APPS 01 - Origins of Psychology Flashcards
1
Q
What is introspection?
A
- The first systematic experimental attempt to study the mind by breaking up conscious awareness into basic structures of thoughts, images and sensations
- This allows the person to gain insight into their own mental and emotional states. The word comes from Latin and means ‘looking into’
2
Q
What is psychology?
A
The scientific study of the mind, behaviour and experience
3
Q
What is science?
A
- A means of knowledge through systematic and objective investigation
- The aim is to discover general laws
4
Q
What is structuralism?
A
Isolating the structure of consciousness
5
Q
What is paradigm?
A
A set of principles, assumptions and methods that all people who within that subject agree on
6
Q
Who is often referred to as the Father of Psychology?
A
William Wundt
7
Q
Who was William Wundt?
A
- Was the first person to be called a psychologist
- He opened the first ever lab dedicated entirely to psychology in a small town called Leipzig in Germany in 1879
- Wundt’s work is significant because it marked the beginning of scientific psychology, separating it from its broader philosophical roots
- He wanted to explore and analyse the nature of human ‘consciousness’ and thus represented the first systematic attempt to study the mind under controlled conditions
- Wundt established psychology as a science by using the scientific method, his ideas would lead to multiple different psychological perspectives
- His pioneering method became known as introspection
8
Q
What 3 areas of mental function did Wundt identify?
A
- Thoughts, images and feelings
- These are perceptual processes, and this early research was the start of an interest in cognition
- Consciousness is ‘structured’ => structuralism
9
Q
What was the procedure of Wundt’s study?
A
- One of Wundt’s main objectives was to try and develop theories about mental processes, such as language and perception
- He and his co-workers recorded their experiences of various stimuli they were presented with, such as different objects or sounds
- They would divide their observations into three categories: thoughts, images and sensations
- The stimuli that Wundt and his co-workers experienced were always presented in the same order and the same instructions were issued to all participants
10
Q
What are the strengths of Wundt’s research?
A
- Some of his methods were systematic and well controlled
11
Q
How was Wundt’s research well controlled?
A
- One strength of Wundt’s work is that some of his methods were systematic and well-controlled (i.e. scientific)
- All introspections were recorded in the controlled environment of the lab, ensuring that possible extraneous variables were not a factor
- Procedures and instructions were carefully standardised so that all participants received the same information and were tested in the same way
- This suggests that Wundt’s research can be considered a forerunner to later scientific approaches in psychology, such as the behaviourist approach
12
Q
What were Wundt’s contributions to psychology?
A
- Wundt produced the first academic journal for psychological research and wrote the first textbook
- He is often referred to as the founder of modern psychology
- It is even suggested that Wundt’s pioneering research set the foundation for approaches that were to come, particularly the behaviourist approach and cognitive psychology
13
Q
What are the limitations of Wundt’s research?
A
- The ‘delay’ will be a problem
- Some aspects of his research would be considered unscientific today
14
Q
How was there a ‘delay’ in Wundt’s research?
A
- The ‘delay’ will be a problem as doing two tasks at once affects an individual’s concentration, and so may forget to write down experiences if they are involved in completing the problem. So, all information is not being noted.
- These studies lack generalisability and does not consider individual differences
- People have different experiences which will affect the different ways in which we process information
15
Q
What aspects of Wundt’s research would be considered unscientific today?
A
- One limitation is that other aspects of Wundt’s research would be considered unscientific today
- Wundt relied on participants self-reporting their mental processes
- Such data is subjective (influenced by a personal perspective)
- Also, participants may have hidden some of their thoughts
- It is difficult to establish meaningful ‘laws of behaviour’ from such data
- And general laws are useful to predict future behaviour, one of the aims of science
- This suggests that some of Wundt’s early efforts to study the mind were flawed and would not meet the criteria of scientific enquiry
16
Q
What is the strength of psychology?
A
- One strength is that research in modern psychology can claim to be scientific
- Psychology has the same aims as the natural sciences which is to describe, understand, predict and control behaviour
- The learning approaches, cognitive approach and biological approach all rely on the use of scientific methods, for example, lab studies to investigate theories in a controlled and unbiased way
- This suggests that throughout the 20th century and beyond, psychology has established itself as a scientific discipline
17
Q
What are the limitations of psychology?
A
- Not all approaches use objective methods
- Psychology isn’t a science because it doesn’t have a paradigm
18
Q
How do not all approaches in psychology use objective methods?
A
- One limitation with psychology is that not all approaches use objective methods
- The humanistic approach rejects the scientific approach, preferring to focus on individual experiences and subjective experience
- The psychodynamic approach makes use of the case study method which does not use representative samples
- Finally, the subject of study (human beings) are active participants in research, responding for example to demand characteristics
- Therefore, a scientific approach to the study of human thought and experience may not always be desirable or possible
19
Q
Why is it argued that psychology isn’t a science?
A
- The philosopher Thomas Kuhn said that any science must have a paradigm
- He went on to say that psychology is not a science because it does not have a paradigm as there is so much internal disagreement at its core
20
Q
What is the timeline of psychology?
A
- 17th century – 19th century: Psychology is a branch of the broader discipline of philosophy. If psychology has a definition during this time, it is as experimental philosophy.
- 1879: Wilhelm Wundt opens the first experiment psychology lab in Germany and psychology emerges as a distinct discipline in its own right.
- 1900s: Sigmund Freud emphasises the influence of the unconscious mind on behaviour (the psychodynamic approach). He also develops his person-centred therapy, psychoanalysis, and shows that physical problems can be explained in terms of conflicts within the mind.
- 1913: John B. Watson writes Psychology as the Behaviourist views it and later with B.F. Skinner, establishes the behaviourist approach. The psychodynamic and behaviourist approaches dominate psychology for the first half of the 20th century.
- 1950s: Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow develop the humanistic approach, the so-called ‘third force’ in psychology, rejecting the behaviourist and psychodynamic view that human behaviour is determined by outside factors. Humanistic psychologists emphasise the importance of self-determination and free will.
- 1950s: The introduction of the digital computer gives psychologists a metaphor for the operations of the human mind. The cognitive approach reintroduces the study of mental processes to psychology but in a much more scientific way than Wundt’s earlier investigations
- 1960s: Albert Bandura proposes the social learning theory. This approach draws attention to the role of cognitive factors in learning, providing a bridge between the newly established cognitive approach and traditional behaviourism.
- 1980s onwards: The biological approach begins to establish itself as the dominant scientific perspective in psychology. This is due to advances in technology that have increased understanding of the brain and biological processes.
- Eve of the 21st century: Towards the end of the last century, cognitive neuroscience emerges as a distinct discipline bringing together the cognitive and biological approaches. Cognitive neuroscience investigates how biological structures influence mental states.
