L1 - The Origins Of Psychology - Wundt, Introspection & The Emergence Of Psychology As A Science

Question 1

Psychology definition

Answer 1

The scientific study of the human mind & it’s functions; especially affecting behaviour in a given context

Question 2

Science definition

Answer 2

A means of acquiring knowledge through systematic & objective investigation
The aim is to discover laws

Question 3

Who was the first person to call themselves a psychologist?

Answer 3

Wilhelm Wundt

Question 4

Wilhelm Wundt

Answer 4

• known as ‘father of psychology’
• opened first experimental psychological lab in 1879 in Leipzig, Germany - aid scientific study of psychological inquiry using controlled conditions that could facilitate replication of results

Question 5

What did Wundt devise

Answer 5

• introspection - way to study mental events
• defined as the first systematic & experimental attempt to study the mind/mental processes by breaking down conscious awareness into basic structures of reflections, thoughts, images & sensations

Question 6

What did Wundt want to focus on

Answer 6

• psychological processes of perception & structuralism
• structuralism is a theory of consciousness using introspection, self-reports of sensations, views, feelings, emotions etc..
• wanted to document & describe the structure of human consciousness (introspection) - involved him & his workers recording their conscious thoughts & breaking them down into constituent parts e.g. sensations, emotions

Question 7

How did Wundt investigate

Answer 7

• used scientific methods like traditional sciences e.g bio/chem
• used scientific methods to investigate introspection - paved way for psychology to be science & helped develop cognitive psychology
• introspection was recorded under controlled conditions in lab used same stimuli,, reaction times & instructions, focused on present situations
• made research highly reliable, so replication would be possible - key feature of a science

Question 8

What does introspection involve

Answer 8

• person says everything that is going through their mind whilst doing an activity, thinking about a topic/object
• must keep talking even if ideas aren’t clear, no hesitation, can use fragmented sentences, don’t have to justify thoughts
• Wundt recognised later that mental processes were very hard to study using introspection - encourages search for alternative methods/approaches such as brain scanning

Question 9

Evaluation of introspection & the emergence of psychology as a science

Answer 9

strengths
- develops other approaches
- extremely scientific
- establish cause of behaviour
- still used today
- supports/advocates reductionism
weaknesses
- criticised by other psychologists
- critisises as not scientific/accurate
- doesn’t explain how mind works & processes

Question 10

develops other approaches

Answer 10

• advantage is that it’s been used to develop other approaches in psychology
  E.g. behaviourism via Watson & cognitive approach by beck
• introspection is a useful phenomenon used in psychology that has formed the basis of other approaches/models

Question 11

extremely scientific

Answer 11

• introspection has advantage of being extremely scientific
• shares same qualities as the scientific subjects e.g bio/chem
• all these subjects make predictions and forms hypotheses
• high level of control as all these subjects including psychology study behaviour in a laboratory setting

Question 12

establish cause of behaviour

Answer 12

• introspection has the advantage that it can establish what causes behaviour
• if we know what causes it to occur then we can predict future behaviour - useful in psychology
  E.g. high dopamine levels cause OCD, so can try to regulate OCD levels to prevent it

Question 13

still used today

Answer 13

• Introspection has the advantage that it’s still used today in areas of therapy to study emotional states
  E.g. used in cognitive therapy in order to try to get patients to alter their negative thinking & turn them into positive thoughts
• so introspection can be applied to contemporary therapy in modern society

Question 14

supports/advocates reductionism

Answer 14

• Wundt supports & advocates the idea of reductionism
• believed that consciousness could be broken down/reduced to it’s basic elements without sacrificing any properties of the whole
• he studied internal mental processes by deconstructing them down into measurable units such as perception, senses & experiences

Question 15

criticised by other psychologists

Answer 15

• Watson (1913) criticised Wundt’s idea of introspection and whether psychology was emerging as a science
• it produces subjective data which varies from one person to the next so introspection isn’t objective or very reliable

Question 16

critisises as not scientific/accurate

Answer 16

• Introspection has been criticised as it’s not very scientific/accurate
• Wilson claims that psychologists have little knowledge about some behaviour & attitudes that might exist outside of conscious awareness
• introspection wouldn’t be able to uncover & help us understand these processes

Question 17

doesn’t explain how mind works & processes

Answer 17

• Introspection can be critisises as it fails to explain how the mind works & the processes involved in thinking about a particular topic/doing an activity
• psychologists can’t see how thoughts are generated & introspection cannot be properly observed (so may not be very scientific