1. 4.2.1: Approaches in Psychology
Origins of Psychology
Pages 198 in the course text book
4.2.1: Approaches in Psychology
Origins of Psychology: Wundt, introspection and the emergence of Psychology as a science.

2. Think-pair-share What is ‘science’?
With the person sitting next to you, discuss what ‘science’ means – what do you see as the criteria for classification as a science?

3. The beginning?
In contrast to the natural sciences (physics, chemistry and biology), Psychology is a relatively new scientific discipline.
It has its roots in 17th and early 19th century philosophy and was indeed once known as experimental philosophy.
Early influences included Rene Descartes, and his concept of Cartesian dualism, which simply means that the mind and body are separate entities, the brain is not the same as the mind.
This is a clear starting point for psychology.

4. The beginning
The work of John Locke and his concept of empiricism, the belief that all knowledge is derived from sensory experience and can be studied using the scientific method also had an influence on the emergence of psychology as a science.
Finally, the evolutionary theories of Charles Darwin set the stage for the emergence of psychology as we know it today.

5. Time to hand in your 250 word summary
History of Psychology
Time to hand in your 250 word summary

6. Wilhelm Wundt
In 1873 Wilhelm Wundt published the first book on psychology ‘Principles of Physiological Psychology’ and in 1879 opened the first psychology laboratory in Leipzig, Germany. He is often considered to be ‘the father of psychology’
His approach to psychology was to study the structure of the human mind, by breaking down behaviours into their basic elements, hence his approach became known as structuralism.

7. Introspection
Wundt used introspection to investigate the human mind. Introspection comes from Latin and means ‘looking into’. Basically, participants were asked to reflect on their own cognitive processes and describe them.
Wundt established psychology as a science by using the scientific method – his ideas would lead to multiple different psychological perspectives.

8. What is the ‘Scientific Method’?
Wundt’s new ‘scientific’ approach to psychology was based on two major assumptions.
All behaviour is seen as being caused (determined)
If behaviour is determined, then it should be possible to predict how human beings would behave in different conditions (predictability)
This technique used to explore these assumptions became known as the scientific method

9. What is the ‘Scientific Method’?
The scientific method refers to the use of investigative methods that are:
objective
systematic
replicable
How are these achieved and why are they important?

10. Evaluating the scientific approach to psychology
Strengths:
Knowledge acquired using scientific methods are more than just the passive acceptance of facts
Causes of behaviour can be established through the use of methods that are empirical and replicable
Scientific knowledge is self-corrective meaning that it can be refined or abandoned
Discuss with your partner the strengths and weaknesses of using the scientific approach in psychology
Weaknesses:
Scientific psychologists create contrived situations that create artificial behaviours
Much of the subject matter of psychology is unobservable, therefore cannot be measured with any degree of accuracy
Not all psychologists share the view that that human behaviour can be explored through scientific methods

11. Introspection
Introspection relies primarily on non-observable responses and although participants can report conscious experiences, they are unable to comment on unconscious factors relating to their behaviour.
Introspection produced data that was subjective (varied greatly from person to person), so it became very difficult to establish general principles. This means that introspective experimental results are not reliably reproduced by other researchers.
In contrast, the early behaviourists such as Pavlov and Thorndike were achieving reliably reproducible results and discovering explanatory principles that could be easily generalised to all human beings

12. Introspection
Introspection may not seem particularly scientific, but it is still used today to gain access to cognitive processes.
For example, Griffiths (1994) used introspection to study the cognitive processes of fruit machine gamblers.
He asked them to ‘think aloud’ whilst playing a fruit machine into a microphone on their lapel.
Csikzentmilyi and Hunter (2003) used introspection to study happiness in their work in the area of positive psychology.

13. Psychology as a science
Psychology has four goals:
Description – tells us “what” occurred
Explanation – tells us “why” a behaviour or a mental process occurred
Prediction – identifies conditions under which a future behaviour or mental process is likely to occur
Change – applies psychological knowledge to prevent unwanted behaviour and to bring about desired change

14. The BIG but…. Lets have a look at an exam question….
What’s in the textbook?
What’s on the mark scheme?
What is missing?
What will you need to do about it?

15. Homework Secret Agent Mission
Overview of different approaches in Psychology
Your mission, which is compulsory to accept, is to uncover the secret agent file stowed in the Psychology section of the main Roedean School library. Upon finding this item, your task is to research one approach in psychology that you will be studying this year, and outline a key researcher associated with this approach. You must then leave details of your investigations for inspection.
This message simply won’t self destruct; we know, because we tried it.
Special Agents Alexander and Rose

16. Approaches within Psychology
Approaches (sometimes called ‘perspectives’) can be seen as different ways of explaining psychological phenomena
Year one:
Biological approach
Learning approach (Behaviourist and Social Learning Theory)
Cognitive approach
Year two:
Psychodynamic approach
Humanistic approach

17. Why are there different approaches in psychology?
Each approach looks at human behaviour from a different perspective. They all contribute to our understanding in different ways.
For example the biological approach shows us how genetic factors might contribute to some mental disorders, whereas the learning approach helps us to understand how we learn behaviours through experience.
No approach is right and the others wrong but some are more useful than others depending on what we try to explain.

18. Stretch and Challenge
Explain Wundt’s contribution to the development of psychology
Outline one criticism of Wundt’s contribution to psychology
Explain what is meant by introspection
Outline two criticisms of introspection as a method of investigation
Explain the emergence of psychology as a science
Outline one strength and one limitation of the scientific approach in psychology
Answer the ‘Check it’ questions on page 105 in the GHG e-textbook