Origins of Psychology

Question 1

Wundt - overview

Answer 1

• Father of psychology (1879)
• Aim was to try to analyse the nature of human consciousness
• Was the first attempt to study the mind
• INTROSPECTION - Studying the mind by breaking up conscious awareness into basic structures of thoughts, images and sensations
• Structuralism = isolating the structure of consciousness - e.g stimuli were always presented in the same order and the same instructions were issued to all participants

Question 2

Wundt - procedure

Answer 2

Introspection procedure
- Recorded participant’s experiences of various stimuli they were presented with e.g objects or sounds - observation was divided up into 3 categories: thoughts, images and sensations

Question 3

Wundt - evaluation

Answer 3

Strength = Scientific - some of his methods were systematic and well-controlled - all in controlled environments - so extraneous variables weren’t a problem - procedures and instructions were standardised

Limitation = Subjective data - relied on p’s self reporting their mental processes - data is subjective (influenced by personal perspective) - p’s may have hidden some thoughts - difficult to establish meaningful behaviour from data - suggests study was flawed and would not meet scientific criteria today

Question 4

Psychology as a science

Answer 4

• 1900s - Behaviourists - Watson and Skinner proposed psychology should only study material that can be observed objectively and measured - behaviourists focused on behaviour you can see - used carefully controlled experiments
• 1950s - Cognitive approach - likened the mind to a computer and tested predictions about memory using experiments - ensured the study was a legitimate and highly scientific aspect
• 1980s - Biological approach - taken advantage of advances in technology to investigate physiological processes - e.g fMRI’s and EEG’s to study the brain - genetic testing have also allowed us to look at the relationship between genes and behaviour

Question 5

Psych as a science - evaluation

Answer 5

Strength = Modern psychology - can claim to be scientific - all approaches rely on use of scientific methods e.g lab studies to investigate things in a controlled and unbiased way - suggests psychology research is scientific

Limitation = Subjective data - not all approaches use objective methods - humanistic approach rejects scientific approach - prefers to focus on individual experiences - psychodynamic approach uses case studies which aren’t representative - scientific approach may not always be desirable or possible