The Origins of Psychology Flashcards
Who was the father of psychology and what did he do
Wundt Published the first book around psychology which established it as its own science
The focus was on trying to understand psychological processes of perception and sensations, rather than biological processes.
What is introspection
This is a psychological method which involves analysing your own thoughts and feelings internally. In the 1800s, there were no brain scans or computers to enable people to explore the brain
What is a negative evaluation of introspection
- It doesn’t explain how the mind works. It relies on people describing their thoughts and feeling which usually isn’t objective
- It doesn’t provide data that can be used reliably. Because people are reporting on their experiences there accounts cannot be confirmed
What is reductionism
Reductionism is the idea that things can be reduced to simple cause and effect processes.
What are the five factors which make something science
Objectivity - scientific observations should be recorded without bias and not influenced by any other factors
Control - there should be controlled conditions
Predictability - scientist should be able to use results of predict future behaviour
Hypothesis testing - theory’s generate predictions which can strengthen support for the theory or disprove it
Replication - experiments should be repeatable
What are some arguments for psychology’s being a science
Has a same aims as since - to predict, understand and control
Scientific procedures are used to predict results
What are some arguments against psychology as as science
- Some approaches in psychology which don’t use objective methods to study behaviour. They may uses techniques which are biased and interpreted
- its hard to get a representative sample of the population for a study
- psychological experiments are also open to extraneous variables such as demand characteristics
