origins of pyschology

Question 1

Who is William Wundt?

Answer 1

The first psychologist (1832-1920) believing that all aspects of nature and the human mind could be studied scientifically. Paved the way for the acceptance of psychology as a distinct science and believed that the human mind can be studied under controlled laboratory experiments - studied in Leipzig, Germany

Question 2

what was his aim?

Answer 2

his aim was to study the structure of the human mind through introspection by breaking down behaviours such as perception and sensation into their basic elements (structuralism)

Question 3

what were the drawbacks?

Answer 3

higher mental processes such as learning, language and emotions could not be studied like that

Question 4

introspection

Answer 4

“looking into” - a person gains knowledge about his or her own mental and emotional states such as memory and perception

Question 5

the scientific method

Answer 5

• behaviour is seen as being caused (determinism)
• if behaviour is determined, it’s possible to predict how human beings would behave in different conditions

Question 6

what does the scientific method refer to?

Answer 6

investigative methods that are objective, systematic and replicable - preconceived ideas or biases don’t influence the collection of data and experiments are systematic and carried out in an orderly way

Question 7

what happens if results are not replicable?

Answer 7

then they’re not reliable and cannot be accepted as being universally true

Question 8

why were Wundt’s methods unreliable?

Answer 8

approach relied primarily on non-observable responses such as memory and perception. wundt’s approach failed due to the lack of reliability of his methods and introspective experimental results were not reliably reproducible by the other researchers in other laboratories