Origins of Psychology Flashcards
What can Wundt be praised for?
Moving psychology away from its philosophical roots
What type of environment did Wundt use and how did he do this?
He used controlled environments with a standardised procedure to study emotions, feelings and sensations such as using the same stimulus every time and giving participants the same standardised instructions
What did the controlled environment increase?
It increased the ability to replicate the pieces of research and increased psychology’s status and its emergence as a science.
Although the research was replicable, it was not what?
Reliable
Why was the research not reliable?
This is because introspection focuses on the participants subjective experience and therefore findings varied greatly between people, making it difficult to establish consistent general principles of human behaviour.
What did behaviourist psychologists such as Wundt believe?
They believed psychology should only study behaviour that could be observed and measured scientifically
What was created from behaviourist psychologists beliefs?
The behaviourist approach was born which used more empirical and objective methods, such as carefully controlled lab experiments to study human behaviour, increasing the scientific status of psychology
What is one limitation of Wundt’s research?
It would be considered unscientific today.
Why is Wundt’s research considered unscientific today?
He relied on participants self-reporting their mental processes meaning such data is subjective and would vary greatly from person to person.
What did the use of self-reporting make it difficult to do?
This makes it difficult to establish general principles of human behaviour and predict future outcomes - which is an aim of science.
How is the self report methods of Wundt’s research a limitation?
Some of his early effort’s to study the mind were flawed meaning they would not meet the criteria of scientific enquiry.
