Origins of Psychology

Question 1

What are the key goals of science?

Answer 1

Science offers a method for distinguishing what is true and real from what is not.
All scientific investigations involve a detailed examination of the subject matter that is being studied and this is done in a systematic and objective way.

Question 2

Psychological science has four key objectives:

Answer 2

Description (finding out what happens) e.g. observing behaviour.
Understanding (finding out why and how something happens) – develop theories and test these theories using hypotheses.
Predict what will happen in a specific context (and testing these predictions).
Control a phenomenon (where appropriate) e.g. using token economies to treat eating disorders.

Question 3

The Major Features of Science

Answer 3

Empirical

Objective

Systematic

Replicable

Falsifiable

Question 4

What is objectivity and why is it an important feature of science?

Answer 4

Unbiased in that all sources of bias are minimised and personal or subjective ideas are eliminated.

The laboratory experiment is the most objective method as it allows the researcher to carefully control the conditions to reduce the risk of extraneous/confounding variables and to establish a cause-effect relationship between the IV and DV.

Question 5

What does systematic mean?

Answer 5

Observations or experiments are carried out in an orderly way.

The measurement and recording of empirical data are carried out accurately and with consideration for the possible influence of other factors on the results obtained.

Question 6

What is replicability and why is it an important feature of science?

Answer 6

Replicability is the ability to repeat a study to verify the validity of the results.
If the outcome is similar or the same, then this affirms the reliability and validity of the original results.
Researchers should be able to repeat a study to avoid basing policy, practice and actions on findings that are either unreliable or based on a ‘fluke’ occurrence.

Question 7

What are some of the problems controlled environments present though?

Answer 7

Mundane Realism
Ecological Validity
Demand characteristics

Question 8

what is Ecological Validity

Answer 8

a type of external validity. It is the extent to which the findings can be generalised to other real-life situations, beyond the experimental setting.

Question 9

what is Mundane realism

Answer 9

Mundane realismdescribes the degree to which the materials and procedures involved in an experiment are similar to events that occur in the real world.

Question 10

what are Demand characteristics

Answer 10

Demand characteristics = where the participant responds to experimental cues and changes their behaviour accordingly, perhaps to please the experimenter. Their behaviour is therefore not entirely natural.

Question 11

Strengths of a scientific approach to psychology

Answer 11

Replicable methods of observation enable psychologists to further test their hypotheses and refine their theories. They are therefore constantly correcting their understanding of an aspect of behaviour.

Scientific methods are underpinned by a belief in determinism, therefore enabling them to establish the causes of behaviour and make predictions.

Objective and systematic methods of observation enable psychologists to establish the validity of an idea or concept, rather than passively accepting it to be true.

Question 12

Limitations of a scientific approach to psychology

Answer 12

Scientific psychologists strive for objectivity and control in their research, which ultimately leads to contrived situations that do not always tell us much about how people behave in the real world.
Research tends to lack ecological validity.

Much of the subject mater of psychology is unobservable e.g. thoughts, feelings, perception. Of all the sciences, psychology is the most inferential.

Not all psychologists share the view that human behaviour can be studied using scientific methods

Question 13

who is Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)

Answer 13

Wundt was the first person to call himself a psychologist and is often referred to as the ‘father of experimental psychology’. He was instrumental in separating psychology from philosophy and physiology

Question 14

Some of the key contributions Wundt made to the development of Psychology as a science were:

Answer 14

In 1879, Wundt established the first experimental psychology laboratory and founded the Institute of Experimental Psychology at the University of Leipzig, Germany.
He taught the first university course in Psychology.
He wrote the first psychology textbook (‘Principles of Physiological Psychology’).
He devised introspection – a scientific method to study sensation and perception (mental processes).

Question 15

Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)
what did he beliveve

Answer 15

Wundt believed that the human mind could and should be studied scientifically.
he studied aspects of human behaviour that could be strictly controlled under experimental conditions
(However, he later realised that higher mental processes, such as learning, language and emotions, could not be studied in this strict controlled manner)

Question 16

Introspection

Answer 16

Wundt practiced introspection in controlled environments.
All introspections were recorded under strictly controlled conditions using the same stimulus every time (such as a ticking metronome).
The same standardised instructions were issued to all participants and this allowed procedures to be repeated (replicated) every single time.
Any extraneous variables were controlled.

Question 17

Wundt’s approach became known as structuralism why?

Answer 17

Wundt’s approach became known as structuralism because he used experimental methods to find the basic building blocks (structures) of thought and investigate how they interacted.

Question 18

Structuralism

Answer 18

Wundt studied sensation and perception, breaking participants’ observations of objects, images and events down into constituent parts (isolating the structure of consciousness) in the same way that an anatomist would study a body trying to find its constituent parts and how they interact.

Question 19

what did Wundt devise

Answer 19

Wundt devised the method of introspection, which he believed was a scientific way of systematically studying the mind and mental processes

Question 20

What is introspection

Answer 20

Introspection is the process of gaining knowledge about one’s own mental and emotional states – observing one’s inner world.

It involves the systematic examination of one’s own thought processes, feelings, emotions and sensations – reporting PRESENT conscious experiences.

Question 21

what is the process of introspection

Answer 21

PROCESS: Observers might be shown an object and asked to reflect upon how they were perceiving it e.g. describe the inner processes they are experiencing when watching a stimulus such as a ticking metronome (this information could then be used to gain insight into the nature of mental processes involved in perception).

Researchers can then compare different participants’ reports in response to the same stimuli and so establish general theories about perception and other mental processes.

Question 22

What is meant by ‘reliability’?

Answer 22

Reliability is a measure of consistency.

It refers to how much we can depend on a particular measurement e.g. the measurement of a desk, the measurement of a psychological characteristic such as IQ, or the findings of a research study.

If we repeat/replicate the same measurement/test/study and get the same or a similar result, then it is deemed reliable.

Question 23

Why were Wundt’s methods considered unreliable?

Answer 23

Wundt’s approach relied on ‘non-observable’ responses, which are prone to bias and highly subjective – based on the individual’s perception of their thoughts/feelings/sensations.
reports could not be replicated.
The results from introspections vary greatly from person to person, making it difficult to establish general laws.

Question 24

However, early behaviourists, such as Pavlov and Skinner….

Answer 24

… improved on the work of Wundt as they were already achieving reliably reproducible results and generating explanatory principles (e.g. operant and classical conditioning), that could be easily generalised to all human beings. They were also believed that only observable behaviour is measurable scientifically and should be studied.

Question 25

A key strength of Wundt’s work is that it can be seen as a forerunner of the Cognitive Approach.

Answer 25

This is because he focused on the study of mental processes i.e. thoughts, through the use of introspection.

Therefore, Wundt’s ideas are still relevant to modern scientific Psychology, because Cognitive Psychology today still aims to understand mental processes, and the study of thoughts and reaction times continues to inform this understanding.