Thought psychology
The psychology of thought is a sense of psychology that deals with the scientific study of the thinking involved. This does not mean logic , but thoughts as a psychological experience or process. Nowadays, thought psychology is not an independent discipline of psychology , but rather its contents are researched in general psychology , especially cognitive psychology .
Thinking psychology is mainly associated with the Würzburg school . Their starting point was the association psychology, which Hermann Ebbinghaus represented. Compared to the association , other connections between individual thoughts (contents) could be found.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Oswald Külpe headed the research group in Würzburg, hence the Würzburg School. You and Gestalt psychology were the schools that developed an elaborate psychology of thought. This includes three main areas:
- the problem solving ,
- the logical inference ,
- the concept formation .
Also, the inductive reasoning is being investigated by the psychology of thinking. The problem with the methods was that they often rely on introspection. An important question is whether animals can think too. Furthermore, to what extent the perception underlies the thinking.
Important representatives of thought psychology are u. a. Oswald Külpe, Karl Duncker , Narcissus Ach , Wilhelm Wundt , Karl Bühler and Max Wertheimer .
Methods of Scientific Research
- Introspection
- Thinking out loud
- Operationalization tasks (e.g. Towers of Hanoi )
literature
- Thomas Eder: Self-observation: Oswald Wieners Denkpsychologie , Suhrkamp Verlag, ISBN 9783518126691
- Joachim Funke : Problem-solving thinking . Verlag W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-17-017425-8 .
- Walter Hussy: Thinking Psychology . Verlag W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart
- History, concept and problem solving research, intelligence . 1984, ISBN 3-17-008366-X .
- Inferring, judging, creativity, language, development, attention . 1986, ISBN 3-17-008367-8 .
- Hans Spada: General Psychology . Verlag Hans Huber, Bern 2006, ISBN 3-456-84084-5 .
- Thomas Städtler: Lexicon of Psychology . Alfred Kröner Verlag, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-520-83501-0 .
- Michael R. Waldmann, Momme von Sydow: Knowledge building, problem solving and thinking. In: Kurt Pawlik (Hrsg.): Handbuch Psychologie . Springer Verlag, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-540-22178-6 , chap. 15th