Approaches

• Wilhelm Wundt

  • Structuralism - the picture of breaking down the structure of the mind to understand parts of it: break down the mental process into the most basic components, sensations, mental images and feelings
  • Introspection - Methodology where we look into the human mind through a systematic analysis [Wundt got pps to record thoughts, images and sensations in relation to a stimulus he gave them]
• Wilhelm Wundt 1879


  Opened the first ever experimental psychology lab in Germany
• What did he try to do to observe the mind

  He attempted to observe introspection - highly trained pps would focus on an everyday objects, then the pps would have to reflect on their sensations, feelings and images -> report in a systematic way
• Emergence of psychology as a science

  1. Psychology is held by empiricism, Wundt first applied empirical method to the study of human beings resulting to the scientific approach to psychology emerging

  The scientific approach - assumes all behaviour has a cause and it should be possible to predict how human beings will behave in different conditions -> techniques are called scientific method

  Empiricism - the belief that all knowledge comes from observation and experience alone - knowledge is not just innate
• 2. Scientific methods involve investigating behaviour using objective, systematic and replicable methods:

  • Objective: researchers do not left preconceived ideas influence their data collection
  • Systematic observations and experiments are carried out in an orderly way and accurately
  • Replicable: other researchers should be able to repeat the study to determine whether the same results can be obtained
  • Psychologists should then complete the scientific method by building, refining or falsifying their theories
• 3. By the beginning of the c20th, many psychologists questioned the scientific status of introspection. Wundt saw introspection as subjective and focussed too heavily on private mental processes. Watson suggested that true scientific psychology should only study phenomena that could be observed and measured. Behaviourist approach emerged from these suggestions.
• 4. The behaviourist’s focus on learning helped psychology emerge as a a science as it involved scientific processes like carefully controlled lab experiments. The scientific methods from the behaviourist approach have had a considerable impact on psychology and many modern psychologists continue to rely on the experimental method
• 5. 1960s: the digital computer was introduced. This gave psychologists a metaphor for the operations of the human mind and so the cognitive approach emerged. Cognitive psychologists began to study mental processes in a a much more scientific way than Wundt’s earlier investigations, resulting in the study of mental processes being seen as a legitimate area of psychology.
• 6. The biological approach also makes use of the scientific method. Advances in technology has allowed investigations of physiological processes to take place as they happen e.g. live activity in the brain being studied through fMRI and EEG scans