Structuralism
A little about the context
• By the last quarter of nineteenth century, European
science had achieved widely recognised prestige as
an optimal form of intellectual activity
• Brought in by Copernican revolution
• Psychology began to break away from the provinces
religion and speculative philosophy and shifting
towards scienti c paradigms.
• An eager attempt to convert psychology into a formal
modern institution of scienti c approach
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What is Structuralism?
• An attempt to understand psychology by examining the
‘structure’ or the ‘content’ of the consciousness
• Aim of structural psychology:
• 1) To describe the components of consciousness in terms of
its basic elements.
• 2) To describe the combinations of those basic elements, as
well as to examine the processes that govern it.
• According to structuralism, psychology is the study of the
world with reference to the experiencing person, through the
observational method of controlled introspection of the
contents of the consciousness.
Major contributors of structural psychology
• Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920), also known as the
‘founder of modern psychology’.
• Edward Bradford Tichener (1867-1927), coined the
term ‘structuralism’
Wilhelm Wundt: His early life, works and
contribution
• Born on August 16, 1832, the fourth child of a minister, Maximilian Wundt, he was born into the
intellectual Mandarin elite. Both sides of his family had intellectuals, scientists, professors,
govt. o cials.
• Wundt’s earliest years were marked by poor health and loneliness, which made him retreat into
his own rich fantasy world.
• Di cult early years in school; school’s oppressive environment.
• Began his formal education at the age of 13, in catholic gymnasium, which he disliked and
failed; later got transferred to another school in Heidelberg
• Decided to go to medicine, eventually excelled in his studies
• From 1900-1920, developed last part of his work, what he believed was the other part of the
psychology -the study of the individual in society, as opposed to individual in laboratory.
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• His scienti c interests emerged in physiological research
• Remained as Helmholtz assistant for the next 8-10 years.
• In 1862, he taught a course titled as “Psychology as a Natural science”, that marked
as an event that shifted his research interests from physiology to science.
• 1873-1874, published his most signi cant work, “The Principles of Physiological
Psychology”, involved the central tenets of experimental psychology.
• In 1879, he went into purely private practice where he established the rst
experimental psychology laboratory at Leipzig.
• Later published a journal known as Psychological Studies.
• Wundt’s contributions, unfortunately, had little e ect on the psychologists of future
generations.
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Wundt’s Methodology: Introspection
• Armchair introspection vs. Experimental Introspection
• Conducted by highly trained psychologists, to make observations of
mental events present in the consciousness, rather than reporting it from
memory.
• Stimulus error: when introspection is reported from perception, rather
than sensations. In other words, describing the psychological data
(memories, past associations) rather than physical description (sensorial
data)
Key concepts in Wundt’s system
• Sensation and perception
• Association and apperception: Example: rote memory vs. memory with
real awareness.
• Tridimensional theory of feeling: pain-pleasure, strain-relaxation,
excitation-calmness
Why did structural psychology not work out in the
longer run?
• No facts and principles can be derived from the method of introspection
• No counterargument was posed for criticisms, such as emerging applied
psychology.
• Did not accommodate individual di erences, person with mental disorder,
children, elderly people, and so on. In other words, Introspection as a
method can only be done by “normal individuals”.
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Edward Bradford Tichener: His life, works and
contributions
• Born in 1867 in Chichester, England, Edward Tichener was a pioneering psychologist who
brought German psychology to America, who converted Wundt’s ideas and principles into the
school known as Structuralism.
• Devoted years of studying with his master, Wilhelm Wundt. Strictly identi ed with the hard core
scienti c work in Wundt’s Laboratory.
• Went to Oxford university, where his interests shifted from physiology to psychology, where he
later translated the third edition of Wundt’s Principles of Physiological psychology
• In 1890, shifted to Leipzig, since he could not nd anyone to train him in psychology.
• First major publication, ‘An outline of Psychology’ published in 1896.
• Later, went to America, to teach at Cornell University in New York, where he remained until his
death in 1927.
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Key concepts
• His tasks for psychology is mentioned as threefold:
• 1. Identify the basic elements of experience : Sensations, Images and
A ections
• 2. To assess the ways in which these elements combine
• 3. To determine causal relations in these phenomena: why sensory
elements arise and become connected?
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• He played an important role in founding of American psychology,
characterised by functional and evolution psychology, that contrasted his
extreme introspective psychology. Later, behaviorism prevailed in America.
• Tichener never compromised with these movements, despite his friendship
with J.B. Watson, founder of behaviourism.
• He did not participate fully in APA, later found his own organisation, called
as The Experimentalists, where women were excluded from participating.
Margaret Washburn, however, later joined it after his death, inviting other
women as well.
• Tichener believed in the mind having imaginal-sensational character. In
other words, every thought, statement is possessed by an image.
• Believed that mind is either made up of sensations, or images of
sensations; gave little preference to complex mental processes such as
apperception, since it is inferred rather than perceived directly.
• Strict follower of positivism.
• His psychology was an extreme form of British associationism; however, it
rejected the term associationism because it focus on association of
meaningful ideas, not simple meaningless sensations.
• Structuralism died with Tichener, and seldom has been mourned since.