Write 7 pages thesis on the topic the concept of phrenology as a pseudoscience.
Write 7 pages thesis on the topic the concept of phrenology as a pseudoscience. 4. Flourens admired the dissecting skills of Gall but highly criticized his ideas of phrenology regarding both the psychological speculations and the support of cortical localization which was based on clinical observation. He studied the ablations on animals and proved that the mind was not located in the heart, but in the brain. For his criticism, he provided experimental evidence and questioned the functional localization within the brain. He applied the technique of ablation or extirpation which is known as the surgical removal of some parts of the brain to analyze how other parts would function without that part and observing the postoperative behavior. Floren’s investigation has been a turning point in the modern era. He researched the extirpation of the cerebellum’s increasing parts which, according to him, were involved in the posture control. Through this, he examined the maintenance of physical balance in a greater deal.
5. The methods Fechner proposed are highly important for the analysis of relative and absolute thresholds. The problem in absolute thresholds is to determine the least amount of sensation detected by a person. Three methods would yield similar data in the determination of thresholds. Fechner also introduced the usage of averages to balance the differences that he realized were present due to individual differences and which needed to be controlled. His methods were the method of limits in which he showed that two stimuli were his research subjects, the method of constant stimuli in which he presented a randomly chosen from a small set, and the method of adjustment in which his research subject could make changes to one stimulus (Benjamin 65). Through these methods, he could use sound devices to determine the absolute threshold.
6. Brentano and Wundt have had opposing views in the history of psychology. Wundt had been pained in psychology as a physical reductionist while Brentano was painted as being a more holistic theorist. Brentano felt that physicist dealt with assumed realities which were assumedly objective.