approaches - wundt Flashcards
what did Wundt do?
1879- opened the first ever lab completely dedicated to psychology in Germany
Wundt wanted to make psychology a science and thus represented the first systematic study of the mind, introspection
what is introspection?
a systematic experimental attempt to study the mind by breaking up conscious awareness into basic structures of thoughts, images and sensations
what is structuralism?
the stimuli that Wundt and his collegues experienced was always presented in the same order and the same instructions were presented to all participants
what is one strength of Wundt’s work?
all his methods were systematic and well controlled.
all introspections were conducted in a highly controlled lab ensuring extraneous variables were not a factor.
procedures were also standardised so all participants received the same information and tested the same way.
suggests Wundt’s work can be considered a forerunner to later scientific approaches in psychology
what is one limitation of Wundt’s work?
other aspects of Wundt’s work would be seen as non-scientific to today’s standards.
Wundt relied on participants self-reporting their mental processes
this is subjective and participants may not have been completely truthful with their recordings.
suggests some of Wundt’s early studies into the mind were flawed and did not meet the scientific criteria
