Origins of Psychology + Psych as a Science

Question 1

Who is Wundt?

Answer 1

• “Father of psychology”
• First psychology lab in 1870, Leipzig
• Promoted the use of introspection
• Introspection- analysis of conscious experience
• analysed in its components e.g sensations emotions

Question 2

What is Introspection?

Answer 2

Systematic analysis of one’s own conscious experience, thoughts, feelings, emotions, sensations around standardised stimuli. Participants were trains.

Question 3

How was introspection studied?

Answer 3

• Wundts room
•given carefully controlled stimuli
• provide a description of the inner processes
• recorded under strictly conditions using the same stimulus every time
• same standardised instructions

Question 4

What did Watson criticise introspection for?

Answer 4

Not being objective as it varies from person to person.

Question 5

What did Watson contribute to psychology?

Answer 5

Behaviourism - only observable, empirical phenomena are studied

Question 6

What are the features of science?

Answer 6

Empiricism
Objectivity
Replicabity
Falsifiability
Theory construction/Hypothesis testing
Paradigms/ Paradigm Shift

Question 7

What is empiricism?

Answer 7

Directly observable, sensory, measurable, data

Question 8

What is objectivity?

Answer 8

Research that is free from bias such as personal opinion, prejudice, emotion

Question 9

What is replicability?

Answer 9

The extent to which a study can be replicated

Question 10

What is falsifiability?

Answer 10

When it is possible to prove a hypothesis wrong. Requires operationalised hypothesis

Question 11

What is theory constructing/ hypothesis testing?

Answer 11

Theory must be falsifiable, testable, and rigid.

Hypothesis must be fully operationalised

Question 12

What are paradigms?

Answer 12

A set of agreed upon concepts in a specific field

Question 13

What is a limitation of Wundts introspection?

Answer 13

P: His method was not scientific
E: self-report (not objective) thought processes (not empirical)
E: cannot be replicated whereas behaviourists have been replicated

Question 14

Would some aspects of Wundt be considered scientific?

Answer 14

P: Still somewhat scientific
E: controlled lab, standardised stimuli
E: somewhat valid as it was a forerunner to true scientific psychology

Question 15

Is it always valid to use purely scientific methods?

Answer 15

P: scientific method has low ecological validity
E: humanists believe controlled methods don’t reveal real life behaviours as most of psychology (the mind) is un observable
E: whilst data is reliable it is unlikely to be valid. Most effective is to use a range of methods

Question 16

What are the 5 approaches in psychology?

Answer 16

Learning (behaviourism and SLT)
Cognitive
Biological
Psychodynamic
Humanistic

Question 17

What are the assumptions of behaviourism?

Answer 17

• learnt from experience
• born blank slate
• only observable behaviour is scientific
• thought processes are subjective
• lab experiments to remain
• processes the same across species

Question 18

What is classical conditioning?

Answer 18

Learning by association
UCS + NS ——> UCR
CS ——> CR

Question 19

Outline Pavlov’s conditioning study.

Answer 19

UCS + NS —> UCR
food + bell —> salivation

After conditioning:

CS —> CR
bell —> salivation

Question 21

How did Pavlov have high control?

Answer 21

P: he used the experimental method
E: by manipulating the iv (unconditioned and neutral stimuli) he could measure the amount the dog salivated (dependent variable )
E: allowed him to establish cause and effect relationship

Question 22

Are Pavlovs findings generalisable?

Answer 22

P: used non human animals
E: unlike animals humans have free will as well as a more complex neural network so our behaviour is not governed by stimulus-response
E: may not be a fully valid finding as it might not explain human behaviour so we cannot extrapolate