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The Legend of Wilhelm Wundt: How He Created the Experimental Age of Psychology?
Wilhelm Wundt, the father of modern psychology, founded the era of experimental psychology in the 19th century, opening a new chapter in the study of human mind and behavior. He established the world's first psychology laboratory at the University of Leipzig in Germany, which enabled psychology to gradually become independent from philosophy and become a scientific discipline.
Wundt's experimental method was based on mathematics and empiricism, which was epoch-making in the psychology community at the time. His research focuses on psychological processes such as sensation, perception, memory and emotion, which are core areas of current experimental psychology.
A psychologist cannot truly understand the inner workings of psychological processes without conducting experiments.
Pioneers before Wundt
Before Wundt, many scientists had already begun research on psychological phenomena. Charles Bell's research on the nervous system revealed the relationship between sensory nerves and motor nerves, while Ernst Heinrich Weber proposed the famous "Weber's Law" . These early experimental methods and discoveries laid the foundation for Wundt's work.
The Birth of Experimental PsychologyIn 1860, Gustav Fechner published The Elements of Psychophysics, a book considered the cornerstone of experimental psychology. Fechner inherited Weber's research and further explored the quantification of the mind-body relationship. These basic studies contributed to the scientific development of psychology, making methods and evidence the core of this field.
The development of psychology is inseparable from the scientific exploration and verification of mental abilities.
Experimental methods in psychology
Wundt's laboratory attracted not only German psychologists, but also attracted attention from all over the world. Through experiments, they attempted to quantify psychological processes and thus established psychology as a science. The experimental method in psychology focuses on precise control of variables, measurement, and data analysis to support its theories.
Ethics and Modern Development
As psychology has developed, concerns about research ethics have followed closely behind. In 1974, the U.S. Congress passed the National Research Act, requiring that all psychological research must be reviewed by an Institutional Review Board (IRB) before it can be conducted. This measure is intended to protect participants and ensure the ethical legitimacy of the research.
Ensuring the ethical conduct of research is an important part of scientific development.
Conclusion
Since Wundt, psychology has developed from experimental psychology into a diversified discipline, covering many fields such as cognitive psychology and developmental psychology. His pioneering work brought psychology into the era of empirical research. However, as psychology continues to develop, we still need to ask: How will future psychological research affect our understanding of mind and behavior?
