The Origins of Psychology Flashcards
Who is Wilhelm Wundt (1832–1920)?
AO1 Knowledge and understanding
Wilhem wundt was a German scientist who was the first person to be referred to as a psychologist. He viewed psychology as a scientific study of conscious experience and he studied this view using introspection.
What is introspection?
AO1 Knowledge and understanding
The process by which a person gains knowledge of there mental and emotional states.
What is the scientific method?
AO1 Knowledge and understanding
Refers to the use of investigative methods that are objective, systematic and replicable.
What is Empriricism?
AO1 Knowledge and understanding
The belief that all knowledge is deprived from sensory experience.
What do Empiricits believe?
AO1 Knowledge and understanding
They believe that knowlege comes from oerservation and experience alone.
What was a limititaton about Wundt’s apporach?
AO3 Evalutation
- Behaviourists stated that his approach was approach was unreliable as it relied primarly on ‘nonobservable’ responses.
- Introspection was not particulary accurate as Nisbett and Wilson (1977) found that participants were remarkably unaware of factors that had influenced their choice of a consumer item. The problem is particularly acute in the study of implicit attitudes i.e. attitudes that are unknown to us
What are the the strengths of the scientific approach to psychology?
(AO3 Evalutation)
- It’s reliance on objective and systematic methods of the observations, knowledge aquire using the scientific method is more than just passive acceptance of facts.
- The scientific method rely on a belief in determinism it was possible for them to establish causes of behaviour through methods that were both emprica and replicable.
- The scientific method is self-corrective as if theories no longer fit facts they can be refined or abandoned meaning that scientific knowledge is self-corrective.
What are limitations of the scientific approach to psychology?
(AO3 Evalutation)
- By concenration on objectivity and control in observations, scientific psychologists create contrived situations which tell us little on how people act in natural enviroments.
- Subject matter of psychology is unobservable, therefore cannot be measured in any degree of accuracy.
- Not all psychologists share the same view that all human behaviour can be explored by the use of scientific methods. If human behaviour is not subject to the laws and regularites implied by scientific methods, then predictions become impossible and these methods inappropriated.
What were Wundt’s goals of psychology?
- To identify components of consciousness.
- To identify how those components combined to result in our conscious experience
What is Structuralism?
The attempt to understand the strucuture and characteristics of the mind.
What are the problems associated with introspection?
- There was very little agreement between individuals
- The data is unreliable
- The process is subjective.
What is Reductionalism?
An approach that reduces a complex phenomenon such as human behaviour to the simplest explanation possible.
What is a strength of reductionalism?
It can give a greater understanding of something by revealing evidence for a cause of behaviour.
What is a limitation of reductionalism?
Is that humans and their environments are so complex that the reductionist explanation falls short of giving the whole explanation of the behaviour.
