Origins of psychology

• Wilhelm wundt

  • opened first lab experiment to study the mind and separate psychology into its own science
  • father of psychology
• Introspection

  • conscious examination of conscious experience
  • self-observation of own thoughts
• Introspection procedure

  1. presented with stimulus e.g light
  2. inspect own thoughts - report back ps own thoughts/emotions/sensations resulting from stimulus
  3. draw conclusions - compare all responses from ps to see similarities/differences and make conclusions
• Limitations

  1. highly subjective - relies on ps to self report, could fall into demand characteristics, therefore difficult to establish laws of behaviour from data, suggesting some of Wundt's early efforts to study mind were flawed, not meeting criteria of scientific way
• Strengths

  1. method was systematic/well controlled - all introspections were recorded in controlled environment, ensuring any extraneous variables were not a factor. all procedures/instructions were standardised meaning each ps received the same information, suggesting Wundt's research can be considered a forerunner to later scientific approaches