Approaches : Emergence of psychology as a science (Wundt)

Question 1

Explain Wundt’s role in the emergence of psychology as a science.

Answer 1

• Established the first psychological laboratory in Germany 1879.
• Often considered the father of experimental psychology.
• He separated psychology from philosophy by analysing the mind in a more structured, objective and scientific way.
• He believed the best way to study the mind was to break down behaviours (e.g. perception and sensation) into their basic element- called this structuralism.
• He only studied those aspects of behaviour which could be strictly controlled under experimental conditions.

Question 2

Describe Wundt’s method of introspection.

Answer 2

• Focus on everyday object (usually a metronome)
• Think about your own personal experience (sensations, feelings and images)
• After the set amount of time, report your experience (How did you feel?)

Question 3

Define the term ‘introspection’.

Answer 3

A systematic analysis of your own personal experience of a stimulus.

Question 4

Give a strength of Wundt’s method of introspection.

Answer 4

(P) A strength of Wundt’s work is that his methods were systematic and well controlled.

(E) All introspections recorded in the controlled environment of a lab + all ppts given the same instructions and were tested in the same way.

(E) Ensured that extraneous variables didn’t affect the results as the environment was controlled, and the instructions/ procedure was standardised.

(L) Suggests that Wundt’s research can be considered a forerunner to later scientific approaches in psychology, such as the cognitive approach.

Question 5

Give a limitation of Wundt’s work.

Answer 5

(P) Aspects of his research would be considered as being unscientific today.

(E) Wundt relied on participants self-reporting their experiences, and they could have hidden some of their thoughts.

(E) Such data is subjective, and also makes it hard to establish ‘laws of behaviour’ as general laws are useful to predict future behaviour, one of the aims of science.

(L) This suggests that some of Wundt’s early efforts to study the mind were flawed, and would not meet the criteria of scientific inquiry today.

Question 6

Give a strength of Wundt’s research overall.

Answer 6

(P) Another strength of Wundt’s work is that although it is flawed by today’s standard, it helped to pave the way for current scientific approaches.

(E) Wundt and other psychologists realised that aspects of his research were neither scientific nor objective, and that it was actually quite difficult to study higher mental processes.

(E) This encouraged others to look for more appropriate methods and techniques to study the mind.

(D) Also, introspection is still used today in areas such as therapy and studying emotional states. This demonstrates its value as one way mental processes can be investigated

(L) So, although his methods were unscientific to a degree, they were fundamental in laying the foundation for psychology to emerge as a science.