The Origins of Psychology

• Wundt:

  • Wundt is known as the 'father of psychology', he found the Institute of Experimental Psychology in Leipzig, Germany
  • he was interested in scientifically studying every aspect of the human mind (e.g. perception/attention/memory). He paved the way for psychology to be considered a science
• Introspection:

  • Wundt used the method of introspection to conduct his research
  • introspection is a systematic analysis of one's own conscious awareness/experience
  • the focus is on being objective
• Introspection:

  • experiences are analysed in terms of their component parts, known as 'structuralism'
  • these parts are elements like sensation, emotional reactions
  • people were trained to do this analysis to make the data objective rather than subjective
  • people were presented with standardised sensory events like a ticking metronome and asked to report their reactions
• Emergence of psychology as a science:

  • Wundt published one of the first books on psychology, helping to establish the subject as an independent branch of science
  • Wundt moved from philosophical roots to controlled research which enables accurate measurements and replication
  • psychology now uses a variety of methodologies which are empirical and reliable (lab experiments, controlled observations, biological tests)
  • Wundt used introspection to study higher mental processes, which has been criticised for its subjectivity. This paved the way for more objective measures (brain scanning)
• Evaluation of Wundt's method/paving the way for a science:

  S - 'this adds to the validity of Wundt paving the way for psychology to be a science because'

  W - 'this questions the validity of Wundt paving the way for psychology to be a science because'
• Evaluation of Wundt's method:

  • S - Wundt's work on mental processes through introspection paved the way for the cognitive approach to psychology
  • W - Wundt's work was not fully scientific
  • W - Wundt's contributions to the emergence of psychology as a science were less important than other researchers
  • W - research against the method of introspection - Nesbitt and Wilson (1977)