Part 1: Download a Specification AS & A Level Part 2: Making Notes Psychology Wilhelm Wundt ( ) Wundt was the first person to call himself a psychologist, believing that all aspects of nature, including the human mind, could be studies scientifically. In his laboratory in Germany he studies only those aspects of behaviour that could be strictly controlled under experimental conditions. His aim was to study the structure of the human mind, he wanted to break down behaviours like sensation and perception into their basic elements. His approach was called structuralism and the technique he used was called introspection. Wundt came to realise that not all processes could be studied in a strictly controlled manner e.g. learning, language and emotions – he called these Volkerpsychologie (cultural psychology). Introspection, from Latin, means looking into. Wundt believed that with sufficient training, mental processes such as memory and perception could be observed systematically as they occurred using introspection. For example, participants would be presented with carefully controlled stimuli (e.g. visual images or auditory tones). They would then be asked to reflect upon how they were perceiving it. This made it possible to compare different participants’ reports in response to the same stimuli, and so establish general theories about perception and other mental processes. Behaviourist believe that Wundt’s methods were unreliable as they relied on ‘non-observable’ responses. Although participants could report on their conscious experiences, the processes themselves (e.g. memory, perception) were considered to be unobservable constructions. Wundt’s approach ultimately failed because of the lack of reliability of his methods. Introspective ‘experimental ‘ results were not reliably reproducible by other researchers in other laboratories. In contrast, the early behaviourists such as Pavlov and Thorndike were already achieving reliably reproducible results and discovering explanatory principles that could be easily generalised to all human beings. Most psychologists tend to accept Nisbett and Wilson’s (1977) claim that we have very little knowledge of the causes of, and processes underlying, our behaviour and attitudes, a claim which would challenge the value of introspective reports. Nisbett and Wilson found, for example, that participants were remarkably unaware of factors that have been influential in their choice of a consumer item. Introspection has made a comeback in recent years Csikszentmihalyi and Hunter (2003) used introspective methods as a way of making a happiness a measurable phenomenon. In psychology there is a reliance on objective and systematic methods of observation, knowledge acquired using the scientific method is more than just the passive acceptance of facts. These scientific methods rely on a belief in determinism, they are able to establish the causes of behaviour through the use of methods that are both empirical and replicable. If scientific theories no longer fit the facts, they can be refined or abandoned, meaning that scientific knowledge is self-corrective. Because psychologists are always repeating each other’s experiments, it is hard for a theory that does not explain the facts to hang on for very long. By concentrating on objectivity and control in observations, scientific psychologists create contrived situations that tell us little about how people act in more natural environments. Much of the subject matter of psychology is unobservable, therefore it cannot be measured. Much of the subject matter of psychology is unobservable, therefore cannot be measured with any degree of accuracy. It is probably true to say that of all sciences, psychology is the most inferential, i.e. there is a far bigger

Read through the above passage, use one colour to highlight key points which describe Wundt’s theory (AO1). Use a second colour to highlight any strengths of his theory e.g. supporting evidence, and a third colour to highlight weaknesses e.g. evidence that goes against the theory (AO3). Part 3: Exam Style Questions resources There are two AS papers in A-level Psychology covering the topics; Social Influence, Memory and attachment (paper 1) and Approaches (including biopsychology), Psychopathology and Research Methods (paper 2). Each paper is testing three key skills AO1 (your ability to describe key terms, studies and theories), AO2 (your ability to apply information you have learned to specific situations and case studies) and AO3 (your ability to evaluate studies and theories by explaining their strengths and weaknesses) Questions can assess these skills individually, though questions that ask you to ‘outline and evaluate’ or to ‘discuss’ will be looking for AO1 and AO3.. Example questions; 1.Explain which type of conditioning is being investigated in this experiment? [2 marks] 2.Apart from using random allocation, suggest one way in which the psychologist might have improved this study by controlling for the effects of extraneous variables. Justify your answer. [2 marks] 3. Briefly outline and evaluate the authoritarian personality as an explanation of obedience to authority. [4 marks] 4. Outline and evaluate research into the effects of leading questions on the accuracy of eyewitness testimony. [8 marks] 5. Discuss Bowlby’s maternal deprivation theory. Refer to the experience of Joe as part of your discussion. [12 marks] With this in mind answer the following 12 mark question. Your essay should be around one side of A4 paper. ‘Discuss whether Psychology be regarded as a science?’ To answer this question you will have to use the information you have gathered from the passage on Wundt. You will also need to research the following terms so that you can include information on the criteria of science; Objective, replicable, scientific testing, falsifiable, theory creating and hypothesis rejecting, modifying or accepting. Psychology gap between the actual data obtained in research investigations and the theories put forward to explain this data. Not all psychologists share the view that all human behaviour can be explored by the use of scientific methods. If human behaviour is not subject to the laws and regularities implied by scientific methods, then predictions become impossible and these methods inappropriate.