Wilhelm Maximilian Wundt (16 August 1832 - 31 August 1920) was a
German medical doctor, psychologist, physiologist, philosopher, and professor, known today as one of the founding figures of modern psychology. He is widely regarded as the "father of
experimental psychology".
[3][4][5] In 1879, Wundt founded one of the first formal laboratories for psychological research at the
University of Leipzig. By creating this laboratory he was able to explore the nature of religious beliefs, identify mental disorders and abnormal behavior, and map damaged areas of the human brain. By doing this he was able to establish psychology as a separate science from other topics. He also formed the first
journal for psychological research in 1881.
Wundt was born at Neckarau, Baden (now part of Mannheim), the fourth child to parents Maximilian Wundt (a Lutheran minister), and his wife Marie Frederike. He studied from 1851 to 1856 at the University of Tübingen, University of Heidelberg, and the University of Berlin. After graduating in medicine from Heidelberg (1856), Wundt studied briefly with Johannes Peter Müller, before joining the University's staff, becoming an assistant to the physicist and physiologist Hermann von Helmholtz in 1858. There he wrote Contributions to the Theory of Sense Perception (1858-62).[6] He married Sopie Mau while at Heidelberg. It was during this period that Wundt offered the first course ever taught in scientific psychology, all the while stressing the use of experimental methods drawn from the natural sciences, emphasizing the physiological relationship of the brain and the mind. His background in physiology would have a great effect on his approach to the new science of psychology. His lectures on psychology were published as Lectures on the Mind of Humans and Animals in 1863. He was promoted to Assistant Professor of Physiology at Heidelberg in 1864.[6] Weber (1795-1878) and Fechner (1801-1887), who worked together at Leipzig, inspired Wundt's interest in physiological psychology.
Wundt applied himself to writing a work that came to be one of the most important in the history of psychology, Principles of Physiological Psychology in 1874. The Principles utilized a system of psychology that sought to investigate the immediate experiences of consciousness, including feelings, emotions, volitions and ideas, mainly explored through Wundt's system of "internal perception", or the self-examination of conscious experience by objective observation of one's consciousness.[6]
Parts of Wundt's system were developed and championed by his one-time student, Titchener, who described his system "Structuralism" Several of Wundt's works, including Principles of Physiological Psychology are considered fundamentally important texts in the field of psychology. Though widely recognized as important in the birth and growth of psychology, his influence in psychology today is a subject of debate among experts.
