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Psychology has its roots in early 19th century philosophy and was once known as experimental philosophy.
Wundt is known as the ‘father’ of psychology and opened the first psychology laboratory in Leipzig, Germany
1987. He introduced his method of introspection to systematically study the human mind and examine the
inner world of participants. Introspection involved introducing a stimulus to the participant, for example a ticking
metronome, and asking their thoughts, feelings, sensations in response to it. They broke down their thoughts
into components. Wundt’s scientific research helped reintroduce the study of mental processes e.g by
cognitive processes.
It could be argued that Wundt’s research led to the emergence of psychology as a whole, due to his scientific
method. However Behaviourists, e.g Watson, criticise Wundt’s method as they believe that mental processes
cannot be directly observed as they are internal, and that a true scientific psychology should restrict itself to
measuring things which can be directly observed. The Behavioural approach’s controlled method of research
has influenced the way other psychologists conduct their research e.g cognitive psychology in the 1960s. From
the 1980s onwards, the biological approach is the most dominant approach in psychology due to advancement
in technology which has led to MRI and fMRI scanning.
A strength of Wundt’s research is that it is scientific. This is because the introspections took place in a
controlled laboratory with controlled variables, for example how long the metronome (stimuli) sounds. In
addition the instructions were standardised so each participant received the same instructions each time. This
means that the experiment can be easily replicated. This suggests how Wundt’s research can be considered a
forerunner for later scientific approaches in psychology to come.
One weakness is that Wundt’s research relies heavily on non observable phenomena. Although participants
were asked to report their thoughts, feelings and perceptions in response to stimuli, these cannot be directly
observed. It could be argued that a true scientific psychology should measure observable things to provide
objective and empirical results. This suggests that Wundt’ research lacks scientific credibility and therefore
does not meet the scientific criteria of falsification, so his research lacks validity. In addition, in some cases
Wundt had participants report their ‘private’ mental processes, so social desirability may have been evident.
Another limitation of Wundt’s research is that his method of introspection is subjective. When the participants
report their thoughts and feelings, they are unlikely to have the same thought each time they experience the
same stimuli. This suggests that his method is subjective rather than objective and that the results may vary
between participants. This makes it difficult to establish general laws and principles about behaviour as not
every participant will have the same thoughts about the stimuli and even the one participants thoughts may
vary.
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