Wilhelm Wundt

Father of Psychology
Studied under Hermann von Helmholtz
Attended University of Heidelberg
Dissertation
- Touch sensitivity in hysterical patients
Psychology fell between physical and social sciences
- Used experimental research methods similar to those in physiology similar to those in psychology
Researched mental life
John Stuart Mill thought about mental life
Psychology was considered a brass instrument science
- Stimuli were presented and participants responded via tools
  - Pendulums
  - Timers
In Autumn of 1879 at Leipzig, they performed independent psychological experiments
- Birth of Psychology
The goal of Psychology was to identify structures of the mind

Introspection is a highly-controlled rigorous process
- Used to discover units of the mind (Sensations + Feelings)
Thoughts are combinations of sensations and feelings
During introspection, there’s…
- Self-reports
- Reaction times
- Word associations
Word associations are when a listener is presented with a word and they then say another word
Inner-associations are semantic connections between 2 words
- Knife-Fork
Out-associations are connections based on experience
- Father-Hate
Attention is the focus of consciousness
Emil Kraeplin
- Wundt’s student
- Had schizophrenia due to limited and poorly focused attention
Visual perception
- Color vision + Visual Illusions
Time perception
- Judged time intervals
Touch perception
- Used psychophysical methods of
  - Gustav Fechner
  - Ernst Weber

Between 1875 - 1919
- Supervised 189 PhD theses
- 70 → philosophy
- 110 → Psychology
Most psychology graduate students traced their lineage to Wundt