The Origins of Structuralism in Psychology

Structuralism is considered the first school of thought in psychology. It involved breaking down the mind into the smallest possible parts and analyzing each one. The goal was to learn how each component functioned individually, as well as how they worked together to support complex mental processes.

Wilhelm Wundt, who was famous for founding the first psychology lab and is considered the father of modern psychology, founded structuralism. Although, one of his students also contributed greatly to this school of thought.

Origins of Structuralism

While Wundt is often listed as the founder of structuralism, he never actually used the term, instead referring to his ideas as voluntarism. It was his student, Edward B. Titchener, who invented the term structuralism.

Wundt believed that similar to other sciences, the mind could be broken down into structures by classifying conscious experiences into small parts that could be analyzed. Titchener decided to scrap Wundt's brand of psychological study.

Titchener did this because conscious experiences aren't as easy to control in an experiment as behavior is. Rather than focusing on obtaining quantitative measurements, Titchener prioritized observation and analysis.

Introspection: Structuralism's Main Tool

Titchener took Wundt's experimental technique, known as introspection, and used it to focus on the structures of the human mind. Anything that could not be investigated using this technique, Titchener believed, was not in the domain of psychology.

Titchener believed that the use of introspection, which utilized observers who had been rigorously trained to analyze their feelings and sensations when shown a simple stimulus, could be used to discover the structures of the mind. He spent the bulk of his career devoted to this task.

Titchener's Structuralism

Titchener's structuralism stressed three important tasks in the study of the human mind:

1. To discover how many mental processes there were, identify the elements of these processes, and explain how they work together
2. To analyze the laws governing the connections between the elements of the mind
3. To evaluate the connections between the mind and the nervous system

For approximately 20 years, Titchener dominated American psychology. He was extremely prolific, publishing 216 books and papers during his lifetime. He also trained a number of influential psychologists, supervising the doctoral work of nearly 60 students, including Margaret Floy Washburn and Edwin G. Boring.

Today, Ticheners's work is rarely mentioned outside of a purely historical context. He maintained a powerful hold on American psychology during his lifetime and contributed to psychology becoming a respected branch of the sciences, but his influence began to wane following his death.

Structuralism's Impact on Psychology

Structuralism may have enjoyed a brief period of dominance in psychology, but the school of thought essentially died out following the death of its founder. It did, however, lead to the development of other movements, including functionalism, behaviorism, and Gestalt psychology.