Structuralism is regarded as the very first school of thought in psychology. He believed that psychology was the science of conscious experience and that trained observers could accurately describe thoughts, feelings, and emotions through a process known as introspection. However, Wundt made a clear distinction between everyday self-observation, which he believed was inaccurate, and experimental introspection also called internal perception. According to Wundt, internal perception involved a properly trained observer who was aware when a stimulus of interest was introduced.
Wundt's process required the observer to be keenly aware and attentive of their thoughts and reactions to the stimulus and involved multiple presentations of the stimulus. Of course, because this process relies on personal interpretation, it is highly subjective. Wundt believed that systematically varying the conditions of the experiment would enhance the generality of the observations.
While Wundt is typically associated with structuralism , it was actually his student Edward B. Titchener who influenced the structuralist school in America. Many historians believe that Titchener actually misrepresented much of Wundt's original ideas. Instead, Wundt referred to his point of view as voluntarism.
While Titchener's structuralism involved breaking down elements to study the structure of the mind, Blumenthal has noted that Wundt's approach was actually much more holistic. Wundt also established the psychology journal Philosophical Studies. In a ranking of the most influential psychologists of the 20th century, Wundt was ranked at number The creation of a psychology lab established psychology as a separate field of study with its own methods and questions.
Wilhelm Wundt's support of experimental psychology also set the stage for behaviorism , and many of his experimental methods are still used today. A number of other influential thinkers can also claim to be "fathers of psychology" in some way or another. Wundt was not only the very first person to refer to himself as a psychologist; he also established psychology as a formal discipline separate from philosophy and biology.
While his introspective method does not meet the empirical rigor of research today, his emphasis on experimental methods did pave the way for the future of experimental psychology. Thanks to his work and contributions, a whole new field was established and inspired other researchers to explore and study the human mind and behavior.
Obviously, not everyone is going to agree with these generalized titles. A few people might suggest that Freud is the father of psychology since he is perhaps one of its most "known" figures. Others might suggest that Aristotle is the true father of psychology since he is responsible for the theoretical and philosophical framework that contributed to psychology's earliest beginnings.
Still others might argue that those earliest researchers such as Helmholtz and Fechner deserve credit as the founders of psychology. No matter which side of the argument you are on, one thing that is easy to agree on is that all of these individuals had an important influence on the growth and development of psychology. While the theories of each individual are not necessarily as influential today, all of these psychologists were important in their own time and had a major impact on how psychology evolved into what it is today.
Ever wonder what your personality type means? Sign up to find out more in our Healthy Mind newsletter. Rieber R, Robinson RW, eds. New York, NY: Springer; Henley T. Hergenhahn's An Introduction to the History of Psychology. Kim A.
Wilhelm Maximilian Wundt. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Updated September 10, Culture has important impacts on individuals and social psychology, yet the effects of culture on psychology are under-studied. In this sense, it has remained a descriptive science, rather than one seeking to determine cause and effect. For example, a study of characteristics of individuals seeking treatment for a binge eating disorder in Hispanic American, African American, and Caucasian American individuals found significant differences between groups Franko et al.
The study concluded that results from studying any one of the groups could not be extended to the other groups, and yet potential causes of the differences were not measured. This history of multicultural psychology in the United States is a long one. The role of African American psychologists in researching the cultural differences between African American individual and social psychology is but one example. Sumner established a psychology degree program at Howard University, leading to the education of a new generation of African American psychologists Black, Spence, and Omari, Much of the work of early African American psychologists and a general focus of much work in first half of the 20th century in psychology in the United States was dedicated to testing and intelligence testing in particular Black et al.
That emphasis has continued, particularly because of the importance of testing in determining opportunities for children, but other areas of exploration in African-American psychology research include learning style, sense of community and belonging, and spiritualism Black et al. The American Psychological Association has several ethnically based organizations for professional psychologists that facilitate interactions among members.
Since psychologists belonging to specific ethnic groups or cultures have the most interest in studying the psychology of their communities, these organizations provide an opportunity for the growth of research on the impact of culture on individual and social psychology.
Before the time of Wundt and James, questions about the mind were considered by philosophers. However, both Wundt and James helped create psychology as a distinct scientific discipline. Wundt was a structuralist, which meant he believed that our cognitive experience was best understood by breaking that experience into its component parts.
He thought this was best accomplished by introspection. William James was the first American psychologist, and he was a proponent of functionalism. Like Wundt, James also relied on introspection; however, his research approach also incorporated more objective measures as well. Sigmund Freud believed that understanding the unconscious mind was absolutely critical to understand conscious behavior.
This was especially true for individuals that he saw who suffered from various hysterias and neuroses. Freud relied on dream analysis, slips of the tongue, and free association as means to access the unconscious. Psychoanalytic theory remained a dominant force in clinical psychology for several decades. Gestalt psychology was very influential in Europe. Gestalt psychology takes a holistic view of an individual and his experiences.
Although they left their laboratories and their research behind, they did introduce America to Gestalt ideas. Some of the principles of Gestalt psychology are still very influential in the study of sensation and perception.
Behaviorism focused on making psychology an objective science by studying overt behavior and deemphasizing the importance of unobservable mental processes. John Watson is often considered the father of behaviorism, and B. Thus, a humanistic movement within psychology began to take hold. Humanism focuses on the potential of all people for good.
Both Maslow and Rogers were influential in shaping humanistic psychology. During the s, the landscape of psychology began to change. A science of behavior began to shift back to its roots of focus on mental processes. The emergence of neuroscience and computer science aided this transition. Ultimately, the cognitive revolution took hold, and people came to realize that cognition was crucial to a true appreciation and understanding of behavior.
How did the object of study in psychology change over the history of the field since the 19th century? In part, what aspect of psychology was the behaviorist approach to psychology a reaction to? Freud is probably one of the most well-known historical figures in psychology. Where have you encountered references to Freud or his ideas about the role that the unconscious mind plays in determining conscious behavior?
In its early days, psychology could be defined as the scientific study of mind or mental processes. Over time, psychology began to shift more towards the scientific study of behavior. However, as the cognitive revolution took hold, psychology once again began to focus on mental processes as necessary to the understanding of behavior. Behaviorists studied objectively observable behavior partly in reaction to the psychologists of the mind who were studying things that were not directly observable.
Skip to main content. Module 1: Introduction to Psychology. Search for:. Watson is known as the father of behaviorism within psychology.
PP II: Thus consciousness is a function of the scope of attention, which may be broader as perception or narrower as apperception [ 34 ]. Hence the degree of apperception is not to be measured according to the strength of the external impression [i. Wundt writes: Association everywhere gives the first impetus to [apperceptive] combinations. Only in this way can one explain the well-known fact that we can easily and without trouble finish [composing] a complicated sentence-structure.
In other words, as the apperceptive activity becomes increasingly intense it seems as it were to rise above the field of perception, above the field of its own constructs, becoming aware of itself as pure activity, as pure self -consciousness: rooted in the constant activity [ Wirksamkeit ] of apperception, [self-consciousness] … retreats completely into apperception alone, so that, after the completion of the development of consciousness, the will appears as the only content of self-consciousness….
The theoretical framework of experimental psychology As we have seen Section 3. Wundt writes: Objects of science do not in and of themselves yield starting points for a classification of the sciences.
Because, as was described above, thinking is experienced immediately as an inner activity, … we must regard it as an act of will [ Willenshandlung ], and accordingly regard the logical laws of thought [ Denkgesetze ] as laws of the will. Intuition is not identical with evidence, for evidence only comes to be at the moment when logical thinking relates the contents of intuition and presupposes the relations of such intuitive contents as objectively given.
Bibliography Boring has an excellent annotated bibliography , ff. Kroner, Leipzig: Engelmann. Revised editions in , , , , , , , , , followed by five unaltered editions. See Boring Windelband ed. Grundlinien einer psychologischen Entwicklungsgeschichte der Menschheit , Leipzig: Barth.
Creighton and E. Titchener trans. Judd trans. Washburn trans. Translation of part of Ethik Schaub trans. Mead et al. Sebeok series ed. Secondary sources concerning Wundt Araujo, S. Ash, M.
Blumenthal, A. CO;2-H Bringmann, W. Balance, and R. Bringmann, W. Bringmann, and D. Bringmann, and W. Tweney ed. Brock, A. Eisler, R. Wundts Philosophie und Psychologie , Leipzig: Barth. Emmans, D. Laihinen eds.
Estes, W. Fahrenberg, J. Farber, M. Greenwood, J. Hall, G. Hearst, E. Heidegger, M. Humphrey, G. Husserl, E. Wundt, seine Philosophie und Psychologie , Stuttgart: Fr. Frommanns Verlag.
Kurz, E. Kusch, M. See especially pages — Lamberti, G. Littman, R. Lo Dico, G. Mead, G. Meischner-Metge, A. Mischel, T. Natorp, P.
Nerlich, B. Perry, R. Ribot, T. Baldwin trans. Rieber, R. Ringer, F. Schlotte, F. Sluga, H. Thompson, R. Tinker, M. Faili trans. Wellek, A. Byck trans. Wong, W. Wundt, E. Reprinted in Boring Some very vivid and anecdotal reminiscences of Wundt by seventeen of his American students.
Related or cited works Ash, M. Woodward eds. Ben-David, J. Brett, G. Peters ed. Herbart, J. Bonset, Amsterdam, Ladd, G. James, W. I, Henry James ed. Kant, I. Ellington trans. Kitcher, P. Kockelmans, J. Lipps, T. Marbe, K.
Maudsley, H. Merleau-Ponty, M. Rosett, J. Sartre, J. Titchener, E. Wolman, B.
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