Origins of psych

• what is psychology?

  the scientific study of mind and behaviour.
• Wilhelm Wundt was the 'founding father' of experimental psychology.
• structuralism: breaking down behaviours into their basic elements.
• assumption 1: behaviour is caused by determined factors
• assumption 2: behaviour could be predicted depending on the environment and conditions.
• introspection: the process of observing and examining one's thought processes and feelings
• strengths: Wundt moved psychology away from philosophical roots, paved the way for cognitive approach, was the first to test mental processes in a controlled and replicable method - paved the way for future scientific psychology.
• strengths: introspection is still used, has not been abandoned as a research tool for psychologists. Griffiths (2003) used introspection on gamblers speaking about present activity to record processing - gives it good temporal validity.
• limitations: lack of reliability, theory was based on unobservable data that could not be replicated, data found is not reliable - it is subjective and open to interpretation.
• limitations: criticism for focusing on non-observable behaviour (perception and sensation), John Watson (behaviourist) argues observable behaviour should be measured, introspection's failure to be empirical as internal processes are subjective - not scientific.