Origins in psychology (Approaches)

Question 1

Who opened up the first psychology laboratory and when?

Answer 1

• Wilhelm Wundt
• 1879

Question 2

What did he and his assistants try to use at first?

Answer 2

• They tried to use ‘introspection’ to try to investigate the nature of awareness and consciousness

Question 3

What did their investigation involve?

Answer 3

• Their investigation of using introspection involved recording conscious thoughts by noting them down
• Then they tried to break these thoughts down into structures
• Wundt used scientific methods in his approach to the experiment —> he gave the participants the same procedure, the same instructions and tried to minimise the impact of extraneous variables —> this helping move away from philosophy and towards science

Question 4

Who criticised the method of introspection and why?

Answer 4

• Early behaviourists such as John B criticised the method of introspection for being subjective and varying too much person to person.
• He suggested it was impossible to test peoples inward and private thoughts, and that psychology should focus on studying observable behaviour