origins of psychology

• first psychology lab opened in Germany in 1879. The aim was to describe the nature of human consciousness in a carefully controlled and scientific environment (a lab)
• Introspection led to identifying the structure of consciousness by breaking it up into the basic structures of images, thoughts and sensations. This marked the beginning of scientific psychology, separating it from its broader philosophical roots
• Wundt is known as the 'father' of psychology as he was the first to establish a lab for scientific research into the mind and he separated psychology from philosophy
• Early behaviourists rejected introspection as Watson argued that introspection was subjective, in that it is influenced by a personal perspective. According to the behaviourist approach, 'scientific' psychology should only study phenomena that can be observed and measured
• One strength is that aspects of Wundt's wok are scientific. For instance, he recorded the introspections within a controlled lab environment. He also standardised his procedures so that all participants received the same information and were tested in the same way. Therefore, Wundt's research can be considered a forerunner to the late scientific approaches in psychology that were to come and it has high internal validity
• One limitation is that other aspects of Wundt's research are subjective. Wundt relied on participants self-reporting their 'private' mental processes. Such data is subjective. Participants may also have hidden some their thoughts. This makes it difficult to establish meaningful 'laws of behaviour', on of the aims of science. Therefore, Wundt's early efforts to study the mind were naive and would not meet the criteria of scientific enquiry