority, and common sense as guides to knowing and acting? What distinguishes research-based psychology from psychobabble? What have we learned from experimentation in psychology?

This book presents, in more depth than textbook treatment permits, the background, conduct, and implications of a selection of classic experiments in psychology. The selection is designed to be diverse, showing that even for research in vastly different areas of study, the logic of research remains the same—as do its traps and pitfalls. This book will broaden and deepen the understanding of experimental methods in psychological research, examining where the research questions come from, how questions can be turbaned into experiments, and how researchers have faced the problems presented by research in psychology.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780313318214
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	12/30/2004
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.88(d)

About the Author

DOUGLAS MOOK is Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of Virginia.

Table of Contents

Introductory
About Experiments
A Brief History of Experimental Psychology
Psychobiology
Herman von Helmholtz and the Nerve Impulse
Paul Broca and the Speech Center
Karl Lashley: Brain Mechanisms and Learning
James Olds: Reward Systems in the Brain
Vincent Dethier: Feeding in a Fly
S. P. Grossman: Chemical Coding in the Brain
Roger Sperry and the Bisected Brain
Motivation and Emotion
Neal Miller: Fear as a Learnable Drive
Neal Miller: Conflict
David McClelland on Achievement Motivation
Harry Harlow: A Tale of Two Mothers
Nikolaas Tinbergen: The Study of Instinct
Teitelbaum and Epstein: Hunger, Thirst, and the Brain
Schachter and Singer: Cognition and Emotion
Herman and Polivy: Human Hunger and Cognition
Walter Mischel and Self Control
Learning
Edward Thorndike and the Law of Effect
Ivan Pavlov and Classical Conditioning
Wolfgang Kohler and the Mentality of Apes
Edward Tolman and Cognitive Maps
B. F. Skinner and Operant Conditioning
John Garcia: Conditioned Taste Aversion
Albert Bandura: Imitation and Social Learning
Gordon Paul: Learning Theory in the Clinic
Martin Seligman: Learned Helplessness
Lepper et al.: The Costs of Reward
Memory
Hermann Ebbinghaus on Memory
Frederic Bartlett: Meaning and Memory
Brenda Milner and the Case of H. M.
Lloyd and Margaret Peterson: Short-term Forgetting
Elizabeth Loftus: Leading Questions and False Memories
Gordon Bower on State-dependent Memory
Collins and Quillian: The Structure of Semantic Memory
Cognition
F. C. Donders and Reaction Time
The Cautionary Tale of Clever Hans
A. S. Luchins: On Not Being Mindless
George Miller on the Magic Number 7
Festinger and Carlsmith: Cognitive Dissonance
Roger Shepard and Mental Rotation
Richard Herrnstein: Concepts in Pigeons
Tversky and Kahneman: The Framing of Decisions
Perception
Ernst Weber: The Muscle Sense and Weber's Law
Gustav Fechner and the Measurement of Mind
Max Wertheimer on Apparent Movement
Selig Hecht and Adaptation to the Dark H. K. Hartline: Lateral Inhibition in the Retina
Georg von Bekesy: The Mechanics of Hearing
Jerome Bruner: Motivation and Perception
Gibson and Walk: The Visual Cliff
Lettvin et al.: What the Frog's Eye Tells the Frog's Brain
Social Psychology
Theodore Newcomb: Attitude Change at College
Muzafer Sherif: Prejudice and the Robbers' Cave
Kurt Lewin: Tensions in the Life Space
Solomon Asch on Conformity
Festinger et al.: When Prophesy Fails
Stanley Milgram on Obedience to Authority
Latane and Darley: The Unresponsive Bystander
Benjamin Franklin: Mesmer and Animal Magnetism