Why did Wundt think it necessary to write his Völkerpsychologie? What approach to the study of humans did it exemplify?
Wundt believed that human culture reflects the higher mental processes. To study these higher mental processes, naturalistic observations along with historical analysis is essential. He deduced that the study of cultural products like history, myths, law, art, language, social customs, morals and religion deduces the processes of the higher mental processes.
He studied all the cultural products for about twenty years of his life to write a ten volume volkerpsychologie for the people to facilitate the study of the higher mental processes. According to the Wundt, general impression initiates the process of the verbal communication.
The speaker chooses the word and phrases to the express the apperceived general impression. Wundt believed that the meaning of the words is often retained by the humans for very long even after we forgot the specific words. Beyond language these words and their meanings are seen as the social interaction’s essence.