Wundt, early German psychology &
psychology as academic discipline
Lecture structure
What makes a discipline?
One account of the emergence of
psychology
Problems with the account
Implications for the present or how
could it have been otherwise?
Alan Collins, Lancaster University
And so?
Stories of the past & the identity of the
discipline (see O’Donnell on Boring)
What counts as psychology is historically
contingent … but does this matter?
Thinking of how psychology might be
different
Alan Collins, Lancaster University
What does it take to be recognised as a
separate discipline?
Danziger (1990): as a minimum…
object(s) of study
method(s) of study
social organisation: labs, journals, departments,
research programmes … students!
Alan Collins, Lancaster University
‘Origins’ histories
This one can help us understand:
how and why psychology a separate discipline
how and why dominated by experiment
And to recognise that it could have been otherwise
consciousness as its object
cultural studies
part of physiology or philosophy
Caution: this is not a ‘firsts’ story … and consider: why do we
seek ‘origins’?
Alan Collins, Lancaster University
Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)
Personal background
medicine, physiology, philosophy
1862 Contributions towards a theory of sense
perception
1873-4 Principles of Physiological Psychology
Alan Collins, Lancaster University
Wundt’s lab
1879 begins self-funded lab research, Leipzig
1883 Official recognition by university
1892 expanded to 11 rooms and 20+ students
Alan Collins, Lancaster University
Lab in 1909
Alan Collins, Lancaster University
Wundt’s interests, ideas &
beliefs
• what are the basic
elements of
consciousness?
• how do they combine, that
is, what laws or processes
govern their combination?
Alan Collins, Lancaster University
Psychological elements are not physiological elements
e.g. sensation blue
Sensations as elements
BUT
perceptions as complex combinations
ideas as internal complex combinations
Passive combinations … association
Active combination … apperception
… intelligent, directional, cohesive
… creative synthesis
Attention is a crucial concept: an act of will
Alan Collins, Lancaster University
… a system of voluntarism
A Wundtian experiment
What is the apperception span i.e. how many
stimulus elements can be held in mind at once?
Present letters or words briefly … see how many can
be fixed in consciousness
finds same number of letters or familiar words can
be recalled
words treated as wholes
Alan Collins, Lancaster University
Characteristics of the experiment
Manipulation, artificial conditions,
observation and/or measurement
Cooperation:
manipulation of conditions, making
measurements
& another’s consciousness
Alan Collins, Lancaster University
‘observer’, ‘reactor’ ‘person under experiment’
versus
‘manipulator’, ‘signaller’, ‘reader’
Subject as expert
Difference from natural sciences
… object of investigation participates
A cooperative exercise
Alan Collins, Lancaster University
… and here they are
Alan Collins, Lancaster University
Other methods by Wundt
Comparative methods, evolutionary
history and developmental methods
Limits of the expt
Völkerpsychologie
Alan Collins, Lancaster University
Wundt’s Psychology
Objects of study:
individual private consciousness,
cultural products
Method of study:
experiment (Naturwissenschaft),
cultural science (Geisteswissenschaft)
Social organisation:
within labs
students and new labs … 100+ PhDs
1881 founded Philosophische Studien journal;
Alan Collins, Lancaster University
What the lab did for Wundt
Lab made possible replicable experiences
standardised conditions
short report time
external/internal unwanted influences at a minimum
replication … by trial
Small numbers of expert subjects
Individual mind as universal or generalised mind
Alan Collins, Lancaster University
The importance of precision
Precision is an ideal and an argument
(Benschop and Draaisma, 2000)
Quality of science
Reaction times …. mental chronometry
Alan Collins, Lancaster University
Mental chronometry
Donders (1865 on)
Condition 1: mild shock to either left or right foot and told which
Condition 2: mild shock to either left or right but NOT told which
Task: move hand on same side that stimulus was administered
Time difference between conditions: 1/15 second … mental
processing
Alan Collins, Lancaster University
Human thought not as instantaneous but as
measurable:
“This was the first determination of the
duration of a well-defined mental process. It
concerned the decision in a choice and an
action of the will in response to that
decision.” (Donders, 1869)
Alan Collins, Lancaster University
Precision again
Science: requires and produces precision
Shapin & Schaffer (1985) precision produced
through:
material technology
literary technology
social technology
Alan Collins, Lancaster University
Technologies for precision
1. Material
instrumentation
… source of precision and error
Wundt’s lab and brass instruments
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Hipp chronoscope
... like a stopwatch
... depended on vibration of a spring
... spring sensitive to disturbance
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Calibration
... Chronograph
... problem of calibration
?infinite regress
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Literary technology
Reports: encourage reproduction of particular ways of
conducting experiments
Philosophische Studien 1881
Style: graphs, charts, formulae, numbers
Description and advertising of instrumentation
Rhetoric: words like ‘exact’, ‘reliable’, ‘constant’, ‘uniform’,
‘standardization’ emphasise the theme of precision and
portray process as being precise
Texts as model for actions in other labs
Alan Collins, Lancaster University
Social technology
Constancy in conduct in lab by both experimenter and observer
Being ‘Ready’: poised between attention & relaxation
Environment
Understanding of task
Extensive practice ... observer as an expert ... not person off street
Aim: evenness or constancy in reactions to allow access to
‘generalized mind’… results as representative
Alan Collins, Lancaster University
Precision & its consequences
Discrepancies between labs
Reveals variation between individuals
… reasons for variation?
Precision … use of aggregate
Alan Collins, Lancaster University
Why there & then?
Physiology
mind C19 from structure to function
from anatomy & dissection to physiology & experiment
Individual private consciousness
mind as separate, special
Protestant ethic of self-examination
German university system
… stress on science & knowledge in elite
… reconciling knowledge for own sake with producing better
citizens .. new forms of knowledge
Alan Collins, Lancaster University
Wundt & legacies
Institutional
labs, departments, expt set-up, journals
Training and students
Cattell .. founding member of APA, editor Science,
founded Psychological Review
Witmer … psychological clinic at University of Pennsylvania
Kraepelin … schizophrenia
Titchener … structuralism at Cornell
Scripture … director at Yale
Angell founded Cornell and Stanford labs
But rejection & opposition … within Germany & outside
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… and
Method and object
Someone/some things to oppose e.g.
Ebbinghaus
…. Expt & higher mental functions … memory
Kulpe
… reduce to physiological
Even Watson’s behaviorism
… the object of psychology is not consciousness
Alan Collins, Lancaster University
Some critical remarks on this account
Origin myths
Boring:
“I believe that when Wundt’s special theories have utterly
perished his fame will still endure because … he
established a new point of view and from it surveyed the
whole scientific and philosophical domain. In this sense, I
am prepared to say that Wundt is the founder, not of
experimental psychology alone, but of psychology.”
Titchener, 1921 (p.177)
Alan Collins, Lancaster University
heroes, foundations, separation
… simplicity
Emphasis on individual
Tolstoy: any one individual as being swept
along … rather than doing the sweeping
Alan Collins, Lancaster University
The ‘And so?’ question
Earlier points:
the functions or effects of origin histories
the characteristics of Wundt’s science … how
same & how different, how legitimised, how
expanded .. What are these telling us?
if we had pursued a Wundtian psychology, how
might today’s psychology be different?
Alan Collins, Lancaster University