Kurt Wundt 's Theory Of Psychology

The following paper consists of an explanation, of what the history of psychology taught us

Here he established Psychology as a discipline. The first U.S. psychology lab didn’t come until 1883, when G. Stanley Hall opened a lab at John Hopkins University. In addition to this, in 1892 he develops the American Psychological Association (APA) and later founds the American Journal of Psychology (1887) and Journal of Applied Psychology (1917). William James develops the theory of Functionalism in the 19th century which focuses on acts and functions of the mind (consciousness). Sigmund Freud introduces Psychoanalysis in 1896. He concludes that powerful unconscious drives and conflicts motivate people. People are motivated by powerful, unconscious drives and conflicts. Also in 1896, Structuralism (focused on the contents of the mind) develops and is introduced to the U.S. in a 1901 publication by Edward Titchener, Manual of Experimental Psychology. In the year 1900, Sigmund Freud’s theory “The Interpretation of Dreams” is published. Mary Calkins is the first elected woman president of the APA in 1904. She was however, denied her Ph.D. after studying at Harvard University due to her gender. Clifford Beers details his personal experiences as a patient in a mental asylum during the 19th century in his publication A Mind That Found Itself. Through this publication he called for humane treatment and better education about mental illness. In 1913, the theory of Behaviorism develops which focuses on observable and measurable behavior. Psychiatrist, Hans Berger invents the electroencephalogram in 1929 and tests it on his son. Kurt Koffka develops Principles of Gestalt Psychology in 1935. B.F. Skinner introduces his theory of Operant Conditioning in 1938. The Psychoanalytic Treatment of Children (1945) by Anna Freud introduces concepts in the theory and practice of psychoanalysis of children. The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) established in 1949. The

In this essay I am looking at where Psychology as a discipline has come from and what affects these early ideas have had on psychology today, Psychology as a whole has stemmed from a number of different areas of study from Physics to Biology,

This man who used a method of introspection to scientifically identify basic mental elements of the mind such as touch, smell and etc. Humans can use these contexts to associate which the elements that give the feelings. He also was a British psychologist who studied under and had the chance to work with Wilhelm Wundt the father of structuralism the founder of the experimental psychology in the United States and established the very first psychology laboratory in 1879 for many many years who was born January 11, 1867 and died August 3, 1927 would have to be Edward Titchener. Edward Titchener is best known for creating his own version of psychology that described the structure of the mind which was structuralism and believed that all science

At the end of the nineteenth century, Titchener brought Wundt’s basic ideas of psychology to America. He was responsible for translating many of Wundt’s works into English as they were all in German. Many did not now that Titchener only translated what he agreed with and choose not to translate anything he disagreed with. Titchener called Wundt's ideas structuralism, and tried to study the structure of mental life or consciousness. His structural psychology had three aims:

Firstly, Wundt was the founder of psychology because he wanted to develop it as a new science, whereas Fechner had no intention of doing so. Wundt published articles, founded the first laboratory and began experimental psychology as a science. Secondly, He conducted experiments and produced 54,000 pages of output between the years of 1853 and 1920. Despite the fact that Fechner was the first to introduce the relationship between mind and body (which aided in the development of experimental psychology), he wanted to understand the concept for himself with no intention of making it public. Lastly, founding an entire science requires the integration of prior and current knowledge on the field. Wundt used Fechner’s findings and integrated newly developed material in psychology. Fechner came up with his concepts based on his personal findings.

Although a skeptical and critical thinker, Wundt is overly boastful of his achievement in establishing the first formal laboratory for research in psychology at the University of Leipzig. As the father of psychology, Wundt established that the primary focus of psychology was consciousness, or the scientific study of conscious experience (ie. mind and mental processes).

3. What do you expect will be your most lasting contribution to the field of psychology?

Wundt did a major turning point for psychology in 1874 when he saw a connection between psychology and physiology. Wundt also wrote his text “Principles of Physiological Psychology”. Many students also followed Wundt as he gave lecture classes and stayed to study and earn their doctorates degree. Wilhelm Wundt work helped spark the interest of William James. William James taught physiology and anatomy classes at Harvard University, but ended focusing only on psychology.

As far back as the time when man first discovered ways to communicate with one another he has attempted to understand and explain the course of historical events. In considering the historical development of scientific psychology two main views of the historical progress the field of science have emerged: personalistic theory and naturalistic theory.

In the nineteenth century Wilhelm Maximillian Wundt was the founder of the newest science of the time, which was psychology, he wanted to separate psychology from philosophy. Wundt did a lot of contributions in making psychology to become a real science; another thing that made psychology become a new science is the extensive propaganda for Experimental Psychology (Benjamin, 2014, p.66). He established the first laboratory of experimental research in psychology laboratory in Berlin at the University of Leipzig. He had a journal called Philosophical Studies and he wrote the first book in the field of psychology Principles of Physiological Psychology where he talked about the new science of psychology

Edward Titchener and Hugo Münsterberg were both Wilhelm Wundt's students. They both shared similarities such as how they both moved from foreign countries to the USA in 1892 and never became American citizens. They held a position as directors of major research labs like Cornell and Harvard. Both men also shared major differences that have impacted the world of Psychology.

Psychology evolved in the 1800’s from philosophy and physiology because Wilhem Wundt argued for it to be in its own discipline. He established the first psychology lab in America and after that schools sprang up all around the country. As more schools were established new ways of thinking were introduced to psychology. The first two introduced were functionalism and structuralism. These two focused on consciousness in different way, they somewhat battled for attention. After these ideas died out, behaviorism and psychoanalytic ideas became the new ways of thinking. They were influential to the field, but faced opposition from other psychologists. They claimed they were dehumanizing and believed that they should focus more on the uniqueness of human qualities, this idea lead to the new way of thinking called behaviorism. For some time majority of the attention was focused on the behavior instead of the mind. This is why around the 1950’s psychologists began to work to put the psyche back into psychology introducing the cognitive psychology. From the 1980’s on these are the perspectives that were introduced and people are still working towards today; evolutionary psychology, egocentrism, and cultural diversity in psychology. Today the field is expanding as we find more information about the mind in research. More people are joining the American Psychological Association as the field expands.

Long time ago psychology was based on theory formulated hypotheses, which nobody was able to test. Wilhelm Wundt realised that the science of psychology is based on experience. Driven by this thought he established the first psychological laboratory in 1879 at Leipzig Univerity. With this, allowing psychological theory formulated hypotheses and questions may be examined in a controlled enviroment. With this Wundt laid the foundations of modern scientific psychology.

His contribution has seen him labelled by some as the founder of modern psychology (Prado, 2009).