Wilhelm Wundt

Question 1

what year did wundt publish the first book on psychology ‘principles of physiological psychology’

Answer 1

1873

Question 2

when did the first psychology lab open in germany

Answer 2

1879

Question 3

what is wundt known as

Answer 3

the father of psychology

Question 4

what is introspection

Answer 4

looking into the human minds

Question 5

what did introspection involve

Answer 5

asking participants to reflect on their own cognitive processes and describe them

Question 6

what did wundt later recognise

Answer 6

higher mental processes were difficult to study using introspection and encouraged others to look for more appropriate methods

Question 7

where is introspection still used today

Answer 7

in therapy

Question 8

problems with introspection

Answer 8

• reports may be distorted (deliberately), you could pretend to have more positive thoughts
• always be a delay between conscious experience and reporting the existence, we may forget parts of it
• subject reports from introspection could not be replicated therefore not reliable

Question 9

what does introspection rely on

Answer 9

non-observable responses. difficult to study unobservable matter

Question 10

what data did introspection produce

Answer 10

subjective so was difficult to establish general principles

Question 11

what did griffiths (1994) use introspection for

Answer 11

study the cognitive processes of fruit machine gamblers

Question 12

what did griffiths ask the participants to do

Answer 12

think aloud whilst playing the fruit machine, they had microphones attatched to them

Question 13

what was the conditions of introspections

Answer 13

strictly controlled, allowing for procedures to be replicated

Question 14

what were the assumptions of wundts ‘scientific’ approach

Answer 14

• all behaviour is seen as being caused
• if behaviour is determined, then it should be possible to predict how human beings would behave in different conditions

Question 15

strengths of the scientific approach

Answer 15

• knowledge acquired using scientific methods are more than just the passive acceptance of facts
• causes of behaviour can be established through the use of methods that are empirical and replicable
• scientific knowledge is self correcting meaning it can be refined or abandoned

Question 16

weaknesses of the scientific approach

Answer 16

• scientific psychologists create contrived situations and create artificial behaviours
• much of the subject matter of psychology is unobservable, therefore cannot be measured with any degree of accuracy
• not all psychologists share the view that human behaviour can be explored through scientific methods