origins of psychology

• what is introspection ?

  the first systematic experimental attempt to study the mind by breaking up conscious awarness into basic structures of thoughts, images and sensations
• what is psychology?

  scientific study of the mind, behaviour and experience
• what is the definition of science?

  acquiring knowledge through the systematic and objective investigation.
• subjective: observation is centred on a persons own mind and perspective. ( biased. )

  objective: not influenced by an individuals personal view point (unbiased)
• Wundt And Introspection

  • in 1879 Wilhelm Wundt opened the first lab dedicated to psychological enquiry. His work marked the beginning of scientific psychology.
  • Wundts aim was to try analyse the nature of human consciousness, and thus represented the first systematic attempt to study the mind under controlled conditions. his pioneering method became known as introspection
• Standardised procedures

  • wundts main objectives was to develop theories about mental processes such as language and perception.
  • he & co workers recorded their experiences of various stimuli, eg objects or sounds. They divided their observations into three categories: thoughts, images & sensations
• Structuralism

  • isolating the structure of consciousness in this way is called structuralism. the stimuli that Wundt and his co workers experienced were presented in the same order and same instructions were issued to all participants
• EVALUATION: scientific

  • one strength of wundts work was some of his methods were systematic and well controlled (scientific)
  • all introspections recorded in the controlled environment lab, ensuring possible extraneous variables were not a factor
• EVALUATION: subjective data

  • one limitation is that wundts research would be considered unscientific today as he relied on participants self reporting mental processes
  • such data is subjective (influenced by personal perspective, biased)
• EVALUATION: Modern psychology

  • one strength is research in modern psychology can claim to be scientific - to describe, understand, predict and control behaviour .
  • Suggests throughout 20th century and beyond, psychology has established itself as a scientific discipline
• EVALUATION: subjective data

  • one limitation is not all approaches use objective(unbiased) methods. eg the humanistic approach rejects scientific approach.
  • human beings are active participants , responding for example to demand characters
• Wundts contribution

  • wundt produced the first academic journal for psychology research and wrote the first textbook . often referred to as founder of modern psychology