Introduction
Wilhelm Wundtt was a German philosopher, physiologist, physician, and professor. He is regarded as the father of experimental psychology because he was instrumental in establishing psychology as a discipline that is distinct from philosophy. Further, he is viewed as the first to have studied the brain using scientific methods (Theodore, 2022). Whereas Wundtt trained as a medical doctor, he was inclined toward psychology. His life and medical education prepared him to be a fully developed psychologist. This led to his contribution to the field through structuralism, the creation of the first laboratory, and the development of reductionism theory. However, he practiced briefly as a physician or neurophysiologist.
Wundtt’s Life
Wundtt was born in the German town of Neckarau on August 16, 1832, to Maximilian Wundt and Maria Friederike Arnold Wundt. Despite having siblings, he grew up lonely because two of them died while the remaining one was living with their aunt in Heidelberg (Theodore, 2022). His father was a Lutheran minister, a tradition he carried on from the family’s history of pastoral life. As an adult, he got married to Sophie Mau on August 14, 1972 (German Culture, 2022). Together they had three children, namely Eleanor, Louise (Lilli), and Max Wundt.
Childhood’s Influence on Psychology
During his early years as a boy, Wundtt did not have many friends in his age bracket because he was shy and spent most of his time in the house. This allowed him time to become closer to older family members who guided his education and development (Theodore, 2022). Further, he established a reading culture, and at 10, he could read Shakespeare. Since he spent time alone oftentimes, Wundtt was always engaged in daydreaming, and this allowed him to expand his awareness of his own mental and emotional actions.
Wundtt’s Education
At 19 years old, Wundtt started thinking about the career she wanted to pursue. However, he was convinced that his education depended on the support of his mother’s family (Theodore, 2022). Therefore, his choice of career in medicine resonated well with his uncle, Freidrich Arnold, a lecturer of physiology and anatomy at the University of Tubingen. Wilhelm became a serious student with a passion for anatomy. When Freidrich got a job as director of the Anatomical Institute at Heidelberg, he moved with him. In 1855, he passed the state exams that allowed him to be admitted to practice medicine (Theodore, 2022). However, Wundtt doubted his capacity to work as a career medical doctor for long.
Wundtt’s Life as a Medical Doctor
An opportunity presented itself at a local hospital, and he took the job as a replacement for a colleague who was on leave to write his exams. He endured long working hours, which deprived him of sleep (Theodore, 2022). This affected his competence levels, resulting in him using iodine instead of narcotics to treat a patient (Theodore, 2022). The error haunted him and made him doubt taking medical practice as a full-time job. However, as a scholar in the field, he published many articles on experimental neurophysiology (German Culture, 2022). Further, he wrote about 70 reviews in neurology, physiology, anatomy, and histology.
Link between Medical Training and Psychological Career
While observing patients who had sensory paralysis, he realized that some issues could not be explained from a physiological viewpoint. He concluded that the problems needed a psychological description that is backed by research (Theodore, 2022). This catalyzed his mind beyond turning back, and he was itching to become a psychologist, so he enrolled at the University of Berlin. In 1856, he got his doctorate in medicine at the University of Heidelberg and subsequently joined the faculty in 1857 (Theodore, 2022). In 1864, Wundtt got the position of associate professor for anthropology and medical psychology at the university (Theodore, 2022).
In 1875, he became the first-class chair of philosophy at the University of Leipzig (Theodore, 2022). The following year, Leipzig gave him a laboratory where he stored equipment. Within three years, he developed it into a fully operational lab for psychological research, which was recognized in 1879 (Theodore, 2022). Immediately after, students from all over the globe started enrolling in psychology classes.
Wundtt, the Father of Experimental Psychology
Wundtt is recognized as the brain behind psychology because of his formation of the world’s first experimental lab in this field. While working at the University of Leipzig, he initiated the institution for experimental psychology, the first ever for research in this field. The lab enabled him to employ different scientific techniques to study the mind and behavior, which resulted in the separation of psychology from physiology and biology. Thereafter, the styles, practices, and procedures adopted at the institute become the model for subsequent psychological test rooms (West, 20190. This established him as the founder of experiments in this discipline because it marked the start of modern psychology.
Wundtt’s Contribution to Psychology
The greatest contribution made by Wundtt to this subject was the remarkable demonstration that the human mind can be studied through scientific techniques. Further, he set standards in research by stressing that psychological experiments must be done in properly controlled environments. His techniques became the benchmark for other researchers in the field, who used the same approach when conducting their studies. Further, he focused on the image, thought, and feeling aspects of brain operations (Theodore, 2022). These three are still being evaluated by modern-day researchers in cognitive, social, personality, and abnormal psychology, as well as in economics and linguistic fields. Therefore, Wundtt is regarded as the initiator of scientific explorations in these courses.
Wundtt, the Founder of Structuralism
Wundtt advocated for structuralism as a mechanism for analyzing the brain. He believed and used the principle that the mind is a summation of an individual’s life explorations (West, 2019). Therefore, when deconstructed or separated into its components, each person’s process of reasoning and thinking could be understood. In addition, this theory looked at consciousness as a machine with distinct parts that perform different functions.
Relevance of Structuralism in Psychology
Wundtt was interested in investigating the inner operations of the brain objectively and scientifically. This led him to focus and educate observers on using introspection to analyze their thoughts. While his structuralism theory and approach are not viewed as a precise scientific method today, they assisted in the establishment of early psychology. Additionally, it influenced the emergence of experimental psychology (Schultz & Schultz, 2016). In modern psychology, structuralism helps beginning students appreciate the evolution of the subject.
Wundtt’s Experiment
As the founder of experimental psychology, he assessed immediate conscious experiences and higher mental processes in the laboratory. With various conditions and experiential ideas, he tested the relationship between breathing, heart rate, stomach contractions, and muscle tension (Metaphysics Research Lab, 2006). The apparatus he used was a cylinder coated with black lamp soot and connected to a clockwork mechanism. The set-up was arranged using a needle that moves in response to body functions. Thereby scratching a similarity record of frequency or intensity waves.
Other Theory Developed by Wundtt
In his development of psychology as a distinct discipline, Wundtt believed in the concept of reductionism. He was for the proposition that complex things broken down into simple parts could help in looking at human behavior from different viewpoints (Theodore, 2022). Through this theory, Wundtt wanted to ensure that people made sense of the world rather than getting lost in complicated details. Wundt’s goal was to record sensations and thoughts before dividing them into smaller parts that could be better understood without losing any sense of the whole.
Conclusion
Wilhelm Wundtt, the son of Maximilian Wundt and Maria Friederike Arnold Wundt, was a German philosopher, physiologist, physician, and professor. He grew up lonely and did not have many friends; this made him daydream most of the time, which shaped his awareness of mental and emotional actions. Further, his medical education influenced his love for psychology as a distinct discipline. In particular, as a practicing physician, while observing a patient, he realized that the problem could only be explained from a psychological perspective.
From this point on, he made up his mind to pursue a career in this field. Wundtt was offered a position as an associate professor at Leipzig University, and he took advantage of the opportunity by converting the laboratory he was given into a fully operational psychological experimental room. Through his tests, he came up with Structuralism and reductionist theories that were anchored on separating the brain’s functions into their most fundamental components.
References
German Culture. (2022). Wilhelm Wundt – Father of psychology. Web.
Metaphysics Research Lab. (2006). Wilhelm Maximilian Wundt. In Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Web.
Schultz, D. P., and Schultz, S. E. (2016). A history of modern psychology. 2nd ed. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
Theodore, T. (2022). Wilhelm Wundt (Psychologist Biography). Practical Psychology. Web.
West, B. (2019). Wilhelm Wundt: The father of Psychology. Project Global Awakening. Web.