Wundt Flashcards
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1
Q
Who was Wundt and what did he do?
A
- Father of Modern Psychology
- Opened the first ever institute of psychology in 1879 at the University of Leipzig
- First opened to German students, then British and American scholars
- Created Introspection; the study of breaking things into thoughts, images and sensations
2
Q
What did Wundt investigate through Introspection?
A
- Introspection is a form of self examination that broke things down into thoughts, feelings and sensations.
- Specially trained graduate students were studied; each student had the same instructions, stimuli and environment. they were given the stimulus (light or metronome) and told to reflect on what thoughts, feelings and sensations the experience made them come across.
- Wundt used introspection to form a theory of conscious thought.
- his methodology derived from his background in physiology.
- Wundt believed in reductionism and wanted to study the mind using this.
3
Q
Wundt and Introspection Evaluation Points - Positive
A
- His methods were considered scientific and standardised as they were taken in carefully controlled environments/ conditions
- Proved psychology could be a valid, experimental science
- pulled psychology away from philosophy and towards science.
- Influenced scientific methods like the Behaviourist approach
4
Q
Wundt and Introspection Evaluation Points - Negative
A
- Wundt’s methods were subjective, reliant on self report methods, e.g. questionnaire.
- Watson questioned the science behind introspection because of it’s subjectivity; people will have the ability to manipulate the answers.
- introspection was not used much after the 1920s. General laws could not be established as participants could rule out answers, therefore it was not efficient and could not be reproduced.
