Approaches: Origins of psychology

Question 1

What is a psychology?

Answer 1

The scientific study of the human mind and its functions, especially those functions affecting behaviour in a given context.

Question 2

What was William Wundt’s contribution to psychology?

Answer 2

• He developed the first experimental psychology lab in Germany in 1879.
• Used scientific method to study the structure of sensation and perception.
• Showed that introspection could be used to study mental states in replicable laboratory experiments.
• He was known as the father of psychology.
• He paved the way for future psychologies such as the cognitive approach.

Question 3

What is introspection?

Answer 3

The process by which a person gains knowledge about his or her own mental states as a result of the examination or observation of their own conscious thoughts and feelings.

Question 4

What does structuralism mean?

Answer 4

Isolating the structure of consciousness by objectively breaking down thoughts about a stimulus

Question 5

What does empiricism mean?

Answer 5

The belief is that all knowledge is derived from sensory experience. It is generally characterised by the use of the scientific method in psychology.

Question 6

What was Wundts procedure of introspection?

Answer 6

For example, in Wundts studies of perception, participants would be presented with carefully controlled stimuli. 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. They made it possible to compare different ppts reports in response to the same stimuli and so establish general theories about perception and other mental processes.

Question 7

What are some problems with introspection?

Answer 7

• Doesn’t explain how the mind works.
• Relies on people describing their thoughts and feelings, which usually isn’t objective.
• Doesn’t provide data which can be used reliably because people are reporting on their experiences, their accounts cannot be confirmed.

Question 8

What are the strengths of introspection?

Answer 8

• Introspection can help people make connections between different experiences and responses.
• Introspection in controlled conditions allows experiments to be replicated.
• Introspection provides the only method to access our conscious thoughts and feelings.

Question 9

What is the scientific method?

Answer 9

Refers to the use of investigative methods that are objective, systematic and replicable and the formulation, testing and modification of hypotheses based on these methods.

Question 10

What is replicability

Answer 10

Finding the same results when the same methodology is used.

Question 11

What is objectivity?

Answer 11

When findings/facts are not influenced by personal feelings or bias.

Question 12

How can the introspection method be classed as scientific?

Answer 12

• The same standardised procedures were given to all participants so the procedure could be replicated.
• Wundt strictly controlled the environments where introspection took place.

Question 13

What is the timeline of the emergence of psychology?

Answer 13

• 1870s is structuralism
• 1900s is psychoanalysis
• 1910s is behaviourism
• 1950s is humanistic
• 1960s is cognitive/ SLT
• 1980s is biological
• 2000s is cognitive neuroscience

Question 14

A03 of the origins of psychology: Introspection

Answer 14

+ Introspection is that it still used in modern scientific psychology.
+ Scientific nature
- Wundt’s methods are unreliable
- The introspection is not approach is not particularly accurate

Question 15

A03: Introspection is that it still used in modern scientific psychology.

Answer 15

A strength of introspection is that it is still used in modern scientific psychology. Hunter used introspective methods to measure the levels of happiness among teenagers giving them bleepers which went off at random times throughout the day, prompting the teenagers to write down their thoughts and feelings prior to the beep. Despite the fact that introspection fell out of favour as a research tool, it has not been entirely abandoned and Hunters’ study suggests that introspection still has a role to play today.

Question 16

A03: Scientific nature

Answer 16

Wundt tried to apply the scientific method to his studies. For example, controlling the environment where he conducted his introspection experiments would prevent this extraneous variable from skewing the results. Further, training subjects to adopt the same state of mind and report back specific data should, in theory, produce more reliable results.

Question 17

A03: Wundt’s methods are unreliable

Answer 17

A criticism of the structuralist approach, mainly from the behaviourists, was that this approach relied primarily on non-observable responses. Although participants could report their own conscious experiences, the processes themselves e.g memory was considered non-observable constructions. Wundt’s approach ultimately failed because of the lack of reliability of his methods. Introspective experimental results were not reliably reproducible by the other researchers in other labs. In contrast, other researchers were already achieving reliable results like Pavlov.

Question 18

A03: Introspection is not approach is not particularly accurate

Answer 18

The criticism of inspection according to Nisbett and Wilson is that is not particularly accurate as we have little knowledge of the causes of behaviour and attitudes. Nisbett and Wilson found that their participants were unaware of the factors that influenced their choice of consumer item. This suggests that Wundt’s approach lacks accuracy as our attitudes exist outside of our conscious awareness and therefore inspection would not uncover them