Question

1. Explain why Wundt is considered the founder of psychology instead of Fechner or the other psychophysicists

Answer 1

Wundt’s contribution to Psychology which credited him as the father of modern psychology.

Today, psychology is defined as "the scientific study of behavior and mental processes. Psychology was a branch of philosophy until the 1870s, when it developed as an independent scientific discipline in Germany and the United States. Psychology borders on various other fields including physiology, neuroscience, artificial intelligence, sociology, anthropology, as well as philosophy and other components of the humanities. Psychology as a self-conscious field of experimental study began in 1879, when Wilhelm Wundt founded the first laboratory dedicated exclusively to psychological research in Leipzig, Germany. Wundt was also the first person to refer to himself as a psychologist.

Following are some of the Wundt’s contribution to Psychology which credited him as the father of modern psychology.

1. Psychology as a separate discipline and self conscious field of experimental study.

Wundt was important because he separated psychology from philosophy by analyzing the workings of the mind in a more structured way, with the emphasis being on objective measurement and control. Psychology was a branch of philosophy until the 1870s, when it developed as an independent scientific discipline in Germany and the United States. Psychology borders on various other fields including physiology, neuroscience, artificial intelligence, sociology, anthropology, as well as philosophy and other components of the humanities. Psychology as a self-conscious field of experimental study began in 1879, when Wilhelm Wundt founded the first laboratory dedicated exclusively to psychological research in Leipzig, Germany. Wundt was also the first person to refer to himself as a psychologist.

2.Set up first laboratory of experimental psychology (1875):- Wilhelm Wundt opened the Institute for Experimental Psychology at the University of Leipzig in Germany in 1879. This was the first laboratory dedicated to psychology, and its opening is usually thought of as the beginning of modern psychology. Wundt is bestowed this distinction because of his formation of the world's first experimental psychology lab, which is usually noted as the official start of psychology as a separate and distinct science. By establishing a lab that utilized scientific methods to study the human mind and behavior, Wundt took psychology from a mixture of philosophy and biology and made it a unique field of study.

3.Used the scientific method to study the structure of sensation and perception:- Wundt viewed psychology as a scientific study of conscious experience, and he believed that the goal of psychology was to identify components of consciousness and how those components combined to result in our conscious experience. Psychology began as an experimental science with the founding of Wilhelm Wundt’s lab in 1879. He is often identified as “the world’s first true psychologist” and the “founder of Psychology.” Many of Wundt's experiments, especially his earlier ones, built on Weber's work by concentrating on sensation and perception.

4.Showed that introspection could be used to study mental states in replicable laboratory experiments:- Wundt used introspection (he called it “internal perception”), a process by which someone examines their own conscious experience as objectively as possible, making the human mind like any other aspect of nature that a scientist observed. Wundt’s version of introspection used only very specific experimental conditions in which an external stimulus was designed to produce a scientifically observable (repeatable) experience of the mind .The first stringent requirement was the use of “trained” or practiced observers, who could immediately observe and report a reaction. The second requirement was the use of repeatable stimuli that always produced the same experience in the subject and allowed the subject to expect and thus be fully attentive to the inner reaction.

4.Wrote first textbook of psychology (Principles of Physiological Psychology, 1873-4):- Wundt applied himself to writing a work that came to be one of the most important in the history of psychology, Principles of physiological Psychology, in 1874. This was the first textbook that was written pertaining to the field of experimental psychology.

Soon after the development of experimental psychology, various kinds of applied psychology appeared. G. Stanley Hall brought scientific pedagogy to the United States from Germany in the early 1880s. John Dewey's educational theory of the 1890s was another example. Also in the 1890s, Hugo Münsterberg began writing about the application of psychology to industry, law, and other fields. Lightner Witmer established the first psychological clinic in the 1890s. James McKeen Cattell adapted Francis Galton's anthropometric methods to generate the first program of mental testing in the 1890s. In Vienna, meanwhile, Sigmund Freud developed an independent approach to the study of the mind called psychoanalysis, which has been widely influential.

Following are some of the points which highlight that why Wundt is considered the founder of psychology instead of Fechner or the other psychophysicists.

Wundt was the founder of psychology as a formal academic discipline. He established the first laboratory, edited the first journal, and began experimental psychology as a science. The areas he investigated—sensation and perception, attention, feeling, reaction, and association—became basic chapters in textbooks yet to be written.

Why have the honors for founding the new psychology fallen to Wundt and not Fechner and other psychologist .Fechner’s Elements of Psychophysics was published in 1860, approximately 15 years before Wundt began psychology, Wundt himself wrote that Fechner’s work represented the “first conquest” in experimental psychology (Wundt, 1888, p. 471). When Fechner died, his papers were left to Wundt, who offered a eulogy at Fechner’s funeral. Founders and originators are both essential to the formation of a science, as indispensable as the architect and the builder in the construction of a house. With this distinction in mind, we can understand why Fechner is not identified as the founder of psychology. Stated simply, he was not trying to found a new science. His goal was to understand the relationship between the mental and material worlds. He sought to describe a unified conception of mind and body that had a scientific basis.

Wundt, however, set out deliberately to found a new science. In the preface to the first edition of his Principles of Physiological Psychology (1873–1874), he wrote, “The work I here present to the public is an attempt to mark out a new domain of science.” Wundt’s goal was to promote psychology as an independent science. Soon after the development of experimental psychology, various kinds of applied psychology appeared. G. Stanley Hall brought scientific pedagogy to the United States from Germany in the early 1880s. John Dewey's educational theory of the 1890s was another example. Also in the 1890s, Hugo Münsterberg began writing about the application of psychology to industry, law, and other fields. Lightner Witmer established the first psychological clinic in the 1890s. James McKeen Cattell adapted Francis Galton's anthropometric methods to generate the first program of mental testing in the 1890s. In Vienna, meanwhile, Sigmund Freud developed an independent approach to the study of the mind called psychoanalysis, which has been widely influential. Nevertheless, it bears repeating that although Wundt is considered to have founded psychology, he did not originate it. We have seen that psychology emerged from a long line of creative efforts. During the last half of the nineteenth century, the Zeitgeist was ready for the application of experimental methodology to problems of the mind. Wundt was a vigorous agent of what was already developing, a gifted promoter of the inevitable. His emphasis on experimental methods did pave the way for the future of experimental psychology.

These all above things discussed that nobody can separate the name of the Wundt from the label of being as the father of modern psychology.