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+ early influences
what was psychology initially known as?
experimental philosophy
what was Descartes’s influence on early psychology?
Cartesian dualism - mind and body are separate entities
what was Locke’s influence on early psychology?
empiricism - all knowledge is derived from sensory experience and can be studied using the scientific method
what was Darwin’s influence on early psychology?
evolution set the stage for the emergence of psychology as we know it today - reductionist/study of animals
who was Wundt? why is often considered the ‘father of psychology’?
published first book on psychology in 1873 (‘Principles of Physiological Psychology’
opened first psych lab in Leipzig, Germany
structuralism - a reductionist approach: studying the structure of the human mind, breaking down behaviours into basic elements
established psychology as a science by using the scientific method
what is introspection?
conscious examination of conscious experience: self observation of own thoughts
what are the 3 stages of introspection?
stimulus, e.g. metronome
inspect own thoughts, e.g. emotions/sensations
draw concs and compare responses
what are the strengths of introspection?
temporal validity - still used today
Griffiths (1994) used to study cognitive processes of fruit machine gamblers
Csikzentmilyi and Hunter (2003) used to study happiness in work on positive psychology
highly controlled and systematic
what are the limitations of introspection?
relies on non observable responses - although ppts can report conscious experiences, they cannot comment on unconscious factors relating to their behaviour: we cannot falsify our own thoughts
produces subjective data → difficult to establish general principles → not reliably reproduced
