The Beginning of Psychology: Voluntarism/Structuralism
• Fechner - not interested in nurturing the new discipline
• German universities more advanced, research emphasized
Wilhelm Wundt (b. 1832)
• Got Psychology going• Got it into the university
system• Made it a scientific
discipline
Wundt’s Background
• Student from SW Germany
• Studied medicine at Heidelberg under Robert Bunsen
• Research on salt deprivation…
Wundt the Physiologist
• Medical degree 1855• Berlin with Johannes Muller and du Bois-
Reymond• Research on muscle movement• Published first book in 1858• Heidelberg with Helmholtz; roomed with Ivan
Sechenov
Wundt the Psychologist
• The value of experimentation• His faith in psychophysical methods• His long-term strategy to make psychology an
experimental science• Wundt awarded “Ausserordentlicher” position
at Heidelberg
Experimental Psychology is Born
• "Principles of Physiological Psychology" 1873-74 contained chapters on:
• Movement• Sensation• The nervous system• Experimental methods of psychophysics• His own research
Leipzig, 1879 – *Landmark Date
• Weber and Fechner are there
• The Institute of Experimental Psychology
• Psychology is Born!• He awarded the first
Ph.D. in Psychology
Other Contributions to the Field
• A new journal: Philosophical Studies• Book on anthropological (cultural) psychology• In general, a “cheerleader” for psychology
Wundt's Legacy
• First experimental laboratory in Psychology• Got psychology recognized as separate
discipline• Produced Ph.D. students in Psychology; taught
over 24,000 students
Wundt's View of Psychology
• Psychology is a science of conscious experiences
• Psychology is concerned with phenomena • Psychology seeks to control phenomena
experimentally, measure them, and ultimately to derive general laws that will explain how observable phenomena arise
Psychology Deals with Direct Experience
• We can turn the mind inward upon itself and see directly without any instruments
• Hence, the technique of Internal Perception
Limitation of Analysis/Synthesis Approach
• The (synthesis) portion is not amenable to experimental method, even though it is the more complex and interesting part of psychology (e.g., memory, language, reasoning)
• Later on, revised this: Volkerpsychologie
3 Elements of Consciousness
• Sensations• Feelings (3-d array)
– pleasant/unpleasant– calm/excited– effortful/relaxed
• Volitions
Voluntarism: Act of Will
• We focus attention on particular elements by exercising our will
• Will is the mortar that holds the building blocks of consciousness together
Wundt’s Students’ Research
• Visual perception experiments (color, afterimages, color blindness)
• Visual illusions and size constancy• Chemical senses• Reaction time experiments (mental
chronometry)• Attention
Edward Titchener (b. 1867) and Structuralism
• Student of Wundt• Englishman who moved
to U.S. at Cornell
• 1st Ph.D. student: Margaret Floy Washburn
• “The Experimentalists”• Editor for "Mind” and
American Journal of Psychology
Titchener’s View
• Agreed with Wundt that psychology is the science of direct, immediate experience
• Analysis of sensations sheds light on how elements are combined
• Emphasis on the experimental technique of Introspection
Titchener's Structuralism
• Focus is on breaking up meaningful perceptions into their elemental sensations
• 3 Elements of Consciousness– Sensations– Images
• Elements of ideas• Less vivid, clear, intense, and prolonged than sensations
– Feelings• Pleasantness-unpleasantness
Sensations
• Over 44,000 different sensations cataloged
• 4 attributes of sensations:– Attensity– Quality– Protensity– Intensity
Criticisms of Voluntarism/Structuralism
• No clear scientific assumptions• The focus is on the observer’s training
– Properly trained to report direct experience– Observer must expect the stimulus– Must be in a state of strained attention– Observations repeated many times to reveal any
problems
• Introspection is really "retrospection"• Introspecting alters the experience• Results from other labs did not corroborate• Other psychological data excluded due to
method• Structuralism was an exclusive club
Impact of Voluntarism/Structuralism
• A separate discipline from psychophysics• Careful experimental method• Gave psychologists identity• Gave us something to criticize (!)
Hermann Ebbinghaus (b. 1850)
• Background• Ph.D. Philosophy in
1873• Chair of Philosophy at
Berlin 1880• 1885 "Concerning
Memory: an investigation in experimental psychology”
• Journal of Psychology and Physiology of the Sense Organs
• Fired from Berlin, replaced by Carl Stumpf• Moves to Breslau (1894)• Introductory Textbook: Principles of
Psychology (1897)
Ebbinghaus and Human Memory
• Impressed by Fechner’s book• Psychophysical methods to study higher
mental processes that Wundt said could not be studied
• Objective methods must be used• Used ”Sinnlose Silben"• Exerted precise control over experimental
conditions
The Experiments
• Varied length of the list, interval between recall, amount of original learning
• Examined practice and overlearning• # repetitions in original learning inversely
related to # repetitions in relearning• Distributed vs. massed practice
Forgetting
• Rapid forgetting over time (Ebbinghaus Curve)
• ”Number of syllables I can repeat without error is about 7"
Overall Contributions of Ebbinghaus:
• Experimental methods for higher mental processes
• Groundbreaking memory work• Textbooks• Ebbinghaus Completion Test
Ebbinghaus’ Students
• William Stern– One of first to study
language in children– IQ score
• William Lowe Bryan– Indiana U. President
Georg E. Muller (b. 1850)
• Buddies with Fechner• 1878: The Foundations
of Psychophysics• U. of Gottingen
Muller: A liberal thinker
• Collaborated with women, but they weren't allowed to receive Ph.D's at that time
A New Movement in Psychology
• Wundt/Titchener dominated• Others said that Psychology should not be
bound to a single method of science
Act Psychology
• Emphasizes the interaction of the individual and the environment
• Psychological events cannot be reduced to individual components without losing their identity
• Against structuralism
Franz Brentano (b. 1838)
• Background• 1855: Joined
Dominicans• Studied under
Trendelenberg• Ph.D. Philosophy;
ordained• Instructor at U. of
Wurzburg
Trouble in Wurzburg: Dissing the Pope
• Infallibility issue with the Pope• Vatican 533: Brentano 2• Professor of Philosophy at U. of Vienna• Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint
(1874)• Criticized Wundt/Titchener
– They made the soul too passive– The soul makes the body work– We are more than a collection of sensory inputs
Act Psychology
• Psychology is the science of psychic phenomena expressed as acts and processes
• Psychic phenomena, or acts, are directed toward an object
• The psychological act is directed, intentional, purposive
The Concept of Intentionality
• Consciousness is an intentional, goal-directed activity
• Consciousness always intends something
• Studied under Wundt• Studied logic with
Brentano; degree with Stumpf
• U. of Gottingen• Nazis in 1933
Husserl and Phenomenology
• (1913) “Logical Investigations”• Science of examining the data of conscious
experience• A separate science that comes before
psychology• Husserl’s 2-Step Method
– Careful Description– Wesensschau
Contributions of Husserl
• Proposed other methods to examine consciousness that emphasized the scrutiny of one’s self
• Thus, anticipated latter-day phenomenological psychology (humanistic psychology)
Carl Stumpf (b. 1848)
• Wurzburg w/ Brentano• Ph.D. Gottingen w/
Lotze• Back to Wurzburg; then
back to Gottingen; then replaced Brentano at Wurzburg; then replaced Ebbinghaus at Berlin
Stumpf’s Work
• (1873) “On the psychological origin of space perception"
• Said perception was wholistic***• Must focus on classification of experience
3 Levels of Classification
• Sensations and images• Perceiving, willing,
desiring• Relations (cognitive
classifications)
Contributions of Stumpf
• Emphasized phenomenology
• Psychology of music• Mentor for the Gestalt
Psychologists
• Worked under Wundt• Thesis with Muller in Berlin• Back to Leipzig as instructor• 1893: Introduction to Philosophy• Moves to Wurzburg 1894• Established the “Wurzburg School”
How to Measure Thought?
• Systematic Experimental Introspection• Marbe’s weight lifting experiment• Failure to be able to introspect started up the
imageless thought controversy
Imageless Thought?
• Wundt/Titchener claimed that thinking depended on mental images
• Kulpe found that in some experiments S's responses followed a stimulus word automatically without conscious awareness
• Said that "awareness" was neither image nor sensation