history of psychology

• Introspection - the first systematic experimental attempt to study the mind by breaking up conscious awareness into basic structures of thoughts, images and sensations
• Wilhelm Wundt opened the first experimental psychology lab in Leipzig, Germany in 1879
• Wundt recorded all introspections under strictly controlled conditions using the same stimulus every time. His participants were asked to provide a description of the inner processes they were experiencing as they looked at everyday objects. This was because Wundt wanted objective, systematic results
• Same standardised instructions given to each participant allowed the procedures to be repeated
• Researchers are able to establish the cause of behaviours through these reliable methods and theories can easily be refined by use of repeatable experiments
• Some behaviourists criticise Wundt because his research relied on non-observable responses e.g perception which is still subjective and they failed to see how he could make it objective. This means there may be bias