PSY 1101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Wilhelm Wundt, Tabula Rasa, Edward B. Titchener

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSY 1101
• Professor: Rosalinde Klempan

Document Summary

Definition of psychology, until 1920": study of inner mental experience defined as science of mental life . 1879, beginning of scientific psychology in germany, when wundt opened the first psychology lab. Wilhelm wundt: 1879: collected data about psy aspects. He is the father of the whole field of experimental psychology. From 1920-min 1960: study of overt behavior (observe). Wundt and titchener focused on inner sensations, images and feelings. Structuralism: wundt"s student, edward bradford titchener wanted to discover the mind"s structure. But didn"t work, because it was different with each person. Functionalism: william james, function of our thoughts and feelings. Under influence or darwin, james assumed that thinking, like smelling were developed because of adaptiveness. John b. watson, b. f. skinner redefined psychology: scientific study of observable behavior . They say that after all science is rooted in observation. John b. watson: studies only public events, observable events aka observes behaviors, father of behaviorism (movement) founder of behaviorism.