Whilem wundt psychologists

1. MODERN PSYCHOLOGY
SAMREEN ARSHAD

2. WILHELM WUNDT : EARLY LIFE
 Wilhelm Wundt spent his early years in small towns near Mannheim, Germany.
 His childhood was lonely, and he had a strong desire to become a famous writer.
 Wundt's academic performance in school was poor, and he struggled with his studies.
 He developed a strong emotional attachment to his father's assistant, with whom he lived until the age
of 13.
 Despite a family tradition of intellectual excellence, Wundt initially showed little promise academically.
 He decided to pursue medicine but later changed his major to physiology after realizing that medicine
wasn't his passion.
 Wundt studied under the renowned physiologist Johannes Müller at the University of Berlin.

3. WUNDT: PSYCHOLOGY BEGINNING
 He began to conceive psychology as an independent experimental science while engrossed in his
research in physiology.
 Wundt published the book "Contributions to the Theory of Sensory Perception," which outlined his
original experiments and introduced the term "experimental psychology."
 In 1867, Wundt taught the first formal course on physiological psychology at the University of
Heidelberg.
 He published his influential book "Principles of Physiological Psychology" in 1873 and revised it several
times over the years.
 Wundt became a professor of philosophy at the University of Leipzig in 1875 and established a
laboratory there.
 He founded the journal "Philosophical Studies," later renamed "Psychological Studies," which became
the official publication of his laboratory.
 Wundt's Leipzig laboratory attracted numerous students who later became pioneers in psychology.
 His influence extended globally, with laboratories established by his students in the United States, Italy,
Russia, and Japan.

4. CULTURAL PSYCHOLOGY
 Wundt's book, "Cultural Psychology" (often inaccurately translated as "Folk Psychology"), published
between 1900 and 1920, focused on the stages of human mental development as manifested in
language, art, myths, social customs, law, and morals.
 Wundt believed that while simpler mental functions could be studied through laboratory methods,
higher mental processes such as learning and memory were influenced by language and culture and
required non-experimental means of investigation.
 Wundt's cultural psychology had little impact on American psychology during its time of publication
(1900-1920) due to the flourishing of a different approach in the United States and a reduced interest in
foreign influences.
 Wundt's productivity was remarkable, having written 54,000 pages between 1853 and 1920, with an
output of 2.2 pages per day.
 Wundt's psychology focused on the study of consciousness, which he viewed as an active process of
organizing its own content rather than a static combination of passive

5. VOLUNTARISM
 Wundt's system was labeled voluntarism, emphasizing the power of the will to
organize the mind's contents into higher-level thought processes.
 Wundt aimed to analyze the mind into its component parts, similar to how
natural scientists were breaking down their subject matter, and he sought to
develop a "periodic table" of mental elements analogous to Mendeleev's
periodic table of chemical elements.

6. INTROSPECTION
 Wundt described his psychology as the science of conscious
experience, and he believed that the method of scientific psychology
should involve observations of conscious experience.
 Wundt introduced introspection, or internal perception, as the
method of observation in psychology. Introspection involves
examining and reporting on one's own mental state.
 Wundt emphasized precise experimental control over the conditions
of introspection.
 Introspection had been used in other fields like physics and
physiology to study light, sound, and sense organs.
 Wundt's introspection involved observers who were trained to
perform internal perceptions properly and provide accurate and
replicable observations.
 Wundt's introspective observations were primarily focused on
conscious judgments about the size, intensity, and duration of
physical stimuli.
 Wundt recognized two elementary forms of experience: sensations
and feelings.

7. TRIDIMENSIONAL THEORY
 Wundt recognized two elementary forms of experience: sensations and feelings. Sensations are aroused
by the stimulation of sense organs, while feelings are subjective complements of sensations.
 Wundt proposed a tridimensional theory of feelings, consisting of pleasure/displeasure,
tension/relaxation, and excitement/depression dimensions.
 Wundt believed that emotions could be understood by reducing them to elementary feelings within the
tridimensional space.
 Wundt acknowledged that conscious experience has a unity or wholeness, and he explained this through
the process of apperception, which involves organizing mental elements into a creative synthesis or
whole.
 Apperception is an active process where the mind acts on elemental sensations and feelings to create a
unified conscious experience.

9. CRITICISM
 Wundt's psychology and his method of introspection faced criticisms.
 One major criticism was the lack of agreement among different observers' introspective observations.
 As introspection is a private and subjective experience
 Wundt acknowledged this fault and believed that improved training and experience for observers could
enhance the method.
 Additionally, Wundt's personal opinions on political matters, particularly his controversial remarks during
World War I, turned many American psychologists against him and his psychology.

10. HERMAN EBBINGHAUS
 Early Life and Academic Background: Ebbinghaus was born in 1850 in Germany and pursued studies
in history, literature, and philosophy. He received his degree in philosophy in 1873.
 Influence of Fechner: Ebbinghaus encountered Fechner's work on psychophysics three years before
Wilhelm Wundt established his laboratory. Fechner's mathematical approach to psychological
phenomena inspired Ebbinghaus to apply experimental methods to higher mental processes.
 Focus on Learning: Ebbinghaus shifted the focus of learning research from studying established
associations to studying the initial formation of associations. He aimed to make the study of learning
more objective by controlling the conditions under which chains of ideas were formed.

11. LEARNING AND FORGETTING RESEARCH
 Revolutionary Research: Ebbinghaus conducted groundbreaking research on learning and forgetting,
expanding the scope of experimental psychology beyond physiology. Despite lacking academic
appointments, a laboratory, or students, he carried out extensive studies over five years using himself as
the sole subject.
 Nonsense Syllables: Ebbinghaus introduced nonsense syllables as stimulus materials for studying
memory processes. These syllables, devoid of pre-existing associations, allowed for controlled
experiments. He meticulously designed studies to investigate various factors influencing learning and
memory, including the effects of material length, overlearning, associations, reviewing, and time passed.
 Ebbinghaus's Forgetting Curve: Through his research on the effect of time on memory, Ebbinghaus
discovered the famous forgetting curve. It demonstrated that forgetting occurs rapidly in the initial
hours after learning and then more gradually over time.

14. PUBLICATIONS
 Publication and Impact: Ebbinghaus published his research in the book "On Memory: A Contribution to
Experimental Psychology" in 1885. His work is considered one of the most significant investigations in
the history of experimental psychology. Ebbinghaus's meticulous approach, quantitative analysis, and
lasting contributions continue to be cited in psychology textbooks.
 Founding the Journal of Psychology and Physiology of the Sense Organs: In 1890, Ebbinghaus, along
with Arthur König, founded a journal to accommodate the growing field of psychology. This highlights
the rapid expansion and diversity of psychology as a discipline.
 Textbook and Wider Influence: Ebbinghaus authored successful textbooks, including "The Principles of
Psychology" and "A Summary of Psychology." Despite not developing a formal theoretical system or
founding a school of thought, his work laid the foundation for the scientific investigation of learning and
memory. Ebbinghaus's contributions to experimental psychology remain influential, and many of his
conclusions about learning

15. FRANZ BRENTANO (1838–1917)
He worked on the
 Act psychology: Brentano’s system of psychology, which focused on mental activities (e.g., seeing) rather
than on mental contents (e.g., that which is seen).

16. CARL STUMPF (1848–1936)
 He worked on
 Phenomenology: Stumpf’s introspective method that examined experience as it occurred and did not
try to reduce experience to elementary components. Also, an approach to knowledge based on an
unbiased description of immediate experience as it occurs, not analyzed or reduced to elements.

17. OSWALD KÜLPE (1862–1915
 He worked on
 Systematic experimental introspection: Külpe’s introspective method that used retrospective reports of subjects’
cognitive processes after they had completed an experimental task
 Imageless thought: Külpe’s idea that meaning in thought can occur without any sensory or imaginal components