Wilhelm Wundt
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| Wilhelm Wundt | |
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| Born | August 16, 1832 Neckarau near Mannheim, Germany |
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| Died | August 31, 1920 (aged 88) Großbothen near Leipzig, Germany[1] |
| Residence | Germany |
| Nationality | German |
| Fields | Psychology, Physiology |
| Institutions | University of Leipzig |
| Alma mater | University of Heidelberg |
| Doctoral students | Edward B. Titchener, G. Stanley Hall, Oswald Kulpe, Hugo Munsterberg, Vladimir Bekhterev, James McKeen Cattell, Lightner Witmer[2] |
| Known for | Psychology, Structuralism |
Wilhelm Maximilian Wundt (August 16, 1832-August 31, 1920) was a German medical doctor, psychologist, physiologist, and professor who is, along with William James, regarded as the father of psychology.[3] In 1879, Wundt founded the one of first formal laboratory for psychological research at the University of Leipzig, and the first journal for psychological research in 1881.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Formative years
Wundt was born in Neckarau, a town near Mannheim, the son of a Lutheran pastor. As a child, Wundt was quiet and stoic, preferring to spend his time in quiet study. He studied at a boarding school beginning at the age of 13, then moving on to study from 1851 to 1856 at the University of Tübingen, University of Heidelberg, and the University of Berlin. During his last year at Heidelberg, Wundt suffered a nearly fatal illness. After graduating in medicine from the university in Heidelberg 1856, Wundt studied briefly with Johannes Peter Müller, before joining the University's staff, becoming an assistant to the physicist and physiologist Hermann von Helmholtz in 1858 until 1864. There he wrote Contributions to the Theory of Sense Perception (1858-62). He married Sophie Mau while at Heidelberg.
It was during this period that Wundt offered the first course ever taught in scientific psychology, all the while stressing the use of experimental methods drawn from the natural sciences, emphasizing the physiological relationship of the brain and the mind. His background in physiology would have a great effect on his approach to the new science of psychology. His lectures on psychology were published as Lectures on the Mind of Humans and Animals in 1863. He was promoted to Assistant Professor of Physiology at Heidelberg in 1864.
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. The Principles utilized a system of psychology that sought to investigate the immediate experiences of consciousness, including feelings, emotions, volitions, and ideas, mainly explored through introspection, or the self-examination of conscious experience by objective observation of one's consciousness.
[edit] Leipzig years
In 1875 he took up a position at the University of Leipzig. Four years later he set up a psychological laboratory, it is the oldest lab that is still open today. Scholars from all over the world flocked to Wundt's laboratory, including Edward B. Titchener. Wundt's students would eventually found important psychology laboratories at the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia, Yale, Harvard, Cornell, and Stanford.
He remained in Leipzig until his death, supervising 186 doctoral dissertations in various disciplines.
In his later years, Wundt focused on social and cultural psychology, and before his death in 1920 he had completed his 10-volume masterwork, Social Psychology.
Of Wundt's enormous corpus of 54,000 pages[4] of books and article entries, some of his notable works include: Lectures on Human and Animal Psychology, Essays, Ethics: An Investigation of the Facts and Laws of the Moral Life, Hypnotismus und Suggestion (1892), and Introduction to Psychology.
[edit] Wundt's conception of psychology
Wundt sought to understand the human mind by identifying the constituent parts of human consciousness, in the same way that a chemical compound is broken into various elements. Thus, Wundt essentially imagined psychology as a science, much like physics or chemistry, in which consciousness is a collection of identifiable parts. Parts of Wundt's system were developed and championed by his one-time student, Titchener, who described his system "Structuralism." Structuralism could not effectively compete in the pragmatic American environment with the native, William James-inspired Functionalism.[citation needed]
[edit] Legacy
Wundt is widely recognized as one of the fathers of psychology. Several of his works, including Principles of Physiological Psychology are considered fundamentally important texts in the field of psychology. Though widely recognized as important in the birth and growth of psychology, his influence in psychology today is a subject of debate among experts.
Though Wundt wrote extensively on a variety of subjects, including philosophy, physics, physiology, and of course psychology, the immensity of his collected writings and the 65 year-long duration of his career makes it difficult to identify a single, coherent mode of thought.[5] Doubtlessly, however, Wundt was a devout foundationalist, working tirelessly to understand the intricacies of the areas of knowledge he studied to form a coherent, atomistic understanding of the universe.[6] In recognition of Wundt's work, the American Psychological Association established the "Wilhelm Wundt-William James Award for Exceptional Contributions to Trans-Atlantic Psychology", which recognizes "a significant record of trans-Atlantic research collaboration." [7]
[edit] Notes and references
- ^ Image:Wilhelm_Wundt_Gravestone.jpg
- ^ Wilhelm Wundt and William James
- ^ Butler-Bowdon, Tom. 50 Psychology Classics, (2007): p. 2.
- ^ Bringmann & Balk, 1992
- ^ Wilhelm Maximilian Wundt (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
- ^ Wilhelm Maximilian Wundt (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
- ^ Wilhelm Wundt-William James Award for Exceptional Contributions to Trans-Atlantic Psychology
- Carpenter, Shana K (Aug 2005). Some neglected contributions of Wilhelm Wundt to the psychology of memory.. Psychological reports 97 (1): 63-73. PMID 16279306.
- Steinberg, H (Nov 2001). [The psychologist and philosopher Wilhelm Wundt and a dedication by his student Emil Kraepelin]. Der Nervenarzt 72 (11): 884. PMID 11758098.
- Ziche, P (1999). Neuroscience in its context. Neuroscience and psychology in the work of Wilhelm Wundt.. Physis; rivista internazionale di storia della scienza 36 (2): 407-29. PMID 11640242.
- Smith, R (Nov 1982). Wilhelm Wundt resurrected.. British journal for the history of science 15 (51 Pt 3): 285-91. PMID 11611088.
- Bringmann, W G; Balance W D, Evans R B (Jul 1975). Wilhelm Wundt 1832-1920: a brief biographical sketch.. Journal of the history of the behavioral sciences 11 (3): 287-97. PMID 11609842.
[edit] External links
- Wilhelm Wundt entry at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Biography, bibliography and access to digital sources in the Virtual Laboratory of the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science
[edit] Works online
- Ethics: An Investigation of the Facts and Laws of the Moral Life. Volume 1. (Tr. Edward B. Titchener et al.) Second Edition, 1902. University of Michigan.
- Lectures on Human and Animal Psychology. (Trs. Edward B. Titchener and James E. Creighton.)
- Second Edition, 1896. Harvard.
- Fourth Edition, 1907. Stanford; UCLA; University of Illinois.
- Outlines of Psychology. (Tr. Charles Hubbard Judd.) Second Edition, 1902. Stanford.
- Principles of Physiological Psychology. Volume 1. (Tr. Edward B. Titchener.)
- First Edition, 1904. Harvard; Lane; University of Michigan; HTML.
- Second Edition, 1910. UCLA.
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