Wundt

Wundt, Wihelm

Physiological

Physiological measurement. This approach takes measurements of human physiology (the structures and functions of the nervous system), to show how our biology affects our behaviour and experience. It can involve measuring the levels of hormones such as adrenalin in the body in order to study their effects (since these effects have been found to be quite context-dependent). Another example might involve measuring of the electrical resistance of the skin, indicating the amount of sweat generated (more technically, Galvanic Skin Response, or GSR) and looking for changes when people are telling the truth or lying. Here a relatively simple physiological measurement is being used as an indicator of underlying mental states.\nAn issue that can arise from use of physiological methods is the question of reductionism, in this context the extent to which complex human behaviour and experience can be explained entirely in biological terms. This is sometimes jokingly referred to as 'nothing-buttery', as in: �the experience of aggression is 'nothing but' the flow of adrenalin and the firing of particular neurons�. The resolution of debates like this require philosophical methods as well as physiological ones.

Views: METHODS, Ekman, Pavlov, Wundt

Psychophysics

Psychophysics measures how people respond to basic physical sensations such as temperature and loudness, looking at things such as reaction times and sensory thresholds. A typical question for investigation would be, what is the minimum stimulus needed to perceive a particular sound?

Views: TOPICS, Ebbinghaus, Wundt

Introspection

Introspection. Essentially, this method involves attempting to examine one's own psychological experiences (i.e. the contents and processes of the conscious mind) and report back what is found. This was one of the main methods of the early pioneers of psychology, such as William James, much of whose influential writings of psychology come from relatively informal and unstructured introspectionist reports of his own experiences. In a much more structured and formal way, Wilhelm Wundt established a psychological laboratory in Germany, where he tried to break down sensory experience into its component parts based on introspectionist data from a number of participants. In terms of the history of psychology, Wundt's failure to achieve inter-observer reliability with these types of data led to the rise of Behaviourism with researchers such as Watson rejecting mental data of all kinds as 'unscientific', and limiting psychology to the study of externally-observable behaviour. Since then, introspectionist data have more recently again found a place in psychology (though it's fair to say that introspection is still shunned by many psychological perspectives). In cognitive psychology, although the main focus is usually on experimental data, some cognitive psychologists have got people to 'talk through' their experiences when engaged in cognitive activities such as problem solving, with the resulting 'verbal protocols' seen as a useful complement to experimental data. Introspectionist reports of individual experience are an important part of humanistic and transpersonal psychology (e.g. in studying altered states of consciousness). These type of data are particularly important in transpersonal psychology, partly as a result of the way this perspective has been influenced by eastern philosophies/psychologies such as Buddhism, which have always used introspection as their primary method.

Views: METHODS, James, Mead, Wundt

His Elements of Folk Psychology, worked on during the last twenty years of his life, were devoted to social psychology. Wundt's career spanned six decades so it is perhaps not surprising that he published 53,000 pages in more than 50 volumes over his lifetime. These include: Vorlesungen uber die Menschen und Tier-Seele (1863, English translation, Lectures on Human and Animal Psychology, 1896).

Written by: Member of the Course Team

Wilhelm Max Wundt (1832-1920) was born in the small German village of Neckarau (a suburb of Mannheim ). He was the son of a Lutheran clergyman. He seems to have been a serious and solitary child who spent most of his time studying. When he was eight years old, his father's assistant, whose room Wundt shared, provided his education. When this assistant moved to a neighbouring village, Wundt accompanied him.

Wundt's research was particularly on the study of human sensory experience. He was interested in attention, sensation, feeling and perception (particularly vision and hearing). He also studied reaction time and his students studied association and memory. In order to research consciousness, Wundt used the method of introspection - getting his students and himself to give full verbal accounts of their conscious experiences.

Wundt offered the first academic course in psychology in 1862. Wundt left the University of Heidelberg in 1874 to teach inductive philosophy at the University of Zurich until 1875 when he became a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Leipzig where he stayed until he was 85 (in 1917). At Leipzig Wundt concentrated almost exclusively on psychological research, particularly on the study of human sensory experience.

Sources: Microsoft Corporation (1996) Encarta 96 Encyclopedia. [CD-ROM] Miller, G. (1962) Psychology: The science of mental life. Harmondsworth: Penguin.

At 19 Wundt decided to study medicine in Heidelberg. He decided that medicine was not for him, but t hat he wanted to be an academic physiologist.

Although Wundt was the founder of experimental psychology, he believed that human social processes (such as language) cannot be studied experimentally but have to be studied through anthropology, sociology and social psychology. He thus divided psychology into experimental and social branches.

In 1879, at the University of Leipzig, Wundt established the first psychology laboratory. It is because he started the experimental tradition in psychology that Wundt is considered to be one of the founders of psychology. He also founded the first experimental psychological journal, Philosophische Studien - Studies in Philosophy in 1881.

When Hermann Ludwig von Helmholtz arrived in Heidelberg in 1858, Wundt became his assistant. He found this work boring and eventually resigned and took up his former post. It was while working for Helmholtz that he became interested in studying, from a physiological viewpoint, the psychological problems posed by British philosophers.

Wundt's psychological laboratory was much visited by scholars interested in psychology, from the USA and Britain as well as Germany, and other early psychological laboratories were modelled on Wundt's. Wundt was also influential because he was the most popular lecturer in Leipzig.

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