A-Level Psychology Wundt’s research methods and limitations. Watch

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WL18

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Hi all,

I have been given an article to look over about Wundt on my first lesson of Psychology.

It says that Wundt didn’t focus on “introspective accounts of inner processes which meant that his experiments were limited to the study of ‘lower’ psychological processes”

Could anyone explain what this means to me please?

Also, it says that Wundt had a structuralist and reductionist approach.

If anyone could also explain this to me I would really appreciate this. I can understand the basics but it seems from what I have read that these two approaches are somewhat contradictory as one is breaking things down whilst the other is studying a relationship to an overall system?

Finally, was anyone else overwhelmed by all the terms (such as “reductionism” and “‘lower’ psychological processes) when they started A-Level Psychology? Does it get any easier and do you have any advice for this?

Thanks a lot!

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random_matt

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What don't you understand?

WL18

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(Original post by random_matt)
What don't you understand?

I don’t get what it means by “lower” Psychological processes, what it means by introspective accounts of INNER processes (I understand what introspection is) and what structuralism and reductionism is.

Thanks.

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random_matt

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Wundts idea merely suggested that lower psychological processes primarily consisted of sensation and perception, whereas higher psychological processes depended on memory and thoughts.

WL18

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(Original post by random_matt)
Wundts idea merely suggested that lower psychological processes primarily consisted of sensation and perception, whereas higher psychological processes depended on memory and thoughts.

Thanks! Just to clarify - so Wundt’s experiments only focussed upon sensation and perception which is why he was limited to experimenting with the “lower region of psychology?

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random_matt

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(Original post by WL18)
Thanks! Just to clarify - so Wundt’s experiments only focussed upon sensation and perception which is why he was limited to experimenting with the “lower region of psychology?

Erm, no. He was the founder of experimental psychology, he was investigating elements of consciousness.

Findlay6

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Introspection is simply recalling your thoughts, feelings, sensation and emotions. Participants had to focus on a metronome as their stimulus to help them.

Structuralism is just a larger umbrella term for an approach which breaks things down into smaller elements.

Reductionism explains human behaviour by breaking down into small pieces. This can be effective when we're trying to view Psychology as a science but it's not realistic as humans are pretty complex, ideally, we want to study behaviour holistically.

cbains02

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Check if im correct cause i am also a few lessons in Psychology only. Wundt focused on the cognitive side which is focusing on internal mental processes like perception and memory to see how it contributes to their behaviour. Introspection is revealing your thoughts images and feelings and he was a reductionist so he thought that the most complex things can be broken up into its simplest parts and components to figure it out

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WL18

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(Original post by Findlay6)
Introspection is simply recalling your thoughts, feelings, sensation and emotions. Participants had to focus on a metronome as their stimulus to help them.

Structuralism is just a larger umbrella term for an approach which breaks things down into smaller elements.

Reductionism explains human behaviour by breaking down into small pieces. This can be effective when we're trying to view Psychology as a science but it's not realistic as humans are pretty complex, ideally, we want to study behaviour holistically.

That’s really useful. Thanks!

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WL18

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(Original post by cbains02)
Check if im correct cause i am also a few lessons in Psychology only. Wundt focused on the cognitive side which is focusing on internal mental processes like perception and memory to see how it contributes to their behaviour. Introspection is revealing your thoughts images and feelings and he was a reductionist so he thought that the most complex things can be broken up into its simplest parts and components to figure it out

Thank you! My teacher kind of went into the different aspects in a bit more detail the next lesson but that really clears things up so thanks.

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