origins of psychology

Question 1

who is wilhelm wundt

Answer 1

Wundt is labelled the ‘father of psychology’ as he was the first to set up a lab on a psychological aspect - introspection.

Question 2

introspection

Answer 2

a systematic method used to study the mind by breaking up conscious awareness into basic structures of thoughts, images and sensations

Question 3

structuralism

Answer 3

• isolating the structure of unconsciousness
• used in introspection

Question 4

what was Wundt’s procedure into investigation introspection?

Answer 4

• lab study
• assessed how different stimuli in a room made people feel and they were asked to report sensations

Question 5

aim of wundt’s study

Answer 5

to analyse the feelings of participants to determine the underlying structure of their mind as it cannot be seen

Question 6

was wundt’s work significant

Answer 6

-his work was significant as it marked the separation of modern psychology from its broarder philosophical roots

Question 7

+ some aspects of Wundt’s method would be classed as abnormal today

Answer 7

• recorded introspections in controlled lab environment
• standardised procedures so all participants received the same instructions + tested on the same day
• wundt’s research can be considered as the forerunner to later scientific approaches

Question 8

• other aspects of his research considered unscientific today

Answer 8

• relied on participants self-reporting their ‘private’ mental processes which yields subjective data and demand characteristics
• participants wouldn’t have consistent thoughts each time so genetal principles aren’t possible to establish
• general laws are useful for predicting future behaviour, an aim of science

Question 9

+ research in psychlogy can claim to be scientific

Answer 9

• psychology shared the same aims as the natural sciences - to describe. understand, predict and control behaviour
• learning approaches, cognitive and biological all rely on scientific methods
• psychology established itself as a scientific discipline throughout the 20th century

Question 10

• not all approaches use objective methods

Answer 10

• humanistic apporach is anti-science, it doesn’t atrempt to formulate general laws of behaviour, concerned with documenting unique subjective experience
• psychodynamic uses case studies. Based on interview techniques (open to bias), not a representative sample of population.
• many claim a scientific approach to studying human thoughts + experience isn’t possible/desirable due to differences between psychology and the natural sciences.