1. A History of Psychology
Chapter 4:
The New Psychology

2. The founding father of modern psychology
Who?
Gustav Fechner ( )
Wilhelm Wundt ( )
William James ( )

3. The founding father of modern psychology
Fechner: originator
1st time demonstrated how to make precise measurements of mental quantities
His goal was to understand the relationship between the mental and material world.
Gustav Fechner

4. The founding father of modern psychology
Wundt: Founder & promoter
Established the world’s 1st experimental psychology laboratory, edited the 1st Journal, began experimental psychology as science
His goal was to promote psychology as an independent science
Wilhelm Wundt

5. The founding father of modern psychology
William James
First true American psychologist
Turn psychology from Europe to the U.S.
William James

6. Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) -----His life
1. Childhood was lonely, 1st grades in school were poor, always disliked school
2. Did not get along with classmates, ridiculed by teachers
3. Decided to be a physician to work in science and make a living
Wilhelm Wundt

7. Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) -----His life
4. Disliked medicine, switched to physiology
Student of Johannes Muller
Complete his doctorate in 1855 at U. of Heidelberg
Lab assistant to Hermann Helmholtz

8. Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) -----His life
5. While working in physiology, he thought the study of psychology as an independent, experimental, and scientific discipline.
: Contributions to the Theory of Sensory Perception
a. described his own original experiments
b. offered methods for psychology
c. first used the term of “experimental psychology”

9. Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) -----His life
: Lectures on the Minds of Men and Animals.
A study of Reaction Time
Influence cognitive science, dominate experimental psychology in 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s
Experiment on Reaction time

10. Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) -----His life
8. Offered the first formal course on “physiological psychology”
“physiological” = “experimental”
9. Productivity
54,000pages ( ), an output of 2.2 pages per day

11. Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) -----His life
: Principles of Physiological Psychology
a. his masterpiece
b. established psychology as an independent laboratory science
c. became the record of psychology research: six editions

12. Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) ----The Leipzig years
1. Professor of philosophy at Leipzig:
2. First psychology lab: model for psychology labs everywhere
3. First journal for psychology research
a. 1881: Journal of Philosophical Studies
b. 1906: new title-Journal of Psychological Studies

13. Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) ----The Leipzig years
4. Trained first generation of experimental psychologists
5. Trained several Americans and most of them returned to the US to begin laboratories of their own.
6. Also, his students established laboratories in Italy, Russian, and Japan.
7. He was not himself a laboratory worker even though his faith in laboratory research.

14. Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) ----Cultural psychology
: wrote on ethics, logic, systematic philosophy
: Cultural Psychology
The creation of social psychology
3. Concerned with stages of human mental development

15. Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) ----Cultural psychology
4. Focus on language, art myths, social, customs, law, and morals.
5. Divided psychology in two:
Experimental Psychology
Social Psychology

16. Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) ----Cultural psychology
6. Experimental psychology
Simpler mental function such as sensation and perception
Must be studied through experimental/laboratory methods.
7. Non-experimental methods
higher mental processes such as learning and memory
cannot be studies experimentally
can be studied using methods of sociology anthropology, social psychology

17. Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) ----Cultural psychology
8. Citations:
Cultural Psychology: < 4%
Principles of Physiological Psychology: >61%
9. Reasons for the lack interest in cultural psychology
Little need to pay attention to developments from Europe
Less concern to cultural issues

18. Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) ---The study of conscious experience
1. Wundt adapted scientific methods (in nature science) to study psychology
2.Subject matter in Wundt psychology: consciousness
studied by the methods of analysis or reduction
reduction to its elements
active in organizing its contents

19. Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) ---The study of conscious experience
3. Voluntarism:
The mind has the capacity to organize mental contents into higher-level through process.
emphasized the process, not the elements
however, recognized the elements
Provide only a beginning to understanding psychological processes.

20. Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) ---The study of conscious experience
4. Mediate experience:
Mediate experience provides information about something other than the elements of that experience
E.g., The flower is red; I have a toothache
5. Immediate experience:
unbiased by any personal interpretations
Our experience of redness or our feeling of discomfort from a toothache

21. Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) ---The study of conscious experience
6. Analyze the mind into its elements and its component parts like nature science (chemical elements)

22. Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) ---The method of introspection
1. The method of a scientific psychology requires observation of conscious experience
2. Method of observation: Introspection:
is the examination of one’s own mental state, “internal perception”, and report on personal thoughts or feelings

23. Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) ---The method of introspection
4. Its use is derived from physics and physiology
Fechner: subjects compared two weights and reported whether one is heavier, lighter, or equal. They were introspecting and reporting on their conscious experiences.
3. Required subjects to complete 10,000 introspective observation before ready to be Wundt’s subjects.
4. Accurate observation and replication

24. Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) ---The method of introspection
5. Wundt’s four rules and conditions
Observers must be able to determine when the process is to be introduced
Observers must be in a sate of readiness
It must be possible to repeat the observation several times
It must be possible to vary the experimental conditions in terms of the controlled manipulation of the stimuli.

25. Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) ---The method of introspection
6. Required quantitative and objective measurement (e.g., reaction time), not qualitative introspection
7. Used sophisticated equipment for objective measurement

26. Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) ---elements of conscious experience
1. Wundt’s three goals for psychology
Analyze conscious processes into elements
Discover how elements are organized
Determine the laws of connection governing the organization of the elements

27. Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) ---elements of conscious experience
2. Two elements of conscious experience:
Sensations
Feelings
Both are immediate experience

28. Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) ---elements of conscious experience
3. Tridimensioal theory of feelings
From Wundt’s own experiences as a subject.
Wundt concluded three independent dimensions of feelings:
pleasure/displeasure
tension/relaxation
excitement/depression

29. Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) ---Organizing the elements of conscious experience
1. Reality: Whole: tree
2. Lab: report elements of conscious experience: color, shape, or brightness
3. Doctrine of apperception
The process of organizing mental elements into a whole.
is a creative synthesis.
Impacted Gestalt psychology (the whole is different from the sum of its parts)

30. Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) ---The fate of Wundt’s psychology in Germany
: psychology: subspecialty in philosophy
2. Some against to separate psychology and philosophy
3. Lack of funds for a separate discipline
Government officials did not see the practical value in psychology and were hesitant to provide enough financial support

31. Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) ---The fate of Wundt’s psychology in Germany
4. Wundt’s psychology, focusing on organizing the elements of consciousness, was not appropriate for solving real-world problems.
5. Slow develop as a distinct science in Germany
: 4 psychologists
1925: 25 psychologists
14 of 23 universities: separate psychology department

32. Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) ---Criticisms of Wundtian psychology
1. Criticisms of method of introspection
Not objective
2. Focus on conscious experience and avoid soul

33. Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) ---Criticisms of Wundtian psychology
3. Not applicable to practical problems
4. Decline of Wundt’s system
his personal opinions regarding World War I Wundtian research and writing disappeared in English-speaking world.
Wundt’s lab was destroyed during WWII
overshadowed by Gestalt psychology (in Germany) and psychoanalysis (in Austria)

34. Other Developments in German Psychology
Others in England:
Charles Darwin: a theory of evolution
Francis Galton: a psychology of individual differences
Others in Germany
Hermann Ebbinghaus ( )
Franz Brentano ( )
Carl Stumpf ( )
Oswald Kulpe ( )

35. Others in German Psychology ---Hermann Ebbinghaus (1850-1909)
A. In general
1. Born in Germany in 1850
2. Impacted by Fechner, Elements of Psychophysics
3. using himself as the only subject
4. In 1880, taught at U. of Berlin; was not promoted there (lack of publication).
5. In , accepted a position at U. of Breslau. After 1905, moved to U. of Halle.
Hermann
Ebbinghaus

36. Others in German Psychology ---Hermann Ebbinghaus (1850-1909)
B. Research on learning
1. first to apply the experimental method to study higher mental processes (learning and memory)
(Wundt thought that higher mental processes is impossible to study experimentally)
2. Study learning was to examine association

37. Others in German Psychology ---Hermann Ebbinghaus (1850-1909)
B. Research on learning
3. Measuring memory: counting the number of trials and repetitions required to learn the material.
(Like Fechner, measuring sensations indirectly through by
measuring the stimulus intensity to produce a just noticeable difference in sensation)
4. Recall: through the frequency of associations
5. Provided quantification of learning, memory, recall, and forgetting

38. Others in German Psychology ---Hermann Ebbinghaus (1850-1909)
C. Research with nonsense syllables
1. Nonsense syllables
a. meaningless material is 9 times harder to learn than meaningful material
b. found longer material requires more repetitions

39. Others in German Psychology ---Hermann Ebbinghaus (1850-1909)
2. Most significant
a. influence of experimental conditions on human learning and memory.
b. quantitative analysis of the data
c. finding that time to learn is a function of the number of syllables

40. Others in German Psychology ---Hermann Ebbinghaus (1850-1909)
D. other contributions to psychology
, founded the Journal of Psychology and Physiology of the Sense Organs
2. Emphasized relationship between psychology and physiology
3. Developed a sentence-completion test

41. Others in German Psychology ---Hermann Ebbinghaus (1850-1909)
D. other contributions to psychology
4. In 1920, The Principles of Psychology;
In 1908, A Summery of Psychology.
5. Many of his conclusion about learning and memory remains valid now. He expanded the experimental psychology.
6. More influential than Wundt

42. Others in German Psychology ----Franz Brentano (1838-1917)
A. Career
Was prepared to be a priest
1864, received his degree
1866, taught philosophy at U of Wurzburg
1874, published Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint and moved to U. of Vienna
Franz Brentano

43. Others in German Psycholo ---Franz Brentano (1838-1917)
His students, Carl Stumpf, Sigmund Freud
Precursor of Gestalt and humanistic psychology
Shared Wundt’s goal: psychology as a science
1874: Psychology From an Empirical Standpoint
in direct opposition to Wundt’s view
was empirical, not experimental
method was observation, not experimentation
did not reject experimentation
data are from observation and individual experience

44. Others in German Psychology ---Franz Brentano (1838-1917)
B. Brentono: Act psychology
1. Rejected study of the content of conscious experience
2. subject matter: mental activity
3.experience as activity
Wundt: conscious experience
1. Accepted Study the content of conscious experience
2. Subject matter: Mental content
3. Experience as structure

45. Others in German Psychology ---Franz Brentano (1838-1917)
4. Requires new methods
a. acts are not accessible through introspection
b. study of mental acts requires empirical observation
5. Relied on systematic observation
6. Two methods: through memory and imagination

46. Others in German Psychology ----Carl Stumpf (1848-1936)
A. In general
1. Born in medical family
2. Interested in music
3. Studied with Brentano and interested in philosophy and science
, received his degree; 1894, taught at U. of Berlin
5. Wundt’s major rival
Carl Stumpf

47. Others in German Psychology ----Carl Stumpf (1848-1936)
B. Research
1. Perception of space
, 1890: Psychology of Tone
a. second only to Helmholtz in work on acoustics
b. pioneer in psychological study of music

48. Others in German Psychology ----Carl Stumpf (1848-1936)
C. Phenomenology
1. Argued primary data for psychology are phenomena
2. Phenomenology:
Knowledge based on unbiased description of immediate description of immediate experience at it occurs, not analyzed or reduced to elements.

49. Others in German Psychology ----Carl Stumpf (1848-1936)
3. Analysis of experience into elements makes that experience artificial and no longer nature
4. Bitter debate with Wundt re: introspection of tones
a. highly trained lab observers (Wundt)
b. expert musicians (Stumpf)

50. Others in German Psychology ----Carl Stumpf (1848-1936)
D. Other works
1. Founded Berlin Association for Child Psychology
2. Established center of music collection from the world
3. Published a theory of emotions, his idea relevant to contemporary cognitive theory of emotion

51. Others in German Psychology ---Oswald Kulpe (1862-1915)
A. In general
1. Student and colleague of Wundt
2. “Kind mother” “science as my bride”
: Outline of Psychology
a. Psychology is the science of the facts of experience
b. as dependent on the experiencing person
Oswald Kuiilpe

52. Others in German Psychology ---Oswald Kulpe (1862-1915)
B. Kulpe’s differences with Wundt
Kulpe
1. Thought processes should be studied experimentally
2. Developed systematic experimental introspection
a. involved performance of a complex task
b. subjects gave retrospective report of the cognitive processes experienced during the task
Wundt
1. Impossible to experimentally study about high mental process
2. Introspection

53. Others in German Psychology ---Oswald Kulpe (1862-1915)
B. Kulpe’s differences with Wundt
Kulpe
3. Subjective & qualitative
4. Detail
5. Describe the complex mental operations
Wundt
3. Objective & quantitative
4. Not detail
5. Reaction time or judgment of weights

54. Others in German Psychology ---Oswald Kulpe (1862-1915)
B. Kulpe’s differences with Wundt
Kulpe
6. Experimenter:
active role
Directly ask questions of the observers to facilitate the details of their reactions
Wundt
6. Experimenter:
Limited to presenting the stimulus material and recording results
Not intrude on the actual observations

55. Others in German Psychology ---Oswald Kulpe (1862-1915)
C. imageless thought
Kulpe
Thought can occur without any sensory or imaginal content
Wundt
All experience is composed of sensations and images