Wilhelm WundtThe founding Father of Modern PsychologyThe Founding Father of Modern PsychologyWilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)Wilhelm wundtSlide 6Slide 7Wundt’s Study of Conscious ExperienceWundt’s Goals:Elements of Conscious ExperienceMediate and Immediate ExperienceVoluntarismOrganizing the Elements of Conscious ExperienceThe Method of IntrospectionSlide 15Slide 16Wundt’s InfluenceCritiques of WundtWundt’s LegacyDiscussion QuestionsDiscussion questionsSlide 22Slide 23Slide 24Slide 25WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28TH, 2015WILHELM WUNDTTHE FOUNDING FATHER OF MODERN PSYCHOLOGY•http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQvcp3k8tJcTHE FOUNDING FATHER OF MODERN PSYCHOLOGY•Remember the guy who concluded that we couldn’t multitask? •That was Wilhelm Wundt, the father of modern psychology•He based his work off of the “personal equation” work of Friedrich Bessel, who had studied the astronomy of David Kinnnebrook•By conducting a simple experiment of the same nature on himself as the only subject, he applied the experimental method to study the mindWILHELM WUNDT (1832-1920)•Founded psychology as a formal academic disciplineWILHELM WUNDT–First to call himself a “psychologist”–Established the first laboratory–Edited the first psychology journal–Began experimental psychology as a science–Emerged ahead of Fechner as the founder of psychology because he was much more deliberate in his organization of a new school of thought•Founding does not equal originating, but both are importantWILHELM WUNDT•Got bored with physiology•Conducted his own experiments in a makeshift laboratory built in his house•Used the term “experimental psychology” for the first time in a book called Contributions to the Theory of Sensory Perception (1858-1862)•Taught the first physiological psychology course in 1867 at HeidelbergWILHELM WUNDT•His masterpiece was Principles of Physiological Psychology, last published in 1911, which established psychology as an independent laboratory science•Also wrote a set of books called Cultural Psychology, which dealt with the various stages of human mental development in areas largely known now to social psychology–This illustrates a divide in Wundt’s work: he felt that physiological psychology lent itself to experimental methods–But higher mental processes such as learning and memory that were regulated by language and other cultural components could not be studied experimentallyWUNDT’S STUDY OF CONSCIOUS EXPERIENCE•Wundt’s work wasn’t much like that of other empiricists and associationists•He did not believe that the mind worked like a passive machine, but rather that consciousness was active•While he agreed that the reductive parts of consciousness were important, they didn’t tell the whole story of the psychological processWUNDT’S GOALS:•Analyze conscious processes into their basic elements•Discover how these elements are synthesized or organized•Determine the laws of connection governing the organization of elementsELEMENTS OF CONSCIOUS EXPERIENCE•Wundt identified two elementary forms of experience:–Sensation – aroused whenever a sense organ is stimulated and the resulting impulses reach the brain–Feelings – the result of a combination of sensations•Tridimensional theory of feelings:–Pleasure/displeasure–Tension/relaxation–Excitement/depression–These correspond to physiological stimuli that lead to sensations–Compounded feelings were emotionsMEDIATE AND IMMEDIATE EXPERIENCE•Mediate experience: provides information about something other than the elements of that experience–“I have a toothache”•Immediate experience: the experience of something that is unbiased by previous experience with that thing–“I am feeling discomfort in my tooth.” •Wundt believed psychologists should be concerned with immediate experience – these were the basic components the mind organizes–This corresponds to how physiologists of the time were trying to pinpoint the smallest features they could to explain physiological phenomenaVOLUNTARISM•Voluntarism: the idea that the mind has the capacity to organize mental contents into higher-level thought processes•Comes from “volition”•Wundt believed in the importance of these basic mental contents, but mostly in terms of how they could be organizedORGANIZING THE ELEMENTS OF CONSCIOUS EXPERIENCE•Apperception: the process by which mental elements are organized•Wundt realized that even though immediate experience was important, we still perceive a rose as a rose, not just an experience of red•Thus, our consciousness does not simply see the elemental sensations and feelings, but rather combines them and organizes them creatively into something bigger and completeTHE METHOD OF INTROSPECTION•Because the conscious experience could only be experienced subjectively, Wundt believed it could only be studied by introspection•Introspection: examination of one’s own mind to inspect and report on one’s perceptions•This is an old idea (think ancient Greece), but Wundt applied this method under precise experimental controlTHE METHOD OF INTROSPECTION•Rules for introspection:–Observers must be able to determine when the process is to be introduced–Observers must be in a state of readiness or strained attention–It must be possible to repeat the observation several times–It must be possible to vary the experimental conditions in terms of the controlled manipulation of the stimuli•Research assistants were required to complete 10,000 introspective observations before they could work in Wundt’s labTHE METHOD OF INTROSPECTION•While “introspection” may sound really qualitative, Wundt wasn’t too interested in anything that wasn’t quantitative•He wanted to know people’s conscious experience of things like size and weight, not things like subjective experience of an event•https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1UnYiPwBQ0WUNDT’S INFLUENCE•Although popular and spreading, Wundt’s work did not have a lot of practical application, so it had difficulty attracting funding and succeeding in the U.S. •Plus, very few people were calling themselves psychologists yetCRITIQUES OF WUNDT•If everybody experiences consciousness differently, who is right?•He wasn’t very popular politically•Being German at all wasn’t a very good thing during WWI, and universities after the war were left in financial ruin•Much of his work was destroyed in
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