Origins of psychology Flashcards
(10 cards)
What is wundt known as?
The father of psychology
When and wherre did he set up the first psychology labratory?
Germany in 1879 and published one of the first books on psychology, helping to establish it as an independent branch of science
What did Wundt use?
He used controlled environments to establish general theories about mental processes
Wundt used scientific methods to study…
present experiences such as the structure of sensation and perception using introspection, arguing that human experiences should be analysed in terms of its components
What is introspection?
It focuses on present experiences and an individuals conscious experience is analysed
What does the individual do?
They focus on an object, whilst listening to a metronome and look inwards noticing their own present sensations, feelings and images
What is analysis broken up into?
Thoughts, images and sensations
What can Wundt be praised for?
Moving psychology away from its philosophical roots by using controlled environments with standardised procedure to study emotions, feelings and sensations such as using the same stimulus every time
Although Wundt’s method of introspection was replicable it was not considered to be…
Reliable which is because introspection focuses on a participants subjective experience and therefore findings varied from person to person, making it difficult to establish consistent general principles of human behaviour
Behaviourist psychologists such as Watson believed that…
Psychology should only study behaviour that could be observed and measured scientifically. A as a result of this, the behaviourist approach was developed which used more empirical and objective methods such as lab experiments.
