origins of psychology Flashcards
what is psychology?
the scientific study of the human mind and its functions, especially those functions affecting behaviour in a given context
when was the first scientific psychological lab experiment established?
1880
what is introspection?
the first systematic experimental attempt to study the mind by breaking up conscious awareness into basic structures of thoughts, images and sensations
who established introspection?
Wundt
what did Wundt aim to do?
document and describe the nature of human consciousness
what did introspection involve?
Wundt and his co workers recording their own conscious thoughts with the sun of breaking these down into their constituent parts. isolating the structure of consciousness in this way is called structuralism
what was Wundts methodology?
•he presented participants with a stimulus in a controlled setting and asked them to immediately report back their inner experiences (thoughts, images, sensations)- one of the stimuli used was a ticking metronome
•the same standardised instructions were issues to all participants, and this allowed procedures to be replicated
evaluation of introspection
+methods were controlled and replicable
+participants were trained and given standardised instructions
-findings were not replicable, different participants reported different experiences
-reporting internal mental processes is subjective and can’t be observed
what makes something scientific?
•replicability (methods, findings)
•controlled
•objective
who were watson and the early behaviourists?
watson criticised introspection and said that the data produced was subjective, in that it greatly varied from person to person.
he was highly critical of the focus on ‘private’ mental processes and proposes that a truly scientific psychology should restrict itself to studying things that can be observed and measured.
what was the scientific approach?
Watson and Skinner, makes use of lab experiments and scanning techniques like fMRI and EEGs
