Origins of Psychology Flashcards
What did Wundt mean by introspection?
Introspection is the inner process people experience in response to a stimuli, and what they thought/felt as a result
Define introspection
To observe ones mental and emotional state and processes
What caused Psychology to emerge as a distinct discipline and when? Previously being known as experimental philosophy
Wundt opened the first experimental lab (1879)
Freud emphasised the influence of the unconscious mind with the psychodynamic approach in the 1900s, which approach was established shortly after?
The Behaviourist approach
-Watson focussed on how we are a product of our learning/environment (1913)
Which approach and by who emphasised the importance of self determination and free will (1950s)?
Humanistic Psychology
Rogers and Maslow
How was Psychology developed further as a science in the 1960s?
-Cognitive psychology studied the mind in a more scientific way (applied the analogy of the mind like a computer)
-Bandura proposed the social learning theory, a bridge between behaviourism and cognitive psychology
During the 1980s how did psychology advance?
Biological approach established itself as the dominant scientific perspective in psychology as technology and understanding of the brain advanced
Following the biological approach (1980s onwards) how has psychology advanced?
-Cognitive neuroscience emerged as a distinct discipline (end of 21st century)
-Bringing together cognitive and biological approaches
Define structuralism
Studying the structure of the mind by breaking down behaviours into their basic elements
Describe Wundts research
1) lab study, large sample
2) carefully controlled conditions
3) people would look at a stimuli and they would report their thoughts and feelings
What is a strength and a weakness of Wundts research?
Weakness: Watson said it was unreliable as participants are unobservable and subjective
Strength: Introspection is still relevant today
