Wundt & Introspection

• What was Wundt known as?

  The father of psychology as the subject moved from philosophical roots to controlled, objective and scientific research.
• What did Wundt do in 1873?

  Published the first book on psychology 'Principles of Physiological Psychology' helping to establish the subject as an independent branch of science
• What did Wundt do in 1879

  Set up the first psychology lab in Liepzig Germany
• What did Wundt promote?

  The use of scientific methods when investigating introspection as a way of studying mental processes. ​
• Define introspection

  The systematic analysis of own conscious experience of a stimulus

  An experience was analysed in terms of its component parts such as sensations and emotional reaction
• What did Wundt work pave the way for

  Later controlled research and the study of mental processes such as cognitive psychologists
• What did Wundt strictly control?

  -the environment where introspection took place , controlled the stimuli and tasks ppts were asked to think about and limited the range of responses ppts might give

  
  

  -ppts were presented with standardised sensory events like a ticking metronome and asked to report their reactions
• A positive criticism of introspection is that it is still used today to gain access to cognitive processes


  -E.g. Griffiths used introspection to study the cognitive processes of fruit machine gamblers and asked them to think aloud while playing

  
  

  -This research led to treatment for gambling and therefore introspection has a positive application in modern society
• Another Positive criticism of Wundt is his use of scientific methods


  -from this causes of behaviour can be established that are empirical. This means other psychologists can replicate his research

  
  

  -furthermore the high level of control means less influence from EV's and greater certainty the IV impacted the DV
• However today's psychologists (e.g Skinner) argue that introspection were not scientific even if the methods used to introspect were.


  -Skinner claims the results of introspection are subjective and cannot be verified because only observable behaviour can be objectively measured
• A positive criticism is that Wundt is considered the father of psychology


  -his work stimulated an interest in cognitive psychology and it could be argued that he paved the way for the emergence of cognitive neuroscience

  -his greatest contribution was to show that psychology could be a valid experimental science
• A negative criticism of the use of introspection is that 


  -one can only infer that ppts are thinking about things you asked them to

  -therefore one could argue that introspection is not a scientific method for studying human behaviour