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

Exploring the Mind: Analysis and Synthesis

• Analysis • Synthesis

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

Wundt's Voluntarism System

• Elements of consciousness• Will

3 Elements of Consciousness

• Sensations• Feelings (3-d array)

– pleasant/unpleasant– calm/excited– effortful/relaxed

• Volitions

Consciousness

• Consists of mixtures of sensations, feelings, and 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

How do Sensations Combine?

• Law of Contiguity

What about Attention?

• Attention is drawn to sensation; attention = clarity

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 (!)

German Competitors to Wundt/Titchener

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

3 Phases of Muller’s Career

Phase 1: Psychophysics

• Response bias• Transformations on data

Phase 2: Memory

• Memory drum• Interference theory of

forgetting (retroactive inhibition)

Phase 3: Visual Perception

• Extended Hering's opponent-color theory of color vision

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

3 Categories of Mental Acts

• Presentation• Judging• Desire

The Concept of Intentionality

• Consciousness is an intentional, goal-directed activity

• Consciousness always intends something

Method

• Internal perception is an indirect way to study mental phenomena

Edmund Husserl (b. 1859)

• 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)

Psychology of Music

• 1883-90: Tone Psychology

Stumpf's Students

• Pfungst (Clever Hans)• Kohler, Koffka, Lewin

Contributions of Stumpf

• Emphasized phenomenology

• Psychology of music• Mentor for the Gestalt

Psychologists

Oswald Kulpe (b. 1862): The Assassin of Structuralism

• “Science is my Bride”

• 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

Final Nail in the Coffin of Voluntarism/Structuralism