origins of psych

• wundt opened the first psychology lab
• introspection was the first attempt to study the mind by breaking up conscious awareness into basic structures of thoughts, images and sensations
• empiricism is based on tested experimentation, not theory or logical argument
• wundts aim was to analyse the aim of human consciousness
• wundt used introspection to study the mind and consciousness
• wundt used structuralism to isolate the structure of the consciousness
• wundt wrote the first academic journal
• wundt is often referred to as the founder of psychology
• strengths of wundt


  scientific - systematic and well controlled in a lab - no extraneous variables and was carefully standardised
• limitations of wundt


  considered unscientific today - relied on self-report, data is subjective and some participants may have hidden thoughts
• 1900s - behaviourists

  1950s - cognitive approach

  1980s - biological approach