The years at Leipzig proved to be fruitful for Wundt. A lab was set up to conduct investigations of the senses, more accurately displays in sensation and perception, with vision

being the sense that was studied most.

This laboratory was to grow from one room to numerous rooms containing all Wundt’s various research equipment. Wundt started a journal called Philosophische Studien in

1881 and he began teaching a class on physiological psychology.

The culmination of these developments led to the establishment of psychology as a science of it its own, with Wundt himself recognizing this milestone to have taken place in

the year 1879. (Hothersall, 1984).

Wundt was a prolific writer, finishing up his autobiography shortly before dying in 1920. At the time of his death his 10 volume Folk Psychology, which would divide the future

study of psychology, was also finished.

Reading all of his work has been estimated to take two and a half years if one was to read 60 pages a day. The enormous amount of writing Wundt did also made it hard to

criticize him. His arguments had often changed or he had revised an edition of a book by the time a critic was ready to present their criticism. (Schultz, 1975).

Wundt had many students to help him in his studies in sensation and perception, including students from the United States and Canada, resulting in him being the supervisor for

186 doctoral dissertations.

North American students included James Cattell, Lighter Witmer, E.B. Titchener, and G. Stanley Hall, with famous German students including Hugo Munsterberg and Oswald

Kulpe. (Hothersall, 1984).

One of Wundt’s main methods used to investigate psychological phenomenon was introspection. To Wundt psychology was the science of experience and studying

psychological phenomenon therefore involved studying conscious experience.

Through making experience the focus of his study of psychology Wundt was able to avoid discussing the relationship between the soul and the body, thereby distancing himself

from philosophical ideas regarding the mind.

According to Wundt, no one could observe an experience better than the person having the experience and the method of introspection was therefore key in the study of

psychology. The concept of introspection was not invented by Wundt but his experimental control of its use was original. (Schultz, 1975).

Introspection does not merely involve self-reflection but for Wundt was a rigorous process that involved extracting the most simple of sensations and feelings from the conscious

experience. The goal was to describe an experience without interpreting what was happening.

What had to be described was the intensity, the duration, the mode (what sense was involved e.g. hearing), and quality (e.g. a shape) of the sensation. Along with reporting the

dimensions of the sensations, the feelings that accompanied the sensations was also to be analyzed. Feeling could be described on the following three dimensions: pleasant or

unpleasant, tension or relaxation, and activity or passivity.

Wundt’s students had to be thoroughly trained in introspection and not all of them were able to master the skills required to do it. (Fancher, 1979). Before a student’s

introspection accounts were taken seriously they would have had to make around 10,000 introspection observations. (Schultz, 1975).

Introspection was used mostly in conjunction with measures of reaction time and word associations. One survey found that out of 180 laboratory reports on experiments from

the years between 1883 and 1903 only four reports contained solely introspection. There were strict rules that were followed when introspection was used in order to avoid so

called false introspections.

The person who was doing the introspection, the observer, would be fully aware of when and what stimulus would be presented to them. This ensured that the observer was in

full control of the experience. The stimulus would then be presented numerous times. (Hothersall, 1984). Introspection was commonly done when the observer was awaiting the

stimulus and when they were reacting to its presentation. (O’Neill, 1968).

It was through using introspection that Wundt and his students concluded that the sensations and feelings are what constitute the activity in our minds. They believed that the

combination of or the relationship between sensations and feelings are what creates constantly shifting psychological processing.

It is through this activity that we are to understand the functioning of the mind, as opposed to simply identifying its structures. (Hothersall, 1984). Introspection is then a process

that allows us to know our inner functioning through what we can gather about the functioning of the external world. (O’Neill, 1968).

Introspective experimentation is subjective and therefore does not guarantee agreement between different people’s introspective accounts. It was however thought that the

more it was practiced this method could be enhanced. Wundt’s use of introspection is justified considering the means available to him at the time and the personal subject that

he was trying to study. Both introspection and Wundt’s theories are not used in modern psychology today. (Schultz, 1975).

Germany perhaps had certain characteristics that influenced the evolution of Wundt’s experimental psychology. Experimental physiology had been practiced for decades in

Germany but not to the same extent in other parts of Europe. A tradition of methodical and systematic observations and record keeping could therefore easily be transferred to

the study of psychology.

While other countries were more prudent in there definitions of science, looking mainly at what could be defined quantitatively, Germans were willing to analyze everything from

physics to phonetics. Germany in the nineteenth century could be argued to have been an ideal setting for the founding of psychology and

Through Wundt’s work the new science of psychology had been born in Germany but psychology soon evolved beyond Germany and there were challenges of Wundtian

psychology.

These challenges only furthered the development of psychology as a science, separating psychology into different schools of thought. Many German as well as American

psychologists some of whom had been Wundt’s students, strongly influenced and furthered the new science by coming up with their own theories or opening their own

laboratories. (Schultz, 1975).

Through the making of an experimental psychology laboratory, a journal in which to publish laboratory results and rigorous training of his students who in turn went on to open

new laboratories, Wundt founded psychology.

In the history of psychology Wundt’s achievements stand out as important stepping-stones in the furthering and diversification of the science. Contributing not only to the

development of psychology in Germany but in other countries as well, Wundt’s influence has been vast.