origins of psychology

Question 1

what was wundt lab

Answer 1

1879 opened first ever lab dedicated psychological enquiry lezpig germany

Question 2

why is wundt significant

Answer 2

• marked the beginning of scientific psychology separating it from its broader philisophical roots
• aim was to analyse the nature of human consciousness thus the first systematic attempt to study the mind under controlled conditions (introspection)

Question 3

what is introspection

Answer 3

first systematic experimental attempt to study the mind by breaking up conscious awareness into basic structures of thoughts, images and sensations

Question 4

how did wundt carry out introspection

Answer 4

trained graduate researchers to systematically analyse their conscious experience of a standardised stimulus like a ticking metronome and they wrote based on emotions and sensations

Question 5

example of a stimuli in wundt procedure

Answer 5

ticking metronome
flashing lights

Question 6

what is structuralism

Answer 6

isolating the structure of consciousness
stimulu wundt and co-workers ecperiences always presented same order and same instructions to all ptps

Question 7

evaluate wundt

Question 8

why is wudnts procedure being systematic a strength to introspection

Answer 8

• his research was performed in a laboratory under highly controlled conditions to increase the internal validity of the theory as the effect of extraneous variables was reduced
• the procedure was standardised meaning every participant was given the same stimuli and questions allowing the study to be replicated to test its reliability
• forerunner to later scientific approaches in psychology

Answer 9

• wudnts procedure lead to further research
• griffith (1994) used the introspection method to investigate whether gamblers think more irrationally then non-gamblers while using a fruit machine
• they were told to say their thoughts while using the machine out loud leading to the conclusion that gamblers are more irrational
• introspection provided a useful insight to the behaviour of a gambler in modern day society

Question 10

how is subjective data a limitation of wundt

Answer 10

• aspects would be considered unscientific today
• reliant on self-reporting mental processes
• such data is subjective and ptp may have aso hidden some of their thoughts
• difficult to establish meaningful laws of behaviour from this data (useful to predict future behaviour a key aim of science)
• some early efforts flawed to study mind and not meet criteria of scientific enquiry today

Question 11

how does introspection have age bias

Answer 11

• cannot be used to study children
• participants need to be able to communicate well
  and children have limited vocabulary and are unable to express emotions effectively
• method has a low population validity as it is limited in behaviour that can be tested
• cannot be applied to all people