Origins of Psychology

• Wundt- first psychologist to use a dedicated, scientific lab to study psychology, used controlled and standardised conditions, 1879, aimed to study mind structure by breaking behaviour down
• Introspection- systematic analysis of a persons own conscious experience to gain knowledge about their mental and emotional state, in controlled conditions
• Wundt's method of introspection:

  • participants presented with standardised sensory stimuli
  • then asked to describe the inner process they were experiencing (emotions, sensations, memories)
  • Wundt trained his participants to report their reactions to the stimuli
• Strengths of Wundt's methods:

  • Attempts scientific methods- increases reliability
  • Elements of introspection still used in modern therapies- application in real life, increases temporal validity
• Limitations of Wundt's methods:

  • Seen as reductionist- behaviourists criticised his structuralist approach towards internal cognition
  • Researcher bias- Wundt conducting introspection himself
  • Self-reporting- social desirability bias, lowers internal validity
  • Training pps doesn't allow for randomisation- lowers generalisability and population validity
  • Difficult to operationalise- abstract concepts are difficult to define
  • Difficult to replicate- lowers internal validity
• Operationalisation- how the research defines variables in order to be able to measure them