Wilhelm Wundt: Pioneer of Psychology

Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsWhy Wundt Is the Father of PsychologyThe Life of Wilhelm WundtCareerInfluenceOther “Fathers of Psychology”

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Table of Contents

Why Wundt Is the Father of Psychology

The Life of Wilhelm Wundt

Career

Influence

Other “Fathers of Psychology”

Close

Who is considered the father of psychology? This question does not necessarily have a cut-and-dry answer since many individuals have contributed to the inception, rise, and evolution of modern-day psychology.

We’ll take a closer look at a single individual who is most often cited as well as other individuals who are also considered fathers of variousbranches of psychology.

Wilhelm Wundt is the man most commonly identified as the father of psychology. Why Wundt? Other people such as Hermann von Helmholtz, Gustav Fechner, and Ernst Weber were involved in earlyscientific psychology research, so why are they not credited as the father of psychology?

Wundt is bestowed this distinction because of his formation of theworld’s first experimental psychology lab, which is usually noted as the official start of psychology as a separate and distinct science.

By establishing a lab that utilized scientific methods to study the human mind and behavior, Wundt took psychology from a mixture of philosophy and biology and made it a unique field of study.

In addition to making psychology a separate science, Wundt also had a number of students who went on to become influential psychologists themselves. Edward B. Titchener was responsible for establishing the school of thought known asstructuralism,

James McKeen Cattell became the first professor of psychology in the United States, andG. Stanley Hallestablished the first experimental psychology lab in the U.S.

The First Experimental Psychology Lab

Wilhelm Wundt was a German psychologist who established the very first psychology laboratory in Leipzig, Germany in 1879. This event is widely recognized as the formal establishment of psychology as a science distinct from biology and philosophy.

Among his many distinctions, Wundt is considered a pioneer in psychology because he was the very first person to refer to himself as apsychologist.

He is often associated with theschool of thoughtknown as structuralism, although it was his student Edward B. Titchener who was truly responsible for the formation of that school of psychology. Wundt also developed a research technique known asintrospection, in which highly trained observers would study and report the content of their own thoughts.

Wilhelm Wundt’s Career in Psychology

Wilhelm Wundt graduated from the University of Heidelberg with a degree in medicine. He went on to study briefly with Johannes Muller and later with the physicist Hermann von Helmholtz. Wundt’s work with these two individuals is thought to have heavily influenced his later work in experimental psychology.

First Psychology Lab

Wundt later wrote thePrinciples of Physiological Psychology(1874), which helped establish experimental procedures in psychological research. After taking a position at the University of Leipzig, Wundt founded the first experimental psychology lab in the world.

Although another psychology lab already existed—William Jameshad established a lab at Harvard a few years before—James' lab was focused on offering teaching demonstrations rather than experimentation. After studying with Wundt, G. Stanley Hall founded the first Americanexperimental psychologylab at John Hopkins University.

Structuralism

Wundt is often associated with the theoretical perspective known as structuralism, which involves describing the structures that compose the mind.

Wundt was a pioneer of psychology not only because he established the first psychology lab; he also introduces the earliest intellectual school of thought. Structuralism is regarded as the very firstschool of thought in psychology.

While Wundt istypically associated with structuralism, it was actually his studentEdward B. Titchenerwho influenced the structuralist school in America. Many historians believe that Titchener actually misrepresented much of Wundt’s original ideas. Instead, Wundt referred to his point of view as voluntarism.

While Titchener’s structuralism involved breaking down elements to study the structure of the mind, some experts have noted that Wundt’s approach was actually much moreholistic.

Introspection

Another reason Wundt is considered a pioneer in psychology was that he focused on developing experimental strategies and techniques to help systematically study human thought and behavior. Wundt believed that psychology was the science of conscious experience and that trained observers could accurately describe thoughts, feelings, andemotionsthrough a process known as introspection.

However, Wundt made a clear distinction between everyday self-observation, which he believed was inaccurate, and experimentalintrospection(also called internal perception). According to Wundt, internal perception involved a properly trained observer who was aware when a stimulus of interest was introduced.

Wundt’s process required the observer to be keenly aware and attentive to their thoughts and reactions to the stimulus and involved multiple presentations of the stimulus. Of course, because this process relies on personal interpretation, it is highly subjective. Wundt believed that systematically varying the conditions of the experiment would enhance the generality of the observations.

Wundt also established the psychology journalPhilosophical Studies. In a 2002 ranking of themost influential psychologistsof the 20th century, Wundt was ranked at number 93.

Wilhelm Wundt’s Influence

The creation of a psychology lab established psychology as a separate field of study with its own methods and questions. Wilhelm Wundt’s support of experimental psychology also set the stage forbehaviorism, and many of his experimental methods are still used today.

Wundt also had many students who later became prominent psychologists, including Edward Titchener,James McKeen Cattell, Charles Spearman, G. Stanley Hall, Charles Judd, andHugo Munsterberg.

A number of other influential thinkers can also claim to be a father of psychology in some way or another. The following are just a few of these individuals who are noted in specific areas of psychology:

A Word From Verywell

Wundt was not only the very first person to refer to himself as a psychologist; he also established psychology as a formal discipline separate from philosophy and biology. While his introspective method does not meet the empirical rigor of research today, his emphasis on experimental methods did pave the way for the future of experimental psychology.

Thanks to his work and contributions, a whole new field was established and inspired other researchers to explore and study the human mind and behavior.

Obviously, not everyone is going to agree with these generalized titles. A few people might suggest that Freud is the father of psychology since he is perhaps one of its most “known” figures.

Others might suggest that Aristotle is the true father of psychology since he is responsible for the theoretical and philosophical framework that contributed to psychology’s earliest beginnings. Still others might argue that those earliest researchers such as Helmholtz and Fechner deserve credit as the founders of psychology.

No matter which side of the argument you are on, one thing that is easy to agree on is that all of these individuals had an important influence on the growth and development of psychology. While the theories of each individual are not necessarily as influential now, all of these psychologists were important in their own time and had a major impact on how psychology evolved into what it is today.

5 SourcesVerywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Rieber R, Robinson RW, eds.Wilhelm Wundt in History: The Making of A Scientific Psychology. New York, NY: Springer; 2001.Henley T.Hergenhahn’s An Introduction to the History of Psychology. 8th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning; 2019.Blumenthal A.The founding father we never knew.Contemporary Psychology. 1979; 24(7):547-550. doi:10.1037/018836Kim A.Wilhelm Maximilian Wundt.Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.Haggbloom SJ, Warnick R, Warnick JE, et. al.The 100 most eminent psychologists of the 20th century.Review of General Psychology.2002;6(2):139–152. doi:10.1037/1089-2680.6.2.139Additional ReadingSchultz DP, Schultz SE.A History of Modern Psychology. 10th ed. Wadsworth Cengage Learning; 2011.Wertheimer MA.Brief History of Psychology. 5th ed. New York: Taylor & Francis Group; 2012.

5 Sources

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Rieber R, Robinson RW, eds.Wilhelm Wundt in History: The Making of A Scientific Psychology. New York, NY: Springer; 2001.Henley T.Hergenhahn’s An Introduction to the History of Psychology. 8th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning; 2019.Blumenthal A.The founding father we never knew.Contemporary Psychology. 1979; 24(7):547-550. doi:10.1037/018836Kim A.Wilhelm Maximilian Wundt.Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.Haggbloom SJ, Warnick R, Warnick JE, et. al.The 100 most eminent psychologists of the 20th century.Review of General Psychology.2002;6(2):139–152. doi:10.1037/1089-2680.6.2.139Additional ReadingSchultz DP, Schultz SE.A History of Modern Psychology. 10th ed. Wadsworth Cengage Learning; 2011.Wertheimer MA.Brief History of Psychology. 5th ed. New York: Taylor & Francis Group; 2012.

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

Rieber R, Robinson RW, eds.Wilhelm Wundt in History: The Making of A Scientific Psychology. New York, NY: Springer; 2001.Henley T.Hergenhahn’s An Introduction to the History of Psychology. 8th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning; 2019.Blumenthal A.The founding father we never knew.Contemporary Psychology. 1979; 24(7):547-550. doi:10.1037/018836Kim A.Wilhelm Maximilian Wundt.Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.Haggbloom SJ, Warnick R, Warnick JE, et. al.The 100 most eminent psychologists of the 20th century.Review of General Psychology.2002;6(2):139–152. doi:10.1037/1089-2680.6.2.139

Rieber R, Robinson RW, eds.Wilhelm Wundt in History: The Making of A Scientific Psychology. New York, NY: Springer; 2001.

Henley T.Hergenhahn’s An Introduction to the History of Psychology. 8th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning; 2019.

Blumenthal A.The founding father we never knew.Contemporary Psychology. 1979; 24(7):547-550. doi:10.1037/018836

Kim A.Wilhelm Maximilian Wundt.Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

Haggbloom SJ, Warnick R, Warnick JE, et. al.The 100 most eminent psychologists of the 20th century.Review of General Psychology.2002;6(2):139–152. doi:10.1037/1089-2680.6.2.139

Schultz DP, Schultz SE.A History of Modern Psychology. 10th ed. Wadsworth Cengage Learning; 2011.Wertheimer MA.Brief History of Psychology. 5th ed. New York: Taylor & Francis Group; 2012.

Schultz DP, Schultz SE.A History of Modern Psychology. 10th ed. Wadsworth Cengage Learning; 2011.

Wertheimer MA.Brief History of Psychology. 5th ed. New York: Taylor & Francis Group; 2012.

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