The origins of psychology Flashcards
who is the ‘ father of psychology’
William Wundt
where was William Wundt’s lab?
Leipzig ,Germany
what did William Wundt study?
only behaviour that could be strictly controlled under experiment conditions.
what was Wundt’s aim?
what was the best way he believed to do this?
study the structure of the human mind
break down behaviours such as sensation and perception into their basic elements
what technique did Wundt use?
introspection
what is introspection?
a person gains knowledge about their own mental or emotional states
what did wundt claim about processes such as memories and pereception?
they could be observed systematically as they occurred using introspection
which study used introspection in gambling behaviour.
Griffiths(1994)
explain Griffiths(1994)
the study investigated thought processes of people who gambled regularly versus thought processes of people who were non-regular gamblers. The study proposed the thought process of regular gamblers would be more irrational.
how did they asses irrational thinking in Giffiths(1994)?
participents asked to think aloud while playing fruit machine.
to do this participents were given a list of instructions such as:
-say everything that goes through your mind.Do not censor anything even if it seems irrelevant.
-keep talking as countinously as possible.Even if your thoughts seem unstructured.
-do to hesitate to use fragmented sentence if needed.
-do not try to justify your thoughts
What did Griffiths(1994) find?
Gamblers used more irrational verbalisation
what is empiricism?
a philosophical that beleives that knowledge comes from experience and observation alone.
caused rise of psychology as a science
what assumptions does the scientific approach of psychology have?
-behaviour is seen as being causes
-if behaviour is determined , then it should be possible to predict how human beings would behave in different conditions.
what does the scientific method in psychology refer to
the use of investigative methods that are objective, systematic, and replicate
