STRUCTURALIST SCHOOL OF PSYCHOLOGY:Wilhelm Wundt

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Historyand Systems of Psychology PSY502

Lesson 14

STRUCTURALISTSCHOOL OF PSYCHOLOGY

Before the arrival of the Structuralists, psychologywas already being considered as the study of

consciousness. This meant that the entire scope of psychology encompasses the study of man's

consciousness.The distinguishing feature of the Structuralists was that they added further to the definition

of psychology being the study of consciousness; psychology to them wasconcerned with the study of the

structure of consciousness. Therefore, Structuralistsare philosophers/psychologist who definedpsychology

as the study of consciousness. Further,Structuralists also tried to solve the enigma of a definition of

consciousness. It was imperative to give a definition of consciousness in order to substantiate the view

point of psychology being the study of structure of consciousness. Therefore, Structuralists put forward the

viewthat consciousness has a definite structure and it can be defined in terms of its structure. Theconcept

of definite structure was given by this school namedStructuralists.

Thestructuralist school hasmany followers, but two of the very important names who belong to

the Structuralist school of thoughtare Wilhelm Wundt and Edward Bradford Titchner.

WilhelmWundt

WilhelmWundt was born in 1832and died in 1920. Thinking of man evolved with the passage of

time as his surroundings change.Earth shaking events like the industrial revolution hadcaused man to shift

towardsempiricism. As a result of the work of Russians, Sechenov andPavlov on discovering laws of

learning by conditioning, through experimentation; the contributions of Darwin discovering the relationship

betweenpsychology and physicalsciences; and Fechnerdiscovering physical ways to measure psychological

experiences,psychology was defined as the study of consciousness. Psychologyhad finally ceased to be a

merelyspeculative science and wasgradually becoming an experimental science based on facts and logical

conclusionswhich were drawn through carefully conducted experiments andprofound observations.

Butmost of the credit goes to WilhelmWundt who recognized thatpsychologists must adopt a

scientific outlook and adopt experimentation as the methodology, if psychology is to expandand flourish.

As mentioned earlier, by this time, events like the French revolution and the Industrial revolutionhad

changed the outlook of man. Man hadbecome more logical in hisapproach and tried to findreasons for

everything. Therefore, based on these grounds,Wundt based his propositionthat since speculationcould

not be the mode of scientific investigation anymore; therefore, psychology alsohas to adopt the newmode

of investigation if it has to be become a science.

WilhelmWundt is known forestablishing the first psychologylaboratory at Leipzig, Germany, in

the year 1875. This wasone of the greatest leaps in the transition of speculative outlook to the scientific

outlook, facilitated by Wundt.

Wundtdefined psychology as the study of consciousness. He further argued,that if consciousness

exist,which actually does, then it must have a structure. To elaborate his viewpointfurther, he went on to

explain the structure of consciousness. According to him, consciousness could be studied by three things:

Experimentation:

Experimentationwas the most important mode of scientific investigation which according to

Wundtwas the need of hour forpsychology to develop. Psychologists therefore, needed to conduct

experimentswhich revealed the true nature of consciousness. In this regard, Pavlovwas known for

hisexperiments that he conducted on dogs to discover the process of learning.

Introspection:

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Historyand Systems of Psychology PSY502

AlthoughWundt believed that psychologists should adopt a scientific outlook, he didnot reject

introspection as a method of gaining knowledge, because he regardedintrospection as a mean of

lookinginto and understanding the structure of consciousness.

Looking at the past history of manthat has shaped hisconsciousness:

Another method of studying the structure of consciousness is by looking at the past history of man.

Darwinwas the first one to give rise to the nature versusnurture controversy. According to him, it

was the environment that shaped the thinking of man, or the way he is brought up. Therefore,

according to Wundt, looking into the past of individuals gave insight into the consciousness of the

individuals.

Wundt himself also conducted someexperiments and based upon them he proposed that consciousness is a

processwhich has threecompartments:

Ideas

Feelings

Emotions

He went on to say that the compartment of feelings can be divided as follows:

Pleasant/unpleasant

Relaxed/tense

Calm/excited

Wundtalso outlined the abnormal states of consciousness. He then went on to elaborate hallucinations,

hypnoticstates and dreams. According to him, all of these abnormal activities of the consciousnessare

causeddue to the break down of attention.

Because of his elaboration of various parts of consciousness, he is classified as a structuralist today. He is

regarded as one of the greatest psychologists of the year and holds a highposition in the history of

psychology.

EdwardBradford Titchner

Edward Bradford Titchner was born in 1867 and died in 1927. He was an English man andpupil of Wundt.

He studied in Germany, and workedall his life in America.

Contributions of Titchner to psychology can be gauged from three things that he tried to do,are:

Contents of consciousness

This means that Titchner explained what consciousness is actually composedof. He then went

on to elaborate the contents of consciousness.

Combination of these contents

Thesecond contribution of Titchner is that he described the combination of contents of

consciousness which means that, which contentsget together to result in an activity.

Connectionsbetween the contents

Thethird contribution of Titchner is that he explained the connection between the contents of

consciousness which means that consciousness is a product of contents being relatedwith each

otherand working together.

Historyand Systems of Psychology PSY502

UnlikeWundt, who gave threemethods to study consciousness, the subject matter of psychology,

Titchnerargued that since the onlyway psychology could be studied was introspectionwhich he defined as

systematicand controlled self observation.

This is where he carried forward the view of his teacher,although he did notemphatically propose

experimentation as the way of understandingconsciousness. Titchner went on to saythat introspection is a

specialmethod of gaining knowledge andunderstanding consciousness andnot everyone could introspect.

This made him train subjects to introspect.

WilhelmWundt, who was a teacher of Titchner, tried to establish a scientific outlook of

psychology. But there was a flaw in Titchner's ideas, which wasthat he took psychology back to the realm

of speculation and moved awayfrom the modern empirical approach.

Wundt is also regarded as a Structuralistbecause he also emphasized on psychology being the study

of consciousness and explained the structure of consciousness and described the content of consciousness.

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