(2026 Exams) Origins of Psychology

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Origins of Psychology

Wilhelm Wundt was the first person to be referred to as a psychologist. Wundt viewed psychology as a scientific study of conscious experience and he studied this view using introspection.

The first psychologist

Wilhelm Wundt (1832–1920) was a German scientist who was the first person to be referred to as a psychologist.
His famous book entitled 'Principles of Physiological Psychology' was published in 1873.

Wundt's view of psychology

Wundt viewed psychology as a scientific study of conscious experience.
He believed that there were two goals of psychology:
- To identify components of consciousness.
- To identify how those components combined to result in our conscious experience.

Introspection

Introspection was referred to by Wundt as "internal perception".
Introspection is a process by which someone examines their own conscious experience as objectively as possible.
This process makes the human mind like any other aspect of nature that a scientist observes.

Wundt's Version of Introspection

Introspection was used by Wundt to examine his view of psychology. Wundt's version of introspection has very specific conditions to make sure a scientific result is produced.

Wundt's version of introspection

The version of introspection that Wundt proposed used very specific experimental conditions.
An external stimulus was designed to produce a scientifically observable experience of the mind.
- A scientifically observable experience is one that's repeatable.

The first requirement

The first requirement of Wundt's introspection was the use of "trained" or practiced observers.
- The observers could immediately observe and report a reaction.

The second requirement

The second requirement of Wundt's introspection was the use of repeatable stimuli that always produced the same experience in the subject.
- This allowed the subject to expect the inner reaction and be fully attentive to it.

The need for requirements

The aim of these experimental requirements was to eliminate “interpretation” in the reporting of internal experiences.
The requirements also countered the argument that there's no way to know that an individual is observing their mind or consciousness accurately, since it can't be seen by anyone else.

Structuralism

Structuralism is the attempt to understand the structure and characteristics of the mind. Structuralism was investigated by Wundt in his laboratory, but lost popularity in the early 1900s.

Structuralism

The attempt to understand the structure and characteristics of the mind as Wundt did is known as structuralism.
To investigate structuralism, Wundt established his psychology laboratory at the University of Leipzig in 1879.

Example experiment

In his laboratory, Wundt and his students conducted experiments on variables such as reaction times.
- A student would receive a stimulus such as a light, image or sound.
- The subject would be told to push a button in response to the stimulus, and their reaction time would be measured to one-thousandth of a second.

The decline of structuralism

Despite Wundt's efforts to train individuals in the process of introspection, the process remained very subjective. There was very little agreement between individuals.
As a result, structuralism effectively died when Wundt’s student, Edward Titchener, died in 1927.