Origins of Psychology Flashcards
what is a science
- discovering the physical and natural world systematically and objectively using empirical methods
- like observation and experiments
what is psychology?
- scientific study on the brain and behaviour
- started 150 years ago
who is wudnt?
- ‘the father of experimental psychology’
what did wundt want to change?
- to use empirical scientific research techniques used by physical sciences to study the mind
what was before wundt?
- study of the mind limited to medicine and philosophy
what did wundt do in 1870?
- set up the first scientific psychological lab
- institute of experimental psychology
- first guy to call himself a psychologist
- first psychology book
- first academic journal on psychological research
what was wundts research called?
- structuralism
- attempt to uncover hidden structure of the mind
- describing it in terms of its simplest definable components
- focussed on structure of sensation and perception
which scientific method did wundt use?
- technique called introspection
what is the process of introspection?
- report conscious experiences as objectively as possible
- focus on a sensory object e.g. ticking metronome
- systematically report their experiences of the object by breaking down their thoughts into elements
- they would focus inward reporting images sensations and feelings
is introspection a direct observation of mental processes?
- introspection isnt a direct observation of mental processes
- made inferences= assumptions
- about structure of internal mental processes based off observed behaviour
Evaluating wundt: strength, highly scientific
- highly scientific bc of controlled experiments
- systematic approach= general theories on mental processes
- researchers can replicate findings
- scientific methodology= inspiration for scientific psychologists like behaviourists
Evaluating wundt: strength/ limitation, subjective method but still used to study unobservable behaviour
- introspection= subjective and not truly scientific
- pp cant be relied on to report their mental states because of:
- biased, mistaken, demand characteristics
- BUT introspection remains relevant for studying unobservable mental processes
Evaluating wundt: limitation, inferences can be mistaken
- inferences made on mental states can be mistaken
- behaviourists= rejected the study of internal mental processes
- only study fully observable S-R mechanisms= more reliable results
- behaviourism has more scientific principles
Evaluation: strength, inferences influenced cognitive psychologists
- researchers ask pp to complete tasks in experimental conditions
- their ability to do the task is used to make inferences on their internal mental processes
Evaluating wudnt: strength, first to suggest behaviour is determined
- found behaviour was determined so have a cause that can be studied objectively
- historically mental disorders had a religious or spiritual explanation
- researchers now used scientifically deterministic arguments= biological treatments
history of psychology: timeline
- 1870: wundt= ‘finding father of psychology’
- 1890: psychodynamic approach= freud
- 1910-1920: behaviourist approach= pavlov + skinner
- 1950: humanistic approach= maslow + rogers
- 1960: social learning theory= bandura
- 1960: cognitive approach
- 1980: biological approach
which approach was introduced in 1870?
- wundt
- finding father of psychology
which approach was introduced in 1890?
- freud
- psychodynamic approach
which approach was introduced in 1910-1920?
- behaviourist approach
- Pavlov
- Skinner
which approach was introduced in 1950?
- humanistic approach
- maslow
- rogers
which approach was introduced in 1960?
- social learning theory
- bandura
which approach was introduced in 1960?
- cognitive approach
which approach was introduced in 1980?
- biological approach
