lesson 1 origins of psychology approaches

Question 1

Define psychology

Answer 1

Scientific study of the mind and behaviour

Question 2

What subject did psychology emerge from?

Answer 2

Philosophy

Question 3

Who is known as the father of psychology?

Answer 3

William Wundt

Question 4

What was introspection devised as?

Answer 4

A way of studying internal mental events

Question 5

Where was the first psychological lab opened and who opened it?

Answer 5

Leipzig, Germany
Wundt

Question 6

Define introspection

Answer 6

The first systemic and experimental attempt to study the mind/mental processes by breaking down conscious awareness into basic structures of reflections, thoughts, images and sensations

Question 7

What did Wundt want to focus on?

Answer 7

Psychological processes of perception and structuralism

Question 8

What does structuralism involve?

Answer 8

Use of introspection
Self-reports of sensations
Views
Feelings
Emotions

Question 9

How did Wundt investigate introspection?

Answer 9

Scientific methods

Question 10

how was introspection recorded?

Answer 10

under strictly controlled conditions in a laboratory using the same stimuli, same reaction times and same instructions given to participants

Question 11

what does introspection involve?

Answer 11

the person saying everything that is going through their mind whilst doing an activity or thinking about a topic or object
they must keep talking even if their ideas are not clear
they must not hesitate
they can use fragmented sentences
they do not have to justify their thoughts

Question 12

what was the research into introspection like?

Answer 12

highly reliable so that replication is possible

Question 13

timeline of psychology emerging and becoming a science

Answer 13

1879 Wundt opened his own lab and psychology emerged as a discipline
1900+ Freud introduced the Psychodynamic Approach and Psychoanalysis
1913 Watson writes psychology as Behaviourist views and Skinner establishes Behaviourist approach
1950s Humanistic approach
1960s cognitive approach
Bandura and learning theory
1980s biological approach
21st century cognitive neuroscience

Question 14

strengths of introspection and the emergence of psychology as a science

Answer 14

helped to develop other approaches in psychology like behaviourism via Watson- very useful phenomenon used in psychology that has formed a basis of other approaches
introspection is still useful in psychology today- used as a way to measure happiness- group of teenagers beepers and required to write down their thoughts and feelings when it went off
has made psychology extremely scientific

Question 15

weaknesses of introspection and the emergence of psychology as a science

Answer 15

introspection provides subjective data as we don’t know if participants are telling the truth about their thoughts and feelings
behaviourist approach ignored the idea that humans are complex beings and not everything can be observed and proved through their behaviour as all humans have different thoughts so ideas cannot be generalised to everyone