Psychologist Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920): biography, discoveries and interesting facts

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:41

Wilhelm Wundt is an outstanding scientist. His name is still well-known thanks to numerous followers who adopted from him not only ideas, but also demeanor, lectures and appearance highlights.

Childhood

Wilhelm Max Wundt was born on August 16, 1832 in the Neckarau. He was the last, fourth child in the family. However, the first two children died in early childhood, and brother Ludwig studied and lived in Heidelberg, with his mother's sister. It so happened that Wilhelm got the role of an only child.

Wundt's father was a pastor, the family seemed friendly to many, but later Wundt recalled that he often felt lonely and sometimes received punishment from his father for disobedience.

Almost all of Wundt's relatives were well educated and glorified the family in some science. No one pinned such hopes on Wilhelm, he was considered frivolous and incapable of learning. This was also confirmed by the fact that the boy could not pass the exams for the 1st grade.

Training

In the second grade, the boy's education was assigned to Friedrich Müller, assistantfather. Wilhelm fell in love with his mentor with all his heart, he was even closer to him than his parents.

When the young priest was forced to leave for another parish, Wilhelm was so upset that his father, seeing his son's suffering, allowed him to live for a year before entering the gymnasium with his beloved mentor.

At the age of 13, Wundt began studying at the Catholic Gymnasium in Bruchsal. Studying was given to him with great difficulty, he lagged far behind his peers, the marks confirmed this.

Wilhelm studied at Bruchsal for only a year, then his parents transferred him to the Heidelberg Gymnasium, where he made real friends and began to try to be more diligent in his studies. By the age of 19, he had mastered the gymnasium program and was ready to continue his studies at the university.

Wilhelm entered the University of Tübingen, the Faculty of Medicine, then received medical education at three more universities.

Strange case

While studying in Heidelberg with Professor Gasse, Wilhelm Wundt worked as an assistant in the women's department of the local clinic, which was in charge of the professor himself. Due to lack of money, the student had to be on duty for days, he was so tired that he was hardly woken up to go around the sick.

A funny thing happened once. At night, Wundt was awakened to examine a patient with typhus who was delirious. Wundt went to her half asleep. He performed all actions mechanically: he talked with the nurse, and examined the patient, and made appointments. As a result, instead of a sedativethe young assistant gave sick iodine (then it seemed to him that it was precisely a sedative). Fortunately, the patient spat it out immediately. Wundt realized what had happened only when he returned to his room. The state of drowsiness in which he acted did not give him rest. In the morning he told everything to the professor and only then calmed down a little. But this incident made a very deep impression on the young man. Recalling his feelings, Wundt came to the conclusion that his perception then differed from reality: the distances seemed greater, the words were heard as if from afar, but at the same time, he perceived everything by ear and visually correctly.

Wundt compared his condition with semi-consciousness and described it as a mild degree of somnambulism. This incident prompted Wilhelm Wundt to give up his career as a doctor. The future scientist spent a semester in Berlin, where he studied under the guidance of I. P. Muller, in 1856 in Heidelberg, Wundt defended his doctoral dissertation.

Career

In 1858, Wundt became an assistant to Professor Helmholtz, took part in the study of various problems in the natural sciences.

After 6 years he was given the post of associate professor, Wundt worked at his native university for another 10 years. From 1867, he began to give lectures, which were very popular with students.

In 1874, Wilhelm Wundt was invited to Switzerland, to the University of Zurich, and offered to teach logic there. The professor accepted the invitation, but a year later he returned to Germany and connected his life with the University of Leipzig, to which he gave almost 40 years andat one time he even served as rector.

Famous Laboratory

In 1879, Wundt created the world's first psychological laboratory with his own money.

Wilhelm Wundt's laboratory has become a model by which similar institutions were created at other universities around the globe.

First, it brought together all those who wanted to study psychology and philosophy at German universities, and then transformed into a center for graduates from America and England who were interested in studying psychological sciences.

Later Wilhelm Wundt's Psychological Laboratory became the Institute of Experimental Psychology (the prototype of modern research institutes).

Features of the laboratory

Initially, the laboratory conducted research in three areas:

• sensations and perceptions;
• psychophysical characteristics;
• reaction time.

Later, Wundt proposed to study more associations and feelings.

As the students noted, Wilhelm Wundt himself did not conduct experiments in the laboratory. He didn't stay there longer than 5-10 minutes.

The teaching method was very peculiar: Wundt gave the students leaflets with experimental problems, checked the reports on the work and decided whose work was worthy of publication in the Philosophical Investigations. This magazine was created by the professor himself to accommodate the work of his students.

Lectures

Why were students so fond of attending Wundt's lectures? Let's try to understand what their magic is. To do this, let's turn to the memories of the students of the great professor, try to go back more than a hundred years ago and find ourselves on the student bench in front of the author of immortal psychological works.

So… The door swings open and Wundt enters. He is dressed in all black, from shoes to a tie. Thin and slightly stooped, narrow-shouldered, he seems to be much taller than his real height. Thick hair has thinned a little at the crown, it is covered with curls raised from the sides.

Stepping loudly, Wundt goes to a long table, probably for experiments. There is a small portable bookcase on the table. The professor chooses a suitable piece of chalk for a few seconds, then turns to the audience, leans on a shelf and begins the lecture.

He speaks in a low voice, but after a minute there is dead silence in the audience. Wundt's voice is not the most pleasant to the ear: a thick baritone sometimes turns into something similar to barking, but the fieryness and expressiveness of speech did not allow a single word to go unheard.

The lecture takes place in one breath. Wundt does not use any notes, his eyes only occasionally fall on his hands, which, by the way, do not lie still for a second: they sort through the papers, then make some kind of wave-like movements, or help the audience understand the essence of the material, illustrating the professor’s speech.

Wundt ends the lecture just in time. Just slouching and stomping loudly, he leaves the audience. Fascinating, isn't it?

Books

Wundt left behind a huge scientific legacy. During his life, he wrote more than 54,000 pages (no wonder the professor dreamed of becoming a famous writer as a child).

Many of Wilhelm Wundt's books were published and republished during his lifetime. His contribution to science has been recognized by the entire world scientific community.

• Wilhelm Wundt's first book, Essays on the Study of Muscular Movement, was published in 1858. This book was written when the scientist's interests did not go beyond physiology, although he was already beginning to "get close" to the study of psychology.
• In the same year, the first part of the work "Essays on the theory of sensory perception" was published. The full book "On the Theory of Sense Perception" was published in 1862, when all 4 essays were published.
• 1863 is a significant year for the entire psychological community. It was then that the work "Lectures on the Soul of Man and Animals" was published, where Wundt outlined a range of important problems in experimental psychology.
• In 1873-74. published "Fundamentals of Physiological Psychology" - the core of a new trend in psychology.
• The dream of creating a social psychology (cultural-historical) led to work on the fundamental work of the scientist, perhaps the key and most important in his life. "Psychology of Peoples" consists of 10 volumes that were published over 20 years, from 1900 to 1920.

Private life

The personal life of a professor today is almost unknown to anyone. The biography of Wilhelm Wundt interested everyone in terms of his contribution to science. This is how an outstanding personality is lost behind the curtain of the profession.

Wilhelm Wundt was very modest, unpretentious in everyday life. Everything in his life was clearly ordered, as evidenced by the diaries of his wife, Sophie Mau:

• Morning - work on manuscripts, getting to know new publications, editing the journal.
• Noon - work at the university, visiting the laboratory, meeting with students.
• Afternoon walk.
• Evening - receiving guests, talking, playing music.

Wundt was not poor, his family lived in abundance, and there were servants. Guests were always welcome in his house.

Contribution to science

No matter how trite it may sound, Wilhelm Wundt's contribution to psychology really cannot be overestimated. A huge school of students from different countries formed around the professor and his laboratory, and fellow scientists were also interested in it. Gradually, psychology acquired the status of a separate experimental science. This was the merit of the professor. The creation of a laboratory where not frogs or rats are studied, but a person and his soul, was a revolutionary discovery. Communities of scientists-psychologists, researchers, experimenters began to be created, laboratories and departments were opened, journals were published. And in 1899, the first international congress took place.

Wilhelm Wundt died in 1920. But his ideas are still alive.

"Father of experimental psychology" Wilhelm Wundt wasan interesting person. As a child, he loved to fantasize, dreamed of becoming a writer, but he was able to "collect his will into a fist" and, with a lot of effort, graduated from school and forced himself to be interested in science. However, he always approached knowledge in terms of what can be gained by experience. He was consistent in everything, both in science and in life. We tried to show you Wundt as a person, although in his case the concepts of "man" and "scientist" merged together.