Wundt Flashcards
One way in which Wundt made a contribution to the emergence of psychology as a science was his use of the empirical method
E – An example of Wundt’s empirical research was his introspection research, in which he trained individuals to reflect on and report their own thoughts, emotions, and sensations in a controlled experimental setting.
E – In this sense, Wundt’s introspection can be seen as an attempt to apply the empirical method by systematically collecting data about the inner experiences of individuals, which was a departure from how philosophers had relied on unstructured introspection and logical reasoning to understand psychological phenomena.
L – Therefore, a strength of Wundt’s approach was that by employing the empirical method, Wundt helped psychology emerge as a science.
Wundt failed to fully contribute to the emergence of psychology as a science.
E – Science has a number of key features beyond the empirical method, including objectivity and replicability.
E – Wundt attempted to conduct objective research through carefully training his observers so that they conducted their introspections in a way that limited bias. However, achieving complete objectivity in introspection proved challenging, as Wundt’s analysis of the introspection data involved a significant degree of interpretation, meaning his research was highly subjective. In addition to lacking objectivity, Wundt’s research had issues with replicability. To his credit, Wundt clearly communicated his research procedure which allowed other researchers to replicate his experiment’s procedures (e.g., replicating his introspection studies). However, when other psychologists replicated his experiments, they were unable to replicate his findings. Consequently, Wundt’s approach and use of introspection fell out of favour as the discipline of psychology developed.
L – Therefore, a limitation of Wundt’s approach is that it ultimately lacked the objectivity and replicability needed to ensure that psychology fully emerged as a scientific discipline.
