APPROACHES - The Origins Of Psychology Flashcards
The origins of psychology AO1
• Wilhelm Wundt was the first person to call himself a psychologist and his ideas stemmed from philosophical roots
• 1879: Wundt opened the first experimental psychological lab in Leipzig
• Wundt devised introspection as a way of studying internal mental events
• Introspection: the first systematic and experimental attempt to study the mind/mental processes by breaking down conscious awareness into basic structures of reflections, thoughts, images and sensations.
• Structuralism is a theory of consciousness developed by Wundt
• He wanted to document and describe the structure of human consciousness so him and his workers recorded their own conscious thoughts and breaking them down into their constituent parts (sensations, emotions, reactions)
• Scientific methods were used to investigate introspection which helped Psychology to be seen as a science and to help develop cognitive psychology
• Introspection involves the person saying everything that is going through their mind whilst they are going an activity or thinking about something and they must keep talking even if their ideas are not clear and did not have to justify their thoughts
• This made research into introspection highly reliable so that replication would be possible
• Wundt later on recognised that mental processes were difficult to study using introspection, so over the years alternative methods have been developed such as brain scanning
Who started psychology and how did he come up with it?
• Wilhelm Wundt was the first person to call himself a psychologist and his ideas stemmed from philosophical roots
What did Wilhelm Wundt do in 1879?
• 1879: Wundt opened the first experimental psychological lab in Leipzig
Introspection definition
• Introspection: the first systematic and experimental attempt to study the mind/mental processes by breaking down conscious awareness into basic structures of reflections, thoughts, images and sensations.
How did Wilhelm Wundt study the theory of Structuralism
• He wanted to document and describe the structure of human consciousness so him and his workers recorded their own conscious thoughts and breaking them down into their constituent parts (sensations, emotions, reactions)
What was done to help Psychology emerge as a science?
• Scientific methods were used to investigate introspection which helped Psychology to be seen as a science and to help develop cognitive psychology
How is introspection carried out?
• Introspection involves the person saying everything that is going through their mind whilst they are going an activity or thinking about something and they must keep talking even if their ideas are not clear and did not have to justify their thoughts
• This made research into introspection highly reliable so that replication would be possible
What did Wundt recognise about introspection?
• Wundt later on recognised that mental processes were difficult to study using introspection, so over the years alternative methods have been developed such as brain scanning
The origins of psychology AO3
• Subjective data – Watson (1913) criticised Wundt’s idea of introspection and whether psychology was emerging as a science; introspection produces subjective data which varies from one individual to the next therefore it is not objective or very reliable.
• Unconscious awareness – Wilson claims that psychologists have very little knowledge about some behaviour and attitudes that might exist outside of conscious awareness (racism). Introspection would not work to investigate unconscious thought processes.
• Reductionism in psychology – Wundt believes consciousness could be broken down to its basic elements without sacrificing any properties of the whole. He studied internal mental processes by deconstructing then down into measurable units such as perception and senses.
• Why reductionism is bad in reference to the mind – The mind is very complex and it would be wrong to not consider all of the aspects of the mind as a whole and how they might interact.
The origins of psychology AO3 - subjective data
Watson (1913) criticised Wundt’s idea of introspection and whether psychology was emerging as a science; introspection produces subjective data which varies from one individual to the next therefore it is not objective or very reliable.
The origins of psychology AO3 - unconscious awareness
Wilson claims that psychologists have very little knowledge about some behaviour and attitudes that might exist outside of conscious awareness (racism). Introspection would not work to investigate unconscious thought processes.
The origins of psychology AO3 - reductionism in psychology
Wundt believes consciousness could be broken down to its basic elements without sacrificing any properties of the whole. He studied internal mental processes by deconstructing then down into measurable units such as perception and senses.
The origins of psychology AO3 - why reductionism is bad in reference to the mind
The mind is very complex and it would be wrong to not consider all of the aspects of the mind as a whole and how they might interact.
