Wilhelm Wudnt Case
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The motivation to recognize human demeanor and psychological processes has fueled the development of psychology from philosophical inference to a true science. For centuries, the questions about the human mind remained in the realm of philosophy. Furthermore, there was the constant battle of the relationship between the mind and body. Many philosophers within this time often aim at determining whether the mind, in terms of mental processes, affect or can affect the body. From this conflict the school of dualism and monism came about. The school of thought of dualism was aroused by Plato and Aristotle but in the 17 century it was most expressed by Renee Descartes. He believed that the mind and body were separate entities and was the first to briefly explain the mind with consciousness and self-awareness separating it from the structure for the brain. He does however; believe that the mind and the body have interactions. On the other hand the monism is the position that the mind and body are not distinct kinds of entities. This opinion was first expressed by Western Philosophy by Parmenides in 5 B.C but was later advocated by Baruch Spinoza in the 17th Century.
While the above early philosophers counted, primarily on methods such as observation and judgment, modern psychologists employ scientific methodologies to study and draw conclusions about social thought and behaviour. Wilhelm Maximilian Wundt, born August 16th 1832, in the German State of Baden, contributed significantly to psychology as a science and thus, modern psychology. He allowed science to progress past the ideologies instituted by Aristotle, Descartes and other early philosophers. Wundt, instead, in accordance to Historian Thomas, “wedded physiology to philosophy and made the resulting offspring” (Boring 1929). Wilhelm Wundt was the founder of the first laboratory devoted to the scientific study of psychology at the University of Leipzig. He gave birth to experimental psychology as a discipline as well as his method of introspection. His scholarly input which covered the arenas of philosophy, ethics, logic, philological psychology and physiology was incredible. In his academic work, he wrote volumes of books but most importantly he wrote a text book the Principles of Physiological Psychology, the first text book written relating the field of psychology. He also published his own journal article Philosophical Studies which channeled the spread of the experimental psychology and influenced different school of thoughts such as Structuralism. These were the foremost outcomes of his determination to pursue the study of human behaviour in a systematic and scientific manner so that psychology as a unique science.
When analyzing Wundts contribution to psychology we must acknowledge his scholarly contribution to psychology. Wundt was a son of a Lutheran minister and grew up in an environment which was conducive to learning since there were many scholars as both his parents and other relatives comprised individuals such as historians, theologians, physicians and scientists. His formal education began at the University of Tubingen and was then transferred after one year, to the University of Heidelberg where he became a medical student. According to Herbgenhahn (2009), Wilhelm Wundt had placed first in the state medical examination. After graduating with his medical degree he returned to Heidelberg where he became the lab assistant to the famous physiologist Herman Ludwig Von Helmholtz. This is, with reference to Miller (1998) where he was influenced to develop psychology as a natural science breaking it away from philosophy and to write his first book Contributions to the Theory of Sensory Perception. This cemented his journey in proving psychology as a science as this book emphasized the need for the new field of experimental psychology. In 1874, he published the Principles of Physiological Psychology in which he set out to make psychology as a science. In this article he explained that mind as process instead of it being a mere location.
Acknowledgements must also be made to Wundts journal translated in English as the “Philosophical studies”. One might wonder why Wundt would name his journal philosophical studies instead of psychological studies since psychology was the science that what he was releasing. But Boring (1929) explains that around that time there was a journal entitled psychological studies but it was not based on the psychology that Wundt was highlighting. This journal was about psychic phenomenon, telekinesis, and precognition. In his autobiography he mentioned that this worked to his advantage since this philosophical journal was able to be turned into a psychological journal and people were able to learn about the science of psychology. This journal consists of a total of five volumes which covers the results of the experiments conducted in his lab, discussions methods and theories
It is known that Wilhelm Wundt is considered the father of experimental psychology and furthermore modern psychology .Moreover; his methods of naturalistic observation are one of the most used methodologies in modern psychology. Wundt launched psychology as a unique branch of science with its own questions and methods. According to Hevern, (2003), “Wundt set out purposively to establish a new science. As founder he took it as his right to redefine the first paradigm in Psychology, Structuralism.” Mead (1919) describes Wundts goals for psychology as “to discover the elements of thought and to discover the laws by which elements became more complex mental experiences, the properties of the whole. Wundt argued that conscious mental states could be scientifically studied using introspection. He reasoned that “we learn little about our minds from casual haphazard self-observation. It is essential that observations be made by trained observers under carefully specified conditions for the purpose of answering a well-defined question.” (Principles of Physiological Psychology, 1904) Introspection is closely connected to the philosophical notion of human self-reflection and was the method that fixated on the way humans reflect on subjective experience whether it is focused to uncovering or the occurrence of sensation. In psychology, the process of introspection depends on the resolute self-observation of an individuals mental state. Ebbinghaus (1885) also noted that introspection is sometimes referenced in a spiritual context as the examination of ones soul. Wundts use of introspection didnt last an extended period of time subsequently did not remain a fundamental tool of psychological experimentation past the early 1920s. But it must be noted that through his use of introspection, he was able to train psychology students to make observations that were based by personal interpretation