WUNDT ESSAY PLAN

A01 - who is Wundt

• Wundt = Father of Psychology

• Set up first psychology lab in 1870s Germany

• Promoted use of introspection as a method of studying mental processes

• His work paved the way for later controlled research and study of mental processes e.g. by cognitive psychologists

A01 - What is introspection? How is it carried out?

• Introspection - systematic analysis of one’s own thought processes/feeling/emotions and sensations.

• People trained to analyse and report in detail their inner thoughts, break down into separate parts.

• Used in carefully controlled lab conditions

• Participants presented with standardised tasks/stimuli (e.g. visual illusion, scent, sound, taste)

• With sufficient training - can be used to systematically observe mental processes e.g. memory, perception

A03 - LIMITATION

P - Not scientific

E - criticised - not empirical, subjective (relied on non-observable responses, every individual is different)

Although Ps could report conscious experiences, the processes themselves (e.g. memory, percpetion) considered unobservable. Wundt’s approach ultimately failed due to lack of reliability of his methods.

E - limitation as because methods weren’t scientific they cannot be replicated, introspection “experimental” results weren’t reliably produced by other researchers in other labs.

In contrast, early behaviourists such as Pavlov were already achieving reliable results and discovering findings that could be easily generalised to all human beings.

L - Limitation - Wundt’s introspection being unscientific means it’s unreliable and cannot be used as a reasonable method to observe mental processes

A03 - STRENGTH

P - some aspects still considered scientific today

E - introspection in controlled lab. Procedures standardised so all Ps received same info and tested in same way

E - strength - Wundt’s research can be considered a forerunner to later scientific approaches in psych that were yet to come.

A03 - LIMITATION

P - Low ecological validity

E - Many psychologists (particularly favouring humanistic approach) believe concentrating on objective/controlled methods doesn’t reveal how people behave in natural settings, particularly as majority of psych is unobservable (e.g. the mind). Cannot be measured empirically

E - Limitation - although research likely to produce reliable data, unlikely to be valid.

Psychologists aim to investigate realistic human behaviour - arguably pointless to adopt purely scientific approach. Many agree most effective is to triangulate (using range of diff methods to gather data to test theory)

A03 - STRENGTH

P - still being used today

E - Hunter (2003) used introspective methods to make “happiness” measurable.

Gave teenagers beepers which went off at random. Surprised them and required them to write down thoughts and feelings in moment prior to beep. Most entries indicated unhappy rather than happy, but it was also found when energies were focused on challenging task they tended to be more upbeat.

E - Strength - shows how introspection is a useful tool & can be used with scientific methods to provide greater understanding of human behaviour.

Fact it is still being used today shows long-lasting influence of Wundt