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Detail of Biography - Wilhelm Wundt
Name :
Wilhelm Wundt
Date :
Views :
894
Category :
Birth Date :
16/08/1832
Birth Place :
Nekarau, near Mannheim, Beden.
Death Date :
AUGUST 31, 1920
Biography - Wilhelm Wundt
[b]WORLD'S FIRST PSYCHOLOGY LABORATORY[/b][br /]
[br /]

He was invited to join the University of Leipzig. He worked there till 1917. That was the most productive phase of his career. As a result of his endless efforts; the first psychological laboratory of the world was founded at Leipzig. He concentrated almost exclusively on psychological research.[br /]
[br /]

His research was based on the study of human sensory experience. He conducted a series of experiments to determine the dimensions of feeling and perception.
He was opposed to the application of psychology, and stressed the methodology that had dominated the scientific movements of the seventeenth century.[br /]
[br /]


His laboratory became a focus for those with a serious interest in psychology. It became very useful first for German philosophers and psychology students, then for American and British students as well. All subsequent psychological laboratories were closely modeled on the Wundt Model.[br /]
[br /]

[b]APPERCEPTION - THE BASIC MENTAL ACTIVITY[/b][br /]
[br /]

He pioneered the concept of stating mental events in relation to objectively knowable and measurable stimuli and reactions. According to him, the essence of all total adjustments of the organism was a psychophysical process.[br /]
[br /]

It was an organic response mediated by both the physiological and psychological. He designated psychology as part of an elaborate philosophy where mind is seen as an activity, not a substance.[br /]
[br /]

[b]HIS MAJOR PUBLICATIONS[/b][br /]
[br /]

In 1880s, he published books on logic, ethics, and general philosophy. At Leipzig, he concentrated almost exclusively on psychological research. He pursued his work on the study of human sensory experience. His use of a systematic methodological approach in tackling psychological problems was a landmark in establishing psychology as a science.[br /]
[br /]

On the base of his research work, he wrote around 491 books. The major publications include:[br /]
[b]'Principle of Physiological Psychology'[/b] [1873-1874],[br /]

[b]'Philosophical Studies'[/b] [1881],[br /]

[b]'Outline of Psychology'[/b] [1896],[br /]

[b]'An Introduction to Psychology'[/b] [1911],[br /]

[b]'Cultural Psychology'[/b] [1900][br /]

[b]'Ethnic Psychology'[/b] [1900 - 1920].[br /]

The last was published in 10 volumes.[br /]
[br /]

He pursued his work with boundless energy and enthusiasm until his death. He died after two weeks of his 88th birthday, on August 31, 1920 near Leipzig, Germany.[br /]
[br /]

[b]CHILDHOOD[/b][br /]
[br /]

Wilhelm Wundt was born on August 16, 1832 in a small village, Nekarau, near Mannheim, Beden, Germany. He was the son of a Lutheran Clergyman. He was a solitary child. He shunned the games of children in favor of books and study. At the age of thirteen he joined Bruchsal Gymnasium High School. He received his early education at the hands of a private tutor.[br /]
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[b]CAREER[/b][br /]
[br /]

At the age of nineteen, he decided to study medicine, most likely as a means of entering a scientific career. But later on, he turned to physiology.[br /]
[br /]

He joined Tubingen University. Here, his uncle Friedrich Arnold, held the chair in Anatomy and Physiology.[br /]
[br /]

During his first summer semester, he worked intensively on the study of cerebral anatomy under his uncle's guidance. By the end of summer, he decided to make physiology as a career.[br /]
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After one year he went to Heidelberg University for further studies. Wundt earned a medical degree in 1855. After studying briefly with Johnnes Muller, he was appointed as a lecturer in physiology at the university of Heidelberg. At the time of appointment, he was only 25 years old. [br /]
[br /]

During his early years at Heidelberg, he established his own private psychological laboratory. Here, he married Sophie.[br /]
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His first experiment, with his wife serving as subject, was designed to test whether it was possible to attend simultaneously to two different events.[br /]
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[b]A NEW CONCEPT - PHYSIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY[/b][br /]
[br /]

Though he became a doctor with M.D. from the University of Heidelberg, but interested in anatomy, Physiology, Physics, Chemistry and clinical medicine and later turned to psychology.
Psychology was just beginning to emerge as a distinct science. Wundt started working on psychological problems of the society. His work was based on physiological methodology.[br /]
[br /]


During the years following his graduation, he lectured widely and published a number of articles on physiological psychology.
His Lectures on psychology were published as "Lectures on the mind of Humans and Animals''.[br /]
[br /]


Bypassed in 1871, for the appointment to succeed Helmholtz Wundt then applied himself to writing a work that became the most important in the history of psychology.[br /]
[br /]

His book "Principles of Physiological Psychology" contains the concept of apperception, consciousness, sensations, feelings, volition and ideas. The methodology prescribed was introspection. In other words, conscious examination of conscious experience.[br /]
[br /]

He went to the University of Zurich. There, he worked for a one year.[br /]
[br /]

[b]WORLD'S FIRST PSYCHOLOGY LABORATORY[/b][br /]
[br /]

He was invited to join the University of Leipzig. He worked there till 1917. That was the most productive phase of his career. As a result of his endless efforts; the first psychological laboratory of the world was founded at Leipzig. He concentrated almost exclusively on psychological research.
His research was based on the study of human sensory experience. He conducted a series of experiments to determine the dimensions of feeling and perception. [br /]
[br /]

He was opposed to the application of psychology, and stressed the methodology that had dominated the scientific movements of the seventeenth century.[br /]
[br /]


His laboratory became a focus for those with a serious interest in psychology. It became very useful first for German philosophers and psychology students, then for American and British students as well. All subsequent psychological laboratories were closely modeled on the Wundt Model.[br /]
[br /]

[b]APPERCEPTION - THE BASIC MENTAL ACTIVITY[/b][br /]
[br /]

He pioneered the concept of stating mental events in relation to objectively knowable and measurable stimuli and reactions. According to him, the essence of all total adjustments of the organism was a psychophysical process.[br /]
[br /]

It was an organic response mediated by both the physiological and psychological. He designated psychology as part of an elaborate philosophy where mind is seen as an activity, not a substance.[br /]
[br /]

[b]HIS MAJOR PUBLICATIONS[/b][br /]
[br /]

In 1880s, he published books on logic, ethics, and general philosophy. At Leipzig, he concentrated almost exclusively on psychological research. He pursued his work on the study of human sensory experience. His use of a systematic methodological approach in tackling psychological problems was a landmark in establishing psychology as a science.[br /]
[br /]

On the base of his research work, he wrote around 491 books. The major publications include:[br /]
[b]'Principle of Physiological Psychology'[/b] [1873-1874],[br /]

[b]'Philosophical Studies'[/b] [1881],[br /]

[b]'Outline of Psychology'[/b] [1896],[br /]

[b]'An Introduction to Psychology'[/b] [1911],[br /]

[b]'Cultural Psychology'[/b] [1900][br /]

[b]'Ethnic Psychology'[/b] [1900 - 1920].[br /]
The last was published in 10 volumes.[br /]
[br /]

He pursued his work with boundless energy and enthusiasm until his death. He died after two weeks of his 88th birthday, on August 31, 1920 near Leipzig, Germany.[br /]
[br /]
[br /]

[b]AUGUST 16, 1832[/b][br /]

He was born in a small German village - Nekarau, near Mannheim, Beden. His father was a Lutheran clergyman.[br /]
[br /]

[b]1845[/b][br /]

He attended a Gymnasium, a German Secondary, School, at the age of 13.[br /]
[br /]

[b]1851[/b][br /]

He decided to study medicine. By the time he was 19, he joined Tubingen University and studied there for one year.[br /]
[br /]

[b]1853[/b][br /]

At the age of 21, he published his first research project in the field of human physiology.[br /]
[br /]

[b]1855[/b][br /]

He earned a medical degree at the University of Heidelberg. With a strong aversion to the practice of medicine, he joined the University of Berlin to study physiology.[br /]
[br /]

[b]1856[/b][br /]

He suffered a severe illness that kept him close to death for several weeks.[br /]
[br /]


[b]1857[/b][br /]

After studying briefly with Johannes Muller, he was appointed as a lecturer in physiology at the University of Heidelberg. He was only 25 years old. He remained there for seventeen years. He married Sophie.[br /]
[br /]


[b]1858[/b][br /]

He became an assistant to the physicist and physiologist Wilhelm Von Helmholtz.
He wrote "Contributions to the Theory of Sense Perception.''[br /]
[br /]

[b]1862[/b][br /]

He held the first academic course in psychology.[br /]
[br /]

[b]1863[/b][br /]

His lectures on psychology were published as "Lectures on the Mind of Humans and Animals.''[br /]
[br /]

[b]1873-1874[/b][br /]

His work on physiological psychology was published as "Principles of Physiological Psychology" in three volumes.[br /]
[br /]

[b]1874[/b][br /]

He left Heidelberg and went to the University of Zurich. He worked there for one year.[br /]
[br /]

[b]1875[/b][br /]

He was invited to join the University of Leipzig. He worked there till 1917.[br /]
[br /]

[b]1879[/b][br /]

He established the first Psychological Laboratory in the world at Leipzig. He conducted a series of experiments to determine the dimensions of feeling and perception.[br /]
[br /]

[b]1881[/b][br /]

He founded the first journal of psychology "Philosophical Studies.''[br /]
[br /]

[b]1889[/b][br /]

He served as a rector of the University of Leipzig.[br /]
[br /]

[b]1893[/b][br /]

He published the Tridimensional Theory of Feeling in 1893 edition of 'Physiological Psychology'. In this edition, feelings were classified as pleasant or unpleasant, tense or relaxed, excited or depressed.[br /]
[br /]

[b]1896[/b][br /]

He wrote 'Outline of Psychology'. It is considered to be the most important work done by him.[br /]
[br /]

[b]1897[/b][br /]

In recognition of Wundt's accomplishment and his international reputation, the University of Leipzig opened a specious psychological laboratory in a specially designed new building.[br /]
[br /]

[b]1900[/b][br /]

He wrote 'Cultural Psychology'. He started his research work on Ethnic Psychology.[br /]
[br /]

[b]1911[/b][br /]

He got published 'An Introduction to Psychology'.[br /]
[br /]

[b]1917[/b][br /]

At the age of 85, he retired from teaching. He continued to work on his 'Ethnic Psychology' and his autobiography.[br /]
[br /]

[b]1920[/b][br /]

He published his other valuable research paper 'Ethnic Psychology'. It was published in ten volumes.[br /]

On August 23, he also completed his autobiography.[br /]
[br /]

[b]AUGUST 31, 1920[/b][br /]

He died near Leipzig, two weeks after his 88th birthday.[br /]
[br /]
[br /]

[b]THIS EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY OF CONSCIOUSNESS[/b][br /]
[br /]

Wundt returned to Heidelberg in 1857. He assisted to Helmhertz in the following years. During this period, he seemed to have availed himself, but little of his contact with Helmholtz.[br /]
[br /]

Here, Wundt began the study of sense perception that led to a series of publications collected, in 1862, as "Contributions to the theory of sense perception''. It consisted of six previously published articles on sense perception. In these articles, he provided the basics of psychological theory of perception of space.[br /]
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The body of the book is emergence of Wundt's plan for an experimental psychology. Reflecting a metaphysical foundation for psychology, Wundt argued for the need to transcend the limitations of the direct study of consciousness through the use of genetic, comparative, statistical, historical, and experimental methods.[br /]
[br /]

[b]WORLD'S FIRST EXPERIMENTAL LABORATORY IN PSYCHOLOGY[/b][br /]
[br /]

His above laboratory was dedicated to experimental psychology. Established in 1879, at Leipzig this remarkable contribution in the field of psychology became a focus for seriously interested persons.[br /]
[br /]


It was very useful first for the German philosophers and psychology students, then for American and British students as well. He concentrated on psychological research, particularly on the study of human sensory experience.[br /]
[br /]

[b]THE SCHOOL OF STRUCTURALISM[/b][br /]
[br /]


Wundt founded the school of Structuralism. The concept evolved out the mechanistic nature of Industrial Revolution and the Scientific method of experimentation. Structuralism attempted to discover the nature of elementary conscious experiences and ultimately the structure of consciousness.[br /]
[br /]

Structuralism was born out of principles of Wundtian Psychology. It was the first formal 'School of Thought' in Psychology. Until about 1870, there was only one school in this group. The experimental goal of 'School of Structuralism' was to find the basic elements of experience for study of experimental psychology.[br /]
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[b]PSYCHO - PHYSICAL PARALLELISM[/b][br /]
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In 1871, Wundt applied himself to writing a work that came to be one of the most important in the history of psychology. It was 'The Principles of Physiological Psychological'. The principles, written in 1874, advanced a system of psychology, that sought to investigate the immediate experiences of consciousness, including sensations, feelings, violations, apperception and ideas. He applied the 'Introspection methodology. Wundt electrically combined the ideas of Spinoza, Leibniz, Kant and Hegel.[br /]
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[b]FOLK PSYCHOLOGY[/b][br /]
[br /]

In 'Elements of Folk Psychology', Wundt assumed a development through four stages. They are - Primitive Man, the Totemic Age, the Age of Heroes and Gods, and the Development of Humanity. Humanity is represented as a final stage and also as the goal towards which development advances.
"The direct approach to a philosophy of history which aims not to acquire knowledge of reality from a priori concepts, but conversely, to derive ideas, from reality, is a psychological account of the development of mankind.''
He has mentioned in his book that, "Humanity, when predicated of an individual, means that he transcends the limits of all more restricted associations, such as family, tribe or state, and possess an appreciation of human personality as such in its application to human society. It represents a demand for an ideal condition in which this appreciation of human worth shall have become a universal norm.''[br /]
[br /]

• The first three parts of the book are in part psychological and in part anthropological description.[br /]
[br /]

• For Wundt, the soul had its origin in the fear of the corpse. This fear he regards as instinctive.[br /]
[br /]

• In the chapters on Deity Cults, and on World Religions, he fully accepts the prevalent view of the dominance of primitive magic in primitive times. The description and analysis of redemption cults in the development of the universal religions are admirable.[br /]
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[b]HIS METHODS OF INVESTIGATION[/b][br /]
[br /]

In the history of psychology, it is observed that different methods are used by major psychologists to investigate psychological phenomena. Wundt has also used various methods to investigate psychological phenomena. His three major methods were introspection, experimentation and historical analysis.[br /]
[br /]

[b]INTROSPECTION[/b][br /]
[br /]

Wundt has emphasized the method of introspection. The key to understanding Wundt's views about introspection is contained in his insistence that the observation of consciousness in the psychological laboratory should strive to be as accurate as the observation of physical events in the physics laboratory.[br /]
[br /]


Observations of inner life, "inner perceptions'', he thought, could, in principle, be as valid as perceptions of the outer world, if they took place under analogous conditions, when the observer is properly trained, and the experimental situation is repeatable.[br /]
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He has also insisted on proper training for the introspection, so that the introspector will be capable of distinguishing immediate experience from mediate experience.[br /]
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[b]EXPERIMENTATION[/b][br /]
[br /]

To study mental processes outside the scope of introspection, Wundt suggested that laboratory experiments could be used even though they did not provide the same kind of information as did introspection. And for that reason, he established psychological laboratory phenomena for the investigation of psychology. As we know, Wundt was the first man to establish an experimental laboratory in the world.[br /]
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[b]HISTORICAL ANALYSIS[/b][br /]
[br /]


Wundt has also insisted on the method of historical analysis. Development of language, religion, ritual, public opinion, social controls cannot be studied by introspection or even experimentation. Instead it must be considered from the view of cultural history which is capable of revealing the responsible psychic structures. For that reason, Wundt has also insisted on the method of historical analysis.[br /]
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[b]THEORY OF PSYCHOLOGY[/b][br /]
[br /]

Wundt's theory of psychology cannot be described in any simple manner, because the formulation was exceedingly complex and the relationship between hypothesis and data was, at times, unclean. Also, Wundt's theory was continually being modified, sometimes making it difficult to identify its basic principles.[br /]
[br /]


Several parts of Wundtian theory will be described as they each relate to a specific research area, reaction time and the measurement of mental processes, the content of consciousness, and social psychology. When this exposition is completed, an attempt will be made to describe the major principles of Wundtian theory.[br /]
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[b]THEORY ON REACTION TIME[/b][br /]
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Reaction time had an immense impact on psychology. Wilhelm Wundt has tested Hermann Von Helmhotz's method of measuring the reaction time. For this, he has tested this conjuncture by investigating neural transmission in the motor nerve of frog, a nerve that transmits neural impulses from the central nervous system to a muscle. The motor nerve was electrically stimulated at two different distances from the muscle. The time interval between the stimulation and the muscular contraction was measured.[br /]
[br /]

This time interval, the reaction time, was slightly longer when the nerve was stimulated from a greater distance. Knowledge of the distance between two points of stimulation and the difference in reaction times of the muscles enables the computation of the speed of neural transmission, which, in this particular case, was 26 meters per second.[br /]
[br /]


In Wundt's laboratory, quite early in the history of reaction time work, Ludwig Lange in 1888 could make it possible to train his subjects to unbalanced forms of preparation, either sensory or motor. They could concentrate their attention either on the stimulus to be received or on the response to be made.[br /]
[br /]


Sensory preparation gave slower reactions than motor preparation, about 100 ms slower in Lange's subjects, and the natural or balanced preparation gave an intermediate RT. Some of the later investigators have not found any difference at all, but the results on the whole favor a real difference of variable amount, usually much less than Lange's 100 ms.[br /]
[br /]


It is not important as was once believed to instruct the subject to adopt the sensory or the motor set, for he is not likely to follow such instructions consistently unless the experimental conditions favor one or the other type of preparation.[br /]
[br /]

Wundt investigated a range of problems, such as physiological psychology, reaction times and the study of attention through experimentation. Wundt's main interest was the study of consciousness, through the method of introspection.[br /]
[br /]

[b]HIS STUDY ON CONSCIOUSNESS[/b][br /]
[br /]

As a introspectionist Wilhelm Wundt attempted to analyze consciousness by training research participants to describe their own mental sensations, feelings and images. Wundt saw awareness as consisting of two different kinds of 'elements, they are : 'external elements' or sensations coming from the outside world and 'internal elements', or feelings and emotions originating within the person.[br /]
[br /]


The systematic exploration of the senses was the chief task of nineteenth century experimental psychology. Helmholtz' great books on vision and audition were supplemented by a quantity of research on the lower senses and on the functions of nerve and muscle in relation to sensory stimulation.[br /]
[br /]

The laboratory for psychology at Leipzig, founded by Wundt in 1879, was primarily a laboratory for the study of sense perception. The direct influence of Fechner is seen in the attention given by Wundt not only to psychophysics, but to other problems in perception and judgement as well. Introspective psychology in the hands of Wundt had as its primary task the description of the nature of experience under certain limited and well-defined laboratory conditions.[br /]
[br /]

[b]WUNDT ON 'FEELING'[/b][br /]
[br /]

A system of three dimensions of feeling was proposed by Wundt in 1896. This system includes the traditional pleasant-unpleasant dimension, one which he called the excited quiet, and the tense-relaxed dimension. An emotion was a complex conscious state or process characterized by these feelings and also including a multitude of bodily sensations.[br /]
[br /]
[br /]

• The direct approach to a philosophy of history which aims not to acquire a knowledge of reality from a prior concepts, but conversely, to derive ideas from reality, is a psychological account of the development of mankind.[br /]
[br /]

• Humanity, when predicated of an individual, means that he transcends the limits of all more restricted associations, such as family, tribe, or state, and possesses an appreciation of human personality as such, in its application to human society, it represents a demand for an ideal condition in which this appreciation of human worth shall have become a universal norm.[br /]
[br /]

• Psychology..(had) not yet felt the impulse of the new empirical method being used all around it. It (had) asked metaphysical questions first, concerning the essence, origin, and destination of the soul. These questions should be asked at a point where psychology may end, but not where it should start. It must take the simplest experience for its point of departure.[br /]
[br /]

• The mental events are best explained by positing mental laws and process.[br /]
[br /]

• The present work philosophical psychology shows by its very title that it seeks to establish an alliance between two sciences, that, although they both deal with almost the same subject, that is preeminently with human life, nevertheless have long followed different paths.[br /]
[br /]

• Historical, statistical, comparative, ethno-psychological and of course, experimental methods are all relevant to the construction of a science of the mind.[br /]
[br /]

• Psychology. seeks to give account of the interconnection of process which are evidenced by our own consciousness, or which we infer from such manifestations of the bodily life in other creatures as indicate the presence of consciousness similar to our own.[br /]
[br /]

• The assertion that the mental life lacks all casual connection, and that the real and primary object of psychology is, therefore, not the mental life itself but the physical substrate of that life - this assertion stands self-condemned.[br /]
[br /]

• Objectively, we can regard the individual mental processes only as inseparable elements of interconnected wholes.[br /]
[br /]

• The supreme advantage of the experimental method lies in the fact that it alone renders a reliable introspection possible."[br /]
[br /]

• All accurate observation implies that the object of observation (in this case, the psychical process) can be held fast by the attention, and any changes that it undergoes attentively followed. And this fixation by the attention implies.. that the observed object is independent of the observer.[br /]
[br /]

• There are other sources of objective psychological knowledge, which become accessible at the very point where the experimental method fails us. These are certain products of common mental life, in which we trace the operation of determinate psychical motives, chief among them are language, myth and custom.[br /]
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• The content of psychological experience in its immediate nature unmodified by abstraction and reflection.[br /]
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• Physiology informs us about those life phenomena, that we perceive by our external senses.[br /]
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• In psychology, the person looks upon himself as from within and tries to explain the interrelations of those processes that this internal observations discloses. there exists a wide range of life processes that are simultaneously accessible to external and internal life.Physiology and psychology each by itself can easily evade this question, but psychology cannot sidestep it.[br /]
[br /]

• Psychological introspection goes hand in hand with the methods of experimental physiology, and the application of the latter to the former has given rise to the psychophysical methods as a separate branch of experimental research. If one wishes to place major emphasis on methodological characteristics, our science might be called experimental psychology in distinction from the usual science of mind based purely on introspection.[br /]
[br /]

• A variety of methods - developmental, comparative, introspective, deductive, statistical, and experimental - could and should be brought to bear on the analysis of psychological phenomena.[br /]
[br /]

• Experiments can find application in the purely psychological domain, it must nevertheless be admitted that it is primarily the sensory side of psychic life which accords the widest prospect for experimental investigation.[br /]
[br /]
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Comments - Wilhelm Wundt