Wundt

• Wundt sought to develop psychology into an experimental discipline moving it from philosophical roots to a controlled study.

  Known as the father of psychology
• Wilhelm Wundt opened the Institute of Experimental Psychology at the University of Leipzig in Germany in 1879.

  This was the first laboratory dedicated to psychology, this was thought to be the beginning of modern psychology with the new emphasis being on objective measure and control
• Wundt argued that conscious mental states could be scientifically studied using introspection
• Introspection - the systematic analysis of own conscious experiences of a stimulus.
• Wundt analysed conscious experiences in terms of their component parts such as thoughts, images and sensations

  Highly trained assistants would be given a stimulus such as a ticking metronome and would reflect on the experience, reporting on what the stimulus made them think or feel.

  The same stimulus and instructions were given to each person and all introspections were recorded under controlled conditions
• Wundts method of introspection did not remain a fundamental tool of psychological experimentation past the early 1920's.
• Wundts greatest contribution was to show that psychology could be a valid experimental science, paving the way for later controlled research and the study of mental processes
• Evlauation

  Wundts major contribution was to apply empirical methods to the study of human beings.

  This led to psychology emerging as a distinct entity. This new 'scientific' approach attempted to use controls and standardised instructions
• Evaluation

  However, it soon became apparent that reporting on inner experiences in this way was too subjective. Only the individual can can observe their own mental processes it can't be done by anyone else. Also disagreement in introspective reports cannot be resolved.
• Evaluation

  However, it soon became apparent that reporting on inner experiences in this way was too subjective. Only the individual can can observe their own mental processes it can't be done by anyone else. Also disagreement in introspective reports cannot be resolved.
• Evaluation

  By the 1920's, the validity and usefulness of this method were being seriously questioned and as a consequence Watson proposed that psychologists should confine themselves to studying what is measurable and observable by more than one psychologist. This led to the emergence of the behavioural approach