Origins of Psychology

Cards (16)

  • 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