Wilhelm Wundt

Wilhelm Wundt features in the new draft A Level psychology specification from AQA where students, as part of their introduction to approaches in psychology, will learn about the ‘Origins of Psychology: Wundt, introspection and the emergence of Psychology as a science’.

The following three video clips provide some background information about Wilhelm Wundt’s methods, origins, personality and importance to psychology. The first one is fast-paced and fun and the second two provide depth and detail, although the level of these is pitched more for undergraduates than for 17 year olds.

It is interesting to note that the author and narrator of the second two clips, Peter Smith, says of Wundt ‘His name is now largely forgotten, except by scholars. There are many people outside of psychology who can easily identify people like Freud and Pavlov, or even Piaget and Maslow, but even many psychology undergrads have little idea who Wundt was’ – a situation that is shortly to improve dramatically!