Wundt Flashcards
What is Wundt know as
The Father of Psychology
How did Wundt Change Psychology
Moved from philosophical roots to objective and scientific
What is his book called and when was it published- what use did this book have
‘Principles of Physiological Psychology’ in 1873- helped establish the subject as an independent branch of science
Where and when did he set up the first psychology laboratory
Liepzig, Germany in 1879
What did Wundt promote when investigating introspection
The use of scientific methods
What is introspection
The systematic analysis of one’s own conscious experience of a stimulus. An experience was analysed in terms of its component parts. eg sensations, emotional reactions, etc
What did his work lead to
Controlled research and the study of mental processes, eg by cognitive psychologists
How should introspection be obtained
During task performance rather than afterwards, to avoid memory problems
Wundt’s Procedures (4 points)
Strictly controlled environments.
Tasks that ppts were asked to think about limited the range of responses they may give.
He also trained his participants to give the most detailed observations
Standardised sensory events
Positive criticism (treatments)
It is still used today to gain access to cognitive processes
Griffiths (‘94) used introspection to study the cognitive processes of fruit machine gamblers- asked them to think out loud whilst playing
Led to treatments for gambling addictions
Therefore Wundt has had a positive application on the modern world
Positive criticism (scientific methods)
Causes of behaviour can be established that are empirical and replicable
Other scientists can replicate and research
High control means less influence by extraneous variable so there can be a greater certainty that it was the IV that influenced the DV
Negative Criticism (not scientific)
Psychologists such as Skinner argue that introspection was not scientific, even if methods were
Skinner claims that introspection results are subjective and cannot be verified because only observable behaviour can be objectively measured
Positive criticism (emergence of cognitive neuroscience)
Father of psychology
Study of perceptual processes can be traced back to Wundt
Stimulated interest in cognitive psychology- paved the way for cognitive neuroscience
He showed psychology could be a valid experimental science
Negative Criticism (infer)
One can only infer that ppts are thinking about what you asked them to
Therefore introspection may not be a scientific method for studying human behaviour
