introspection

Question 1

what is wundt known as and why?

Answer 1

the father of psychology, he moved from philosophical roots to controlled research

Question 2

what is introspection?

Answer 2

examining (looking into) your own conscious thoughts and emotions

Question 3

how was an experience analysed with introspection?

Answer 3

in terms of its component parts (structuralism)

Question 4

process of introspection

Answer 4

-participants are all given the same stimulus to observe
-participants were all given the same set of standardised instructions
-he would ask his participants to record precisely what they were thinking/feeling/sensations/images
-wundt would also measure how long it took them to respond to various stimuli then make inferences (draw conclusions) on participants’ internal mental processes e.g. the longer it took to respond, the more mental processes must be involved

Question 5

how is introspection scientific?

Answer 5

-used standardised instructions for participants = credible & repeatable
-showed that empirical methods (based on actual experience) could be applied to the study of mental processes
-wundt measured quantitative details (number of thoughts, feelings & reaction times) so that patterns could be recognised and inferences from the results would be credible
-used systematic procedures

Question 6

criticisms of introspection:

Answer 6

-focus on non observable behaviour makes it invalid
-reliance on subjective data

Question 7

wundt limitation: focus on non-observable behaviour makes it invalid

Answer 7

P - wundt’s approach required participants to report on their own conscious experience (unobservable)

E - participants can lie about or even struggle to understand and report their own feelings, which means that findings are invalid
↳ many aspects of our mind are outside our conscious awareness

L - introspection isn’t a scientific way to study behaviour

Question 8

wundt limitation: reliance on subjective data

Answer 8

P - john watson (behaviourist approach) criticised introspection for producing subjective data

E - subjective data greatly varies from person to person, making it difficult to establish general principles

L - scientific processes aim to be objective
↳ introspection isn’t an objective way to study to human mind and isn’t scientific

Question 9

strengths of introspection:

Answer 9

-can be seen as forerunner of cognitive approach
-wundt was the father of psychology and the first to attempt to use scientific methods to study human behaviour

Question 10

wundt strength: forerunner of cognitive approach

Answer 10

-the focus on mental processes and human conscious thought through introspection makes the approach like a forerunner of the cognitive approach, now one of the most dominant paradigms in psychology

Question 11

wundt strength: contribution to science

Answer 11

-wundt has contributed well to science
-introspective methods use controlled conditions to eliminate any extraneous variables & have standardised procedures (all ppts look at the same image & record thoughts/feelings every minute)
-increases reliability as the method can be repeated