wundt + origins of psychology

Question 1

What was Wundt’s approach?

Answer 1

Structuralism: to study the structure of the human mind - by breaking down behaviour into their basic elements: thoughts, images and feelings

Question 2

What is introspection

Answer 2

the examination/observation of one’s own cognitive and emotional processes

Question 3

What was Wundt’s experiment?

Answer 3

• highly trained assistants were given a stimulus such as a ticking metronome and would reflect on the experience
• they would report what the stimulus made them think and feel

Question 4

What are strengths of Wundt’s experiment?

Answer 4

• showed that psychology could be a valid experimental science
• His lab based empirical methods elevated the status of psychology
• He did his research in carefully controlled conditions
• 1873 - published the first book on psychology
• 1879 - opened the first psychology laboratory in Germany

Question 5

What are weaknesses of Wundt’s experiment?

Answer 5

• Validity: introspection relies on non-observable responses - can’t be measured/experimented accurately –> not scientific
• ppts are unable to comment on unconscious thoughts that might be affecting them - they may be lying or unable to express thoughts and feelings
• Subjectivity: introspection is a subjective experience - makes data incomparable and the whole investigation subjective not objective which isn’t scientific –> can’t reproduce the result

Question 6

more +ve ao3s

Answer 6

• griffiths - gambling
• Griffiths (1994) studied the cognitive processes of fruit machine gamblers asking them to ‘think aloud’ whilst playing. He found addicts had totally different cognition to non addicts as they displayed behaviors such as personifying the machine. This shows that Wundt’s method is effective and reliable as its still used today.
• pavlov etc producing studies that are lab and replicable

Question 7

more -ve ao3s

Answer 7

• behaviourist approach

Question 8

a03

Answer 8

• One weakness is that thoughts are not measurable objectively. This is a huge problem because you cannot know for sure that pps reported thoughts feelings and images are accurate/valid. If psychology is a science this is a huge potential issue.
• One strength is that the method of introspection is replicable. The highly standardised/lab-based methods do begin to enforce psychology as a science with scientific qualities, which is a strength of Wundt’s work.
• Another strength is that there is modern research which backs up introspection as a legitimate method (- Griffiths (1994) studied the cognitive processes of fruit machine gamblers asking them to ‘think aloud’ whilst playing. He found addicts had totally different cognition to non addicts as they displayed behaviors such as personifying the machine. This shows that Wundt’s method is effective and reliable as its still used today. )
• One implication of Wundt’s method is that it paved the way for even more developed and scientific methods to emerge. The behaviourist approach was born as a consequence of the foundations of Wundt’s lab based methods, but this time with a focus on observable behaviour instead of thought which is obviously a more objective way of testing psychological processes.
• A final conclusive point might be the fact that until Wundt’s work psychology was more of a philosophy. It posed more questions than answers and certainly was not grounded in science. Wundt is known as the father of psychology by many scholars who credit him as being the pioneer who rooted Psychology firmly in Science.