origins of psychology

Question 1

what are approaches

Answer 1

different ways/perspectives of explaining psychological phenomena/behaviour

Question 2

Wundt’s nickname

Answer 2

father of psychology

Question 3

what research method became preferred in studying human behaviour because of Wundt?

Answer 3

experimental psychology

Question 4

when and where did Wundt set up the first Psychology laboratory?

Answer 4

institute of Experimental Psychology in Leipzig, Germany
1870s

Question 5

what did Wundt believe about how the human mind could be studied?

Answer 5

• scientifically
• moved psychology from philosophy to controlled, objective research

Question 6

who did Wundt pave the way for?

Answer 6

cognitive psychologists

Question 7

what is structuralism?

Answer 7

• Wundt’s aim
• to study the structure of the mind by breaking down behaviours such as perception/sensation into their basic elements

Question 8

what is introspection

Answer 8

systematic analysis of our own conscious experience of a stimulus

Question 9

explain what participants would do in a study of introspection

Answer 9

• ask people to focus on an everyday object e.g. metronome
• to look inwards and analyse it in terms of its component parts
• therefore their thoughts about the object would break down into separate elements
• and be reported in a systematic way
• this information is used to gain insight into the nature of mental processes
• and different participants’ reports in response to the same stimuli are comparable

Question 10

strengths of Wundt

Answer 10

• Controlled methods: Wundt used standardised procedures and the same stimuli for all participants, increasing internal validity by ensuring responses were due to the stimulus.
• Replicability: The use of consistent procedures made the experiments repeatable, helping to establish psychology as a scientific discipline.
• Modern relevance: Introspection is still useful today; for example, it helped researchers (Griffiths) understand thought patterns in gamblers and develop treatments, supporting its external validity in real-world applications.

Question 11

weaknesses of Wundt

Answer 11

• Limited self-awareness: People often don’t know the true causes of their behaviours or attitudes (e.g., implicit racism), so introspection can’t always uncover these unconscious processes, reducing its validity.
• Subjective data: Introspection results varied by person, making it hard to generalize. Also, processes like memory and perception are unobservable, so introspection can’t reliably measure them.
• Watson’s critique: Watson argued that introspection’s focus on unobservable mental processes made it unscientific. He believed psychology should only study what can be directly observed, which led to the rise of behaviourism.

Question 12

emergence of psychology as a science

Answer 12

• introspection
• Watson’s suggestion that we should focus on observable behaviour
• empiricism (Watson suggested that all behaviour is result of observation and experience)
• scientific approach (behaviour has a cause. we can predict behaviour through hypotheses/testing)
• scientific method (objective, systematic, reliable methods)

Question 13

what approach did Watson establish

Answer 13

behaviourist

Question 14

strengths of psychology being a science

Answer 14

• Scientific methods provide objective and systematic knowledge, not just passive acceptance.
• They allow for cause-and-effect relationships, which are empirical and replicable.
• Scientific knowledge is self-correcting, refining or abandoning theories when necessary.

Question 15

weaknesses of psychology being a science

Answer 15

• The control required in experiments may create unrealistic situations, not reflecting real-life behaviour.
• Much of psychology studies unobservable phenomena, making accurate measurement difficult.
• Not all psychologists believe human behaviour can be fully explored using scientific methods, particularly those from humanistic perspectives.