1 - The Origins of Psychology Flashcards
Who was Wundt?
The first person to call himself a, “psychologist”
Known as the, “father of psychology” whereby his ideas stem from philosophical roots
Define introspection
The first systematic and experimental attempt to study the mind/mental processes by breaking down conscious awareness into basic structures of reflections, thoughts, images and sensations.
What was Wundt’s aim?
Document and describe the structure of human consciousness (introspection) and this involved him and his workers recording their own conscious thoughts and breaking them down into their constituent parts.
How did psychology emerge as a science through Wundt?
Wundt used scientific methods to investigate introspection, and this paved the way for Psychology to be seen as a science and helped develop cognitive psychology.
Introspection was recorded under strictly controlled conditions in a laboratory using the same stimuli, the same reaction times and the same instructions given to participants, and they had to focus on present experiences.
This made the research highly reliable so that replication would be possible (this is a key feature of science)
How is introspection actually carried out?
Involves the person saying everything that is going through their mind whilst they are doing an activity or thinking about a topic/object.
They must keep talking even if their ideas are not clear. They must not hesitate; they can use fragmented sentences, and they do not have to justify their thoughts
What are the limitations of introspection?
It produces subjective data which varies from one individual to the next. Therefore it is not objective or reliable.
It is not very scientific or accurate. Psychologists have little knowledge about some behaviour and attitudes that might exist outside of conscious awareness ( racism ). Introspection would not be able to uncover and help us understand those thoughts.
Fails to explain how the mind works and the processes involved in thinking about a particular topic. Cannot see how these thoughts are generated and introspection cannot be properly observed.
How did psychology emerge as a science?
Psychology holds to a philosophy called empiricism (maintains that knowledge comes from observation and experience alone).
The scientific approach to psychology was based on two major assumptions. First, behaviour is seen as being caused (the assumption of determinism). Second, if behaviour is determined then it should be possible to predict how human beings would behave in different situations (the assumption of predictability).
Evaluate the scientific approach
+ Able to establish the causes of behaviour through the use of methods that are both empirical and replicable. If scientific theories no longer fit the facts they are refined or abandoned, meaning that scientific knowledge is self-corrective.
- By concentrating on objectivity and control in studies scientific psychologists create contrived situations (lack mundane realism) that tell us little about how people act in more natural environments (lack ecological validity).
What is the scientific method?
Objective - that researchers do not let their preconceived ideas or biases influence the collection of their data.
Systematic - observations and experiments are carried out in an orderly way. Measurement and recording of empirical data are carried out accurately and with due consideration for effect of extraneous variables on the results.
Replicable - other researchers can determine if the same results are obtained when the study is repeated. If the results are not replicable then they are not reliable and cannot be accepted as universally true.
