origins of psychology

• wundt's lab

  • opened 1st lab dedicated to psychological enquiry in 1879
  • marked the beginning of scientific psychology rather than philosophical
  • studied the mind under controlled conditions - introspection
• introspection

  1st systematic experimental attempt to study the mind by breaking up conscious awareness into basic structures of thoughts, images and sensations
• psychology timeline - part 1

  • 17th - 19th century - psychology known as experimental philosophy
  • 1879 - wundt opens 1st experimental lab, psychology emerges as distinct discipline in its own right
  • 1900's - freud emphasises influence of unconscious mind on behaviour (psychodynamic approach) + develops psychoanalysis, showing physical problems can be explained by the mind
  • 1913 - watson writes 'psychology as the behaviourist views it' ,later with skinner establishes the behaviourist approach
• psychology timeline - part 2

  • 1950's - rogers and maslow develop humanistic approach, emphasising self determination and free will, rejecting outside factors
  • 1950's - cognitive approach reintroduces study of mental processes - more scientific than wundt
  • 1960's - bandura introduces social learning theory
  • 1980's onwards - biological approach begins to establish itself to to advances in tech - most dominant scientific perspective
  • eve of 21st cent - cognitive neuroscience emerges
• behaviourism

  • focus on behaviours they could see
  • used carefully controlled experiments
  • watson and skinner proposed a truly scientific psychology should only study phenomena that can be observed objectively and measured
• wundt eval - :) scientific

  • some of his methods were systematic and well controlled
  • all introspections recorded in lab environment, ensuring possible extraneous variables werent a factor
  • used standardised procedures - all Ps received the same info and tested in same way
  • suggests his research can be seen as a forerunner to later scientific approaches (behaviourism)
• wundt eval - :( subjective data

  • other aspects of his research would be considered unscientific today
  • relied on Ps self reporting their mental processes - Ps may have hidden some of their thoughts
  • difficult to establish meaningful 'laws of behaviour' from such data and general laws are used to predict future behaviour (aim of science)
  • suggests some of his early efforts were flawed and wouldnt meet criteria of scientific enquiry
• psychology eval - :) modern psychology

  • research in mental processes can claim to be scientific
  • psychology aims to describe, understand, predict and control behaviour
  • learning, cognitive and biological approaches all rely o use of scientific methods (like lab studies) to investigate theories in a controlled and unbiased way
  • suggests throughout 20th century psychology has established itself as a scientific discipline
• psychology eval - :( subjective data

  • not all approaches use objective methods
  • humanistic approach rejects the scientific, preferring to focus on individuals experiences and subjective experience
  • psychodynamic approaches can make use of case study method which doesnt use representative samples
  • subject of study (humans) are active Ps that can respond to demand characteristics
  • therefore scientific approach to human thoughts and experiences may not always be desirable / possible