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Definition of the Science of Psychology As Stand Alone

Definition of the Science of Psychology As Stand Alone

Definition of the Science of Psychology As Stand Alone - In 1870, some experts are keen to explore the question of mind- mind. How to generate awareness of body sensations capable of accurately reflect reality?

Wilhelm Maximilian Wundt (16 August 1832-31 August, 1920) Doctors, philosophers, and psychologists. The father of modern psychology as a stand-alone capable of making psychology a science separate from biology and philosophy. The first as a psychologist. Father of experimental psychology. In 1879, he founded the first psychology laboratory at the University of Leipzig. At the right moment with the conditions in Germany are very good universities and resources to establish new disciplines enough, then his proposal was accepted and he set up a laboratory at the University of Leipzig. In 1881, he made his first journal of psychology.

Definition of the Science of Psychology As Stand Alone_
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Wundt's conception very big influence on the development of psychology. Based medical science background, then Wundt (1974) declared that psychology should be scientific knowledge like medicine and chemistry. According Wund, psychology should focus on "awareness of the experiencer". So it took developed tools or methods of psychological measurement.

Wundt produce 54,000 sheets of books and articles in his career (Bringmann & Ball, 1992). The focus of study is attention, memory, sensory processes, and experiments on the reaction time can estimate the duration of a person's mental activities (Fuchs & Milar, 2003).

Wundt examines the speed of decision making and a variety of other mental events, trying to understand the experiences realized by using the technique of introspection, in the sense of looking into. After doing the training to the participants observations are, Wundt repeatedly showed light of the lamp or mute then participants were asked to describe sensations and feelings arising from the experiments he did. Then Wundt concluded that the "quality" (example: blue or cold) and intensity (eg, brightness and noise) are the two main factors in producing a pleasant sensation or not, tension or relaxation, and interest or depression (Schultz & Schultz, 2004) ,

Understanding the Science of Psychology As Stand Alone 3_
Figure 3. Wilhelm Wundt was experimenting (taken from Berstein, Panner, Clarke Stewart, Roy, 2012).

Systematics Psychology of Wundt:

  • 1860s: is called the pre-systematic. Here he put forward the theory of perception and the difference between feeling (feeling) and sensing (sensation), which is based on the doctrine of "unconscious inference".
  • Year 1874- 1887: Physiologische psychologieI wrote books on this period are clear concepts Wundt. "Unconscious inference" he left behind. The soul is described in elements such as sensing, juice and forth to each other are connected with the association (a concept he borrowed from the English character). The concept of apersepsi began to emerge but it is not so obvious importance. Feelings are still considered part of penginderaa. This period is called the period elementisme, sensasionisme and assosiasionisme.
  • 1896: Wund filed 3-dimensional theory of feeling is: happy-not happy, Tense-Tak tense, Semangat- Calm.
  • Year 1902- 1903: In the book Physciologische Psychologie, edition 5 Wundt argued about the latest theory about feelings. Apersepsi increasingly important concept. Each ransang are up to the human senses is always perceived, but a part of the perceived perception, namely that only just given special attention. So in apersepsi there are elements of intent and consciousness. It can not be done experimentally as experimental subjects only knows. In this period Volker book Psychologie Wundt wrote, in his book he wrote about the "Higher mental process", which could cause them to behave uniformly and regularly at the end of this theory developed into a social psychological theory.



Wundt proposed that psychology must stand on its own as a branch of science, as psychology has its own laws regardless of the natural sciences. Psychology concerned with what is called "immediate experience" and the data are phenomenal, to obtain data such phenomenal method introspection. This introspection methods are not in the soul (mind) and body. While physics concerned with data conceptually, as being (matter) is a permanent three issues that must be addressed by psychology: 1) Analysis of the process of consciousness into the elements 2) investigation of how the relationships between the elements 3) determining the laws that govern these relationships.

According to Wundt soul not only changed, but changed according to the rules or laws of mental, namely: 1) The principle of the synthesis of the creative (the principle of creative synthesis), which says that every psychic phenomenon complex as having properties different new from the elements. 2) Law of psychic relationship (the law of psychis relations) an element of consciousness or psychic kontesn will have meaning only in relation to the elements or other psychic contents. 3) Legal contrast psychic (the law of psychis contrast) that the elements kesadran or content that is most opposed psychic / salaing actually reinforce each other.

According to Wundt is the basic principle that allows hubungna ences between elements of consciousness. Is different from the previous opinion which says that the association occurs passively, by karenannya active asosiaasi called apersepsi.

There are several types of associations:

  • Association of direct perception: a) fusion b) assimilation) c) complications: associations of different senses
  • Memory association is an association that is not immediate, but occurs in the memory, the first element is stored in memory.



Apersepsi is as gela of two levels of consciousness:

  • Apersepsi as a phenomenon: a) the field of consciousness (field of consciousness) everything that can be captured by the senses. b) Central awareness (focus of consciousness) is part of the perception that actively we note, it is included in the center of consciousness called perhati (attention).
  • Apersepsi as cognition: a) analysis: parse the data revealed by the senses and give penilaina (judgment). B) sintesia, which unites data relating salaing and compile them into konesp.
  •  Apersepsi as activity. Recap is a constant flow of the stream of consciousness.


Edward Titchnere (1867-1927), disciple of Wundt Englishman, who became a student of Wundt and worked in the laboratory of Cornell University. He studied on the basic elements of consciousness, coupled also with the image of another form. From the research Titchener added that "clearness" as an element of sensation (Schultz & Schultz, 2004). This approach is known as Structualism as he attempted to define the structure consiusness / consciousness.

Although the teachings of Wundt Tichner introduced to the United States, but he could never affect his psychology colleagues in the United States because they have their own stance that the flow of functionalism.

Wilhelm Von Osten famous for his experiments "Clever Hans". Hans was a horse that is able to perform mental tasks such as: add, subtract, divide and multiply. Hans indicate the answer by tapping his foot poultice. Example: 2 + 3 + =, then Hans would knock his legs five times. Because of this phenomenal discovery, the investigation conducted by Pfungst (1911) who found that Hans did not know the answer to a question when the Von Osten did not know the answer. Upon further investigation it was found that Hans was able to pair the need how many times knocking in accordance with body language and facial mimic Von Osten was doing unconsciously.
Struktualism is the science of identifying elements / basic elements of a psychological experience

Herman Ebbinghaus (1850- 1909), German scientists say that to analyze a person's consciousness through the method of introspection is not so important as explore the capacities and limitations of mental processes such as learning and memory.

Many Americans who studied under Wundt. Approximately 1883 to 1893, there were 23 laboratory psychology stands in the United States and Canada. Most laboratory was started by students of Wundt student or pupil of Wundt.

G. Stanley Hall (1846-1924), disciple of Wundt, contributed a great deal in the development of psychology in the United States. He founded the first psychology laboratory at Johns Hopkins University in 1883. 4 years later he introduced the grading of American psychology journal. In 1892, he founded the American Psychological Association with a membership of more than 150,000 people.

Herman Ebbinghaus (1850- 1909): university professor from Breslau and Halle is considered one of the founders of experimental psychology pelopoer and was born in Barmen. He was the first to conduct experimental research on the process sailed and retention (memory).

In his experiments on memory Ebbinghaus using a neutral object, ie meaningless words (nonsense syllables). A series of words that does not mean it provides to itself and then also on a number of other experiments to be read over and over again and remembered. After a few moments, a list of the words removed and the trial should mention back as many words do not mean in the list. The number of words does not mean that so-called right is a score to measure a person's memory. From the experimental curve Ebbinghaus make memories, known as nam "Retention curve of Ebbinghaus"

It appears from the curve that what is learned will be forgotten. At first a lot of that is forgotten, so that the curve of decline, but the longer the slump was less and less, so at a certain time achieved a number of words remembered continue for a long time. In other words, at a certain point is reached a constant number of words remembered.

Furthermore Ebbinghaus argued the law on the ratio between the things that are learned by the time used to study these things: more and more things to be learned, the more time it takes to learn a comparable basis. This law is known as the Ebbinghaus law. From the above findings can dikatakn that Ebbinghaus opinion that the process of remembering and forgetting process occurs automatically (by itself) and mechanistic.

George Elias Muller (1850-1934): Muller was born on July 20, 1850 in Grimma. In 1873 he attained a doctorate thesis that the maintenance is titled: "sensory attention". Since then, he was known as a character in psychology, often considered one of the pioneers of experimental psychology as Wundt.

G.E. Muller was a lecturer at Gottingen and has become one of the masters of Kulpe contribute to psychology, especially in psikofisi, memory and visual perception. His works include on the fundamentals of psychophysics (1978) and the standpoints and facts ofpsychophysical methodology (1903). In this book he opposes both Weber- Fechner law and express their own opinions about the psychophysical law of the relationship between perception and stimulation of nerve (neural stimulation). It is said that perception menimubulkan certain traces in the brain such as camera lenses cause the traces of a particular image on the film in the camera. These principles will then be the basis of the principle isomorfi from Gestalt psychology.

G.E. Muller continued works on memory Ebbinghaus and he suggested what he called "the right associative procedure" which states that the process of remembering and forgetting is not merely mechanical and automatic, but there is an element of the activities of the individual concerned. The process of considering no active elements, because it contains the association. Things that can be associated will be easier to remember. The process of forgetting is active as well, because of the barrier elements retroakti (retroactive inhibition), the stimuli that come later hamper the memory of things that already exist beforehand. Differences between Ebbinghaus and Muller is the use of objective data, using introspection as well as the results of the study material.

Oswald Külpe (1862- 1915): was born on August 3, 1862 in Cancau. At first he was seoran gsejarawan who later moved to after he studied the psychology of Wundt and GE Muller. In 1887 he earned his doctorate after defending his dissertation entitled "Theory Sensing Feeling". Eight years he lived in Leipzig as a lecturer and assistant Wundt. In 1896 he set up a laboratory in Wurzburg and laboratories which later became the center of the flow of "Psychology of Wurzburg". In 1909 Kulpe moved to Bonn, and in 1913 moved to Munich until his death.

Kulpe greatest contribution is laying the foundations of the study of the thinking process. He put forward a working paper entitled On the Modern Psychology of Thought, in which he argued that higher thought processes are not related to sensing and can also be investigated experimentally. Kulpe belief is different from the opinion of Wundt that every thinking process can only be investigated through sensing or through image (picture) of the sensing.

To get to the above opinion, Kulpe has mengatakn dengna experiments using systematic experimental introspection, where the trial asked to retell penghayatannya during complex tasks. With the method Kulpe succeeded in proving that the thinking process is free of sensing (sensation free or imageless) and on this basis there arose the concept of free thinking of sensing (imageless thought). Because the mind is not bound by sensing, so people often do not realize what is happening as long as he thinks and the man was not Dapa recounted the stages in the process of thinking that occurs in him. As it turns out the thinking process does not necessarily have to be tied to the senses, it is thought it could be a non-associative (contrary to the opinion of Muller) and mechanistic (contrary to the opinion of Ebbinghaus). But any thought process according Kulpe always has a specific purpose or purposively.

Karl Buhler (1879-1963): Buhler is one of the supporters of the flow of Wurzburg. Wundt like Kulpe he opposed and disagreed with GE Muller. He also opposed elementisme and sensualism. His approach to psychiatric problems is a holistic approach. Mental processes should be approached, seen and considered as a whole or totality. Buhlerlah then appeared the flow of Psychology Ganzheit.

Other donations are also important for Buhler is his attempt to investigate the language (spoken language) from the point of psychology. This effort will then be developed as a branch of psychology called Psycholinguistics.


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