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 were Wundt’s goals of psychology?
- To identify components of consciousness.
- To identify how those components combined to result in our conscious experience
What are limitations of the scientific approach to psychology?
(AO3 Evalutation)
E: Some psychologists do not believe that all behaviour can be explored through scientific methods
E: By concentrating on objective and controlled observations psychologists create contrived situations which lack ecological validity.
L: This matters as human behaviour may be impossible to test scientifically and these methods would therefore be inappropriate.
One criticism of introsepction is the focus on ‘nonobservable’ behaviour
What was a limititaton about Wundt’s apporach?
(AO3 Evalutation)
E: Wund’t approach required p’s to report on their conscious experiences which are unobserable contructs
E: For example, process like memory and perception are impossible to observe.
L: This matter because Wund’t approach lacks reliablity as his results have not been reproduced by other reseachers.
One strength of introspection is its use in contemporary research
(AO3 Evalutation)
E: Ciskzentmihalyi and Hunter (2003) used introspection as a way of measuring happiness
E: They found that when teenages were engaged in challenging task, they were more upbeat, in comparison to an everyday task.
L: This suggests that introspection has some relevance in contemporary research and is stil a useful tool for measuring certain behaviours.
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?
The idea that things can reduced to simple cause-effect processes,
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.
What AO3 are you using for introspection?
Weaknesses
1. The focus on ‘non-observable’ behaviour
Strength
2. Its use in contemporary research?
