Origins of Psychology

• Define 'introspection'

  The first systematic experimental attempt to study the mind by breaking up conscious awareness into basic structures of thoughts, images and sensations.
• A timeline of psychology (17th century - 1950s)

  - 17th century - 19th century: Psychology is a branch of the broader discipline of philosophy. If psychology has a definition during this time, it would be experimental philosophy.

  - 1879: Wilhelm Wundt opens the first experimental psychology lab in Germany, and psychology emerges as a distinct discipline in its own right.

  - 1900s: Sigmund Freud emphasises the influence of the unconscious mind on behaviour (the psychodynamic approach). He also develops his person-centred therapy known as psychoanalysis, and shows that physical problems can be explained in terms of conflicts within the mind.

  - 1913: John B. Watson writes 'Psychology as the Behaviourist views' and later, with B.F. Skinner, establishes the behaviourist approach. The psychodynamic and behaviourist approaches dominate psychology for the first half of the 20th century.

  - 1950s: Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow develop the humanistic approach, the so-called 'third force' in psychology, rejecting the behaviourist and the psychodynamic view that human behaviour is determined by outside factors. Humanistic psychologists emphasise the importance of self-determination and free will.
• A timeline of psychology (1950s - 21st century)

  - 1950s: The introduction of the digital computer gives psychologists a metaphor for the operations of the human mind. The cognitive approach reintroduces the study of mental processes to psychology but in a much more scientific way that Wundt's earlier investigations.

  - 1960s: Albert Bandura proposes the social learning theory. This approach draws attention to the role of cognitive factors in learning, providing a bridge between the newly established cognitive approach and traditional behaviourism.

  - 1980s onwards: The biological approach begins to establish itself as the dominant scientific perspective in psychology. This is due to advances in technology that have increased understanding of the brain and biological processes.

  - Eve of the 21st century: Towards the end of the last century, cognitive neuroscience emerges as a distinct discipline bringing together the cognitive and biological approaches. Cognitive neuroscience investigates how biological structures influence mental states.
• Define 'psychology'

  The scientific study of the mind, behaviour and experience.
• Define 'science'

  A means of acquiring knowledge through systematic and objective investigation. The aim is to discover general laws.
• Wundt and introspection


  - In 1879, Wundt opened the first lab dedicated entirely to psychological enquiry. His work is significant as it marked the beginning of scientific psychology, and separating it from its broader philosophical roots.

  - Wundt aimed to try to analyse the nature of human consciousness, and thus represented the first systematic attempt to study the mind under controlled conditions. This method became known as introspection.

  - One of Wundt's main objectives was to try and develop theories about mental processes such as language and perception. He and his co-workers recorded their experiences of various stimuli they were presented with, such as different objects or sounds. They would divide their observations into three categories: thoughts, images and sensations.

  - Isolating the structure of consciousness in this way is known as structuralism. The stimuli that Wundt and his co-workers experienced were always presented in the same order and the same instructions were issued to all participants.
• Evaluating Wundt's work: Scientific

  - A strength of Wundt's work is that some of his methods were systematic and well-controlled.

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

  - Procedures and instructions were standardised so that all participants received the same information and were tested in the same way.

  - This suggests that Wundt's work can be considered a forerunner to later scientific approaches in psychology, such as the behaviourist approach.
• Evaluating Wundt's work: Subjective data

  - A limitation is that other aspects of Wundt's research would be considered unscientific today.

  - Wundt relied on participants self-reporting their mental processes. This data is subjective as it is influenced by personal perspective. Moreover, participants may have hidden some of their thoughts.

  - It is difficult to establish meaningful 'laws of behaviour' from such data. And general laws are useful to predict future behaviour, one of the aims of science.

  - This suggests that some of Wundt's early efforts to study the mind were flawed and would not meet the criteria of scientific enquiry.
• Evaluating Wundt's work: Wundt's contribution

  - Wundt produced the first academic journal for psychological research, and wrote the first textbook. He is often referred to as the founder of modern psychology.

  - It is even suggested that Wundt's pioneering research set the foundation for approaches that were to come, particularly the behaviourist and cognitive approaches.
• The emergence of psychology as a science

  - Science involves building knowledge through systematic and objective measurement. The aim is to discover general laws.

  
  

  - 1900s Behaviourists: By the beginning of the 20th century, the value of introspection was being questioned by many, most notably the behaviourist, John B Watson. The problem was that introspection produced subjective data, rather than objective, so it was very difficult to establish general laws. Watson and B.F. Skinner, proposed that a truly scientific psychology should only study phenomena that can be observed objectively and measured. For this reason, behaviourists focused on behaviours that they could see, and used carefully controlled experiments. The behaviourist approach would go on to dominate scientific psychology for the next 50 years.

  
  

  - 1950s Cognitive approach: The digital revolution of the 1950s gave a new generation of psychologists a metaphor for studying the mind. Cognitive psychologists likened the mind to a computer (i.e. in memory research), and tested predictions about memory and attention using experiments. The cognitive approach ensured that the study of the mind was, once again, a legitimate and highly scientific aspect of the discipline.

  
  

  - 1980s Biological approach: In more recent times, the biological approach has taken scientific psychology to new levels. Researchers within this area have taken advantage of advances in technology to investigate physiological processes as they happen. An example is the use of sophisticated scanning techniques such as fMRI and EEG to allow the study of live activity in the brain. New methods such as genetic testing have allowed us to better understand the relationship between genes and behaviour.
• Evaluating the emergence of psychology as a science: Modern psychology

  - A strength is that research in modern psychology can claim to be scientific. Psychology has the same aims as the natural sciences - to describe, understand, predict and control behaviour.

  - The learning approaches, the cognitive approach, and biological approach all rely on the use of scientific methods, for example lab studies are used to investigate theories in a controlled and unbiased way.

  - This suggests that throughout the 20th century and beyond, psychology has established itself as a scientific discipline.
• Evaluating the emergence of psychology as a science: Subjective data

  - A limitation with psychology is that not all approaches use objective methods.

  - The humanistic approach rejects the scientific approach, preferring to focus on individual experiences and subjective experience.

  - The psychodynamic approach makes use of case studies, which don't have representative samples.

  - Finally, the subject of study, humans, are active participants in research, responding to demand characteristics for example.

  - Therefore, a scientific approach to psychology may not always be desirable or possible.
• Evaluating the emergence of psychology as a science: Paradigm

  - The philosopher Thomas Kuhn said that any science must have a paradigm: a set of principles, assumptions and methods that all people who work within that subject agree on.

  - He went on to say that psychology is not a science as it doesn't have a paradigm as there is so much internal disagreement at its core.