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  • Wundt and the emergence of psychology as a science
    • Psychology definition: the scientific study of the human mind, its functions and behaviour
    • Early influences include Rene Descartes and his concept of Cartesian dualism, which simply means that the mind and body are separate entities, the brain is not the same as the mind
      • The work of John Locke and his concept of empiricism, the belief that all knowledge is derived from sensory experience and can be studied using the scientific method
        • The evolutionary theories of Charles Darwin set the stage for the emergence of psychology as we know it today
    • In 1875 Wilhelm Wundt established the first psychology lab and is regarded as the founding father of psychology. He sought to establish psychology as a discipline in its own right
    • Wundt used introspection in his work. The examination of one's own thought processes. Wundt's researchers were trained to examine their thoughts for feelings, emotions and sensations when presented with novel stimuli. This was carried out in a controlled lab environment
    • Evaluation
      • Wundt claimed that trained introspectionists would produce reliable results which could be replicated by other introspectors. It soon became apparent that reporting on inner experiences in this way was too subjective
      • Wundt's experiments were usually on an individual and then maybe he would test another to compare. This made it difficult to generalise beyond those studied- population validity

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