Wilhelm Wundt
German physician, philosopher and experimental psychologist
German physician and philosopher who worked in a Leipzig laboratory for psychological experiments from 1879 and supervised about 185 doctoral students, many of whom carried experimental methods to other countries.
Why this person matters
Wundt's Leipzig laboratory is often treated as the start of psychology as an independent experimental discipline, a claim historians dispute: Wundt himself wrote that he would rather call Ernst Heinrich Weber the father of experimental psychology. His students often built the apparatus and ran the experiments while he set the research direction.
Main contributions
Leipzig psychological laboratory
Wundt's laboratory at Leipzig dates from 1879. Sources differ on when the university formally recognised it (1879 or 1883). His journal Philosophische Studien ran from 1883 to 1903.
Principles of Physiological Psychology
His Grundzüge der physiologischen Psychologie (1874) is described as the first textbook written for experimental psychology. Wundt had worked as Hermann von Helmholtz's assistant from 1858 to 1865.
Völkerpsychologie
Between 1900 and 1920 he published Völkerpsychologie ('folk psychology') in ten volumes, a large project beside his laboratory work.
Context and limits
Between 1875 and 1919 Wundt supervised about 185 doctoral students (the Stanford Encyclopedia counts 186), 70 of them from abroad, including James McKeen Cattell, G. Stanley Hall, Edward Titchener, Hugo Münsterberg and Lightner Witmer. In the mid-twentieth century much of his work was derided in the United States, for reasons given as inadequate translations, misrepresentation by some students and behaviourist polemic. The 'founder' label remains contested.
In your introductory course
History and research methods.Appears in the history unit as the usual starting point for laboratory psychology in 1879. Students should treat the date as a convention that historians debate.
Related course reading: Psychology 2e, section 1.2. This is course context rather than a biographical source.
Years of active work
- 1874
Published the first edition of Grundzüge der physiologischen Psychologie.
- 1879
Began work in the Leipzig laboratory for psychological studies.
- 1883
Began publishing Philosophische Studien, the journal of the Leipzig laboratory.
- 1900
Began publishing the volumes of Völkerpsychologie, completed in 1920.
Sources
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Wilhelm Maximilian WundtReference work. Reference article inspected.
- New World Encyclopedia, Wilhelm WundtReference work. Reference article inspected.
- Wikipedia, Wilhelm WundtReference work. Reference article inspected.