Approaches: Introduction To Psychology Flashcards
What are the four goals of psychology?
Description, explanation, prediction, change. To tell us what occurred, why a behaviour or mental process occurred, to identify the conditions under which a future behaviour or mental process is likely to occur, and to apply psychological knowledge to pretty unwanted behaviour and to bring about desired change
Why are there different approaches in psychology?
Each approach looks at different behaviour form a different perspective. There is no right approach and the others wrong, but some are more useful than others depending on what we are trying to explain.
Name three influential people to the development of psychology before Wundt
Rene Descartes (1596-1650) (Cartesian dualism (mind and body separate entities))
John Locke (1632-1704) (empiricism, the theory that all knowledge is based on experience derived from the senses and can be studied using scientific methods had an emergence as psychology as a science)
Charles Darwin (1809-1882) (evolutionary theories set the stage for biological approach)
What did Wilhelm Wundt publish in 1873?
The first book on psychology, ‘Principles of Physiological Psychology’ to establish the subject as an independent branch of science
What did Wilhelm Wundt open in 1879?
He opened the first psychology laboratory in Leipzig, Germany, the Institute of Experimental Psychology. The lab was designated to the scientific study of psychological enquiry under controlled conditions. The focus was on trying to understand psychological processes of perception and sensations, rather than biological processes.
What is structuralism?
Structuralism is a theory of consciousness that seeks to analyse the elements of mental experiences, such as sensations, mental images, and feelings, and how these elements combine to form more complex experiences. Using controlled methods such as introspection, to break down consciousness to its basic elements without sacrificing any of the properties of the whole
Who was structuralism later further developed by and what were the three consciousness stages he proposed?
By Wundt’s student, Tichener, who proposed three elementary stages of consciousness: sensations (sights, sounds, tastes), images (components of thoughts), and affections (components of emotion)
What is introspection?
Conscious examination of conscious experience (self-observation of own thoughts). It was the first systematic experimental attempt to study the mind by breaking up consciousness awareness into basic structures, thoughts, images and sensations. Using controlled studies, in a controlled environment. Wundt later recognised higher mental processes were difficult to study using introspection and encouraged others to look for more appropriate methods, paving the way for other approaches such as scanning, which lead to the development of the field of cultural psychology, based on general trends in behaviour in groups of people
What was the method of introspection?
Highly trained assistants would be given a stimulus such as a ticking metronome and would reflect on the experience. They would report how it made them think and feel. The same stimulus, physical surroundings and instructions were given to each person. Wundt then compared all the responses to see what was similar and different about them in order to draw conclusions
Negative evaluations of introspection and Wundt
It’s difficult to study unobservable matter: introspection relies primary on non-observable responses and although participants can report conscious experiences, they are unable to comment on unconscious factors relating to their behaviours.
Introspection produced subjective data, so it became very difficult to establish general principles, meaning that introspective experimental results are not reliably produced by other researchers
Contrasts modern scientific methods and it’s also difficult to replicate
Validity issues with method as many aspects of our minds are outside of our conscious control
Positive evaluations of introspection and Wundt
Wundt provided the starting point for the future of psychology
He trained 186 graduate students, 116 specialising in psychology, these students went on to other countries around the world and were the foundations for the development of a truly objective study of mind and behaviour, and to find treatment of mental disorders as they applied their own new theories
