Introduction to psychology - Wundt

• Introspection - is a systematic analysis of one’s own conscious experience 


  • experiences are analysed in terms of their component parts/reference to ‘structuralism’
  • these parts are elements like sensation, emotional reactions etc
  • Reflection on sensations, feelings and images 
  • people were trained to do this analysis to make the data objective rather than subjective
  • people were presented with standardised sensory events like a ticking metronome and asked to report their reactions.
• Wundt's contributions to psychology as a science -AO1

  Wundt founded the Institute of Experimental Psychology

  • Wundt published one of the first books on psychology, helping to establish the subject as an independent branch of science
  • description of Wundt’s approach − structuralism
  • the use of the scientific method to study the structure of sensation and perception
  • the use of introspection in controlled studies
• Wundt's contributions to psychology as a science -AO1

  • use of controlled environments to establish general theories about mental processes
  • Wundt’s identification of higher mental processes (learning, language, emotions, etc.) that could not be studied in a strictly controlled manner
  • the development of the field of cultural psychology based on general trends in behaviour of groups of people. 
• Wundt's contributions to psychology as a science -AO3

  (+) First use of a laboratory designated to the scientific study of psychological enquiry

  • under controlled conditions facilitating accurate measurements and replication 
• Wundt's contributions to psychology as a science -AO3

  (+) Contribution to science

  • focus was on trying to understand psychological processes of perception etc and structuralism rather than philosophical or biological processes 
• Wundt's contributions to psychology as a science -AO3

  (+) Paved the way for further approaches - cognitive

  • He later recognised that higher mental processes were difficult to study using his procedures and this encouraged others to look for more appropriate methods and techniques, paving the way for approaches such as scanning 
• Wundt's contributions to psychology as a science -AO3

  (+) Still useful today

  • introspection still used today in areas such as therapy and studying emotional states demonstrating its value as one way mental processes can be investigated 
• Wundt's contributions to psychology as a science -AO3

  (+/-) Determinist but predictive

  • issues of determinism and predictability could be presented as a strength or limitation. 
• Wundt's contributions to psychology as a science -AO3

  (+/- ) Issues with scientific method and subjectivity

  • discussion of the subjectivity of Wundt’s methods in contrast to the objectivity of the scientific process and the difficulty modern psychologists have trying to objectively study unobservable matter
  • introspective methods were not reliably reproduced/Wundt’s difficulty with replication due to subjectivity 
• Wundt's contributions to psychology as a science -AO3


  (-) Introspection is not a valid method

  • Discussion of the validity of introspection − many aspects of our minds are outside of our conscious awareness, eg research by Nisbett & Wilson, 1977; however, it is still sometimes used in modern scientific psychological research, eg Csikszentmihalyi & Hunter, 2003 
• Wundt's contributions to psychology as a science -AO3

  (+) Contributions to behaviourism

  • Greater contributions to the development of psychology by early behaviourists, eg Pavlov, than by Wundt, as they produced reliable findings with explanatory principles that were generalisable − much more in keeping with the scientific approach.