1. A History of Psychology
Chapter 5:
Structuralism

2. Introduction Titchener: Wundt: (experimental psychology)
1. organization of elements
2. through Apperception
3. Mind has the power to organize mental elements voluntarily
Titchener:
(structuralism)
1. focused on elements
2. through Association
3. Analyze consciousness into its component parts and determine its structure.

3. Structuralism---- Edward Bradford Titchener(1867-1927)
A. His life:
1. Born in England
2. Attended at Oxford U.
a. philosophy and the classics
b. research assistant in physiology
c. interested in Wundt’s psychology

4. Structuralism---- Edward Bradford Titchener(1867-1927)
, studied with Wundt and earned Ph.D at Leipzig
3. Back to Oxford U. and wished to become the English pioneer of Wundt’s psychology.
4. However, his colleagues were skeptical of scientific approach to philosophical issues. Thus, he left England to Cornell U.

5. Structuralism---- Edward Bradford Titchener(1867-1927)
5. Cornell University ( )
a established lab, did research, and wrote articles.
b. supervised more than 50 doctoral candidates
c. directed students’ research topics
d. built his system of structuralism
e. translated Wundt’s books such as Principles of Physiological Psychology

6. Structuralism---- Edward Bradford Titchener(1867-1927)
B. His work
1. His books
a. 1896: An Outline of Psychology
b. 1898: Primer of Psychology
c : Experimental Psychology: A Manual of Lab Practice
1) stimulated growth of lab work in US
2) influenced a generation of experimental psychology
3) popular text, translated in to 5 languages

7. Structuralism---- Edward Bradford Titchener(1867-1927)
: Titchener Experimentalists organized; men only.
3. Accepted women in psychology graduate programs
a. one-third of his doctoral students were women
b. Margaret F. Washburn
1) first woman Ph.D in psychology
2) wrote important book on comparative psychology (The Animal Mind, 1908)
3) first woman psychologist elected to National Academy of Sciences
4) president of the APA

8. Structuralism---- Edward Bradford Titchener(1867-1927)
C. the content of conscious experience
1. Subject matter of psychology
a. conscious experience
b. as that experience is dependent on the person who is actually experiencing it.
2. Dependent on the experiencing individual
Other sciences: independent of experiencing persons (e.g., temperature)

9. Structuralism---- Edward Bradford Titchener(1867-1927)
3. Consider phenomena in terms of how human observe and experience these phenomena, e.g., light and sound.
4. Stimulus error:
Confusing the mental process with the object we are observing.
See an apple and describe that object as an apple instead of reporting the elements of color, brightness, and shape they are experiencing.

10. Structuralism---- Edward Bradford Titchener(1867-1927)
5. Immediate versus mediate experience
Color, brightness, or shape (immediate experience)
Other than color, brightness, or shape (mediate experience: interpreting the object)

11. Structuralism---- Edward Bradford Titchener(1867-1927)
6. Consciousness: the sum of our experiences as they exist at a given time
7. Mind: the sum of our experiences accumulated over a lifetime

12. Structuralism---- Edward Bradford Titchener(1867-1927)
8. Pure science
a. only legitimate purpose: to discover the facts (structure) of the mind
b. no applied aspects
c. only normal adult humans

13. Structuralism---- Edward Bradford Titchener(1867-1927)
D. Introspection
1. Self-observation
2. Relied on trained observers
reporting the elements of their conscious state
3. Adopted Kulpe’s label, “systematic experimental introspection”
Used detailed, qualitative, subjective report of mental activities during the act of introspecting

14. Structuralism---- Edward Bradford Titchener(1867-1927)
4. Opposed Wundt’s approach
Wundt: synthesis (Whole)
Titchener: component parts (Parts)
5. Goal: analysis; to discover the atoms of the mind

15. Structuralism---- Edward Bradford Titchener(1867-1927)
6. Mechanist:
subjects were “reagents” and were like mechanical recording instruments
7. Proposed an experimental approach to introspective observation in psychology:
an experiment is an observations that can be repeated, isolated, and varied

16. Structuralism---- Edward Bradford Titchener(1867-1927)
E. Elements of consciousness
1. Defined three essential problems for psychology
a. reduce conscious processes to simplest components
b. determine laws by which elements were associated
c. connect the elements with their physiological conditions

17. Structuralism---- Edward Bradford Titchener(1867-1927)
2. Aims: the same as those of the natural sciences
3. Proposed three elementary states of consciousness
a. sensations
basic element of perception, e.g., sound or smell
b. images
the element of idea, e.g., memory of past experiences
c. affective states
the element of emotion, e.g., love, hate, and sadness

18. Structuralism---- Edward Bradford Titchener(1867-1927)
4. Discovered 44,500 basic elements of sensation
a. each is conscious
b. each is distinct from all others
c. each could combine with others to form perceptions and ideas

19. Structuralism---- Edward Bradford Titchener(1867-1927)
5. characteristics of mental elements
A. quality
B. intensity
C. duration
D. clearness
6. Rejected Wundt’s tridimensional theory, suggested only pleasure/displeasure

20. Structuralism---- Edward Bradford Titchener(1867-1927):
a. dropped concept of mental elements
b. suggested study of dimensions instead of basic elements
8. Early 1920s
a. questioned term structural psychology
b. called his approach as “existential psychology”
c. considered replacement of introspection with phenomenological approach (i.e., examining experience just as it occurs, without trying to break it down into elements)

21. Structuralism---- Edward Bradford Titchener(1867-1927)
III. Criticisms of Structuralism
A. Introspection
1. Method of introspection
If the mind were capable of observing its own activities, it needs to have two parts.
2. Definition of introspection
Difficulty defining exactly what he meant

22. Structuralism---- Edward Bradford Titchener(1867-1927)
3. Definition of psychology
Animal psychology and child psychology (not psychology)
4. Precise task of trained observer is unclear/unknown
a. unreliability within and between subjects
b. special vocabulary

23. Structuralism---- Edward Bradford Titchener(1867-1927)
5. Introspection is retrospection
Artificial
6. Could not explore the unconscious mind

24. Structuralism---- Edward Bradford Titchener (1867-1927)
IV. Contributions of Structuralism
1. Subject matter clearly defined
2. Research methods: good science
Observation, experimentation, or measurement
The most appropriate method for studying conscious experience was self-observation

25. Structuralism---- Edward Bradford Titchener (1867-1927)
3. Introspection method is still used in many areas of psychology
Clinical reports from patients on personality tests are introspective in nature
4. Impact on cognitive psychology
Introspective reports involving cognitive processes such as reasoning
5. Strong base against which others could rebel