Approaches: Origins of psychology

Question 1

What’s empiricism?

Answer 1

the belief that all knowledge is derived from sensory experience and is generally characterised by the use of the scientific memory.

Question 2

What’s introspection?

Answer 2

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

Question 3

What’s the scientific method?

Answer 3

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

Question 4

What’s psychology?

Answer 4

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

Question 5

Who is Wilhelm Wundt?

Answer 5

“Father of psychology”

Question 6

What did Wilhelm Wundt believe?

Answer 6

all aspects of nature including the human mind could be studied scientifically

Question 7

What did Wundt approach do?

Answer 7

His approach paved the way for the acceptance of psychology as a distinct science and experimental psychology as the preferred method of studying human behavior and did so in his lab in Germany.

Question 8

How did Wundt study behaviour scientifically?

Answer 8

He only studied aspects of behaviour that could be strictly controlled under experimental conditions including reaction time (how long it takes people to respond to various stimuli), sensation and perception.

Question 9

How did Wundt study the mind?

Answer 9

Wundt’s aim was to study the structure of the human mind and the best was to do this was to break down behaviours like sensation and perception into their most basic elements. This approach was referred to as structuralism

Question 10

What’s structuralism?

Answer 10

isolating the structure of consciousness by objectively breaking down thoughts about a stimulus and uses the technique of introspection.

Question 11

What did Wundt realise about higher mental processes?

Answer 11

Wundt came to realise that higher mental processes such as learning, language and emotions couldn’t be studied in a strict, controlled manner and could instead be described in terms of general trends in behaviour among groups of people.

Question 12

What’s the process of introspection?

Answer 12

ppts would be presented with carefully controlled stimuli (e.g visual images or auditory tones).

They would then be asked to provide a description of their inner processes they were experiencing as they looked at the image or listened to the tone.

This made it impossible to compare different ppts reports in response to the same stimuli, and so establish general theories about perception and other mental processes.

Question 13

How can introspection be classified as scientific?

Answer 13

Introspection could be classified as scientific as it uses the same standardised procedures were given to all ppts and so the procedure could be replicated. Wundt also strictly controlled the environments where introspection took place.

Question 14

What’s the timeline for approaches?

Answer 14

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

Question 15

What are the 4 AO3 points for origins of psychology?

Answer 15

+introspection is still used in modern psychology
+Scientific method
-Unreliable methods
-Introspection isn’t accurate

Question 16

(+AO3) How is introspection still used in modern psychology?

Answer 16

Hunter (2003) used introspection to measure fuel levels of happiness among teenagers by giving them bleepers that went off at random times in the day prompting the teenagers to write down their thoughts and feelings prior to the bleep.

Despite the fact that introspection fell out of favour as a research tool, it’s not been entirely abandoned as suggested by Hunters’ study which further suggests that introspection still has a role in society today.

Question 17

(+AO3) How is the scientific nature a strength?

Answer 17

Wundt tried to apply the scientific method to his studies for example, controlling the environment where he conducted his introspection experiments, which would prevent extraneous variables form skewing the results.

This further trained subjects to adopt the same state of mind and reports back specific data which should in theory produce more reliable results.

Question 18

(-AO3) How do unreliable methods impact the study?

Answer 18

The structuralist approach relied primarily on ‘non observable’ responses.

Although ppts could report on their conscious experiences, the processes themselves (memory, perception etc.) were considered unobservable constructions.

Wundt’s approach ultimately failed because of the lack of reliability of his methods as his results weren’t reliably produced by other researchers.

Question 19

(-AO3) How is introspection inaccurate?

Answer 19

According to Nisbett and Wilson introspection isn’t particularly accurate as we have little knowledge of the causes of behaviour and attitudes.

Nisbett and Wilson found that their ppts were unaware of the factors that influenced their choice of consumer item.

This suggests that Wundt’s approach lacks accuracy as our attitudes sit outside of our conscious awareness and therefore inspection wouldn’t uncover them.