Origins of psychology

Question 1

Wusnts role in origins of psychology

Answer 1

-First lab opened by Wilhem Wundt in 879 at the University of Leipzig, Germany
- his work created a new scientific psychology distinct from philosophy
- his aim was to record thoughts and feelings and analyse their component parts, which was done through introspection. Wundt and his co workers recordered their own concious thoughts with the same stimulus of a ticking metronome and broke them down into thoughts and sensations

Question 1

How was Wudnts work controlled

Answer 1

All introspections were recorded under strictly controlled conditions using the same stimulus

Question 2

How was wundts work standardised

Answer 2

same standardised instructions were issued to all pps which allowed procedures to be repeated in the same way

Question 3

One strength of wundts work being classified as scientific today

Answer 3

• he recorded introspection within a controlled lab
• standardised procedures so all pps recieved same info and were tested in the same way
• therefore his research can be considered a forerunner to later scientific approaches

Question 4

A limitation of Wundts work is that other aspects would be considered unscientific

Answer 4

• relied on self report technique of private mental processes
• this data is subjective as pps may not have want to shared thoughts they were having
• establishing general principles is impossible as thoughts arent the same every time

Question 5

A limitation of wundts work is that theyre unreliable

Answer 5

• use of introspection relied heavily on non observable responses
• introspection experiment results were not reliably repeated by other researchers in other labs due to the subjective nature of the research

Question 6

Features of a science

Answer 6

T - theoretical construction
H - hypothesis testing
E - Empirical research
P - paradigm
R - replicability
O - objectivity
F - falsifiabilty

Question 7

Why can psychology be argued as a science

Answer 7

it shares the same aims as science (to predict and establish theory) and uses the same procedures to investigate them

Question 8

Why can psychology be argued as not a science

Answer 8

Not all approaches consistantly use scientific procedures. Unreliable methods such as interviews are used by some e.g. psychodynamic

Pyschology research is likely to be influenced by extraneious variables