PSY1HPM Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Knitting Needle, Wilhelm Wundt, Edward B. Titchener
30 Jun 2018
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HPM Lecture 3 – Historical Foundations of Psychology (2)
From Philosophy to Psychology
The ancient Greeks, Romans and Renaissance theorists relied predominantly on reason, logic and argument to
shed light on the workings of the human mind.
In the late 1800s, an alternative approach emerged: the mind could (and should) be studied scientifically using a
combination of systematic observation and experimentation, And so psychology was born. . .
Wundt & Experimental Psychology
In 1879 Wilhelm Wundt founded the very first psychological laboratory (Leipzig), and so formally, modern
experimental psychology was born
His approach to studying psychology was pioneering, using scientific methods to shed light on the elements of
human consciousness
The approach was ground-breaking because previously, it had been assumed that because conscious functioning
was not directly observable, it could not be measured
Wundt’s laboratory was extraordinarily productive : over 45 years he supervised 186 doctoral students, and
wrote 491 papers, books and articles!
Wundt was involved in much ground-breaking research on sensation, perception and reaction times, including:
-Reflex activity in the frog
-Inhibitory activity in the nervous system
Wundt (1862) rigged up a pendulum clock with a calibrated scale and a knitting needle, such that the knitting
needle would strike a bell just when the pendulum reached the extreme end of its swing
Wundt & Voluntarism
Wundt argued that humans have free will, and so can choose what and where to direct our focus
Because we can decide what to pay attention to, we influence what we perceive
Wundt proposed that what we choose to attend to, and much of our behaviour, is motivated by purpose
He called his approach to psychology voluntarism, emphasising the roles of will, choice, and purpose in
influencing consciousness and human behaviour
Wundt & Introspection
One of the key techniques developed and used by Wundt and his colleagues was introspection: a technique that
relies on our ability to choose what to attend to
Introspection is the process of reflecting upon yourself and reporting your conscious experience
Wundt trained his participants carefully, ensuring that they reported EVERYTHING that went through their
consciousness when they were presented with a particular stimulus or performed a particular task
As a strong experimentalist, Wundt’s introspection method was well controlled (as far as possible for
introspection!), and involved a series of specific instructions and criteria:
-1. The observer must know when the experience begins and ends
-2. The observer must maintain "strained attention"
-3. The phenomenon must bear repetition
-4. The phenomenon must be capable of variation (i.e., experimentation)
By recording participants’ responses to a variety of stimuli/tasks, Wundt concluded that sensations and feelings
form the basic elements of consciousness
Sensations (e.g., colour, form) and feelings (e.g., pleasure, fear) can be combined to form a meaningful percept
(e.g., a squirrel)
By focussing attention on a percept and elaborating upon it, more complex representations can be developed
Titchener & Structuralism
Edward Titchener (1867-1927) was one of Wundt’s PhD students
Like Wundt, Titchener favoured the use of experimentation (including introspection) to shed light on the
workings of the mind
Titchener sought to understand the structure of consciousness, and started the structuralism movement
Because he was keen to understand the structure of consciousness, Titchener’s goal was to develop something
like the Periodic Table of the Elements for human consciousness
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Hpm lecture 3 historical foundations of psychology (2) The ancient greeks, romans and renaissance theorists relied predominantly on reason, logic and argument to shed light on the workings of the human mind. In the late 1800s, an alternative approach emerged: the mind could (and should) be studied scientifically using a combination of systematic observation and experimentation, and so psychology was born. In 1879 wilhelm wundt founded the very first psychological laboratory (leipzig), and so formally, modern experimental psychology was born. His approach to studying psychology was pioneering, using scientific methods to shed light on the elements of human consciousness. The approach was ground-breaking because previously, it had been assumed that because conscious functioning was not directly observable, it could not be measured. Wundt"s laboratory was extraordinarily productive : over 45 years he supervised 186 doctoral students, and wrote 491 papers, books and articles! Wundt was involved in much ground-breaking research on sensation, perception and reaction times, including:
