Origins of Psychology

Question 1

What is Psychology?

Answer 1

The word ‘psychology’ comes from the Greek word ‘psyche’ meaning ‘mind’ and the Greek word ‘logos’ meaning ‘study of’.

However most modern psychologists might consider ‘the study of the mind’ too narrow a definition when describing the diverse and multidisciplinary nature of their work.

Most textbooks define it as ‘the scientific study of the human mind and its functions, especially those functions affecting behaviour in a given context’.

Question 2

Who is Wundt?

Answer 2

• Wundt known as ‘the father of psychology’ – moved from philosophical roots to controlled research.
• He set up the first psychology laboratory in Leipzig, Germany in the 1870s.
• He promoted the use of introspection as a way of studying mental processes.
• Introspection – the first systematic experimental attempt to study the mind by breaking up conscious awareness into basic structures of thoughts, images and sensations.
• His work paved the way for later controlled research and the study of mental processes.
• Wrote the first textbook of psychology (Principles of Physiological Psychology, 1873-4).

Question 3

Introduction to Introspection

Answer 3

• Wundt aimed to document and describe the nature of human consciousness.
• He believed that the best way to study the structure of the human mind was to break down behaviours such as sensation into their basic elements.
• He and his colleagues recorded their own conscious thoughts, aiming to break them down into their separate parts.
• This method came to be known as introspection, meaning, ‘looking inwards at one’s own mental experience’.
• The process of isolating and breaking down consciousness in this way is called structuralism.

Question 4

Process of Introspection

Answer 4

• Wundt’s researchers were trained to examine their conscious thoughts for feelings, emotions and sensations.
• This would be done in Wundt’s room at the university in a controlled environment.
• The researchers would then report back to him what they had experienced and their analysis of that experience.
• For example, in Wundt’s studies of perception, participants were presented with a carefully controlled stimuli (eg, visual images).
• They would then be asked to provide a description of the inner processes they were experiencing as they looked at the image.
• This made it possible to compare different participant’s reports in response to the same stimuli, and so establish general theories about perception and other mental processes.

Question 5

Scientific nature of Introspection

Answer 5

Although the recording of one’s thoughts may seem very basic compared with modern methods and techniques in psychology, some claim Wundt’s original methods and techniques were still scientific:

1) Their introspections were recorded under strictly controlled conditions, using the same kind of stimuli each time.
2) Standardised (identical) instructions were issued to all participants involved.
3) This allowed procedures to be repeated, or replicated, every time they were used.

Question 6

Problems with Introspection

Answer 6

• Some psychologists - mainly behaviourists - argue that this approach relied on ‘non-observable’ responses.
• Although the ppts could report on their experiences, the processes themselves could not be observed.
• Wundt’s approach ultimately failed because of the lack of reliability of his methods. Introspection results were not reliably reproducible by other researchers in other labs.
• In contrast, the early behaviourists such as Pavlov were already achieving reliably reproducible results.
• Today, many accept Nisbett et al’s claim that we have very little knowledge of causes of and processes underlying behaviour due to introspection, due to it being inaccurate.