Wundt and introspection

Wundt’s contribution to psychology

• Marked the beginning of scientific psychology - separating it from its broader philosophical roots.

• Set up first laboratory of experimental psychology.

• Used the scientific method to study the structure of sensation and perception.

• Showed that introspection could be used to study mental states in replicable laboratory experiments.

• Produced the first academic journal for psychological research.

What approach did Wundt propose?

Structuralism

Wundt’s work:

Structuralism → used experimental methods/ controlled conditions to find the basic building blocks of thought and investigate how they interacted.

He studied language and perception, breaking down participants’ observations of objects, images and events down into constituent parts.

• became known as introspection

Would record experiences of various stimuli they were presented with, such as different objects or sounds. Then divide their observations into three categories: thoughts, images and sensations.

Evaluation of introspection - Strength

• Some of his work involved systematic methods and well-controlled environments. (scientific)

  All introspections were recorded in the controlled environment of the lab, ensuring that possible extraneous variables were eliminated and didn’t affect the IV.

  Procedures were carefully standardised to ensure accurate results - all ppts tested the same way.

  Wundt’s work can be considered to have paved the way for later scientific approaches in psychology, such as the behaviourist approach

Evaluation of introspection - Limitation

• Other aspects of Wundt’s research would be considered unscientific today.

  Wundt relied on ppts self-reporting their mental processes, which is subjective data. Ppts could have hidden some of their thoughts → creating confounding variables due to demand characteristics (social desirability).

  It is difficult to establish meaningful ‘laws of behavioural’ from such data and general laws are useful to predict future behaviour, one of the aims of science.

  This suggests that some of Wundt’s early efforts to study the mind were flawed and would not meet the criteria of scientific enquiry.