wundt

Question 1

who is known as the founder of modern psychology?

Answer 1

wilhelm wundt

Question 2

what did wundt use to investigate the human mind?

Answer 2

introspection

Question 3

what is introspection? (5)

Answer 3

● when participants are asked to reflect on their own mental processes and describe them

● in wundt’s studies, participants presented with carefully controlled stimuli (e.g. visual images or auditory tones)

● then asked to provide a description of the inner processes they were experiencing as they looked at the image

● made it possible to compare different participants reports in response to same stimuli

● so, able to establish general theories about perception and other mental processes

Question 4

what is an experiment that involved introspection?

Answer 4

exposing participants to sound of metronome and asking them to describe the subsequent sensations

Question 5

describe the emergence of psychology as a science (9)

Answer 5

● by beginning of 20th century introspection questioned by many, notably the behaviourist approach

● watson’s main problem with introspection - produced subjective data, so difficult to establish general principles

● watson was also critical of introspections focus on private mental process

● and proposed a truly scientific psychology should restrict itself only to studying phenomena that can be observed and measured

● thus, behaviourist approach was born, with it the emergence of psychology as a science

● cognitive revolution of 1960s - study of mental processes seen as legitimate and highly scientific area within psychology - cognitive psychologists likened mind to computer

● biological approach makes use of experimental data

● researchers within area taken advantage of recent advances in technology to investigate physiological processes as they happen

● including live activity in brain using sophisticated scanning techniques such as fMRI scans, EEG scans