Wilhelm Wundt short biography and interesting facts. The creator of psychology wilhelm wundt

Wilhelm Wundt biography and Interesting Facts from the life of a German physician, physiologist and psychologist, the founder of experimental psychology are presented in this article.

Wilhelm Wundt biography briefly

The future psychologist Wilhelm Wundt was born on August 16, 1832 in the family of a pastor in the city of Mannheim. After graduating from high school, he entered the University of Tübingen at the Faculty of Medicine. Wilhelm continued his further studies in Heidelberg. From 1855 to 1856, he served as an assistant in a medical clinic in the women's department under the guidance of Professor Gasse, his teacher.

Dr. Wundt's career as a practicing physician went up. But after he took a semester in Berlin with the famous naturalist I.P. Müller, Wilhelm gave up his career. In 1856 he defended his doctoral dissertation in Heidelberg and took up the post of professor of physiology at this university.

Making progress in the field of psychology, he began to conduct physiological studies and published a book called "The Teaching of Muscular Movements." Lectures and studies social and experimental psychology.

In 1875, Wundt became professor of philosophy at the University of Leipzig. In addition to teaching philosophy, in 1879 he organized the world's first laboratory for experimental psychology. Soon it was transformed into an institute, the doors of which were open to all who wish to study mental activity. He also created the first psychic journal, Philosophical Investigations, in 1881. The works of the laboratory were published in it. In general, the laboratory was engaged in research in 5 directions:

• Psychophysics
• Study of perceptions and sensations
• Examining reaction times
• Association study
• Exploring feelings

Wundt devoted the rest of his life to the study of cultural and social psychology. Until his death, he wrote a 10-volume fundamental work entitled Social Psychology.

Wilhelm Wundt interesting facts

• During its scientific activities(for 68 years) Wilhelm Wundt wrote neither more nor less - 53,735 pages. It turns out that he wrote more than two printed pages per day.
• He's perfect spoke several languages- Latin, Greek and Hebrew.
• In 1867, Wilhelm met Sophie Mau, the eldest daughter of a theology professor. They were married on August 14, 1872 in the city of Kiel. In the marriage, the couple had three children - Eleanor, Lily and Max.
• In honor of the researcher, an optical illusion was named - Wundt's Illusion
• Dr. Wundt, in need of funds, day and night on duty at the clinic... He was so tired that he fell asleep just on the go. Very often Wundt made rounds of patients in a half-asleep state - he was a somnambulist.

DIVISION OF PSYCHOLOGY IN AN INDEPENDENT SCIENCE

By the 70s of the XIX century, there was a need to combine the scattered knowledge about the psyche into scientific discipline different from others. In various areas of experimental work (Weber, Fechner, Donders, Helmholtz, Pfluger and many others), ideas were formed about special laws and factors that were different from both physiological and those that belonged to psychology as a branch of philosophy, which has phenomena as its subject. consciousnesses studied by inner experience.

Along with the laboratory work of physiologists on the study of the senses and movements, the successes of evolutionary biology and medical practice (using hypnosis in the treatment of neuroses) prepared a new psychology. Opened the whole world mental phenomena accessible to the same objective study as any other natural facts. It has been established, based on experimental and quantitative methods, that this psychic world has its own laws and causes. This paved the way for the separation of psychology from both physiology and philosophy.

When the time is ripe, Goethe said, apples fall at the same time in different orchards. The time has come to determine the status of psychology as an independent science, and then, almost simultaneously, several programs for its development took shape. They defined in different ways the subject, method and tasks of psychology, the vector of its development.

The greatest success fell to the lot of the famous German psychologist, physiologist, philosopher Wilhelm Wundt (1832 - 1920). He came to psychology from physiology (at one time he was Helmholtz's assistant) and was the first to collect and combine in a new discipline created by various researchers. Calling this discipline "physiological psychology", he sought to part with the speculative past of psychology. "Fundamentals of Physiological Psychology" (1873 -1874) was the title of his monumental work, perceived as a body of knowledge about the new science.

Wilhelm Wundt developed a program for psychology as an independent science. He wrote "Materials for the theory of sensory perception" (1862), "Lectures on the soul of man and animals" (1863), ten-volume "Psychology of peoples" (1900-1920).

Organized in Leipzig the first laboratory of experimental psychology(1879), and later - the first special psychological institute, he took up topics borrowed from physiologists - the study of sensations, reaction times, associations, psychophysics.

Historians have calculated that 136 Germans, 14 Americans, 10 British, 6 Poles, 3 Russians, 2 French went through Wundt's school. She became the main nursery of the first generation of experimental psychologists.

Unique the subject of psychology, not studied by any other discipline, "direct experience" was recognized; the main by the method of psychology- introspection: the subject's observation of the processes in his mind. Introspection was understood as a special procedure requiring special long-term training.

With the usual self-observation inherent in every person who is able to give an account of what he perceives, feels or thinks, it is extremely difficult to separate perception as a mental process from the perceived real or imagined object. It was believed that this object is given in external experience. The subjects were required to distract themselves from everything external in order to find the initial elements of internal experience, to get to the primary "tissue" of consciousness, which seemed to be woven from sensory (sensory) "threads". When the question arose about more complex mental phenomena, where thinking and will entered into action, the helplessness of Wundt's program was immediately revealed.

If sensations could be explained within the standards adopted by scientific, causal thinking (as the effect of a stimulus on a bodily organ), then things were different with volitional acts. Instead of being causally explained, they were themselves taken by Wundt as the ultimate cause of the processes of consciousness and the primary spiritual force. Thus, the former naturalist Wundt became a supporter of voluntarism (from the Latin "voluntas" - will), a philosophy that considers will to be the highest principle of being.

In an introductory lecture to the course "On the Tasks of Contemporary Philosophy" in 1874, Wundt put forward his program for the development of physiological psychology as an experimental science. Psychology, according to him, "belongs to the empirical direction." "This science must investigate the facts of consciousness, their connections and relationships, with the aim of discovering as a result the laws that govern these relationships." Psychology studies the entire content of our experience in its relationship to the subject and in the properties directly introduced into this experience by the latter.

The main goal of psychology is analysis, reconstruction (dismembered description) in precise scientific concepts structures of consciousness ("architectonics", "sensory mosaic") of the individual. Methodical task of psychology- to dismember consciousness into its constituent elements and to find out the regular connections between them. The main directions of experimental research: physiological study of the sense organs, sensations and perceptions; psychophysics - thresholds of sensations and their discrimination; reaction time; associations; feelings and emotions.

The result scientific research Wundt revealed a new understanding of consciousness as "the ability to see one's sensations and images, based on inner experience." "Nowhere ... the facts of the realities of soul life do not need for their explanation a substratum other than the one given to them, and the unity of this life does not win at all if to her their own coherence is also added a substance, which ... turns out to be just an abstract repetition of a well-grounded mental life in itself. " consciousness there is "a combination of mental processes, from which separate formations stand out as closer connections. The state in which this combination is interrupted, for example, the state of deep sleep, fainting, we call unconscious."

"Since every mental formation consists of a multitude of elementary processes, which usually do not begin and end simultaneously at the same moment, the connection that connects these elements into one whole ... always goes beyond its limits, so that simultaneous and

successive formations ... are connected with each other, although less closely. We call this combination of mental formations consciousness. "Kinds of consciousness according to Wundt: individual, group, national, etc.

Wundt attributed to the properties of consciousness: phenomenalism; "volume of consciousness"; combination, limits of perception; voltage; intensity; clarity and distinctness of impressions (like light); "threshold of consciousness". The simplest elements - "atoms of consciousness" ("indecomposable components") sensations ("sensory content of experience", insufficiently distinct "perceptions") are primary, from them complex ones are formed.

Affect Wundt defines it as "a process of changing and at the same time connected feelings and representations that take place in time." The mood appears "at a lesser intensity and a longer duration of feelings." Feelings are instant states of affect. Affects are components of volitional processes. Volitional process- a complete process that includes all parts.

The phenomena of consciousness are formed by association and by apperception. Apperception- a special function of consciousness ("center of the sphere of consciousness", " inner strength consciousness "), which manifests itself in the subject's mental activity (" thinking is a logical connection of phenomena with the help of apperception ") and is externally expressed in attention. Apperception determines the volitional behavior of a person, obeying the" law of creative synthesis ", i.e. apperception synthesizes into a single whole separate elements, "atoms" of consciousness.

Thus, according to the proposed program, sensations, reaction times to various stimuli, associations, attention, and the simplest human feelings were studied in the laboratory. On their basis, Wundt formulated the laws of mental life, which he sometimes called principles. These are the principles: psychic resultants; creative synthesis - the mental is not just a sum; mental relationships; mental contrasts (grouping of mental elements by opposites); enhancing contrasts.

According to Wundt, higher mental processes (speech, thinking, will) are inaccessible to experiment and therefore must be studied by the cultural-historical method. Wundt undertook the experience of psychological interpretation of myth, religion, art and other cultural phenomena in his work "The Psychology of Nations": "Since individual psychology has as its subject the connection of mental processes in a single consciousness, it uses abstraction ... forms a whole psychology ... ".

The forms of human society, according to Wundt, are "continuous historical development, leading the spiritual joint life of individuals beyond the boundaries of direct coexistence in time and space. The result of this development is ... the idea of ​​humanity as a world spiritual society, dismembering ... into specific groups: nations, states, ... tribes and families. "

Thanks to the scientific research of W. Wundt, by the beginning of the 20th century in the higher educational institutions Dozens of laboratories of experimental psychology were operating in the world, dealing with a fairly wide range of problems: from the analysis of sensations and the organization of an associative experiment to psychometric measurements and psychophysiological research. But the modest results of a huge number of experiments, lacking heuristic ideas, did not always correspond to the money and efforts spent. Against this mundane and monotonous background, as it turned out later, the concept of a group of young scientists, which was presented in several publications of the journal Archive general psychology The authorship came from a group of young experimental scientists who practiced with Professor Külpe in Würzburg (Bavaria).

Wilhelm Wundt was born on August 16, 1832 in Baden. As a teenager, he became interested in medicine and from 1851 to 1856 studied medicine at the universities of Heidelberg, Tübingen and Berlin. Since 1858, Wundt published articles "Reports on the theory of sensory cognition." In these early works, he reflected his views on the basic concepts of psychology. In his opinion, psychology is a science of nature, and its subject should be studied in accordance with natural scientific principles and methods. Wilhelm Wundt considered the unlimited application of the experimental method to be one of the most important principles of psychological science. He understood the main task of psychology as an answer to the question of how physical impact on the senses becomes a sensation. In the following works, Wilhelm Wundt developed the reflex and deterministic concepts of the mental and considered the theory of mental processes as products of development. Since 1864, Wilhelm Wundt was an extraordinary professor of physiology at Heidelberg, in 1874 he became a professor of philosophy in Zurich, and from 1875 he was also a professor of philosophy in Leipzig. Until 1878, all of his scientific works were devoted to the problems of physiology. The most fundamental in this series was his work "Foundations of Physiological Psychology", written in 1873-1874. In it, Wundt examined in detail the concept of the mental, which, in his opinion, is an intermediate link between external influences on the senses and movement. This spontaneous movement, along with sensory representation, he considered the main psychological functions. In 1875, another of his books, "The Theory of Matter", was published. In it, Wundt showed his adherence to the "theory of signs" created by Helmholtz. He believed that representation does not imply the things themselves, but the signs that point to them. Thus, we can say that Wundt adhered to the theory of parallelism between external influence and sensation. In 1879, in Leipzig, Wilhelm Wundt organized the world's first laboratory of experimental psychology, which was soon transformed into an institute, which for many years was the most important international center and a unique school of experimental psychology for researchers from many countries of Europe and America. In this laboratory, sensations, reaction times to various stimuli, associations, attention, and the simplest human feelings were studied. In the process of transforming psychology into an experimental science, Wundt borrowed the model of scientific research in contemporary natural science. According to his understanding of the natural scientific method, any Scientific research must satisfy a number of basic requirements. First, the phenomenon to be observed must be in the field of clear and distinct perception of the observer for some time. Since mental phenomena are complex and fluid, and the time of formation of a clear and distinct perception is finite and often commensurate with the time of the observed process itself, there should be a possibility of multiple reproduction of the phenomenon under identical conditions. As Wundt believed, the implementation of these requirements in psychology presupposes, first of all, a change in the object of study itself. If since the time of D. Locke, only the world of a person's “inner experience” was recognized as such an object, then Wundt demanded to turn to the analysis of the entire sphere of experience, all “direct” experience, regardless of whether it is internal or external. Wundt contrasted this experience with the "mediated" experience - the world of objects and ideal meanings, which, although it is revealed to man "through" his experiences, is itself an object of study not by psychology, but by other sciences (physics, chemistry, biology, etc.) ... In 1883, Wundt founded the world's first journal of experimental psychology, Philosophische Studien. The last twenty years of his life, Wilhelm Wundt devoted to the study of the psychology of nations, which he regarded as the crown of psychology, Wundt studied the processes underlying the general development of human societies and the emergence of joint spiritual products representing universal human values. As a result of this consideration, Wilhelm Wundt made an attempt to reduce the development of society and culture to mental causes and conditions. Thus, we can say that Wundt idealized psychology, considering it a universal science. But, limiting the subject of study of the psychology of peoples to higher mental processes, Wundt did not pay attention to social psychology. Nevertheless, he can be called the founder of cultural psychology. Wilhelm Wundt based the psychology of peoples created by him on the idea of ​​the social determinism of the mental development of individuals and their mutual influence. As part of his work, he saw the study of such sociocultural phenomena as language, religion, myths and folklore. Related to this is the fact that adherents of positivism in psychology rejected Wundt's project of psychology. In 1912, Wilhelm Wundt published a book, which became a kind of result of his scientific activity. In it, the scientist examined the basic concepts of psychology in the light of its comparison with natural science. Having analyzed the work of many psychologists, Wundt identified two basic definitions of the concept of psychology. According to one, psychology is a “science of the soul,” and mental processes are interpreted as phenomena from which one can draw conclusions about the essence of the underlying metaphysical mental substance According to another definition, psychology is the "science of inner experience" According to this, mental processes belong to a special kind of experience, which differs primarily in the fact that its objects are left to "self-observation", or, in other words, " inner "feeling However, according to Wundt, none of these definitions satisfy the modern scientific point view The first - metaphysical - definition corresponds to the state in which psychology was longer than other areas of human knowledge, but which for it has now completely receded into the past, after it has developed into an empirical discipline The second - empirical - definition that sees in psychology The "science of inner experience", according to Wilhelm Wundt, is not enough, because it may support the erroneous opinion that this inner experience deals with objects that are in every way different from the objects of the so-called "external experience." Based on this, Wilhelm Wundt divided natural science and psychology as two different directions in the processing of experimentally obtained experience. The first is that which natural science follows; Wundt believed that the natural sciences consider the objects of experience in their properties, conceivable independently of the subject. The second direction is followed by psychology: it considers the aggregate content of experience in its relationship to the subject and in those properties that are attributed to it directly by the subject. The natural-scientific point of view, insofar as it is possible only due to abstraction from the subjective factor contained in any real experience, Wundt called the point of view of mediated experience, and the psychological one - the point of view of direct experience. Since natural science investigates the content of experience in abstraction from the testing subject, the task of natural science is defined in the same way as "cognition of the external world", and under outside world I mean the totality of objects given to us in the experience. Accordingly, the task of psychology was sometimes defined as "self-knowledge of the subject." However, this definition is not enough, since, in addition to the properties of the subject, the subject of psychology also includes various interactions between him and the external world and other similar subjects. The conclusion made by Wilhelm Wundt in his work was that both natural science and psychology are empirical sciences, since they have as their task the explanation of experience. At the same time, psychology should be called a more strictly empirical science in view of the peculiarities inherent in its task. Wilhelm Wundt died on 31 August 1920 at Großboten near Leipzig. The contribution that he made to the creation and development of experimental psychology can hardly be overestimated. Many scientists from Europe and America worked in his first laboratory of experimental psychology in the world. Among them were Russian psychologists: N.N. Lange, A.F. Lazursky, D.N. Uznadze. In addition, Wilhelm Wundt was the founder of ethnopsychology.

WUNDT Wilhelm

WUNDT Wilhelm Marx (1832-1920) - German psychologist, physiologist, philosopher. Founder of Experimental Psychology. After graduating from the medical faculty (Tübingen) he studied physiology in Berlin with I. Müller and D. Raymond. In 1856 in Heidelberg he defended his doctorate. dis. in philosophy and took up the position of teacher of physiology as an assistant to Helmholtz. Becoming a professor of philosophy in Leipzig (1875), W. created the world's first laboratory of experimental psychology (1879), transformed into an institute. Engaging in physiology, V. came to a program for the development of psychology as an independent science, independent of physiology and philosophy (a section of which it was considered to be). In his first book Materials for the theory of sensory perception (1862), relying on facts related to the activity of the sense organs and movements, V. put forward the idea of ​​creating an experimental psychology, the plan of which was outlined in the Lectures on the Soul of Man and Animals (1863). The plan included two directions of research: a) analysis of individual consciousness with the help of experimentally controlled observation of the subject for his own sensations, feelings, ideas; b) the study of the psychology of peoples, i.e. psychological aspects of culture - language, myth, customs of various peoples, etc. Following this idea, V. initially focused on the study of the subject's consciousness, defining psychology as the science of direct experience. He called it physiological psychology, since the states experienced by the subject were studied through special experimental procedures, most of which were developed by physiology (mainly the physiology of the sense organs - vision, hearing, etc.). Since the product of the activity of these organs is the mental images perceived by the subject, they, in contrast to the bodily organization, were considered as a special object of study, no longer attributed to physiology, but to psychology. The task was seen in the fact that these images are carefully analyzed, highlighting the original, simplest elements from which they are built. V. also used the achievements of two other new branches of knowledge - psychophysics, which studies, on the basis of experiment and with the help of quantitative methods, the regular relations between physical stimuli and the sensations they cause, and another special direction, which determines empirically the subject's reaction time to the presented stimuli. In addition, by that time the English scientist Galton made an attempt to experimentally study what associations a word can cause in a person as a special irritant. It turned out that the person to whom it is presented responds to the same word with a variety of reactions, moreover, not only verbal, but also figurative. This prompted him to start classifying reactions, counting their number, the time that elapses from presenting a word to reacting to it, etc. And in this case, quantitative methods were used. Combining all these methods, refining them, V. showed that on the basis of experiments, the object of which is a person (whereas before experiments were performed only on animals), psychology can be developed as an independent science. The results obtained were presented by him in the book Fundamentals of Physiological Psychology, which became the first major work, according to which they were taught not only by V. himself, but also in other centers, where specialists in a new discipline - experimental psychology - appeared, the father of which was later called V. The task of psychology, like all other sciences, is, according to V., to a) select the initial elements through analysis; b) establish the nature of the connection between them and c) find the laws of this connection. Analysis meant dismembering the subject's immediate experience. This is accomplished through introspection. It should not be confused with ordinary introspection. Introspection is a special procedure that requires special training. With ordinary self-observation, it is difficult for a person to separate perception as a mental internal process from a perceived object, which is not mental, but given in external experience. The subject must be able to distract himself from everything external in order to get to the primordial matter of consciousness. It consists of elementary, further indecomposable threads of component parts. They have qualities such as modality (for example, visual sensations are different from auditory) and intensity. Feelings (emotional states) also belong to the elements of consciousness. According to V.'s hypothesis, each feeling has three dimensions: a) pleasure - displeasure, b) tension - relaxation, c) excitement - tranquility. Simple feelings, like mental elements, vary in quality and intensity, but any of them can be characterized in all three aspects. This hypothesis gave rise to many experimental works, in which, along with introspection data, objective indicators were also used about changes in the physiological states of a person during emotions. In an effort to defend the independence of psychology, V. argued that it has its own laws, and its phenomena are subject to a special psychic causality. In support of this conclusion, he referred to the law of conservation of energy. Material movement can only cause material movement. For mental phenomena, there is another source and they, accordingly, require other laws to which V. attributed: the principles of creative synthesis, the law of mental relations (the dependence of an event on the internal relationships of elements, for example, melodies from the relationships in which individual tones are located among themselves) , the law of contrast (opposites reinforce each other) and the law of heterogeneity of goals (when an act is committed, actions that are not provided for by the original goal may arise, affecting its motive). V.'s theoretical views became the subject of criticism and by the end of the century were rejected by most psychologists. His main miscalculation was seen in the fact that consciousness, as an object of psychology, was interpreted by him, proceeding from the postulate that only the subject himself is able to communicate his the inner world due to introspection (inner vision). Thus, the omnipotence of the subjective method was affirmed. The task of science was seen in the refinement of this method through the use of special experimental devices. An attempt to find his own subject of psychology, distinguishing it from other sciences, turned into an opinion about the self-contained consciousness. V. rightly believed that psychology would not have the right to claim an independent scientific value if it had not studied and discovered special causal factors that determine the dynamics of its processes. But his view of mental causality was reduced to the version that the regular and law-like course of mental processes is determined by themselves. The dependence of consciousness on external objects, the conditioning of the psyche by the activity of the brain, the involvement of the mental life of the individual in the world of social connections between people - all this was removed from the sphere scientific analysis... In addition, following the philosopher A. Schopenhauer, W. argued that the primary absolute force of human existence is the will, which was entrusted with the unification of all elements of consciousness into integrity according to the law of creative synthesis. Thus, assigning to the will the role of the dominant principle in the structure of consciousness, V. took the position of voluntarism - a philosophical concept that is powerless to give a causal explanation of the dynamics of mental life and human actions, since everything that happens in this life reduces to a special voluntary force, for whose actions there is no law. Introspectionism, combined with voluntarism, which distinguished the Wundt system, made it the object of harsh criticism from many psychologists, including those who mastered experimental methods in his school. The widespread use of these methods has enriched knowledge about the psyche, strengthened the scientific reputation of the science about it. But V.'s theoretical line turned out to be a dead end. Later, leaving the experiment, V. engaged in philosophy and the development of the second branch of psychology conceived by him in his youth, devoted to the mental aspect of creating a culture, the author of which is various peoples. He writes a ten-volume Psychology of Nations, characterized by a large abundance of material on ethnography, the history of language, anthropology, and others. V. was guided by the idea that only elementary mental processes (sensations, the simplest feelings) are subject to experimental study. As for more complex shapes mental life, then here the experiment with all its advantages, proven by the progress of science, according to V. is unsuitable. This conviction V. was dispelled by further events in psychology. Already his closest students proved that such complex processes as thinking and will are as open to experimental analysis as the most elementary ones. From V. it is customary to lead the pedigree of psychology as a separate discipline. He created the largest school in the history of this science, having passed which young researchers from different countries Having returned to their homeland, they organized laboratories and centers, where the ideas and principles of a new field of knowledge were cultivated, which deservedly acquired independence. He was instrumental in consolidating the research community to become professional psychologists. Discussions about his theoretical positions, the prospects for using experimental methods, understanding the subject of psychology and many of its problems stimulated the emergence of concepts and directions that have enriched psychology with new scientific concepts. Author of works (in Russian translation): Foundations of physiological psychology, vols. 1-2, St. Petersburg, 1880-1881; Lectures on the soul of man and animals, St. Petersburg, 1894; System of Philosophy, St. Petersburg, 1902; Introduction to Philosophy, 2001; Essays on Psychology, M., 1912; Introduction to psychology, M., 1912, 2002; Natural Science and Psychology, St. Petersburg, 1914; Psychology of peoples, M., 2002; The history of religion: from word to faith. Myth and religion, M., 2002. A.I. Lipkina, M.G. Yaroshevsky

Wilhelm Wundt is an outstanding German psychologist, one of the founders of scientific psychology in its modern sense.

Wundt is considered the founder of experimental psychology, but his authority in social psychology, which he intensively studied in last years life.

Biography

Wilhelm Wundt was born in 1832 in the family of a Lutheran priest. He had to live a rather long life - Wundt died in 1920. And this despite the fact that from a young age he was in poor health and while studying at the university he almost died of a serious illness.

Wundt received his education at several German universities - Berlin, Tübingen, Heidelberg, and later worked in Leipzig, where he organized the world's first psychological laboratory.

Natural Science Psychology

XIX century - the time of rapid development of precise and natural sciences... At the same time, the emphasis in research was no longer on description and observations, but on experiments. Literally everyone experimented:

• physicists have studied the effect of electric current on magnets and a living body, shock including themselves;
• biologists used special vessels to extract the gastric juice of animals;
• Frederick Taylor experimented with his own workers. And Wilhelm Wundt rightly believed that the psychology of humans (and animals) can be studied in exactly the same way.

Since the 1860s, Wundt has taught the world's first course in scientific psychology at the university. What kind of science was it? In the previous era, psychology was understood as the doctrine of the "soul", the idea of ​​which was based on religious dogmas. Say, the soul is a kind of immaterial essence of a person.

The study of the soul was at first the prerogative of priests, and in the era of modern times - of writers, poets and philosophers. Now, however, Wundt, a student and associate of the physicist Helmholtz and zoologist Johann Müller, is undertaking the study of the soul. It became possible to "dissect" the psychic sphere, in much the same way as Galvani did with the frog's leg.

Wundt's innovations in psychology included several points:

• Feelings, emotions, ideas, behavior, as well as altered states of consciousness (for example, sleep) were proclaimed the subject of this science.
• The main methods of studying psychology are scientific and physiological. In this regard, the necessity of laboratory experiments was proved.
• Another method Wundt considered self-observation, which he actively practiced himself.

However, in current psychology, self-observation does not count. scientific method, although it is used in research as an auxiliary one. The influence of Wundt is considered to be the founder of modern psychology - a science based on observations, experiments and rigorous evidence. Some of his works are still considered classics. teaching aids in psychology.

Since the beginning of the twentieth century, the significance of Wundt's works has been reevaluated due to the fact that psychology has gone far ahead during this time. Despite the underlined scientific character of his works and the use of methods borrowed from physics and biology, they are sometimes criticized as idealistic and subjective.

Psychology of peoples

Ethnic psychology in the second half of the 19th century was actively developing in Germany. However, Wundt's predecessors often operated with vague concepts and thought inconsistently. Wundt criticized their approaches and put forward his own, based on scientific principles: the psychology of peoples should be learned through the study of language, customs and myths. Thus, Wundt is the founder of modern linguistics, folklore studies, ethnography and, to some extent, literary criticism.

William. Wundt (1832-1920), indisputably the founder of modern psychology and in particular the father of experimental psychology

A scientist was born in the town. Nekarau V. Germany in a friendly family of a Lutheran pastor. Older brother. Wundt studied far from home in a closed school, therefore. Wundt could enjoy the position of a uniform de fences. Memories of childhood, however, were not completely cloudless and devoid of traumatic experiences. Wundt recalled that he once received a slap in the face from his father for not noticing his teacher. May the psychologist feel lonely and become a famous writer.

As a child with. A remarkable event took place by Wundt. In the second grade, his tutor was a young priest, his parents' assistant. When he was transferred to another parish, the boy was so worried that his parents were forced to allow him to go with his mentor. In his house. Wundt lived up to 13 rockies.

A family. Wundt was quite educated, his relatives became famous in various fields of activity. The guy began to disappoint his parents quite early, he lagged significantly behind his peers, often failed his exams. Subsequently, he began to study better and at the age of 19 he was able to enter the university, where he studied at the same time. Johannes. Müller and. Dubois-Raymond.

The scientist received medical education in four German universities, in particular, in the famous. Tübingen and. Berlin, but never practiced medicine. Scientific activity. Wundt began at. Heidelbe Erzkiy University, where he received doctoral degrees in philosophy and medicine, and in 1858 became an assistant professor. H. Helmholtz and was attracted to the study of the problems of various natural sciences, to be interested in the howl of this amazing vchenogo.

In 1864 he was promoted to adjunct professor and worked at. Heidelberg is still 10 years old. In 1867, Wundt reads at the university the first course of lectures on physiological psychology at that time.

Wundt worked productively. His first scientific works were devoted to human physiology. In 1863, the book "Lectures on the Soul of Man and Animals" was published, which was reprinted several times during his lifetime. Wundt a. It is devoted to questions of psychophysics and mainly to the problem of determining the reaction time, the scientist describes his experiments carried out in a poorly equipped home laboratory. In their works. Wundt for the first time expresses an opinion about the need to create experimental psychology and raises the question of the development of its methods.

In 1874, Wundt received an invitation to teach logic at. University of Zurich (Switzerland), but a year later he returned to. Germany, and in the future his scientific activity is fully connected with. Leip Ptsyzky University. Ponaad

For 40 years he taught philosophy at this institution and even served as rector

In 1879, Wundt, using his own funds, created his famous first psychological laboratory in the world, which later turned into. Institute of Experimental Psychology, the prototype of modern research institutions.

The laboratory first rallied everyone who wanted to study philosophy and psychology at German universities, and soon became a center for graduates of American and English universities who were interested in studying psychology. Laboratory. Wundt became exactly the model by which similar institutions were created in other universities in the world.

For some time there was a discussion about who -. Wundt or. James was the founder of the first psychological laboratory. Indeed, in 1875. Harvard W. William. James already had a small office where there was a demonstration of no equipment. If we assume that the laboratory is the room where the accessories are stored, then all the same, the primacy remains for. Wilhelm. Wundt, since back in 1865 he had a. Heidelberg already had a small cabinet for storing physiological and psychophysical equipment. Stanley. Hall also claimed that the first psychological laboratory in the world was created by him in 1881. University university. John. Hopkins. Nevertheless, the circle of founders is very small, and the problem of determining the primacy does not seem complicated.

Even before the creation of the laboratory. Wundt wrote in 1873 the book "Fundamentals of Psychophysiological Psychology", in which he substantiated the importance of psychological research. This work really laid the foundations of experimental mental psychology as a separate science with a certain range of problems and research methods. It went through six editions, constantly supplemented by the results of experimental research. Psychophysiologist on psychology. Wundt understood it as the study of the psychophysical process, i.e. organic reaction, mediated both physiologically and psychologically, and serves the adaptation of the organism. When exposed to stimuli in the sensory organs, a process of excitation arises, which reaches the lower and higher brain centers along the sensory nerve pathways, and from there is transmitted to the muscles. This process is accompanied by an internal mental process about which information can be obtained through introspection.

In his laboratory. Wundt discovered the process of experimental psychological research by general scheme... The subjects were presented with controlled stimuli, after which they reported their mental and processes accompanying perception. The participants in the experiments were adults, whom. Wundt specially gotuwaav.

Such studies were based on certain theoretical concepts of mental processes and introspection. The mental experience of a person is a combination of three elements: sensations, images and feelings. Sensation is the first element of mental experience, its essential forms, which are the embodiment of the direct connection between the excitation of the cerebral cortex and sensory experiences. According to their modality, sensations can be classified into visual, auditory, and also by such parameters as intensity and duration.

Images do not fundamentally differ from sensations and correspond to local excitation of the cortex. Feelings contain all the qualities of experience received not from the senses and not from memories of sensory experiences

An approach. Wundt was called structuralist. The scientist assumed that cumulative processes unfold in mental life: sensations combine and form more complex states (certain qualities of feelings), feelings, connecting, can also form temporary structures in accordance with this, emotions are characteristic sequences of feelings with a temporary structure. Will is also a temporary act, but it is sung by thoughts.

Wundt believed that psychologists deal with such types of the subject's experience: mediated experience, gives us knowledge or information that is not contained in direct experience; direct experience of visual perception, which does not depend on the previous experience of the subject (protected from interpretation, the scientist considered it as the most important). Wundt believed he was working on the development of a system of the periodic table of thinking.

According to the scientist, psychology was to become the science of the experience of consciousness. The method of introspection involves observing one's own consciousness, and if a person wants to study himself, he must learn to conduct such observations of his own thinking and consciousness. Wundt used the methods that were formed at that time in physiology to study mental processes. In fact, as we already know, the method of introspection was used. Fechner: he used stimuli and asked the subjects about their feelings.

Wundt developed the following rules for experimental research:

1) observers must correctly determine the moment of the beginning of the experiment;

2) observers should never lower their level of attention;

3) the experiment should always be organized in such a way that it can be carried out several times;

4) the experimental conditions must be acceptable for changes and control of stimuli

Wundt conducted sessions of qualitative introspection, during which it was necessary to describe his inner experience. However, more often he tried to induce the participants in the experiment to use introspection, when they were able to subtract their ideas about the magnitude, intensity and range of various physical stimuli. The subjects had to observe themselves and describe the perception of various stimuli.

Most of his research. Wundt tried to make objective measurements, for example, determining the reaction time. Wundt sought to draw conclusions about the processes of consciousness on the basis of objective assessments

In the process of self-observation. Wundt developed a three-dimensional theory of feelings: pleasure - displeasure, tension - relaxation, rise - fall. Every feeling is a combination of these parameters. Leading to the meeting with a metronome ,. Wundt noticed that certain rhythmic compositions were pleasant to him, while others were not. The scientist determined that pleasant pleasure woke up at the same time as physical sensations that arise when perceiving blows. Also. Wundt noticed that the expectation of the next beat of the metronome is accompanied by the emergence of a certain tension, and when the beat is heard, relaxation occurs, when the rhythm of the beats increases, it experiences increases in excitement, and calms down when the rhythm slows down.

Thus, the scientist, changing stimuli and engaging in self-observation, investigated his direct experience and determined that feelings are characterized by measurements as satisfaction, discontent, tension, relaxation, rise, decline (attenuation). Therefore, any feeling is in a certain range within a certain three-dimensional space. The three-dimensional theory of feelings contributed to the experimental experience of depiction, but over time it became clear that it is important for understanding mental processes.

Wundt also referred to the concept of sterception in order to explain how a single experience arises from one of the elements of consciousness. This term was introduced into scientific circulation. GV Leibniz, who understood apperception as conscious perception. Philosophers. I. Kant and. IF Herbart defined apperception as the assimilation and interpretation of new impressions. Wundt provided new nuances to this concept. He argued that apperception is active. Thoughts are an enneous process through which selection, structuring and awareness of inner experiences take place; our consciousness is a set of elements of sensations and feelings, she acts creatively and creates a whole with the electronic element. The organization of basic elements into a single whole is ensured by the processes of creative synthesis, a new quality arises from a combination of elements, and the characteristics of any mental process are not determined by those characteristics that form it. The synthesis of the elements of experience leads to the formation of a new one. In the future, Gestalt psychology in their manifestos of 1912 declared: the whole is not reduced to the sum of time tyo sumi parts.

Mostly though. Wundt carried out work on systematization and definition psychological problems, in his laboratory studied the psychology and physiology of sight and hearing. Were carried out experimental research h of reaction time, since the scientist intended to show three stages of a person's reaction to stimuli (perception, apperception and will), are consistently embodied in motor acts.

Wundt also studied associations: he developed a method for the unified presentation of a verbal stimulus in visual and auditory form and measured the reaction time between the word-stimulus and the response to it. At the same time, he considered associations as internal (when the meaning of the word-response is identical with the word-stimulus) and external (when there are random connections between the word-stimulus and the word-flood). Wundt noted that structure aperceptives are formations of a higher order in comparison with automatic associations, since consciousness is involved in aperceptive processes, they are "the highest class of mental function".

Psychological law formulated. Wundt is the law of creative synthesis, which is responsible for conscious (aperceptive perception), which was opposed to associative perceptual perception

In 1874 Wundt published his intelligence "Principles of Psychophysiological Psychology", and. F. Brentano's work "Psychology from an empirical point of view", in which s. Wundt

In 1881, Wundt began publishing the journal "Philosophical Studios", which in 1906 was renamed "Psychological Studios"

Laboratory. Wundt became the center for all psychologists in the world. Today, each university has a department of psychology, laboratories, but a laboratory. Wundt aroused her unheard-of interest from the Dvidal, many students and young people who were attracted by the new science. Subsequently, they made a significant contribution to the development of psychology (in particular, Stanley. Hall, James. Cattell, Edward. Titchener). Laboratory. Wu ndta has become a model for the creation of cells for the development of experimental psychology in. America ,. Russia ,. Japan ,. Italy.

At universities. New laboratories soon began to appear in Germany. The scientists who developed their research in them did not fully share the views. Wundt, however, also sought to develop psychology. Germanium on end of XIX- at the beginning of the XX century it remained the center of world psychology.

Lectures were very popular. Wundt. More than 600 students gathered in the classroom for each of them. E. Titchener described his first visit to the lecture in this way. Wundt:

"A worker came in, threw open the door, and went in. Wundt. Of course, in all black, from boots to tie, narrow-shouldered, thin, a little stooped, he gives the impression tall man but he is no more than 5 feet 9 inches tall. It thundered - there is no other way to say - along the side passage: knock-knock - as if its soles were made of wood. It seemed to me that there is something unworthy in this grimanni, but except for me, it seems that no one paid attention to this.

When he went to the pulpit, I could see him well. He has a rather thick head of hair, only the top of his head is hidden by the strands that are neatly raised from the side

There is a long table on the dais, probably for demonstration of experiments, with a portable bookshelf on it. Wundt made a couple of prim movements - thoughtfully raised his index finger to his forehead, chose the chalk and then stood facing the audience, leaning on the bookshelf. This posture reinforces the impression that this is a person of a high age.

started talking in a quiet voice, as if apologizing, but after the first two sentences, complete silence reigned in the room, in which only the confident voice of the lecturer could be heard - he gave the lecture in one breath. Hannah. He turned out to have a thick baritone, not very expressive, sometimes as if barking: however, it was easy to listen to him, there was a convincingness in his voice, sometimes even fieryness, but rather napus. KPA to keep the audience interested. No papers. Wundt did not drop in; as far as I could tell. Wundt did not lower his gaze at all, except that once he glanced at the shelf when he was going through the papers, there was lying and. Hands. Wundt did not lie still for a minute: his elbows were motionless, and his shoulders and hands moved all the time, as if the waves were mesmerizing and in some mysterious way illustrated his speech. He finished the lecture at exactly the appointed time and, still stooping, thundered his boots towards the exit. And if not for this disgusting noise, I would have remained in complete rapture of the flooded. "

About personal life. Little is known about Wundt. From the published materials, one can get the impression that in everyday life he was a rather modest and unassuming person. Not so long ago, the diaries of his wife were found. Sophie testifies that he led an orderly life: in the morning he worked on his manuscripts, got acquainted with publications, edited the magazine; In the afternoon I went to the university, where I worked in the laboratory, but Dovgo did not stay there. He encouraged his followers and students to experimental research, but did not delve into experimental work. American researcher. J. Cattell noted that "not because of his unshakable faith in experimental research, he himself was not created to work in the laboratory" In the afternoon. Wundt took a walk, at 16 o'clock he gave a lecture. Fin. Ansov position. Wundt and his family were pretty decent, there were servants in his house and social receptions took place in the family evenings. Wundt loved to talk, listened to music, held discussions about the rights of workers and student students.

The researcher devoted a lot of time to the study of philosophy, art, language, tried to understand social and psychological phenomena, anthropology and history. He covered with his attention the processes of hypnosis, spiritualism, animal psychology.

Wundt worked as a scientist on the last day managed to complete the book of memoirs

The total amount of scientific heritage. Wundt is astonishing. During its scientific work(from 1853 to 1920) he wrote over 54 thousand pages. American scientist. Boring, who studied the history of psychology, wrote that he wrote 2.2 pages daily, or every two minutes - by word. This is how a childhood dream came true in a peculiar form. Wundt to become a famous writer. Wundt, as his biographers testify, was minded about the fact that as a scientist he might "be misunderstood or misunderstood."

an outstanding work was his work in 10 volumes "The Psychology of Nations", published in 1900-1920. In it, the scientist identified two lines of development of psychology - experimental and social. Wundt believed that simple mental processes (sensations, perceptions), and not processes of a higher order (memory, ability to learn, mastery of language) are subject to experimental study. Although he was the founder of veterinary mental psychology, he saw the experiment only as a way to improve introspection, did not see a future for it, and believed that the use of experiment in psychology was of limited value. With the development of experimental psychology, this idea of ​​the scientist was refuted: the higher cognitive processes began to be investigated by experimental methods.

During the lifetime of merit. Wundt was recognized by the scientific community, he was elected a member of many European academies, in particular. Petersburg Academy of Sciences in 1902, Wundt is considered an armchair scientist, but his works raised important questions not only of an academic nature, in particular, in 1915 he published a book that was devoted to the analysis of the reasons. First World War.

Wundt had some doubts about the experimental method. He believed that such phenomena as speech, thinking, will are beyond his reach, but he greatly contributed to the establishment of empiricism in psi ichology. Wundt saw psychology as a science, studied the phenomena of consciousness by introspective and experimental methods. The content of the works. Wundt is now known only to specialists who in Lately interested in his scientific heritage, but he is one of those psychologists that everyone knows about who has taken at least one of the university courses in psychology. Wundt raised the question of the fundamental "laws of psychological causality", he sought to determine and explain the laws of mental phenomena and to show the need for psychology as a separate science. Wundt was introduced to the emergence of psychology in is. Toric moment: he streamlined the work of predecessors and provided strength to his followers.

The research program that I have formulated. Wundt, for himself personally and for his students, was determined by the views that he shared. First of all, he believed that psychology should conduct research in those questions, where there are already empirical results. Wundt himself did not turn to the study of new problems.

In the laboratory. Wundt studied psychological and physiological problems vision, hearing, tactile sensations, psychophysics of color, peripheral vision, color contrast, optical illusions, perception of volume, obr times of aftereffect, sense of time, perception of various shades of time. Particular attention was paid to experiments aimed at investigating the reaction time. This topic was also developed by predecessors. Wundt. G background. Helmgol lts I. F.K. Donderanders.

Wundt strove to convince that there are three stages in the reaction to a stimulus: perception, apperception, manifestations of will. He sought to establish the standard values ​​of time for human thought, analyzing how much time is needed for various mental processes (cognition, the ability to distinguish, desire). The idea itself from the modern point of view seems unpromising, since it is clear that such processes have individual differences. And aspiration. Wundt did not give any result to induce the subjects to distinguish each of the three stages of the reaction.

in. The Leipzig Laboratory conducted studies of attention, duration and stability of attention. Attention. Wundt considered as a vivid perception of a small, but integral fragment of consciousness at a certain point in time

In an effort to develop his theory of three-dimensionality of feelings ,. Wundt also used a rather constructive experimental technique - pairwise comparison: the subjects were given the task to compare the stimuli with the points of view of those feelings that these stimuli evoke in them. In separate experiments, it was investigated how physical indicators (heart rate, breathing rate) are related to the corresponding emotional states.

The laboratory also examined verbal associations: participants were asked to respond with one word to the stimulus word. Wundt classified the types of connections (associations) that were established in the process. ESI studies of reactions to stimuli.

The scientist was interested in issues of child psychology and zoopsychologists, but he did not conduct relevant studies, because he understood that he would not be able to ensure control over the purity of the experiment.

He wrote: “I have always tried to help psychology take an independent place as an empirical science outside of philosophy and so that it does not lose the help from natural methods, since the rest of it can be used, but no less I usually tried to the results achieved in a similar way by psychology, in turn, were used by philosophy.

Wundt created a new psychology and tore it away from the old speculative science. He showed the then researchers that psychology should be a science, he recognizes the facts that in order to conduct psychological research, one does not need to conduct discussions about the immortality of the soul and its connection with the perishable body.

Therefore. Wundt developed a new field of scientific activity, created a laboratory, carried out research in it and published the results in his journal. By example. Wundt's other researchers followed his path, created similar laboratories and achieved significant results. Role. Wundt as the founder of modern psychology is indisputable, he occupies a special, unique place in the development of modern science... In order to bring psychology onto the path of modern science. Wundt displayed the scientific talent, dedication and courage of a true fellow.

Activity. Wundt was recognized, but the general picture of psychological research remained unchanged for a long time. W. Wundt also had opponents, so psychology did not immediately take its rightful place in universities as a separate science. Even in. Germany in 1941 it was considered as a branch of philosophy. However, psychology gradually gained recognition, especially actively (creating faculties, training and attracting specialists), this science developed in. SS. USA.

Scientific program. Wundt was also not implemented consistently as a result. During World War I, German universities lost financial support. In times. World War II happened a tragic event: during the bombing. Leipzig by British and American aviation laboratory. Wundt, in which he taught the first psychologists to conduct their research, was destroyed.

Wundt is undoubtedly an outstanding psychologist, his fame as a person and the founder of psychological experimentation has not faded. Most of the early psychologists. America studied with. Wundt in his laboratory. Disciples and followers were not only assimilating views. Wundt, but also his manner of behaving like an indisputable authority, the despotic manners of German professors, lecturing techniques and even appearance. Psychol ogi today like to behave this way and wear a beard.