Aproaches

Approaches in Psychology

Origins of Psychology
Wundt and introspection: Wilhelm Wundt opened the world’s first psychology laboratory in 1879. He and his assistants used ‘introspection’ to try to investigate the nature of awareness and consciousness. This involved recording conscious thoughts by noting them down, then attempting to break these thoughts down into structures. Although quite basis by modern psychological standards, Wundt did us the scientific methods in his work- he gave participants the same procedure, same instructions, and tried to minimise the impact of extraneous variables. This helped move psychology away from philosophy (for example the works of Descartes and Locke) and towards the scientific method.

Emergence of psychology as a science: Early behaviourists such as John B. Watson began to criticise the method of introspection for being subjective, and varying too much from person to person. He suggested that it was impossible to test people’s inward, private thoughts, and that psychology should focus on studying observable behaviour. Other behaviourists such as Skinner therefore used scientific, highly controlled techniques such as lab experiments, which was the dominant paradigm (accepted way of thinking) in psychology of much of the middle of the 20th century. Psychologists today still use aspect of the scientific method, and will use lab experiments for studying some aspects of behaviour. The cognitive approach became popular in the 1960s, and emphasised the legitimacy of attempting to uncover though processes, which can be indirectly tested in experiments. The biological approach emerged in the 1980s, which can be studied through methods such as brain-scanning techniques and looking at the effect of drugs on behaviour. Some key dates in the development of psychology as a science are:

17th-19th centuries: psychology is seen as part of philosophy
1879: Wundt opens the first lab dedicated to psychological enquiry
Early 1900s: Sigmund Freud proposes psychodynamic/psychoanalytic theory, emphasising the role of the unconscious mind
Early 1900s: Watson and Skinner establish the behaviourist approach, emphasising the role of learning
1950s: Rogers and Maslow devise the humanistic approach, emphasising the ‘whole person; and their subjective experience, including the role of free will
1960s: the cognitive approach emerges, emphasising the role of thought processes
1960s: Bandura proposes social learning theory, emphasising the role of observation and imitation
1980s: the biological approach becomes popular, emphasising the role of the brain and physical processes
End of the 20th century: cognitive neuroscience emerges, combining elements of the cognitive and biological approaches, emphasising the role of biological structures in determining thought processes
Approaches in Psychology, figure 1

Behaviourism
The assumption of…