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Wilhelm Wundt was one of the great, founding fathers of modern psychology. His definition of the three main goals of psychology and understanding of the specific elements of thought were some of his major contributions. Further, Wundt helped define the terms perception, apperception and creative synthesis. His early work on the psychology of elements and his later work in the Volkerpsychologie helped to cement his position as an outstanding and influential psychologist. Wundtian psychology has declined greatly in recent times, largely as a result of his reliance on introspection.
Wundt's three main goal of psychology were to describe, predict and explain behavior. Wundt was one of the first psychologists to set psychology apart from philosophy. He sought to apply the principles of scientific investigation. As such, he was one of the first psychologists to bring the study of psychology to the laboratory, and attempt to discern the basic nature of human consciousness and experience.
According to Wundt, there are specific elements of thought, each with specific attributes. He founded the psychological school of structuralism that believed that the mind could be studied, like any other physical entity. Structuralism broke down thought into three main elements: sensations, feelings and images. These three elements each with specific attributes, combined to form conscious experience.
Wundt also played a great role in defining...
Wundt initially saw perception as simply the work of sensory organs, like the eyes and ears. Eventually, however, he began to feel that perception was the work of a central, mental, and introspective process of central synthesis. He argued that the sensory organs interacted with mental representations like thoughts and memories to form a person's perception of an event.
He saw apperception as basic mental activity, where mind was seen as an activity, not a substance. In this sense then, apperception was part of Wundt's understanding that psychology as part of an elaborate philosophy.
Wundt felt that apperceived ideas were grouped together in a central way, at the center of attention. This was called creative synthesis, and contrasted with the mechanical and automatic way that he felt perceived ideas were grouped together.
In the theory of the higher mental processes, Wundt had a specific role for attention. Wundt felt that attention played a large role in higher human cognitive phenomena. He felt that the center of attention, or consciousness, helped to group together perceived ideas. Attention, then helped to form the basis of memory and a person's conscious interpretation of events. Wundt felt that attention was crucial in the formation of memories, and the process of creative synthesis, where apperceived were grouped together in a central…
Titchener was aware of the possible effects of bias, as well as of faulty memory, on introspection. But he believed that the problem with bias can be remedied by preparing relatively simple tasks, by exercising strict standardization, and by extensively repeating the task within and between subjects. As for the problem with faulty memory, Titchener acknowledged that introspection is the similar with retrospection. Titchener's version of introspection is similar to
Psychology The Field of Psychology: An Overview of Foundations, Influence and Pertinence in Today's World One of the most fascinating and complex fields of study in today's scientific world is psychology, the scientific examination of human behavior. Psychologists, as professionals, can prove to be an extremely useful resource, especially since mental disorders tend to be just as complicated as physical disorders, and, often, much less apparent. The field of psychology has grown tremendously
Clinical Psychology / Bulimia Nervosa The beginnings of clinical psychology date back to the year 1492, and it has changed from the mere treatment of mental illness to an entire field of research and experimentation, which has helped those individuals who have been affected by any form of mental disorders, like for example, the eating disorders like bulimia nervosa and anorexia nervosa prevalent among adolescent and twenty-year-old women all over the
However, contemporary literature on the subject seems to establish the priciples of comparivie psychology as ones that focus on both proximate and ultimate causation (Dewsbury, 1984). The power, though, of the comparative approach lies in the ability that the scholar can evaluate target behaviors from really four different perspectives, called Tinbergen's four questions (Burkhardt, 2005). How pervasive is the behavior across the individual species -- how common is it? How does the
History Of Social Psychology: Past and Future Directions The fields of psychology and social psychology owe their existence to the earlier philosophical thinkers including Aristotle, Plato, Descartes, Locke, Hume and Kant. However, the recognized founder of the field (by most historians) is the German scientist Wilhelm Wundt (Farr, 2003). In 1862 Wundt proposed that there psychology should consist of two branches: a social branch and a physiological branch of psychology (Farr,
Functionalism and Structuralism Psychology is one of the youngest sciences and emerged as a separate discipline only in the late 19th century; it has its roots in the philosophy of ancient times. As a matter of fact every development in virtually all fields of human activity is in some way related to its past stages of development. Without these 'building blocks' of development, the present phenomenon of accelerating human progress would