Wilhelm Max Wundt.docx

1、Wilhelm Max Wundt A Brief Discussion of the Life of Wilhelm Wundt the Father of Modern PsychologyJie Lan Deng100091790Leonard George3/3 2016IntroductionWilhelm Max Wundt (1832-1920) is generally considered as “The founder of empirical psychology” as he has made a great contribution on the developmen

2、t of experimental psychology and he was the first who established the first experimental psychology laboratory. (Shanteau, Mellersv & Schum, 1999). Wundt made a great contribution on the development of experimental psychology and the establishment of experimental psychology opened a door for other p

3、sychologist to think about psychology as a science subject rather than theory (Shanteau, Mellersv & Schum, 1999). As he plays a significant role in modern psychology, so, in this short paper, I will briefly present the basis information about Wundts life and his contribution on the development of ex

4、perimental psychology. Life and time of Wilhelm WundtIn 1832, Wilhelm Wundt was born in a small community named Neckarau where was located in Baden in Germany (Mandler, 2011). His father Maximillian was a pastor of a church in a commercial town Wieblingen (Rieber & Robinson, 2012) and his mother Mar

5、ia Friederike ArnoldWundt was an educated woman who had acquired French when she was a child. Wundt was raised as an only kid as two of his siblings died early and another sibling was sent to live with their relative in Heidelberg and taken school there (Rieber & Robinson, 2012). When Wundt was abou

6、t 4-years old, His parent took him left Neckarau and settled in a rural village in Heidelsheim where he spent his entire childhood there (Rieber & Robinson, 2012). He entered the town school in Hildesheim during his first two years education, but after that, when he was 8 years old, his father asked

7、 his vicar to guide young Wundt (Rieber & Robinson, 2012). Wundts emotional attachment and relationship with his father was not happy as he indicated that he remembered his father had hurt him in front of his school teacher (Sydney & Duane 2015) In 1845, Wundt engaged the Bruchsal Gymnasium and he l

8、ived with his fathers young Lutheran vicar Friedrich Mller and they became roommate and private tutor and they shared the same room with each other (Robert, 2013). Wundt admired Mller and he was very attached to him, when the vicar moved to another small town, Wundt was emotionally frustrated about

9、his was leaving, so, Wundts family decided to let Wundt followed the vicar and lived with him until he was at the age of 13 (Sydney & Duane 2015). Wundt had a companion friend when he was a child, the boy was older than Wundt with mental problem and could not speak well (Rieber & Robinson, 2012) (Gu

10、y, 2011).Even though Wundts family was an academic family but Young Wundt was not on the line of his familys academic life, he was interested in his fantasy day dreaming rather than leaning school subjects, he did not like school works and his study score in his Gymnasium (high entrance standard sch

11、ool) was very poor because of his habit of day dreaming, and he was quiet and lonely as he was isolated with his peers and made fun by his teachers (Sydney & Duane 2015). However, its believed that Wundts experience and habit of inattention and fantasy day dreaming during his early childhood that br

12、ought him the ideas about introspection and how the mind works (Robert, 2013). During Wundts childhood period, he was considered as misbehaved kid, and he was raised in a harsh environment as he was always “locked, terrified, in dark closet” if he did not behave properly (Guy, 2011). When Wundt was

13、13 years old, he was sent by his family to live with his brother Ludwig who had lived with their aunt in Heidelberg and he spent his adulthood in Heidelberg (Robert, 2013).When Wundt was 16 years old, he joined the Heidelberg Gymnasium during theRevolutionof1848 and gained the political interest and

14、 he became an active participant in politics (Mandler, 2011). He went to his fathers library and read a lot of political books and romantic books, during this period, Wundts interest on reading books had increased (Mandler, 2011).Wundt learned medicine at Tbingen, Heidelberg, and Berlin from 1851 to

15、 1856, during the years of studying medicine, he literally increased his interest more in the physiology than in a medicine (Rieber & Robinson, 2012). Wundt spent his one year of college life and studied medicine in Tbingen in 1851 (Rieber & Robinson, 2012), even he realized that he did not fascinat

16、ed about medicine but he still spent 3 years to finish his medical education at the University of Heidelberg In 1855, and he got the highest mark on the medical state board examination when he was graduated from the University of Heidelberg (Morton, 2009). After 1855, Wundt decided to continue his m

17、edical study and he studied at University of Berlin in 1856 and studied with J. Mller as and DuBois-Reymond at Berlin (Morton, 2009). The “Heidelberg period (18521874)” (Araujo, 2014) plays a critical role in Wundt earlier academic career. During that period, he completed medical study from 1852 to

18、1855 at the University of Heidelberg, later he got the job as an assistant for the physiologistHermann Von Helmholtz at the University of Heidelberg (Araujo, 2014) when Helmholtz established the physiological department, which able him to explore the field of physiological psychology (Morton, 2009).

19、 In 1857, and he was hired as an instructor in the institute of physiology at University of Heidelberg (Araujo, 2014). Wundt worked as a lab assistant for Hermann Helmholtz, he not only studied and worked hard on his another duty as a lecturer but also published research papers and textbooks on his

20、theories of sense perception during 1858 to 1862, and the book contribution to the theory of sense perception was published in 1862 (Morton, 2009). The book contribution is viewed to “mark the literary birth of the new science (Sydney & Duane, 2015). At that period, Wundt was able to set programs fo

21、r scientific psychology, which focused on the use of experimental and research ways used physical sciences to apply it to psychological studies 1862 (Morton, 2009). In 1863, he finished his lecture books lectures on the minds of men and animals, “In it Wundt discussed many issues, such as reaction t

22、ime and psychophysics that were to occupy the attention of experimental psychologists for years to come” (Sydney & Duane, 2015). In 1864, Wundt was hired as an assistant professor and taught physiological psychology but he quitted the assistant job in Helmholtzs laboratory in order to focus on his p

23、sychological experiment and his established laboratory in his own house (Morton, 2009). He investigated experimental and research methods used in psychological experiments in his lab, and he used apparatus to do research labs (Morton, 2009). Wundt persisted to produce contribution on physical scienc

24、e to his student but he would include psychological questions and knowledges into his lectures (Morton, 2009). In 1874, Wundt published his another contribution which was the book principles of physiological psychology (Sydney & Duane, 2015) which became a standard lecture book and made a fundamenta

25、l change on the study of psychology, which made the psychology as an “independent laboratory science with its own issues and methods of experimentation” (Sydney & Duane, 2015). The furthered editions of the principles of physiological psychology served as a data system for laboratory psychologist (S

26、ydney & Duane, 2015).Wundt stayed at the same position until Helmholtz quit Heidelberg University in 1871, Wundt was considered as the successor of Helmholtz (Morton, 2009). The promotion of position abled Wundt to solve his financial problem and abled him to married his loved wife (Morton, 2009). H

27、e had to work harder than before since he wanted to leave Heidelberg (Morton, 2009). Later he had been chosen as the chief of inductive philosophy at the University of Zurich and then went to Leipzig (Morton, 2009). Wundt stayed 17 years at the University of Heidelberg as assistant and lecturer, spe

28、nt one year to be the chief philosophy professor in the university of Zurich, and later 42 years at the University of Leipzig where he established the first empirical psychology laboratory and indicates psychology is science (Guy, 2011).The 45 years Wundt stayed in Leipzig played a critical role in

29、his academic life (Sydney & Duane, 2015). In 1875, Wundt was offered a professor position at the University of Leipzig, he had been offered a room located in the Konvikt building for depositing his utilities and teaching presentation and later it became his own laboratory (Morton, 2009). In 1879, Wu

30、ndt initiated the first psychological laboratory in the world in the konvikt building in Leipzig and attracted many students to follow and study with him (Sydney & Duane, 2015). Most of the students were came from United States and some student had built their own experimental laboratory when they r

31、eturned back to their hometowns (Sydney & Duane, 2015). Therefore, Wundts establishment of experimental psychology laboratory brought a significant impacts on the progress of the field of modern psychology (Sydney & Duane, 2015). It opened the gate for other psychologists to use labs to explore the

32、field of psychology. Beside US, some Wundts students from Italy, Japan and Russia also use the idea and concept of Wundt to establish experimental psychology laboratory in Russia (in 1912) and in Japan (in 1920) (Sydney & Duane, 2015). Wundt became a very famous and attracted professor in the Univer

33、sity of Leipzig, at a time, there were more than 600 students were enrolled in his lectures, in which he has many famous student who were also had great achievement on the field of psychology such as E.B Titchener (Sydney & Duane, 2015) (1867-1927) who was British psychologist and he took Wilhelm Wundts course for