Structuralism was the first major school of psychology that focused on breaking down mental processes into their most basic components using introspection. It was founded by Wilhelm Wundt but developed by his student Edward Titchener. While it helped establish psychology as a science, structuralism was limited in that it focused too much on internal behaviors that could not be directly observed. Functionalism formed in reaction to structuralism and focused on understanding the purpose and processes of consciousness and behavior, influencing later schools like behaviorism and applied psychology. Neither structuralism nor functionalism remain dominant today but they were important early influences in the development of psychology.
Structuralism was the first major school of psychology that focused on breaking down mental processes into their most basic components using introspection. It was founded by Wilhelm Wundt but developed by his student Edward Titchener. While it helped establish psychology as a science, structuralism was limited in that it focused too much on internal behaviors that could not be directly observed. Functionalism formed in reaction to structuralism and focused on understanding the purpose and processes of consciousness and behavior, influencing later schools like behaviorism and applied psychology. Neither structuralism nor functionalism remain dominant today but they were important early influences in the development of psychology.
Structuralism was the first major school of psychology that focused on breaking down mental processes into their most basic components using introspection. It was founded by Wilhelm Wundt but developed by his student Edward Titchener. While it helped establish psychology as a science, structuralism was limited in that it focused too much on internal behaviors that could not be directly observed. Functionalism formed in reaction to structuralism and focused on understanding the purpose and processes of consciousness and behavior, influencing later schools like behaviorism and applied psychology. Neither structuralism nor functionalism remain dominant today but they were important early influences in the development of psychology.
Structuralism was the first major school of psychology that focused on breaking down mental processes into their most basic components using introspection. It was founded by Wilhelm Wundt but developed by his student Edward Titchener. While it helped establish psychology as a science, structuralism was limited in that it focused too much on internal behaviors that could not be directly observed. Functionalism formed in reaction to structuralism and focused on understanding the purpose and processes of consciousness and behavior, influencing later schools like behaviorism and applied psychology. Neither structuralism nor functionalism remain dominant today but they were important early influences in the development of psychology.
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What Was Structuralism?
Structuralism was the first school of psychology and focused on breaking down mental processes into the most basic components. Researchers tried to understand the basic elements of consciousness using a method known as introspection.
Wilhelm Wundt, founder of the first psychology lab, is often associated with this school of thought despite the fact that it was his student, Edward B. Titchener, who first coined the term to describe this school of thought.
While Wundt's work helped to establish psychology as a separate science and contributed methods to experimental psychology, Wundt himself referred to his view of psychology as volunteerism and his theories tended to be much more holistic than the ideas that Titchener later introduced in the United States. Titchener's development of structuralism helped establish the very first "school" of psychology, but structuralism itself did not last long beyond Titchener's death.
Structuralism, in psychology, a systematic movement founded in Germany by Wilhelm Wundt and
mainly identified with Edward B. Titchener. Structuralism sought to analyze the adult mind (defined as the sum total of experience from birth to the present) in terms of the simplest definable components and then to find the way in which these components fit together in complex forms.
The major tool of structuralist psychology was introspection (a careful set of observations made under controlled conditions by trained observers using a stringently defined descriptive vocabulary). Titchener held that an experience should be evaluated as a fact, as it exists without analyzing the significance or value of that experience. For him, the anatomy of the mind had little to do with how or why the mind functions. In his major treatise, A Textbook of Psychology (190910), he stated that the only elements necessary to describe the conscious experience are sensation and affection (feeling). The thought process essentially was deemed an occurrence of sensations of the current experience and feelings representing a prior experience.
Although structuralism represented the emergence of psychology as a field separate from philosophy, the structural school lost considerable influence when Titchener died. The movement led, however, to the development of several countermovements (i.e., functionalism, behaviourism, and Gestalt psychology) that tended to react strongly to European trends in the field of experimental psychology. Behaviour and personality were beyond the scope considered by structuralism. In separating meaning from the facts of experience, structuralism opposed the phenomenological tradition of Franz Brentanos act psychology and Gestalt psychology, as well as the functionalist school and John B. Watsons behaviourism. Serving as a catalyst to functionalism, structuralism was always a minority school of psychology in America.
The Strengths and Criticisms of Structuralism
By todays scientific standards, the experimental methods used to study the structures of the mind were too subjectivethe use of introspection led to a lack of reliability in results.
Other critics argue that structuralism was too concerned with internal behavior, which is not directly observable and cannot be accurately measured. However, these critiques do not mean that structuralism lacked significance. Structuralism is important because it is the first major school of thought in psychology. The structuralist school also influenced the development of experimental psychology.
What Was Functionalism?
Functionalism formed as a reaction to structuralism and was heavily influenced by the work of William James and the evolutionary theory of Charles Darwin. Functionalists sought to explain the mental processes in a more systematic and accurate manner.
Rather than focusing on the elements of consciousness, functionalists focused on the purpose of consciousness and behavior. Functionalism also emphasized individual differences, which had a profound impact on education.
Some of the important functionalist thinkers included William James, John Dewey, Harvey Carr and John Angell.
Strengths and Criticisms of Functionalism
Functionalism was criticized perhaps most famously by Wundt. "It is literature. It is beautiful, but it is not psychology," he said of functionalist William James The Principles of Psychology.
Functionalism was an important influence on psychology. It influenced the development of
behaviorism and applied psychology. Functionalism also influenced the educational system, especially with regards to John Deweys belief that children should learn at the level for which they are developmentally prepared.
A Word From Verywell
While neither of these early schools of thought remain today, they both had an important influence on the emergence of psychology as a modern science. Wundt and Titchener's structuralism played a role in the drive to make psychology a more experimental science, while James's functionalism helped focus psychology on the process of actually solving real problems. By understanding the focus of structuralism and functionalism, you can gain a greater appreciation of how psychology arrived at the point it is today.
Behaviourism, a highly influential academic school
of psychology that dominated psychological theory between the two world wars. Classical behaviourism, prevalent in the first third of the 20th century, was concerned exclusively with measurable and observable data and excluded ideas, emotions, and the consideration of inner mental experience and activity in general. In behaviourism, the organism is seen as responding to conditions (stimuli) set by the outer environment and by inner biological processes. The previously dominant school of thought, structuralism, conceived of psychology as the science of consciousness, experience, or mind; although bodily activities were not excluded, they were considered significant chiefly in their relations to mental phenomena. The characteristic method of structuralism was thus introspectionobserving and reporting on the working of ones own mind. The early formulations of behaviourism were a reaction by U.S. psychologist John B. Watson against the introspective psychologies. In Behaviorism (1924), Watson wrote that Behaviorism claims that consciousness is neither a definable nor a usable concept; that it is merely another word for the soul of more ancient times. The old psychology is thus dominated by a subtle kind of religious philosophy. Watson believed that behaviourism attempted to make a fresh, clean start in psychology, breaking both with current theories and with traditional concepts and terminology (from Psychology from the Standpoint of a Behaviorist, 3rd ed., 1929). Introspection was to be discarded; only such observations were to be considered admissible as could be made by independent observers of the same object or eventexactly as in physics or chemistry. In this way psychology was to become a purely objective, experimental branch of natural science. However abstract these proposals may seem, they have had a revolutionary influence on modern psychology and social science and on our conception of ourselves. Watsons objectivist leanings were presaged by many developments in the history of thought, and his work typified strong trends that had been emerging in biology and psychology since the late 19th century. Thus, Watsons desire to bury subjective subject matter received widespread support. Between the early 1920s and mid- century, the methods of behaviourism dominated U.S. psychology and had wide international repercussions. Although the chief alternatives to behaviourism (e.g., Gestaltpsychology and psychoanalysis) advocated methods based on experiential data, even these alternatives accommodated the objectivist approach by emphasizing a need for objective validation of experientially based hypotheses. The period 191230 (roughly) may be called that of classical behaviourism. Watson was then the dominant figure, but many others were soon at work giving their own systematic twists to the development of the program. Classical behaviourism was dedicated to proving that phenomena formerly believed to require introspective study (such as thinking, imagery, emotions, or feeling) might be understood in terms of stimulus and response. Classical behaviourism was further characterized by a strict determinism based on the belief that every response is elicited by a specific stimulus. A derivative form of classical behaviourism known as neobehaviourism evolved from 1930 through the late 1940s. In this approach, psychologists attempted to translate the general methodology prescribed by Watson into a detailed, experimentally based theory of adaptive behaviour. This era was dominated by learning theorists Clark L. Hull and B.F. Skinner; Skinners thought was the direct descendant of Watsons intellectual heritage and became dominant in the field after the mid-1950s. Other important behaviourists included Hull- influenced Kenneth W. Spence; Neal Miller, who claimed that neuroscience is the most productive avenue in psychological research; cognitive theorist Edward C. Tolman; and Edwin R. Guthrie. Tolman and others brought about a liberalization of strict behaviourist doctrine. The posture toward objectivism remained fundamentally the same, even while admitting the existence of intervening (i.e., mental) variables, accepting verbal reports, and branching into areas such as perception. A natural outgrowth of behaviourist theory was behaviour therapy, which rose to prominence after World War II and focused on modifying observable behaviour, rather than the thoughts and feelings of the patient (as in psychoanalysis). In this approach, emotional problems are thought to result from faulty acquired behaviour patterns or the failure to learn effective responses. The aim of behaviour therapy, also known as behaviour modification, is therefore to change behaviour patterns.
