origins of psychology

• science 


  involves building knowledge through systematic and objective (unbias) measurement to discover general laws
• objective 


  unbias
• reliability 


  same result each time over time
• control 


  limiting factors so that we only measure a certain variable
• consistency 


  same result within the experiment
• validity 


  measuring what was set out to measure
• replicability 


  someone else could do it and get the same results
• rene descartes

  concept that the mind and body are two different things. idea of dualism
• 1900s Behaviourists

  1. value of introspection was questioned by behaviourist John B Watson. introspection produced subjective data rather than objective so difficult to establish general laws
  2. Watson and Skinner proposed that psychology should only study phenomena that can be observed objectively and measured
  3. they focused on what they can see and used carefully controlled methods
• 1950s Cognitive Approach

  1. cognitive psychologists linked the mind to a computer and tested their predictions about memory and attention using experiments
  2. ensured that it was legitimate and highly scientific aspect of the discipline
• 1980s Biological Approach

  1. use of sophisticated scanning techniques, such as fMRI and EEG to study live activity in the brain
  2. new methods (eg: genetic testing) have also allowed us to better understand the relationship between genes and behaviours
• The Scientific Method

  based on two major assumptions: all behaviour is seen as being caused (DETERMINED) and PREDICTABILITY
• advantages of the scientific method

  1. same aims as natural science - to describe, understand, predict and control behaviour
  2. data can be generalised for regular human beings to understand
• disadvantages of the scientific method

  not everyone believes in scientific data therefore it doesn't reflect real behaviour
• Wundt was the first person to open a lab dedicated to psychology in 1879 in Leipzig, Germany
• what was Wundt's main aim?

  to try and analyse the nature of human consciousness and represented the first systematic attempt to study the mind under controlled conditions
• what did Wundt and his co-workers do?

  recorded their experiences of various stimuli they were presented with (eg: different objects or sounds). They would divide their observations into three categories: thoughts, images and sensations

  eg: their participants were given a ticking metronome and they would report their thoughts, images and sensations
• Introspection 


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


  still used today to gain access to cognitive processes

  eg: Griffiths used it to study the cognitive processes of the fruit machine gamblers
• disadvantages of introspection

  1. relies primarily on non-observable responses and participants are unable to comment on unconscious factors relating to their behaviour
  2. produced data that was subjective so it became very difficult to establish general principles. It's not reliably produced again by other researchers