wundt: early psychology in germany Flashcards
how did wundt believe psychological questions should be answered?
via experimental methods
what did wundt say makes an experiment ‘pscyhological’?
the question it is trying to answer
what was wundt’s view on physiology?
psychology cant be reduced to physiology
what were wundt’s 3 concepts?
psychological causality, apperception, creative synthesis
what is psychological causality?
the effects on mental processes on each other
what is apperception?
active process that structures raw material from senses into mental constructs
what is creative synthesis?
the result of apperception, cannot be predicted from what goes into it
what does psychological causality say about cause and effect in psychology?
there is an immediate perception of cause and effect
how does psychological causality describe human conduct?
in terms of goals and values
what is perception?
an automatic, passive process
how does apperception differ to perception?
it is an active, voluntary process
what is the nature of creative synthesis?
it is an unpredictable, active process
what does creative synthesis say about human behaviour?
human behaviour is unpredictable
what is voluntarism?
‘will’ is important in apperception and creative synthesis
what does voluntarism say about reflexes?
reflexes are voluntary, automated movements
what is wundt’s 1st level of experiments?
response of subject depends on physical conditions (passive)
what is wundt’s 2nd level of experiments?
subject acting as subject (active)
what level does psychological causality operate at?
level 2
what are the 3 conditions for experiments investigating psychological causality?
- subject actively determines response
- subject able to adopt this position (not naive)
- collab between subject and experimenter
what is introspection?
self-observation
what are the 4 criteria for valid introspection?
- only basic sensory states
- immediate
- practiced observers trained in reporting
- same perception produced repeatedly
what was wundt’s legacy?
he was mostly ignored, successors focused on describing and observing experience
