approaches in psych

Question 1

who is Wilhelm Wudnt 1832-1920

Answer 1

• believed all aspects of nature including human mind can be studied scientifically
• aim to study the structure of the human mind ; approach referred to as structuralism and technique he used= introsection
• separated psych from philo by using scientific methods

Question 2

what is introspection

Answer 2

• latin for ; looking into’
  -a person gains knowledge about his or her own mental and emotional states; observes our inner world
  -Wundt used trained p’s to report their thoughts, emotions and sensations in response to stimuli; ( to break mental processes down into basic elements ( structuralism)

Question 3

Empiricism and the scientific method

Answer 3

• empiricists believe that knowledge comes from observation and experience alone ( rather than innate )
• 2 assumptions of the scientific approach; 1) determinism = all behaviour is seen a being caused by internal or external factors
  2) predictability= if behaviour is determined, it should be possible to predict it under certain conditions
• scientific method involved objective data collection, free from bias or personal opinion.
• systematic procedures ; research is carried out in a structured way
• applicability ; findings can be repeated by other researchers to check reliability

Question 4

A03 origins of psychology

Answer 4

• introspection is subjective, relies on personal reports and lacks reliability . some experiences are simply unobservable
• Wundts approach failed coz of lack of reliability of his methods, not reproducible by other researchers in other labs

Question 5

A03 introspection isnt rlly accurate

Answer 5

• Nisbett and Wilson 1977 claim that we have very little knowledge of the causes of and processes underlying our behaviour and attitudes.
• they found this issue was acute in study of implicit attitudes eg racists
• some attitudes are out of our conscious awareness, self reports through introspection would not uncover them. challenges value of introspective reports in exploring roots of our behaviour

Question 6

A03 introspection is still useful in scientific psychology

Answer 6

• despite the f