APPROACHES TO PSYCHOLOGY Origins of psychology- introspection
•Wundt was the first person to call himself a psychologist, he opened the first psychology lab in Germany in 1879. He believed the mind could be studied scientifically and wanted to develop theories about mental processes.
•Wundt created introspection which is a process by which a person gains knowledge about their own mental and emotional states. It breaks conscious processes into three categories- thoughts, images and sensations. Wundt said that, with training, processes such as memory and perception could be observed using introspection. In his studies, participants were presented with stimuli and asked to provide a description of the inner processes they were experiencing. Introspections were recorded under controlled conditions using standardised instructions. Evaluation of introspection
Strengths- methods were systematic and controlled so quite scientific, standardised procedures were used.
Weaknesses- some methods were unscientific, participants self-
reported which is subjective, participants may have hidden thoughts, difficult to establish meaningful laws of behaviour.
•Wundt was the first person to call himself a psychologist, he opened the first psychology lab in Germany in 1879. He believed the mind could be studied scientifically and wanted to develop theories about mental processes.
•Wundt created introspection which is a process by which a person gains knowledge about their own mental and emotional states. It breaks conscious processes into three categories- thoughts, images and sensations. Wundt said that, with training, processes such as memory and perception could be observed using introspection. In his studies, participants were presented with stimuli and asked to provide a description of the inner processes they were experiencing. Introspections were recorded under controlled conditions using standardised instructions. Evaluation of introspection
Strengths- methods were systematic and controlled so quite scientific, standardised procedures were used.
Weaknesses- some methods were unscientific, participants self-
reported which is subjective, participants may have hidden thoughts, difficult to establish meaningful laws of behaviour.
