1. Approaches in Psychology
Component 2 
Origins of Psychology

2. Psychology & Science? What is Science?
Origins of Psychology
Psychology & Science?
What is Science?
What is the classification for a Science?
Should Psychology be classed as
a science?

3. Lesson Objectives Origins of Psychology
Understand
To describe key early events and influences Psychology.
Apply
To explain these events/influences with reference to what we know about psychology today.
Evaluate
To discuss the strengths and weaknesses of early influences in Psychology.

4. Psychology as we know it today…
Origins of Psychology
Psychology as we know it today…

5. Origins of Psychology
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.

6. Origins of Psychology
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.

7. Origins of Psychology
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.

8. Origins of Psychology
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.

9. Introspection: Have a go yourself.
Origins of Psychology
Introspection: Have a go yourself.
Write down absolutely anything that you think of, your thought processes as you hear these sounds. There are no right or wrong answers, just write down what you are thinking for each one.

10. Introspection
Task: Write down all your conscious thoughts while you are trying to solve the problem. Do not censor any thoughts.
A man has to get a fox, a chicken, and a sack of corn across a river.
He has a rowboat, and it can only carry him and one other thing.
If the fox and the chicken are left together, the fox will eat the chicken.
If the chicken and the corn are left together, the chicken will eat the corn.
How does the man do it?

11. The Solution
The man and the chicken cross the river, (the fox and corn are safe together), he leaves the chicken on the other side and goes back across.
The man then takes the fox across the river, and since he can't leave the fox and chicken together, he brings the chicken back.
Again, since the chicken and corn can't be left together, he leaves the chicken and he takes the corn across and leaves it with the fox.
He then returns to pick up the chicken and heads across the river one last time.

12. Introspection is the process by which a person gains knowledge about his or her own emotional state.
Just as our perceptual ability enables us to observe and make sense of the outer world, our introspective ability enables us to observe our inner world.
The observers were taught to engage in introspection (literally looking within), the use of which was governed by strict rules.
Introspectionists observed stimuli and described their experiences. Participants would be asked to ‘observe’ their inner mental processes (such as emotions)and to report on these in terms of their intensity, quality or duration.
Wundt’s aims were threefold: to analyse the content of conscious experiences, to determine how the elements of conscious are connected, and to devise a law which would explain such connections.

13. Origins of Psychology
Science is…
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

14. What is the ‘Scientific Method’?
Origins of Psychology
What is the ‘Scientific Method’?
The scientific method refers to the use of investigative methods that are:
objective
systematic
replicable
Can you think of any examples of these in psychology?
Objectivity/Objective: Basing findings on fact, rather than opinion.
Subjectivity/Subjective: Basing findings on opinion, rather than fact.
Replicability: The ability to repeat a study & achieve the same findings.
Empirical Methods: Phenomenon that can be observed and measured. Testing scientifically.

15. Origins of Psychology

16. Psychology as a science
Origins of Psychology
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

17. Whilst watching note down any key names, dates and events!
Origins of Psychology
History of Psychology
Watch the video
watch?v=18KMa6RN3Ys
Whilst watching note down any key names, dates and events!

18. Origins of Psychology
Timeline Task
In small groups you are going to design and construct an illustrated psychology timeline
For each entry on the timeline, you need to:
You may select/draw an appropriate illustrations for each one.
Use the timeline on pages of your text book as guidance When they are completed, they will be laid out
Understand
find out some brief information about the key psychologist and their school of psychology
describe their assumptions/methods of study
Apply
Link in some examples of theories/concepts/research from psychology to illustrate each assumption.
Evaluate
Add in evaluation or counter arguments for each assumption
Can do using a variety of materials
Pipe cleaners
String
Strawberry laces etc

19. Evaluate Are there any problems with Wundt’s idea of introspection?
Origins of Psychology
Evaluate
Are there any problems with Wundt’s idea of introspection?
Are there any strengths/weaknesses of using the scientific approach/method in Psychology?

20. Weaknesses of Introspection
Origins of Psychology
Weaknesses of Introspection
1.Behaviourist psychologists such as Watson questioned the scientific status of introspection as it produced subjective data . The participants were recalling their own conscious thoughts meaning the results vary from participant to participant.
2. Conscious thoughts are mental processes that cannot be observed and measured. A truly scientific psychology should be focusing on phenomenon that can be observed and measured. This is known as empirical methods.

21. Weaknesses of Introspection
Origins of Psychology
Weaknesses of Introspection
3. Introspection is not accurate, Nisbett and Wilson found that we are largely unaware of factors which affect our behaviour. For example, some of our attitudes eg. Stereotypes are sometimes unknown to us, therefore our explanation of feelings towards a group may be inaccurate.

22. Evaluation of Scientific Method
Origins of Psychology
Evaluation of Scientific Method
Focuses on being objective and conducting research in strictly controlled environments. This tells us little about how people will behave in their natural environments.
Knowledge acquired is accurate and produces facts due to the use of objective and controlled studies.
Allows the causes of behaviour to be established and theories developed which can then be tested and modified. Once the cause is established treatments can be developed. E.g. the development of psychological therapies for depression.
There are certain areas of the human behaviour and mind that can not be observed therefore cannot be measured using the scientific method.
Categorise the strengths and weaknesses
Explain why they are strength/weakness in Psychology

23. Evaluation of Scientific Method
Origins of Psychology
Evaluation of Scientific Method
Focuses on being objective and conducting research in strictly controlled environments. This tells us little about how people will behave in their natural environments.
Knowledge acquired is accurate and produces facts due to the use of objective and controlled studies.
Allows the causes of behaviour to be established and theories developed which can then be tested and modified. Once the cause is established treatments can be developed. E.g. the development of psychological therapies for depression.
There are certain areas of the human behaviour and mind that can not be observed therefore cannot be measured using the scientific method.

24. Glossary: Can you define?
Origins of Psychology
Glossary: Can you define?
Cartesian Dualism
Empiricism
Wilhelm Wundt
Structuralism
Introspection
Science

25. Approaches within Psychology
Origins of Psychology
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

26. Why are there different approaches in psychology?
Origins of Psychology
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.

27. Why are there different approaches in psychology?
Origins of Psychology
Why are there different approaches in psychology?
All approaches are based on assumptions, these are suppositions that something is a fact, for example the biological approach is based on the assumption that biological factors such as the level of serotonin in the synapses influence our behaviour.
The first step when studying an approach is to look at what are its main assumptions. There may be several different theories within an approach, but they all share these common assumptions.

28. Origins of Psychology

29. Origins of Psychology
Exam Q
Describe Wundt’s role in the development of psychology (6 marks)

30. A03… Answers Point Evidence Explain/Expand Link
A strength of Wundt’s research is some aspects he methods would be classed as scientific today.
For example, the humanistic approach is anti­ scientific and does not attempt to formulate general laws of behaviour. It is concerned only with documenting unique subjective experience.
Participants would also not have had exactly the same thoughts every time, so establishing general principles would not have been possible. General laws are useful to predict future behaviour, one of the aims of science.
Throughout the 20th
century and beyond,
psychology has established itself as a scientific discipline.
However, other aspects of this research would be considered unscientific today.
Wundt relied on participants self­ reporting their 'private' mental processes. Such data is subjective and participants may not have wanted to reveal some of the thoughts they were having.
Also, the psychodynamic approach makes use of the case study method. This is based on interview techniques which are open to bias, and no attempt is made to gather a representative sample of the population.
Wundt's early efforts to study the mind were naive and would not meet the criteria of scientific enquiry.
Another problem with psychology is that not all approaches use objective methods.
For instance, he recorded the introspections within a controlled lab environment.
Such as, the learning approach, cognitive
approach and biological approach all rely on the use of
scientific methods –for example the use of lab experiments to investigate theories in a controlled and unbiased way
For this reason, many claim that a scientific approach to the study of human thought
and experience is
not possible, as there are important differences between the subject matter of psychology and the natural sciences.
A strength is that research in modern psychology can claim to be scientific
Psychology has the
same aims as the
natural sciences- to describe, understand, predict and control behaviour.
He also standardised his procedures so that all participants received the same information and were tested in the same way.
For this reason, Wundt's research can be considered a
forerunner to the later scientific approaches in psychology that were to come.
Answers

31. A03… Answers Point Evidence Explain/Expand Link
A strength of Wundt’s research is some aspects he methods would be classed as scientific today.
For example, the humanistic approach is anti­ scientific and does not attempt to formulate general
laws of behaviour. It is concerned only with documenting unique subjective experience.
Participants would also not have had exactly the same thoughts every time, so establishing general principles would not have been possible. General laws are useful to predict future behaviour, one of the aims of science.
Throughout the 20th
century and beyond,
psychology has established itself as a scientific discipline.
However, other aspects of this research would be considered unscientific today.
Wundt relied on participants self­ reporting their 'private' mental processes. Such data is subjective and participants may not have wanted to reveal some of the thoughts they were having.
Also, the psychodynamic approach makes use of the case study method. This is based on interview techniques which are open to bias, and no attempt is made to gather a representative sample of the population.
Wundt's early efforts to study the mind were naive and would not meet the criteria of scientific enquiry.
Another problem with psychology is that not all approaches use objective methods.
For instance, he recorded the introspections within a controlled lab environment.
Such as, the learning approach, cognitive
approach and biological approach all rely on the use of
scientific methods –for example the use of lab experiments to investigate theories in a controlled and unbiased way
For this reason, many claim that a scientific approach to the study of human thought
and experience is
not possible, as there are important differences between the subject matter of psychology and the natural sciences.
A strength is that research in modern psychology can claim to be scientific
Psychology has the
same aims as the
natural sciences- to describe, understand, predict and control behaviour.
He also standardised his procedures so that all participants received the same information and were tested in the same way.
For this reason, Wundt's research can be considered a
forerunner to the later scientific approaches in psychology that were to come.
Answers