Wundt

Question 1

What was Wundt’s role in the development of psychology as a science? (4)

Answer 1

1) Wundt is known as the father of psychology

2) He set up the first psychology laboratory in Germany 1879 and publish the first books on psychology helping to establish the subject as an independent branch of science

3) He used controlled environments to establish general theories about mental processes

4) He used scientific methods to study present experiences such as the structure of sensation and perception using introspection and argued experiences should be analysed in terms of its components e.g. sensations, emotions and reactions.

Question 2

Define introspection (4)

Answer 2

1) Introspection focuses on present experiences

2) An individuals conscious experience is systematically analysed

3) An individual focuses on an abject while listening to a stimulus e.g. a metronome and looking inwards focusing on present sensations, images and feelings

4) Analysis is broken into components of sensations, images and thoughts

Question 3

What are the evaluations? (2)

Answer 3

1) Philosophical roots - controlled environments

2) Not reliable

Question 4

AO3: Philosophical roots

Answer 4

Wundt can be praised for moving psychology away from its philosophical roots. He used controlled environments and standardised procedure to study emotions, feelings and sensations such as using the same stimulus (ticking metronome) and giving participants the same standardised procedure. This increases the replicability of the research and increases Psychology’s status and emergence as a science.

Question 5

AO3: Reliable

Answer 5

However, although Wundt’s research is replicable it isn’t considered reliable. Introspection focuses on a persons subjective experience so finding varied greatly between person to person making it more difficult to establish consistent general principles about human behaviour. Behavioural psychologists such as Watson believed Psychology should only study behaviour that can be observed and measured scientifically. As a result, the behaviour approach developed which uses more empirical and objective methods such as carefully controlled lab experiments to study human behaviour. This increases Psychology’s scientific status following the contributions from Wundt.