Origins of Psychology

Question 1

What did Wilhelm Wundt (1879) set up?

Answer 1

Set up the world’s first psychological laboratory, the Institute of Experimental Psychology, in Germany.

Question 2

Emergence of Psychology as a science: Before Wundt and what he did to change it.

Answer 2

•Before Wundt, the study of mind and behaviour was limited to philosophy and medicine.
•He was the first to use controlled empirical* science research to study the mind.
•Use of scientific research helped establish Psychology as an independent field of scientific research.
* based on observation of experience

Question 3

Introspection process

Answer 3

1) Participants trained to report conscious experiences objectively.

2)asked to focus on a sensory object.

3) asked to systematically report their experience, breaking their thoughts into separate elements.

Question 4

Define Introspection

Answer 4

The first systematic experimental attempt to study the mind by breaking up conscious awareness into basic structures of thoughts, images and sensations.

Question 5

A03-EVAL

Answer 5

✓highly scientific-> controlled experiments, large sample sizes, systematic which influenced others.
✗compared to modern, Wundts introspection models are considered subjective and not scientific (participants cannot be relied upon).
✗ uses inference to identify mental states (behaviourists reject- seeing mind as a “black box”)
✓ use of inference influence cognitive psychologists.