Psych Origins AO3

Question 1

Highly controlled Procedure

Answer 1

Before Wundt, introspection had been used by philosophers for studying how new ideas are created. These philosophers did not set any limits on the tasks they studied or make any judgments about the relevance of thoughts. In contrast, Wundt strictly controlled the environments where introspection took place, controlled the stimuli and tasks that participants were asked to think about, limited the range of responses they might give and trained his participants so that they could give the most detailed observations
possible.

Question 2

Introspection does not adhere to the scientific method

Answer 2

It is easy to argue that Introspection is not a scientific or valid way of measuring behaviour as it is based on implicit thought and emotion which is potentially outside conscious awareness and therefore inaccessible through the methods used. Wundt also found participant observations were subject to bias as they relied on participants revealing their own private subjective experience. These also could not be replicated and were therefore seen as unreliable. These problems meant that Watson was able to argue that introspection should play no part in a scientific psychology and Behaviourism became the dominant approach in Psychology

Question 3

Introspection has had a useful contribution

Answer 3

Wundt’s work and Introspection has been influential in many Psychological domains and has not been entirely abandoned. Recent research has used methods of introspection as a way of making “happiness” and other emotions a measurable phenomenon. Wundt’s introduction of the scientific method to Psychology has paved the way for controlled empirical research used in the Behaviourist and Biological approaches