Origins Of Psychology Flashcards
Who is Wilhelm Wundt?
- Published the first book on psychology called ‘principles of physiological psychology’
- in 1879, he opened the first psychology laboratory in Germany.
- he is often considered to be the father of psychology.
What was Wundt’s approach to psychology?
- it was to study the structure of the human mind, by breaking down behaviours into their basic elements, hence his approach became known as structuralism - thoughts, sensations, images.
- he wanted to document and describe nature of human consciousness
- empiricism - all behaviour has a cause, we can predict how humans behave, knowledge comes from observations and experience.
- scientific method - objective tests, recording data accurately, replicability and testing hypotheses.
What is introspection?
- Wundt used introspection to investigate human mind
- it comes from the Latin and means ‘looking into’.
- participants were asked to reflect on their own cognitive process and describe them
- they would report on images, sensations and emotional reactions
How was introspection carried out?
Volunteers were trained to analyse their own mental experiences under controlled laboratory conditions and given up to 10,000 practice trials to ensure they ere doing it correctly.
Why is introspections done in a lab classed as scientific?
It is an experiment in an artificial setting.
Data is therefore more valid.
Why is participants who were trained on how to report on what was happening in their conscious mind scientific?
Giving accurate introspections
Why is having the same stimulus for all participants classed as scientific?
Participants would have the same experience, making direct comparisons
Why is having the sample size large scientific?
Variation, more understanding and more accuracy.
What are some problems with introspection?
- it isnt accurate - people my not know themselves well enough to report their feelings/ thoughts accurately
- people may lie or not remember thoughts correctly.
- due to introspection being in an artificial setting, it doesn’t tell us a lot about how humans react in the real world.
- could argue that introspection is subjective - should only study behaviour that can be seen or measured.
What evidence is there to support introspection?
- used the scientific method - allowed for replication and to test hypothesis and generalise results
- more scientific approaches like cognitive to be developed.
- its still used today, as a way of measuring happiness
How is introspection still used today?
Was used by hunter in 2003, to measure happiness.
Gave a group of teenagers beepers that went off at random times during the day and asked them to write down their thoughts at that time, most teens were unhappy.
What is the order of least scientific to scientific approaches?
Philosophy
Wundt
Psychodynamic
Behaviourist approach
Humanistic
Cognitive
Social learning theory
Biological
Cognitive neuroscience
