Psychology as a Science + Introspection

What factors make something as science?

Controlled lab conditions to test hypotheses

High standardisation - reliability

Identifiable IV and DV

Objective/scientific method

Constantly falsifying or developing theories

How can it be argued that psychology is objective?

Using systematic methods so it more than just passive acceptance of facts.

How can it be argued that psychology uses scientific methods?

Use methods that are replicable and obtain empirical data.

How can it be argued that psychology uses scientific cycles?

Theories can be refined or abandoned other work finds different results.

Theories quickly become redundant when psychologists replicate each others work.

How can it be argued that psychology being objective means it isn’t a science?

Concentrates too much on objectivity that it doesn’t show how people act in natural environments.

How can it be argued that psychology doesn’t use scientific methods?

Much of psychology cannot be observed so is difficult to accurately measure.

What did Allport (1947) do?

He combined the scientific methods of behaviourism with Freudian concepts of unconscious motivation to study psychology.

Who is Wilhem Wundt?

The first psychologist who said psychology was the scientific study of conscious experience.

What is Wundt’s method of analysing conscious experience?

Introspection

What are Wundt’s goals of psychology?

To identify components of consciousness

To identify how these components combine to result in our conscious experience

What is the method of introspection?

A process by which someone examines their own conscious experience as objectively as possible.

What was the first requirement of Wundt’s introspection technique?

The use of trained observers who could immediately observe and report a reaction.

What was the second requirement of Wundt’s introspection?

The use of a repeatable stimuli that always produced the same experience in the subject - allowing the subject to expect the inner reaction and be fully attentive to it.

What was the aim of Wundt’s experimental requirements?

To eliminate interpretation in the reporting of internal experiences - to make sure it is completely objective.

Also shows how there is a completely objective way of observing consciousness accurately since it cannot be observed externally.

What is structuralism?

The attempt to understand the structure of the mind - which is what Wundt did.

How did Wundt train his students to be observers?

He tested their reaction times to a stimulus e.g. a sound and see how quickly they would press a button when they heard it.

What are problems with Wundt’s introspection technique?

Not reliable - cannot objectively measure a person’s response.

Conscious experiences are unobservable constructs.

Not valid - most psychologist agree we cannot understand the underlying causes of processses such as behaviour and attitude.

What did Nisbett and Wilson (1977) find?

That participants were remarkably unaware of factors that had influenced their choice of a consumer item.

They said that implicit/unconscious attitudes e.g. how we react to different ethnic groups exist outside conscious awareness so introspection would not uncover them.

What is reductionism?

Reducing a complex phenomenon e.g. human behaviour to the simplest explanation - usually on a biological basis.

What is a strength of reductionism?

It can give a greater understanding of something but revealing evidence for a cause of behaviour.

What is a limitation of reductionism?

Humans and their environments are so complex that the reductionist explanation fails to give a whole explanation of the behaviour.