origins of psychology

Question 1

who is wilhelm wundt?

Answer 1

considered founding father of psychology, set up first psychology experimental lab in 1879, paved way for future cognitive psychologists. Investigated introspection

Question 2

what is introspection?

Answer 2

breaking up conscious awareness into more basic structures of thoughts, images, sensations. Aims to examine thoughts and feelings in a carefully controlled environment.

Question 3

Wundt’s experiment

Answer 3

• provided participants with a stimulus such as the sound of a metrodome or a light turning on
• told participants to examine their thoughts, feelings, images, sensations as a result of the stimulus
• wundt observed these and tried to gather a correlation between the data collected

Question 4

strength of Wundt’s experiment (scientific)

Answer 4

N - some aspects scientific, used a carefully and highly controlled environment
A - also standardised his procedures, so all participants received same information and were tested in the same way
E - forerunner to the later scientific approaches in psychology

Question 5

weakness of Wundt’s experiment (unscientific)

Answer 5

N - some aspects unscientific relied on self- reporting private mental processes in which is subjective data.participants, may not have wanted to reveal some thoughts
A - wouldnt have same thoughts each time, establishing general principles impossible
E - early efforts were naive and wouldn’t meet scientific enquiry

Question 6

weakness of Wundt’s experiment (others)

Answer 6

N - watson and other behaviourists rejected introspection. It was subjective
A - highly critical of focus on private mental processes, truly scientific psychology should only study phenomena that could be measured/observed
E - behaviourist approach rejected wundt. Skinner brought the methods, rigour and language of the natural sciences into psychology. Use of carefully controlled la studies dominated psychology for next few decades.