approaches

• what is psychology?


  Psychology is the scientific study of the human mind and its functions in relation to the environment.
• The emergence as psychology as a science:

  Descartes (1596-1650) – dualism (mind and body are separate)

  John Locke (1632-1704) - we learn through experiences.

  Charles Darwin (1808-1882) - evolution and survival of the fittest
• what is introspection


  Introspection is the study of the conscious mind by recording and examining the mental activity.
• how is introspection done?

  People would record their conscious thoughts; these thoughts is then broken down into distinct structures of consciousness.
• what is wundts approach called?

  Structuralism
• who is wundt and what is he known for?

  he is the father of psychology, in 1879 he was the first psychologist to open a psychology lab in Germany to study introspection.
• what is structuralism?

  structuralism is defined as isolating the sytructure of the concious mind into its constituents.
• how does Wundt's approach being replicable acts as a strength

  Standardized instructions were given to participants therefore the method was replicable
• strength of Wundt's approach

  He used laboratory experiment which is a controlled environment which cannot be affected by extraneous variables and introspection were recorded under strict conditions.
• Another strength of Wundt's approach

  Wundt’s work was an important step towards modern psychology (earlier studies were more philosophical).
• a limitation of Wundt's approach

  Wundt's approach to studying the mind is seen as naïve nowadays
• are mental processes observable


  although people can report on their conscious experiences, the mental processes are unobservable
• Could bias occur during introspection


  Participants had to be trained to introspect, which meant their accounts could have been biased to support the theories of those who trained them.