wundt and introspection

• when did Wundt founder the Institute of Experimental Psychology in Leipzig, Germany?

  1879
• what was the name of the institute Wundt founded?

  the Institute of Experimental Psychology in Leipzig, Germany
• what are the features of science?

  • empirical, quantative evidence
  • observable
  • replicable
  • lab-base
  • objective
  • standardised/controlled
  • has a hypothesis- hypothetic deductive method (supports or contradicts).
• wundt: what is introspection?

  A pioneering movement which documents the nature of human consciousness. It is the process used to examine the inner world of sensations and perceptions. Wundt and his co-workers recorded their own conscious thoughts, with the aim of breaking these down into their constituent parts, scientifically isolating the structure of consciousness; this approach became known as structuralism. Introspection was studied in controlled environments with standardised, objective procedures which facilitated replication.
• Wundt and introspection: what did Wundt identify?

  Higher mental processes (learning, language, emotions) that could not be studied in a strictly controlled manner; his works later paved the way for later controlled research and the study of mental processes.
• Wundt: what are the features of introspection?

  1. objective focus
  2. reflection on sensation, feelings, and images experienced by the individual
  3. Wundt would ask people to focus on an everyday object and look inwards, noticing sensations, images, and feelings
  4. Breaking thoughts about an old object down into separate elements
  5. Systematic reporting of an experience of seeing, touching, or attending to an object
  6. Reaction times, attention, and sensory processes were studied using apparatus. Participants would be exposed to a standard stimulus such as light or the sound of a ticking metronome and asked to report their sensations.
• evaluation (AO3) Wundt and Introspection: what are the 3 evaluation points?

  1. Difficulty of replication
  2. Validity of introspection is questionable
  3. Greater contributions
• evaluation (AO3) Wundt and Introspection: difficulty of replication

  despite having the aim of being objective, Introspective methods were not reliably reproduced. Wundt's difficulty with replication was due to subjectivity, in contrast to the objectivity of the scientific processes and the difficulty modern psychologists have trying to objectively study unobservable matter such as dream analysis and thought processes.
• evaluation (AO3) Wundt and Introspection: questionable validity

  The validity of introspection is questionable- many aspects of our minds are outside of our conscious awareness, however, the focus on mental processes through introspection can be seen as a forerunner of the cognitive approach. Skinner states that only observable behaviours can be measured objectively, and as introspection is not objectively measured, it results in low internal validity.
• evaluation (AO3) Wundt and Introspection: greater contributions

  Although he pioneered a change from philosophy to psychology being a scientific study, there have been greater contributions to the development of psychology by early behaviourists, e.g. Pavlov, as they produced reliable findings with explanatory principles that were generalisable − better aligning with the scientific approach.