Introspection Flashcards
What was psychology originally seen as?
Experimental philosophy
Who were the first philosophers to consider psychological questions and what were their ideas?
Rene Descartes- Cartesian Dualism= the mind and body are separate entries
John Locke- Empriricism= all knowledge is gained through experience
Charles Darwin- Evolution= humans have changed over many generations to increase their chances of survival
What made psychology become seen as a scientific discipline?
When Wilhem Wundt established the first psychology lab in 1879, in Leipzig where he aimed to study the structure of the human mind through breaking down behaviours
When and by whom was the Psychodynamic approach established?
By Freud in the 1900s
(this emphasised the importance of the unconscious mind and conflicts that arise in childhood)
Who established the behaviourist approach and when?
John B Watson and B.F. Skinner in 1913
Which 2 approaches dominate Psychology in 1910-1960?
Behaviourist approach and humanist approach
Which invention led to a revolution in how Psychologists think about the mind?
The computer
What is the key principle of the cognitive approach?
Emphasises the importance of studying internal mental processes in a scientific way
What led to the establishment of the biological approach and when did this happen?
Technological advantages allowing us to directly study the brain in the 1980s
Who was Wilhem Wundt and what was he best known for doing?
He opened the first psychological lab in Leipzig to study the mind using intospection in 1879
Define introspection
Describe the process Wundt used to study introspection
Breaking up conscious awareness into thoughts, images and sensations
- Wundt used stimuli eg. ticking of metrodome
- participants would report on their own conscious experience by looking inwards and noticing sensations and then write it
- partcipants systematically report all of their feelings, thoughts and images
- Wundt analyses each response for consistent themes
How were Wundt’s ideas scientific?
Strict methods used and only studied behaviour that could be strictly controlled in exptal conditions
What are the 4 features of science? Describe them
-Objectivity= not affected by the feelings and experiences of the researcher
-Falsifiability= theory must be testable
-Paradigms= a universally agreed paradigm makes a discipline scientific
-Replicability= they can be repeated and get the same results over again
What is a strength of Wundt’s introspection and why?
It inspired research we use today because it was the first idea about the brain they had
What was a limitation about Wundt’s introspection and why?
It wasn’t scientific because the brain changes thoughts too much, so at different times there would’ve been different results
