Origins of Psychology

• When did Wundt open the first ever psychology lab?

  1879
• What did Wundt open in 1879?

  The first ever lab dedicated to psychological enquiry
• Where did Wundt open the first ever psychology lab?

  Germany
• Why is Wundt's work significant?

  Because it marked the start of scientific psychology, separating it from its broader philosophical roots
• What was Wundt's aim?

  To try to analyse the nature of human consciousness - representing the first systematic attempt to study the human mind under controlled conditions
• Introspection: The first systematic experimental attempt to study the mind by breaking up conscious awareness into basic structures of thoughts, images and sensations
• Psychology: The scientific study of the mind, behaviour and experience
• Science: A means of acquiring knowledge through systematic and objective investigation
• What was one of Wundt's main objectives?

  To try and develop theories about mental processes such as language and perception
• What was Wundt's procedure?

  He and his co-workers recorded their experiences of various stimuli they were presented with and they would divide their observations into categories
• What were the three categories Wundt and his co-workers would divide their observations into?

  Thoughts, images and sensations
• What is structuralism?

  Isolating the structure of consciousness into it's component parts
• Strength: Wundt's work

  What? Systematic and well-controlled

  Who? Lab setting + standardised procedures - extraneous variables not a factor

  Why? Forerunner to later scientific approaches
• Strength: Wundt's work

  What? Wundt's contributions

  Who? Produced first academic journal + textbook

  Why? Set foundations for later approaches
• What is Wundt referred to as?

  The 'father of psychology'
• What are the two strengths of Wundt's work?

  Contributions to psychology

  Systematic and well-controlled