Psychology Essay: Discuss at least two contributions of Wundt to Psychology

Discuss at least two contributions of Wundt to Psychology

(10 marks)

4 A01 marks = describe / name the contributions
6 A02 marks = criticise Wundt

Note: the more assumptions you name, the more AO2 marks you can achieve by criticising.

Wundt established the discipline of psychology as a separate science from the discipline of philosophy. Wundt founded the first psychology laboratory in 1879, making psychology more objective (A01).

Wundt was the first psychologist to develop laboratory experiments to study human behaviour. Instead of developing his own ideas (like philosophers), he devised experiments to try to find evidence to support his theories. This has influenced cognitive psychology and behaviourism as both these approaches measure behaviour in an objective and scientific way (A02). The humanistic approach disagrees and rejects scientific methodology, as Rogers believes that experiments create artificial environments and have low ecological validity (AO2). Humanism prefers rich qualitative data rather than the quantitative data obtained using experiments.

Wundt also developed the technique of introspection to study behaviour objectively (A01). Introspection is examination of one’s own thoughts, feelings or mental states (A01). However, Skinner argues that introspection was not really scientific even if the methods used to introspect were. Skinner claims the results of introspection are subjective and cannot be verified because only observable behaviour can be objectively measured, and introspective involves studying internal behaviour (AO2).

Wundt argued that conscious mental states could be scientifically studied using introspection. However, Wundt ignored that importance of the unconscious mind in affecting behaviour as described by Freud (A02).

Wundt concentrated on three areas of mental functioning; thoughts, images and feelings. These are the basic areas studied today in cognitive psychology. This means that the study of perception can be traced back to Wundt. Wundt’s work stimulated interest in cognitive psychology (A01). However, Darwin would argue that Wundt has ignored how biology affects a person’s behaviour, e.g. instincts, hormones and chromosomes all affect a person’s behaviour (A02).

Wundt believed in reductionism. He believed consciousness could be broken down (or reduced) to its basic elements without sacrificing any of the properties of the whole. Humanism disagrees with this view and thinks that the whole person should be studied, rather than breaking behaviour down into smaller parts. This is called holism