Chapter 1: The Foundations of Psychological Science
Section 1.3: The History of Psychological Science
Learning Outcomes:
After reading this section
you should be able to:
 Explain the method that
Wundt and Titchener
used to study conscious
experience and the
limitations of this
method
 Contrast Titchener’s
structuralist approach
to psychology with
(a) the Gestalt
approach developed
by Wertheimer
(b) the functionalist
approach developed
by James
(c) the behaviorist
approach developed
by Watson and
Skinner
(d) the psychoanalytic
approach developed
by Freud
(e) the cognitive
approach
(f) the humanists’
approach developed
by Maslow and
Rogers
What questions do you
have about this section that
need to be addressed?
Do you have feedback about how these guided notes are working for you? Contact the author at tmartini@brocku.ca
Making Connections:
In Sections 1.1 and 1.2, we saw the importance of a scientific approach to
psychology, and some of the ways that psychologists use that scientific
approach in their everyday work. In this section, we take a closer look at
how the approach to psychological science has evolved over time,
beginning in the 1800s.
Notes:
Take a look at the learning outcomes and The Big Picture diagram for
Section 1.3 and you’ll see that this section covers seven main approaches to
psychological science that have been popular with psychologists over the
decades (see the dark blue boxes). The starting point is usually considered
the work of Wilhelm Wundt, who focused on the importance of scientific
observation.
Explain the characteristics of scientific observation, distinguishing it from
casual observation.
Wundt’s primary method of having his research participants “look within”
was called _________________________________, and could be described
as follows:
Titchener brought Wundt’s basic ideas to the US. He named his approach
______________________________, and defined it as the study of:
Your Turn: Try to come up with your own example of a question that
Titchener might have asked using his unique approach to psychology.
Though there were differences in the way they framed their research
questions, both Wundt and Titchener used introspection as a method for
studying their questions. But introspection has some important limitations
as a method for gathering information. Summarize those limitations in your
own words. Remember, the best way to ensure you can explain something
in your own words is to do the textbook reading and then, once you feel
that you understand, close the book and write down what you know. Once
you’re done, go back to the text and make sure you haven’t missed
anything important.
Use the table below to summarize the central ideas of the approaches that
followed Wundt and Titchener, and contrast each one with Titchener’s
approach (including the use of introspection):
Name: Name of Their Approach to Contrast this Approach to
Chapter 1: The Foundations of Psychological Science
Section 1.3: The History of Psychological Science
Psychology and Central Structuralism and Use of
Ideas: Introspection:
Wertheimer
James
Watson
Skinner
Freud
Cognitive
Maslow

Summary: Try to summarize this section in 250 words or less. Consider comparing your summary with
others in your class to make sure you’ve covered all of the essential elements of this section, and how they
are connected to one another.

Looking Forward: In this section, we have reviewed historical approaches to psychological science, many
of which continue to be relevant today. In the next section, we’ll take a closer look at a more modern
approach to psychological science, which is referred to as the biopsychosocial model.

Do you have feedback about how these guided notes are working for you? Contact the author at tmartini@brocku.ca