Essay - Wilhelm Wundt Was One of the Great, Founding Fathers of...

Wilhelm Wundt was one of the great, founding fathers of modern psychology. His definition ***** the three main goals of psychology and understanding ***** the specific elements of thought were some of his major contributions. Further, Wundt helped define the terms perception, ap***** and creative syn*****sis. His early work on the psychology of elements ***** his later work in the Volkerpsychologie helped to cement his positi***** as an outstanding and influential psychologist. Wundtian psychology has declined greatly in recent times, largely as a result of his reliance on *****trospecti*****.

***** three ***** goal of psychology ***** to describe, predict ***** explain behavior. Wundt w***** one ***** the first psychologists to set psychology apart from philosophy. He sought ***** apply the principles of scientific investigation. As such, he ********** one of ***** first psychologists to bring the study ***** psychology ***** the laboratory, and attempt to discern the basic nature of human consciousness and experience.

According to Wundt, there are ***** elements ***** thought, each with specific attributes. ***** founded the psychological school of structuralism that believed that ***** mind could be studied, like any other physical entity. Structuralism broke down thought in***** three main elements: sensations, feelings and images. These three elements each with ***** attributes, combined to form conscious experience.

Wundt also played a great role in def*****ing the terms perception, apperception and creative syn*****sis. Wundt initially saw perception as simply the ***** of sensory organs, like the eyes ***** ears. Eventually, however, he began ***** feel that perception was the work of a central, mental, and introspective process ***** ***** syn*****sis. He argued that the sensory organs interacted with mental representations like thoughts ***** memories to form a person's perception of an event.

***** saw ap***** as basic ***** activity, where mind was seen as ***** activity, not a substance. In t***** sense then, *****perception was part of Wundt's understanding that psychology as part of an elaborate philosophy.

Wundt felt that apperceived ideas were grouped ********** in a centr*****l way, at the center of attention. This ***** called creative syn*****sis, *****d contrasted with the mechanical and automatic ***** that he felt perceived ideas ***** grouped toget*****r.

In the *****ory ***** the higher mental **********, Wundt had a specific role for attention. Wundt felt that attention played a large role in ***** human cognitive phenomena. He felt that the center of attention, or *****, helped to group together perceived ideas. Attention, ***** helped to f*****m the basis ***** memory ***** a person's ***** *****terpretation of events. ***** ***** that attention was crucial in the formation ***** memories, and the process of creative syn*****sis, where apperceived were grouped together in a central way, thus forming the conscious representation ***** events and *****.

Wundt's early work on the psychology of elements and his later work in the Volkerpsychologie were related, with respect to both method and subject matter. Volkerpsychologie expounded the idea ***** higher cognitive phenomena (***** human language) could best be unders*****od in terms of experimental and ethnographic methodology. He