origins of psychology

Question 1

Introspection

Answer 1

the first systematic experimental attempt to study the mind by breaking up conscious awareness into basic structures of thoughts, images and sensations

Question 2

What is psychology ?

Answer 2

the scientific study of the mind, behaviour and experience

Question 3

What is a science ?

Answer 3

a means of acquiring knowledge through systematic and objective investigation
- aim is to discover general laws

Question 4

Wundt’s lab

Answer 4

• 1879 opened first lab dedicated to study of psychology in Germany
• to document and describe the nature of human consciousness
• method known as introspection
• involved wundt and his co workers recording their own conscious thoughts with the aim of breaking these down into the constituent parts
• isolating structure of consciousness, structuralism

Question 5

Structuralism

Answer 5

an early school of psychology that used introspection to explore the elemental structure of the human mind

Question 6

The emergence of Psychology as a science

Answer 6

1. Introspection produced subjective data, so it was hard to establish any generalised principles.
2. Watson believed that psychology should restrict itself to only studying phenomena as it can be observed and measured.
3. Thus, the behaviourist approach was born and along with it - the emergence of psychology.

Question 7

strength of the origins of psychology

Answer 7

scientific method - controlled all of his situational variables using standardization
studies were replicable - wrote everything down throughout his experiment

Question 8

limitations of the origins of psychology

Answer 8

no empirical evidence
lacked reliability - no consistent results