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Wilhelm Wundt

Wilhelm Maximillian Wundt was born August 16, 1832 and died August 31, 1920 in Germany. He was a German psychologist, physician, and philosopher known today for his many contributions in the field of psychology. He is a renown professor and has been widely considered the “father of experimental psychology” as well as the founder of modern psychology (16). Wundt attended the University of Heidelberg in 1856 where he stayed for 17 years (14). Following this, in 1875, he taught as a professor of inductive philosophy at the University of Leipzig where he stayed for 45 years (14).

Wundt is notorious for his establishment of the first psychology lab at the Univeristy of Leipzig (14). He has had a drastic influence on the school of thought known as structuralism. Also, his support of experimental psychology has set the stage for behaviorism. Wundt’s main experimental method was introspection, however many of his other experimental methods are still used today. No other professor in psychology has had as many students become prominent psychologists as those of Wilhelm (8). The students who made the most drastic contributions were G. Stanley Hall, J. McKeen Cattell, Charles Judd, Edward Titchner, and Charles Spearman. Finally, Wundt was especially affluential due to his ability to separate science from other topics of study.

Wilhelm Wundt
Born	(1832-08-16)16 August 1832 Neckarau
Died	31 August 1920(1920-08-31) (aged 88) Leipzig, Germany
Nationality	German
Scientific career
Fields	Psychology, Physiology
Institutions	University of Leipzig
Doctoral students	Edward B. Titchener, G. Stanley Hall, Oswald Külpe, James McKeen Cattell

Outlook on the Nature of Psychology with Other Disciplines

Wilhelm Wundt's Gravestone (1832-1920)

Wundt’s personal outlook on the nature of Psychology, in contrast to other disciplines, are demonstrated throughout three of his major works: the 1889 Classification of Scientific Disciplines, the 1896 Introduction to Outlines of Psychology, and in 1913 Psychology Struggling for its Survival (7).

Firstly, in 1889 Wundt wrote The Classification of Scientific Disciplines and defined psychology in terms of human science. He believed that psychology falls into mental processes, one of the three categories of human science. This definition by Wundt sparked the study of mental processes in human consciousness. Wundt never considered Psychology to be a form of natural science. Instead he deemed mental processes as the discipline of psychology, while psychology was viewed as the foundation and premise of all other mental sciences (7).

Furthermore, in 1896, Wilhelm Wundt wrote a second key document concerning his views about the nature of psychology. In his document, "The Introduction to Outlines of Psychology”, he defined Psychology in terms of 3 principles whereby he further developed his ideas about the relationship between psychology and other scientific disciplines. His 3 principles of the psychological position were as follows. First, Wundt pronounced that inner psychological experiences are not unique from other episodes of experience. Instead, he believed that inner psychological experiences are the immediate occurrence in its entirety (7). His second principle was that immediate experiences are not made up of unchanging contents, but of an interconnection of processes (7). Thus, to Wundt these experiences are not formed by objects, but through occurrences of universal human experiences and their relation in accordance with certain laws. His final principle stated that for each process, there is objective content and a subjective process. Thereby these processes include both general conditions of knowledge as well as human interest. Together, these 3 principles create a threefold outlook of psychology in regards to other sciences (7). As the science of immediate experience, psychology is supplementary to the natural sciences. As the science of immediate human experience in regards to common laws, psychology is the foundation of the mental sciences. And because it incorporates both the objective and subjective conditions, psychology is the discipline useful for the theory of knowledge and ethics, and the two foundations of philosophy (7).

Lastly, in 1913, Wundt wrote Psychology Struggling for Its Survival and argued whether psychology is philosophical science. He believed that Psychology, for several reasons, should not be detached from the system of Philosophy (7). The main reason for this is because both empirical and experimental psychologies are not interdependent from Philosophy (10).

His Contributions

His Publications

Throughout Wilhelm Wundt’s career, he published many numbers of works and journals that are still studied to this day. Of his earliest works, two are of most importance. These are his 1862 Beiträge zur Theorie der Sinneswahrnehmung (The Theory of Sense Perception) and Vorlesungen uber die Menschen und Tier-Seele (Lectures on Human and Animal Psychology) (6). Then from 1873 to 1874 he published two volumes of work called Grundzuge der physiologeschen Psychologie (Principles of Physiological Psychology) (6). Here Wundt stressed the relationship between psychology and physiology and demonstrated that methods of natural science and introspection could be used in psychology. Six revisions were made on the Principles of Physiological Psychology, the last to be completed in 1911 (3). In 1881, Wilhelm Wundt published Philosophische Studien, (the first journal of psychology). This journal defined four classifications of psychological experiments: sensation and perception; reaction time; time perception and association; and attention, memory, feeling, and association (6). In 1896, he published Grunfriss der Psychologie (Outline of Psychology), which was an updated (introduced a new theory of feeling) but less detailed treatment from his 1873 Principles of Physiological Psychology. Finally from 1900-1920 Wilhelm Wundt published 10 volumes of his extremely famous Volkerpsychologie (folk psychology) (3). Volkerpsycholgie is folk psychology or a social group with specialized interest in the mental products of a community such as their language, myths, religion and customs (3).

Experimental Psychology

Wilhelm Wundt believed that if Psychology is to advance, it must strictly follow an inductive pathway. There are two major inductive methods: the method of statistics, and the method of experiment (13). The method of statistics is indirect, simple, and merely an extension of psychological observation. It was because of this that Wundt turned to experimental psychology as his revolutionary approach. Experimental psychology is beneficial as it is applicable over a whole range of general psychology (13). Wundt used psychological experimentation, thereby shifting psychological studies from the subject of Philosophy and natural sciences to physiological dimensions. Specifically, the use of experimental psychology promoted the use of physiological experimentation techniques in the laboratory. The main aim of experimental psychology is to capture elements of human consciousness. Wundt accomplished this study of consciousness through the help of experimental protocols of natural sciences. The method used for experimental psychology was introspection; a set of measures and self-observations intended to capture inner experience, internal sensations and perceptions and consciousness (15).

Individual Psychology

Individual psychology is a theory by Alfred Adler, that views human behaviors as driven to overcome feelings of inferiority through compensation and the need to achieve personal goals. In regards to Individual Psychology, Wilhelm Wundt had two main aspects of intersest: sensation and perception, and consciousness (15).

Sensation and Perception: Sensations act as the medium between the external physical and the internal psychological. It is because of this that Wundt himself believed sensations to be so vital in the domain of physiological psychology. In order to generate internal representations that an observer may see through introspection, psychologists must control for the external. Wundt believed that all elements and representations of consciousness have their basis in sensations. Sensations are extremely important within the study of psychology. Specifically, they are helpful when determining how much our immediate estimation of the strength of a particular sensory stimuli has been aided by our sensations. Thus, psychology attempts to determine what degree the estimation is compatible with, or deviates from the stimuli’s real strength. All in all, Wilhelm Wundt’s speculation in regards to individual psychology is that consciousness originates within sensations (15).

Consciousness: Wundt believed consciousness is represented within the 3 categories of representation, willing, and feeling (15). Representations are the most important and most directly related to consciousness. Representations are characterized as figurative acts, either perceptions or intuitions, and never objects with constant properties (15). This means that in order to have a representation, an object cant be real, it must be a thought or reflection. Wundt was also interested in concepts of attention. He believed that in order to understand attention, we must see it in terms of the different dimensions to which representation occur in consciousness (14). Therefore, since consciousness is a function of attention, it can either be broad (a perception) or narrow (an apperception) (14). Wundt explained that narrow apperceptions are directly associated to the will, whereas broad perceptions are associated to representations, as explained above (14).

First Labratory Dedicated to Experimental Psychology

In 1879 in Leipzig, Wilhelm Wundt founded the first laboratory in the world devoted specifically to experimental psychology (14). This laboratory became the center of attention for anyone interested in psychology at the time. Men from all over the world came to study in Wundt’s laboratory, including G. Stanley Hall in 1879. G. Stanley Hall was one of Wundt’s first American students and his arrival sparked the interest of many other Americans who arrived shortly thereafter. Upon visiting Wundt’s experimental laboratory, many psychologists then returned to their home counties with the goal to establish psychological laboratories of their own. Wundt’s psychological laboratory was an especially important milestone in his list of many contributions because it shifted his study of focus towards the field of philosophy and the natural science (14).

Volkerpsychologie

Experimental psychology centers its attention on the consequences that the outer physical has on the inner psychic, as well as interactions between consciousness and the external world (11). In contrast, Volkerpsychologie features consciousness in other ways then through experimentation. Volkerpsychologie looks to the origins of consciousness to explain why humans are incapable of controlling their conscious expressions (11). Volkerpsychology, in contrast to experimental psychology, examines objects in other ways then through inner experience. It looks to explain their external, non-physical phenomenology (7). Wilhelm Wundt published 10 volumes of Volkerpsychologie between 1900 and 1920 (3). Within this publication he ignores historical facts and stresses the importance of widespread psychological developments that become apparent due to the connection of individual developments (15). Wundt’s general perspective was that psychology is an alternative perspective to physiology. In following with this trend, we can sat that Volkerpsychologie is an alternative perspective to experimental psychology(11). All in all this major work follows along the idea that there is one empirical world, but many assortments of experiences to go along with it.

His Methods

Wilhelm Wundt classified psychology into individual psychology, animal psychology, psychophysics, and volkerpsychologie (5). Wundt used experimental methods to study the first three classes of psychology, however this could not be done with volkerpsychologie (5). Volkerpsychologie could not be examined experimentally, so a method of comparative-historical exploration was used. In this method, historical events were examined to create explanations through direct comparison to other historical events, theory building, or reference to the present day. In regards to experimental psychology, introspection was the primary method used to study conscious mental states. Wundt’s introspection was a highly practiced form of self-examination by which individuals monitor their own mental processes (13). When Wundt conducted experiments, his psychology students were taught to record their observations through personal interpretation and experience. Through this process, Wundt believed that people’s subjective feelings could be classified as pleasant or unpleasant, tense or relaxed, or excited or depressed. This was called the tridimensional theory of feeling (13). Wundt’s method of introspection did not remain a fundamental tool of psychological experiments past the 1920s (10). Numerous debates sparked controversy concerning the use of introspection as an experimental method (10). Many people argued that the results of introspection were subjective, and unverifiable due to its inability to be objectively measured. Wundt himself admitted introspection could never be successful as a scientific technique (10).

His Students

Wilhelm Wundt is by far the most successful professor in the field of psychology in terms of his effect on his students, and their relative contributions. No other professor in psychology has had more notable students from as many countries across the world as Professor Wilhelm Wundt. Throughout his career, Wundt has always been extremely influential towards his students and those interested in psychological concepts (8). Specifically in the past 3 years, the field of experimental psychology has experienced huge advances with many of the great leaders being students of Wundt during his time at Leipzig (8). Of his numerous students, the following German and American students have stood out due to their specific contributions towards the subject matter of psychology.

German Students

The two most notable German students of Wilhelm Wundt were Oswald Kulpe and Ottmar Dittrich. Oswald Kulpe was a student of Wundts during their time together at the University of Leipzig. Kulpe worked as Wundt's assistant until his growing frustrations regarding Wundt's structures on what could and could not be studied led him to leave. Kulpe then became anotable professor at the University of Wurzberg. Ottmar Dittrich was another German student who studied with Wundt. He Dittrich has remained a memorable student as he carried on Wundt's work in psycholinguistics at the University of Leipzig (8).

American Students

G Stanley Hall was a student of Wundt’s from 1883 until 1886. He became the father of the child psychology movement and theorist of child development. Upon close examination of Wundt’s laboratory, Hall himself founded his own laboratory in John Hopkins. J. McKeen Cattell was another student of Wundt’s from 1880 until 1886. He is prominent in this field as he became the first professor of psychology in the United States. He too followed Wundt’s footsteps by founding his own laboratory in Pennsylvania. Many of Wundt’s other American students upon their return from Germany have founded their own experimental laboratories. Together these students have contributed to the development of experimental laboratories in the United States. Other important students of Wilhelm Wundt are as follows. Charles Hubbar Judd studied with Wundt and later became a director of the school of education at the University of Chicago. Edward Titchner, a 2 year resident of Wundt’s lab, founded the first laboratory in the United States. He also was accountable for translating Wundt’s work. Finally, Charles Spearman was another student of Wundt’s. during their time at Leipzig. Spearman has been remembered throughout history for his establishment of the two factor theory of intelligence, as well as the Spearman rank correlation coefficient (8).