Psychology - Approaches
The origins of psychology - Wundt
Studying the mind was Wundt, ‘the father of psychology’ he started
controlled empirical scientific research.
● He opened the first psychological lab in Leipzig, Germany (1870’s) studying
internal mental processes. He used introspection (looking
inwards/self-examination), analysing your own conscious experience to standard
stimuli (such as metronome), reporting present experience such as sensations,
emotional reaction, mental images.
Structuralism is breaking thoughts down into separate elements as an attempt to
uncover the structure of the mind.
✔️ Wundt’s work paved the way for later scientifically controlled research in psychology.
✔️ The study of internal mental processes was later continued by cognitive
psychologists who built models of how systems such as memory worked, however they
used experimentation, not introspection.
❌ Wundt’s work was criticised by later behaviourist learning theorists who thought
internal mental processes could not be studied scientifically by introspection, they
focused only on observable inputs and outputs seeing the mind as not open to objective
scientific investigation.
, 2
The behaviourist approach
The behaviourist approach was developed in an attempt to make
psychology more scientific by using highly controlled experiments,
criticised earlier attempts to study internal mental processes.
Classical conditioning is learning through association. Learning happens when a neutral
stimulus is consistently paired with an unconditioned stimulus so that eventually the
neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus producing the response caused by the
UCS.
● Pavlov (1897) demonstrated this in dogs who would associate the sound of a
bell (NS) with food (UCS) and drool (R) to the conditioned response (CR).
Operant conditioning is learning through trial and error. Learning from connection
between behaviours and consequences.
● Skinner (1938) demonstrated this in rats who learnt from trial and error that
pulling on a lever would release a food pellet. The lever pulling behaviour became
more frequent and deliberate over time. The rats als learnt to press the lever to
stop the floor of the cage being electrocuted.
Extinction - stopping reinforcement will result in the behaviour stopping over time.
● Types of reinforcement:
○ Positive reinforcement is adding a stimulus to increase behavior to
increase behaviour.
○ Negative reinforcement is removing a stimulus to increase behaviour.
○ Punishment is adding a stimulus to decrease behavior.
✔️ Real life applications – the principles of conditioning have been applied to a broad
range of real-world behaviours and problems. For example, operant conditioning is the
basis of token economy systems that have been used successfully in institutions, such
The origins of psychology - Wundt
Studying the mind was Wundt, ‘the father of psychology’ he started
controlled empirical scientific research.
● He opened the first psychological lab in Leipzig, Germany (1870’s) studying
internal mental processes. He used introspection (looking
inwards/self-examination), analysing your own conscious experience to standard
stimuli (such as metronome), reporting present experience such as sensations,
emotional reaction, mental images.
Structuralism is breaking thoughts down into separate elements as an attempt to
uncover the structure of the mind.
✔️ Wundt’s work paved the way for later scientifically controlled research in psychology.
✔️ The study of internal mental processes was later continued by cognitive
psychologists who built models of how systems such as memory worked, however they
used experimentation, not introspection.
❌ Wundt’s work was criticised by later behaviourist learning theorists who thought
internal mental processes could not be studied scientifically by introspection, they
focused only on observable inputs and outputs seeing the mind as not open to objective
scientific investigation.
, 2
The behaviourist approach
The behaviourist approach was developed in an attempt to make
psychology more scientific by using highly controlled experiments,
criticised earlier attempts to study internal mental processes.
Classical conditioning is learning through association. Learning happens when a neutral
stimulus is consistently paired with an unconditioned stimulus so that eventually the
neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus producing the response caused by the
UCS.
● Pavlov (1897) demonstrated this in dogs who would associate the sound of a
bell (NS) with food (UCS) and drool (R) to the conditioned response (CR).
Operant conditioning is learning through trial and error. Learning from connection
between behaviours and consequences.
● Skinner (1938) demonstrated this in rats who learnt from trial and error that
pulling on a lever would release a food pellet. The lever pulling behaviour became
more frequent and deliberate over time. The rats als learnt to press the lever to
stop the floor of the cage being electrocuted.
Extinction - stopping reinforcement will result in the behaviour stopping over time.
● Types of reinforcement:
○ Positive reinforcement is adding a stimulus to increase behavior to
increase behaviour.
○ Negative reinforcement is removing a stimulus to increase behaviour.
○ Punishment is adding a stimulus to decrease behavior.
✔️ Real life applications – the principles of conditioning have been applied to a broad
range of real-world behaviours and problems. For example, operant conditioning is the
basis of token economy systems that have been used successfully in institutions, such
