Origins of psychology

• Who is Wundt, and what was his theory? What technique did he use?

  'Father of psychology' he believed that all aspects of the human mind could be studied scientifically.

  He believed in reductionism and that consciousness could be broken down (or reduced) to its basic elements without sacrificing any of the properties of the whole.

  This approach became known as structuralism.

  He used introspection to achieve this.
• What is introspection?

  Who? Wundt

  It was the first systematic experimental attempt to study the mind by breaking up conscious awareness into the basic structure of thoughts, images, and sensations.

  " Looking into "

  Isolating the structure of consciousness in this way is called structuralism.
• What are the features of introspection?

  1. Presented with a stimulus (a metronome etc)
  2. Thoughts are inspected
  3. Conclusions are drawn
• Wundts methodology (procedures)...

  He used standardised procedures which meant the same standardised instructions were given to all participants. Procedures could be repeated / replicated.
• How are Wundt's methods scientific?

  • Recorded under controlled lab experiments
  • Standardised his procedures - all participants received same info
  • His research can be considered the forerunner
• How are Wundt's research methods subjective?

  • He relied on the participants self reporting their private mental processes which is subjective as participant may have hidden some thoughts which makes it difficult to establish meaningful laws of behaviour.
• What is reductionism?

  Who? Wundt

  Breaking behaviour down to individual levels (structuralism)

  simplifies how to explain behaviour

  can ignore multiple explanations for behaviour.
• F.O.R.E

  F- falsifiable

  O- objective

  R- replicable

  E- empirical