Origins of Psychology

• Introspection


  A method of self-observation in which participants report their thoughts and feelings
• Science


  An organized way of gathering and analysing evidence about the natural world.
• Wundt's Lab


  The first ever lab created dedicated to psychology study was opened by Wundt in 1879.

  
• Standardised procedures


  A set of procedures that are the same for all participants in order to be able to repeat the study.
• Structuralism


  An early school of psychology that used introspection to explore the elemental structure of the human mind.
• Wilhelm Wundt


  German physiologist who founded psychology as a formal science; opened first psychology research laboratory in 1879.

  
• Psychoanalysis


  A method of studying how the mind works and treating mental disorders.
• 1900s Behaviourists


  - Questioned value of introspection as it produced subjective data so it was difficult to establish general laws.

  - Proposed that a truly scientific psychology should only study phenomena which can be objectively observed and measured.

  - Focused on behaviours they could see and used carefully controlled experiments.
• 1950s Cognitive Approach


  Made the study of mind legitimate and scientific, experiments tested the computer metaphor (e.g. multi-store model).
• 1980s Biological approach


  - Observable behaviours studied, using controlled measures e.g. fMRI.

  - Also genetic testing studies relationship between genes and behaviour.
• Strength of Wundt and Introspection

  Scientific

  - All introspections were recorded in the controlled environment of a lab, ensuring that possible extraneous variables were not a factor.

  - Procedures and instructions were carefully standardised so that all participants received the same information and were tested in the same way.
• Limitation of Wundt and Introspection

  Subjective data

  - Relied on participants self-reporting their mental processes.
• Strength of the emergence of psychology as a science

  Modern psychology

  - Psychology has the same aims as the natural sciences - to describe, understand, predict and control behaviour.
• Limitation of the emergence of psychology as a science

  Subjective data

  - The subject of study (human beings) are active participants in research, responding for example to demand characteristics.