Origins of Psychology

Question 1

Who was the original psychologist

Answer 1

Wilhelm Wundt

Question 2

What did Wilhelm Wundt do for psychology

Answer 2

His work paved the way for psychology as a science. He made experimental psychology the preffered method of studying the human mind

Question 3

Where was Wundts labarotory and what did he do there

Answer 3

Leipzig, he exclusively studied actions which could be controlled under experimental conditions, such as reaction time and various aspects of sensation or perception

Question 4

How did Wundt believe we should study the structure of the human mind

Answer 4

Break behaviours like sensation or perception into the basic elements

Question 5

What methods did Wilhelm Wundt use

Answer 5

Structuralism and Introspection

Question 6

What is introspection

Answer 6

Introspection is the process by which a person gains knowledge about their own mental and emotional states as a result of examination or observation of their conscious thoughts and feelings

Question 7

How deep did Wundt believe introspection could go

Answer 7

Wundt claimed that with sufficient training, mental processes such as memory and perception could be observed systematically as they occurred during introspection

Question 8

What is an example of one of Wundt’s studies

Answer 8

In Wundt’s studies of perception, participants were presented with carefully controlled stimuli visual images or auditory tones. They would then be asked to provide a description of the inner processes they were experiencing as they looked at the images or listened to the tones. This made it possible to compare different participants reports in response to the same stimuli, and establish general theories about perception or other mental processes

Question 9

What did Wilhelm Wundt eventually realise

Answer 9

That higher mental processes such as learning, language and emotions could not be studied in this strictly controlled manner

Question 10

What did Wundt say mental processes like learning, language and emotions had to be described as

Answer 10

Volkerpsychologie or cultural psychology, which describes the general trends in behaviour among groups of people

Question 11

What are the two fundamental assumptions of scientific psychology

Answer 11

That behaviour is being caused, the assumption of determinism
Because behaviour is determined, then it should be possible to predict how human beings would behave in different conditions

Question 12

What must investigative methods be to ensure they are scientific

Answer 12

Objective, Systematic and Replicable

Question 13

What does making an investigation Objective mean

Answer 13

Researchers do not let preconcieved ideas and biases influence the collection of their data

Question 14

What does making an investigation Systematic mean

Answer 14

That studies should be carried out in an orderly way so that it may be replicated precisely

Question 15

What does making an investigation Replicable mean

Answer 15

Studies must be able to be done by other researchers to test reliability. If studies are not reliable they should not be accepted as being universally true

Question 16

How does the development of theories infuence the scientific cycle

Answer 16

The development of scientific theories using these tests and the refining of these theories through further testing completes the scientific cycle

Question 17

Why might introspection remain relevant to psychology

Answer 17

Although it rapidly fell out of favour as a research tool, it has made a comeback in recent years. Hunter et al used introspective methods as a way of making ‘happiness’ a measurable phenomenon. They gave a group of teenage participants beepers that went off at random times throughout the day, requiring them to write down their thoughts and feelings at the time of the bleep. Most entries indicated that teens were unhappy, but when their energies were focused on challenging tasks they tended to be more upbeat

Question 18

What is a major flaw of introspection

Answer 18

It is inaccurate. Nisbett and Wilson claim that an individual has very little knowledge of the causes of and processes underlying our behaviour and attitudes. They found this problem to be particularly acute in the study of implicit attitudes, for example a person may be implicitly racist, which influences the way they behave towards a certain racial group. These attitudes exist outside of our conscious awareness, so self-reports would not uncover them

Question 19

Who actually used introspection in relatively recent years

Answer 19

Hunter

Question 20

Who pointed out the flaws with introspection

Answer 20

Nisbett and Wilson

Question 21

What is a strength of the scientific method

Answer 21

The scientific method is self-corrective, allowing for the building of scientific theory over time. Because of the scientific methods objective and systematic methods of observation, knowledge acquired using the scientific method is more than just the passive acceptance of theories about behaviour. This means that scientific methods are able to establish the causes of behaviour through the use of methods that are both empirical and replicable, which means that once the scientific theories no longer fit the facts, they can be refined or abandoned

Question 22

What is a criticism of Wundt

Answer 22

His methods were not reliable. A criticism levied against him, mainly by behaviourists, was that this approach relied primarily on ‘nonobservable’ responses. Although the participants could report on their conscious experiences, the processes themselves, like memory or perception, were considered unobservable constructions. Wundt’s approach ultimately failed because of the lack of reliability of his methods. Introspective results were not reliably reproducible by other researchers in other labs. In contrast early behaviourists like Pavlov were already achieving reliable results and discovering explanatory principles that could (possibly) be generalised to humans.