Ap - The origins of psychology Flashcards
Who was Wilhelm Wundt?
The first person to call himself a psychologist, believing that all aspects of nature, including the human mind, could be studied scientifically.
What did Wundt study?
Aspects of behaviour that could be strictly controlled under experimental conditions.
What was Wundt’s aim and what did he believe?
He aimed to study the human mind and believed that the best way to do this was to break down behaviours such as sensation and perception into their basic elements.
What was Wundt’s approach referred to as and what technique did he use?
Structuralism
Introspection
How does Wundt’s experiment follow the introspection technique?
In Wundt’s study of perception, participants would be presented with carefully controlled stimuli (e.g. visual images or auditory tones). They would then be asked to provide a description of the inner processes they were experiencing as they looked at the image or listened to the tone. This made it possible to compare different participant’s reports in response to the same stimuli, and so establish general theories about perception and other mental processes.
What do empiricists believe?
That knowledge comes from observation and experience alone (rather than being innate).
What was the ‘new’ scientific approach of empiricism based on?
All behaviour is seen as being caused (the assumption of determinism).
If behaviour is determined, then it should be possible to predict how human beings would behave in different conditions (the assumption of predictability).
What does the scientific method refer to?
The use of investigative methods that are objective, systematic and replicable, and the formulation, testing and modification of hypothesis based on these methods.
How do Wundt’s unreliable methods contrast with other early behaviourists?
Early behaviourist such as Pavlov and Thorndike were already achieving reliably reproducible results and discovering explanatory principles that could be easily generalised to all human beings.
What does a scientific approach test assumptions about?
Behaviour
What is a consequence of the fact that:
If human behaviour isn’t subject to the laws and regularities implied by scientific methods, then predictions become impossible and these methods are inappropriate and the subject matter cannot be measured with any degree of accuracy?
Much of psychological knowledge is inferential, i.e. there is a gap between the actual data obtained in research investigations and the theories put forward to explain this data.
What is a consequence of the fact that:
Scientific methods are 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 can be refined or abandoned, meaning that scientific knowledge is self-corrective.
What is empiricism?
The belief that all knowledge is derived from sensory experience. It is generally characterised by the use of the scientific method in psychology.
What is introspection?
The process by which a person gains knowledge about his or her own mental and emotional states as a result of the examination or observation of their conscious thoughts and feelings.
What did Wilhelm Wundt do in 1873?
Published the first book on psychology establishing that psychology as a unique branch of science with its own subject matter and its own methods.
