July 5, 2015 Sam and Brianna

1.          The contributions that Wilhelm Wundt made to the field of psychology are as important as they are varied.  During the 1860s Wilhelm Wundt worked on establishing psychology as an experimental science by gathering a large array of scientific instruments, creating a journal that he used to publish findings  (Benjamin, 2014), and by founding the first psychology laboratory in Leipzig (Benjamin, 2014). During his earlier years as an assistant to Hermann Helmholtz, he taught a class by the name of “Physiological Psychology” (Benjamin, 2014) as well as publishing what was potentially his most influential piece of literature for Psychology. The book was titled “Principles of Physiological Psychology” which was reprinted for six editions (Benjamin, 2014). Within the book was a compilation of research and information that was taken from various disciplines related to psychology, such as anatomy, neurology, and psychophysics (Benjamin, 2014). As such, this book acted as the first textbook-esque book that was able to describe what psychology was like as an entire field (Benjamin, 2014). Wundt also trained over 180 students at the various professorships that he held over the years (Benjamin, 2014), and contributed many integral ideas to the then fledgling scientific discipline of psychology. Even though Wundt was nominated for a “Noble Prize in Medicine and Physiology” three times, he never ended up winning against the other finalists (Benjamin, 2014).

             Wilhem Wundt studied two psychologies. The first psychology was done in a laboratory involving an experimental process known as voluntarism (Benjamin, 2014). His second psychology was Volkerpsychology, which is also known as cultural psychology. Wundt recognized that there were two aspects of a conscious experience (Benjamin, 2014). One aspect of a conscious experience is the content itself, while the other aspect is apprehension of the conscious experience. Apprehension is the how the experience is interpreted by the individual (Benjamin, 2014). This understanding allowed Wundt to distinguish the differences between psychological research approaches and natural science research approaches. Psychology deals with how the subject’s react to the experiences whereas, natural sciences relates to the entities of the specific experience (Benjamin, 2014). This also explained the differences the domain of psychology known as immediate experience and the domain of natural sciences known as mediate experience (Benjamin, 2014).

             Wundt documented that feelings, sensations, and association make up an experience. One goal of his was that he wanted to discover the fundamental elements that make up a conscious experience (Benjamin, 2014). He also wanted to understand how these elements created physical combinations and compounds (Benjamin, 2014).

2. This is a link to an image of the first experimental psychology lab in 1879 in University of Leipzig in Germany http://vlp.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/vlpimages/images/img26576.jpg

3.  On Saturday July, 5th we visited the Arc De Triomph in Paris, France. This is a photo at the bottom of this monument. After this picture was taken we climbed to the top and to see the view of overlooking Paris.
                                           

4. Web link to the Arc De Triomph
http://www.arcdetriompheparis.com

Works Cited

Benjamin, L. T. (2014). A brief history of modern psychology (2^nd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.