Approaches - Origins of psychology Flashcards
What is psychology?
- the scientific study of the human mind & its
functions, especially those affecting
behaviour
(Oxford dictionary, 1995)
Who is Wundt & what did he do?
- described as the “founding father of
psychology” - Set up the first ever psychology laboratory in
Germany (in 1875) - aimed to systematically study mental
processes
(such as perception & attention) - investigated mental processes using the
technique of INTROSPECTION - aimed to find out about the structure of mental
processes (STRUCTURALISM)
What is introspection & what does it do?
A Self-report technique
- involves trying to analyse how the mind
works by asking people to think carefully
about how they do tasks
- helps to find out the STRUCTURE of mental
processes
e.g. How do you focus your attention on only one voice in a noisy room)
How & why did Wundt control his introspection investigations?
- he trained his co-workers carefully before
using data from their introspections - made co-workers undergo practice trials
- controlled the conditions in which people
introspected
(e.g. same time of day, same room) - he was trying to study human thought
processes in a SCIENTIFIC way
Examples of uses of introspection in psychology
Griffiths: Gambling research
- asked people to ‘think aloud’ while playing on
a fruit machine
- found that regular gamblers’ thoughts were
more irrational
???Hunger & Csik… : Happiness
- people rated happiness & introspected
happiness when they heard a beeper
throughout the day
- teenagers generally rated themselves as
unhappy
- teenagers more likely to be happy if
engaged in challenging task when beeper
went off
Strengths of Wundt’s influences in psychology
Contributions to psychology:
- one of the first to argue that scientific
methods could be used to study human
thinking
- his attempt to study by gathering & analysing
data helped to separate psychology from
philosophy (self reflection & discussion)
Negatives of Wundt’s approach
- Introspection is subjective & unreliable
(no longer main method for gathering data) - Many mental processes occur automatically
- we are not aware of or realise what
influences our thoughts or behaviour
- we are not aware of or realise what
How has psychology changed & emerged as a science?
- started by attempting to study mental
processes in controlled conditions (Wundt) - gradually psych. has used more methods
associated with science
(e.g. measuring & recording data, using
experiments)
What was Watson’s influence on science & psychology?
- he criticised the use of introspection
- argued that psych. should test theories using
experiments on observable/measurable
behaviours only - interested in phobias
e.g. observed & measured how much a
child cried at stimuli
What did cognitive psychologists introduce to psychological research?
- studied processes that are NOT directly
observable
e.g. memory, attention - conducting experiments on mental processes
by manipulating certain variables & looking at
the effect on our ability to concentrate or
remember information - used experiments to make INFERENCES
about underlying processes
Example of cognitive research using inference
Baddeley: STM encoding
- manipulated types of words to see how this
affected people’s ability to recall them
- more difficult to recall if words sounded
similar
- inferred that our STM encodes verbal
information acoustically
What are the key (CORE) features of a science?
Control
- using experimental methods manipulating IV
& DV in controlled conditions to establish
cause & effect
Objective
= based on observable information, not on
opinion
- scientist shouldn’t influence recordings
Replicable
= should be verified by other people by
repeating procedures
Empiricism
= knowledge gained by developing theories &
testing them using direct observation & data
gathering
What does falsifiable mean?
Being able to modify theories if exceptions in data are found showing that the theory is FALSE
Why can we not fully PROVE theories?
We cannot test theories about human behaviour on everyone so SAMPLES are used
- even if a sample supports a theory, it’s always
possible that there are exceptions
Advantages of the scientific approach to psychology
- helps us to develop treatments or social
policies that are less influenced by bias or
opinion - breaking complex processes down into
testable hypotheses enables us to
understand human behaviour better - scientific cycle means theories are always
improving & developing - theories can be rejected if data shows they
are incorrect
