Wundt's research

• Wundt trained his researchers to be introspective and presented them with standardised sensory events (for example, he had them listen to a metronome or watch a ball being dropped.) This would be carried out in a controlled, lab environment. The researchers would then describe the mental experiences of these events. Wundt believed that researchers needed to do more than simply identify the structure or elements of the mind; instead it was essential to look at the processes and activities that occur as people experience the world around them.
• Criticising Wundt: Watson


  Watson was a behaviourist. He believed that all experiments should generate observable data and criticised Wundt for producing only subjective, unobservable results.
• Wundt opened in the first psychology lab

  1879
• Evaluation Extra:

  A positive Evaluation of Wundt comes from the fact that their are practical applications; modern psychotherapy uses introspection to encourage patients to identify their own feelings about troubling situations in their lives.

  Also, we wouldn't have some of the later approaches without the work of Wundt; the cognitive approach aims to draw inferences about cognitive pathways using empirical research - without Wundt, this may not have developed.
• Introspection and Wundt Summary

  A) First Lab

  B) Controlled

  C) Standardised

  D) Scientific