the origins of psychology A01

• Wilhelm Wundt

  -          He was the first person to call himself a psychologist and he believed that all aspects of nature including the human mind could be studied scientifically.
• Wilhelm Wundt

  -          His approach paved the way for the acceptance of psychology as a distinct science in its own right and experimental psychology as the preferred method of studying human behaviour.
• Wilhelm Wundt

  -          In his lab in Germany, he studies only those aspects of behaviour that could be strictly controlled under experimental conditions, and this included the study of reaction times and various aspects of sensations and perceptions
• Wilhelm Wundt

  -          His aim was to study the structure of the human mind and he believed that the best way o does this was to break down behaviours such as sensation and perception into their basic elements and because of this his approach was referred to as structuralism and the technique he used was referred to as introspection.
• Wilhelm Wundt

  -          Wundt original believed all aspects of human experience could be investigated experimentally however he eventual came to realise that higher mental processes such as learning , language and emotions could not be studied in this strict and controlled manner and that these topics would have to be described in terms of general trends in behaviour among groups of people instead he referred to this later field as cultural psychology
• Introspection


  The process by which a person gains knowledge about his or her own mental and emotional states by examining their own thought processes, feelings, emotions and sensations
• Introspection

  • Enables us to observe and make sense of our outer world
  • Enables us to observe our inner world
• Featured conditions of introspection

  • Mentality conclusion (aims to generate beliefs about mental states and events)
  • First person condition (aims to generate beliefs about the individual's own mind)
  • Temporal proximity condition (generates the beliefs and describes the individual's current mental life)
• Trained subjects could use introspection in an attempt to record their thoughts and break down their responses and reactions
• introspection Wundt claimed that with sufficient training our mental processes like memory and perception could be observed systematically as they occurred using introspection , for example observers might be shown an object and asked to reflect upon how they were perceiving it and this information could then be used to gain insight into the nature of the mental processes involved in perception , reaction time and more ,

  Wundt used the introspection technique
• Introspection


  The examination of one's own mental and emotional processes
• Wundt's study on perception

  • Used controlled experimental procedures
  • Presented participants with carefully controlled stimuli (visual images or auditory tones)
  • Asked participants to provide a description of their inner processes
  • Compared different participants' reports to establish general theories about perception and other mental processes
• Aim of Wundt's study

  To examine the structure of the mind
• Wundt's approach

  • Termed structuralism
  • Used experimental methods to break down the structures of the mind (e.g. by studying just sensations and perception)
• The emergence of psychology as a science

  The philosophical view known as empiricism which is the believe that all knowledge is delivered from sensory experience is what acts as the glue holding the discipline of psychology together. empiricist believe that knowledge comes from observation and experience alone rather then it being innate
• The emergence of psychology as a science
• Wundt

  The first person to apply empirical methods to the study of human beings and psychology began to emerge as a distinct entity
• Assumptions of the new scientific approach to psychology

  • All behaviour is seen as being caused (the assumption of determinism)
  • If behaviour can be determined then it should be possible to predict how human beings would behave in different conditions (the assumption of predictability)
• Scientific method


  The technique used to explore the assumptions of determinism and predictability
• The emergence of psychology as a science

  Then at the beginning of the 20th century the scientific status and the value of introspection was questioned , for example it was questioned by Watson a behaviourist who criticized introspection for producing subjective data as it varied from person to person making it difficult to establish general principles as he believed that only behaviour which was measurable and observable should be studied – thus the behaviourist approach was born
• The scientific method in psychology

  The scientific method refers to the use of investigative methods that are objective, systematic and replicable
• The scientific method in psychology

  scientific method is also objective in that researchers do not let preconceived ideas and biases influence the collection of their data and systematic in that their observations or experiments are carried out in an orderly way .
• The scientific method in psychology

  using this method measurements and recording of empirical data are carried out accurately with consideration for other possible influence of others on the results obtained. the method is reliable in that observations can be repeated by other researchers to determine weather the same results are obtained and if results are not replicable then they are not reliable and cannot be accepted to be universally true
• The scientific method in psychology

  the research process is not restricted to empirical observations alone but also necessitates the use of reason to explain the results of these observations .
• The scientific method in psychology

  The development of scientific theories and the constant testing and refining of these theories through further observation completes the scientific cycle