EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY
A special department of physiological psychology which has recently
risen rapidly into favour in some countries is experimental
psychology, alluded to above in our historical sketch. It is at times
styled the "New Psychology" by its more enthusiastic supporters. It
seeks to secure precision and an objective standard in the description
of mental states by controlling their conditions by skilful devices and
ingenious apparatus. Its chief success so far has been in its efforts to
measure the varying intensity of sensations, the delicacy of sense-
organs and "reaction-time" or the rapidity of a faculty’s response to
stimulation. Certain properties of memory have also been made the
subject of measuring experiments and more recently considerable
industry has been devoted, especially by Külpe and the Würzburg
school, to bring some aspects of the higher activities of intellect and
will within the range of the laboratory apparatus. Opinions still differ
much as to both the present value and future prospects of
experimental psychology. Whilst Wundt, the leader of the new
movement for the past fifty years, places the only hope of
psychological progress in the experimental method, William James’s
judgment on the entire literature of the subject since Fechner (1840)
was that "its proper psychological outcome is just nothing at all"
("Principles", I, 534). Apart, however from the very modest positive
results, especially in the higher forms of mental life, which the
experimental method has achieved or may achieve in the future, its
exercise may nevertheless prove a valuable agency in the training of
the psychological specialist, both in increasing his appreciation of the
value of the most minute accuracy in descriptions of mental states,
and also by fostering in him habits of precision and skill in systematic
introspection.
DR. NAVRAJ SINGH SANDHU
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