A01

• Wundt role in the emergence of psych as a science

  • moved psych from philosophical roots to controlled research
  • set up the first psych lab in Leipzig, Germany
  • published one of the first books on psych, helping to establish the subject as an independent branch of science
  • promoted the use of introspection as a way of studying mental processes
  • used the scientific method to study the structure of sensation and perception
  • his work paved the way for later controlled research and the study of mental processes
• methods of introspection

  • introspection is a systematic analysis of ones own concious experience
  • experiences are analysed in terms of their component parts eg. sensation and emotional reaction
  • this is known as structuralism
  • people were trained to do this analysis to make data objective
  • people were presented with standardised sensory events like a ticking metronome and asked to report their activity