Wundt and introspection

• Wundt and introspection


  Wilhelm Wundt established the first psychology lab. Wundt pioneered the method of introspection. Standardised procedures. Significance of Wundt's work.
• Wundt's psychology lab


  1. Opened in Leipzig, Germany in 1879

  2. Aim was to describe the nature of human consciousness (the 'mind') in a carefully controlled and scientific environment
• Introspection


  The first systematic experimental attempt to study the mind by breaking up conscious awareness into basic structures of thoughts, images and sensations
• Structuralism


  Isolating the structure of consciousness
• Wundt's procedures


  • Standardised instructions given to all participants
  • Procedures could be repeated (replicated)
  • Participants given a ticking metronome and reported their thoughts, images and sensations
• Wundt's early attempt to study the mind would be seen today as naïve
• Wundt's work marked the separation of modern scientific psychology from its broader philosophical roots
• Wundt's work was significant as it led to the emergence of psychology as a science
• Strengths of Wundt's methods

  • Recorded introspections
  • Standardised procedures within a controlled lab environment
  • Can be considered a forerunner to later scientific approaches in psychology
• Limitations of Wundt's methods

  • Relied on subjective self-reporting of 'private' mental processes
  • Participants may not have wanted to reveal some thoughts
  • Participants would not have had exactly the same thoughts every time, so establishing general principles would not have been possible
• General laws are useful to predict future behaviour, one of the aims of science
• Wundt's early efforts to study the mind were naïve and would not meet the criteria of scientific enquiry
• Research in modern psychology can claim to be scientific