Origins of Psychology

• what is psychology?


  the scientific study of the human mind and its functions + how these influence human behaviour
• Wilhelm Wundt


  father of psychology

  open 1st lab in Leipzig, Germany in 1870

  wanted to investigate the nature of human consciousness, introspection. focused on scientific psychology and believed in the experimental method

  paved the way for the acceptance of psychology as a distinct science; moving from philosophical roots to controlled research

  focused on having controlled conditions facilitating accurate measurements and replication

  recorded ppts' own conscious thoughts with the aim of breaking them down to further explain them
• Introspection


  apperception: how we organise and make sense of our experiences as a unified whole

  was systematic reporting of an experience of object, focusing on being objective, known as internal perception

  focus: trying to understand psychological processes of perception and structuralism, rather than philosophical or biological processes

  Wundt later recognised that higher mental processes were difficult to study using his procedures and encouraged others to look for more appropriate methods and techniques, paving the way for approaches such as scanning

  Wundt believed in reductionism -> consciousness could be broken down to its basic elements without sacrificing any of the properties of the whole
• Empiricism


  belief all knowledge is derived from sensory experience i.e. what we see/hear. it's generally characterised by the use of the scientific method in psychology

  empiricists believe knowledge comes from the observation and experience alone rather than being innate
• Scientific Method


  use of investigative methods that are objective, systematic and replicable as well as the formulation, testing and modification of hypotheses based on these methods
• Controlled Observation


  degree of control that's necessary to establish a causal relationship through the manipulation of the IV and the measurement of the DV
• Objectivity


  when the researcher doesn't impose their own ideas, beliefs or expectations when interpreting the results of their research
• Testing Theoretical Predictions


  theories are used to generate hypotheses which can be tested using experiments and other methods
• Falsifiability


  Popper argues the main defining point of science is that we don't seek to find data that confirms a theory, rather we seek to find evidence to disprove a theory, and only tentatively accept a theory if we fail to disprove it.

  As a result, theories that are non-falsifiable are non-scientific
• Replicability


  procedure used and the findings obtained by researchers need to be replicable
• Paradigm


  Kuhn proposed that science should have a unified set of assumptions and methods
• Weakness - Introspection technique is subjective


  Behaviourists argue Wundt's introspection technique is unreliable as the data gathered is subjective.

  Therefore, it's very difficult to establish general principles, especially as introspective 'experimental' results haven't been reliably produced by other researchers.

  In order to be truly scientific, Psychology should restrict itself only to studying phenomenon that can be observed and measured objectivity.

  has been argued that early behaviourists such as Pavlov have made greater contributions to Psychology than Wundt as they produced reliable findings with explanatory principles that are generalisable which is more in-keeping with the scientific approach
• Weakness - Introspection lacks validity


  most psychs accept the claim we have very little knowledge of the causes of, and processes underlying our behaviour and attitudes, a claim that would challenge the value of introspective reports.

  Particular problem in the study of implicit attitudes

  e.g., a person may be implicitly racist, which influences the way they react to members of a different ethnic group, yet because such attitudes exist outside of conscious awareness, self-reports through introspection would not uncover them.

  means Wundt's explanation lacks validity as the reports from ppts may not be accurate - not because they were being deliberately honest but because their real-life experiences may be unconscious
• Strength - contributions to approaches in Psychology


  Wundt attempted to rely on objective and systematic methods of observation which means knowledge is acquired using the scientific method using controlled environments to establish general theories about mental processes.

  work on introspection paved the way for the study of internal mental processes and was a forerunner of the cognitive approach who used Wundt's ideas to develop more empirical and scientific methods of study

  Strength - cognitive neuroscience has increased the credibility of Psychology as a science
• Weakness - lack of ecological validity


  by concentrating on objectivity and control in observations, scientific psychs create artificial situations that tell us very little how people act in more natural environments.

  Therefore, Wundt's methods can be criticised for lacking mundane realism and not being generalisable to situations outside a controlled, lab setting