The Emergence of Psychology as a Science

Question 1

Who is known as the ‘father of psychology’?

Answer 1

Wilhelm Wundt.

Question 2

What did Wundt create to explore psychology?

Answer 2

He designed introspection.

Question 3

Define introspection.

Answer 3

A form of experimental self-observation that involved training people to analyse the content of their own private thoughts.

Question 4

Give an advantage of Wundt and the emergence of psychology as a science.

Answer 4

Advantages:

- Wundt’s procedures have high temporal validity - they would still be classed as empirical.

Question 5

Give a disadvantage of Wundt’s role into the emergence of psychology as a science.

Answer 5

His work could be considered unscientific - relying on the participant to provide subjective data is unreliable due to the influence of extraneous variables and unstandardised procedures.

Question 6

Give an advantage of the emergence of psychology as a science.

Answer 6

Can be said to be scientific due to the empirical methodology and introduction of lab experiments in the 20th century.

Question 7

Give a disadvantage of the emergence of psychology as a science.

Answer 7

Not all approaches use objective methods - e.g. Humanistic - documenting unique subjective experience - psychodynamic relies heavily on the case study method - low population validity.