origins of psychology

• wundt

  • Wundt known as ‘the father of psychology’ – moved from philosophical roots tocontrolled research.
  • Set up the first psychology laboratory in Liepzig, Germany in 1870s.
  • Promoted the use of introspection as a way of studying mental processes.
  • His work paved the way for later controlled research and the study of mental processes e.g. by cognitive psychologists.
• introspection

  • systematic analysis of own conscious experience of a stimulus.
  • An experience was analysed in terms of its component parts e.g. sensations,emotional reaction etc.
  • Wundt would ask people to focus on an everyday object and look inwards noticing sensations and feelings and images
  • Breaking thoughts about an object down into separate elements
• structuralism-wundt

  • Wundt isolated conscious thoughts into basic structures of thoughts, processes and images, in a process called structuralism.
  • The method of data recording was highly scientific e.g. the same stimulus was used each time, allowing for replication under standardised conditions, hence producing reliable data.
• evaluation of introspection

  • relies primarily on non-observable responses and although participants can report conscious experiences, unable to comment on unconscious factors relating to behaviour, thus all possible causes may not be considered
  • introspection produces data which is subjective thus varies person to person, became difficult to establish general principles HOWEVER still used today to gain access to cognitive processes and info from individuals about their opinions and emotions
• scientific method- wundt


  scientific approach to psychology was based on 2 major assumptions:

  • all behaviour is seen as being determined
  • if behaviour is determined- it should be possible to predict how human being would behave in different conditions(predictability)
• scientific method must be:

  • objective
  • systematic(follows standardised procedure)
  • replicable- for reliability
• evaluation of scientific approach to psychology

  • strength=causes of behaviour can be established through the use of methods that are empirical and replicable
  • limitation=scientific methods can use artificial stimuli-lacks mundane realism and produces findings with low ecological validity