Origins of Psychology

Wilhelm Wundt

* Opened first-ever psychology lab at Leipzig university in 1879
* Marked beginning of scientific psychology, separating it from philosophical roots.

Introspection

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

Standardised Procedures

* Wundt and his co-workers recorded their experiences of various stimuli they were presented with, such as different objects or sounds


* They would record their thoughts, images and sensations.

Structuralism

Isolating the structure of consciousness into specific categories

Strength of Introspection

* Introspections were recorded in the lab, ensuring that possible extraneous variables were not a factor
* Suggests Wundt’s research can be considered a forerunner to later scientific approaches in psychology.

Limitation of Introspection

* Participants self-reported → subjective data
* Participants may have hidden some of their thoughts
* Difficult to establish meaningful ‘laws of behaviour’ from such data.

1900s Behaviourists

* Watson and BF Skinner in the early 20th century proposed that truly scientific psychology should only study phenomena that can be observed and measured


* Focused on behaviours that they could see and used carefully controlled experiments.

1950s Cognitive Approach

* Cognitive psychologists likened the mind to a computer and tested their predictions about memory and attention using experiments


* The cognitive approach ensured that the study of the mind was a legitimate and highly scientific aspect of the discipline.

1980s Biological Approach

* Researchers within this area took advantage of advances in technology to investigate physiological processes as they happen


* For example, they used fMRIs and EEGs to study live activity in the brain.

Strength of Modern Psychology

* Psychology has the same aims as the natural sciences - to describe, understand, predict and control behaviour.
* Learning, cognitive, and biological approaches all rely on scientific methods → lab studies

Limitation of Psychology

* Not all approaches use objective methods.


* Humanistic approach rejects the scientific approach.
* Psychodynamic approach makes use of the case study method which does not use representative samples.