Structuralism and Functionalism

what is structuralism

the study of immediate, conscious experience in the normal adult mind (content psychology)

what does structuralism study

the structure of the mind and the structure of the consciousness

Is structuralism a creditied subgroup of psychology?

NO

Who was E.B Titchener

driver for structuralism. Educated under Wundt, tried to take this home to England (unsuccessfully), Worked at Cornell.

Why was Titchner not suscessful bringing structuralism home to England

The british was not receptive to the new discipline

Essential questions for psychology

What are elements of consciousness, how are elements connected, why are elements connected as they are.

What did Titchner use to analyze

Introspection to analyze conscious experience and mechanism to catalogue sensations and affective states.

Criticisms of structuralism

introspection was criticized, growing acceptance of other movements sidelined structuralists

Why was introspection criticized

they believed the mind was incapable of observing its own activities without altering what is being observed, introspection is really retrospection (ebbinghaus forgetting curve), and titchner was unable to precisely define his introspective method

growing acceptance of other movements in psychology

application areas growing, gestalt psychology not captured by simple combination of elements, psychoanalytic movement sugessted an unconscious process, experimental areas developing.

Fate of Structuralism

lasted until his death in 1927, titchner was abandoning a reductionistic approach for a phenomenological approach.

Goals of psychology

discover principles of behavior, apply principles to solve problems

what was the functionalist protest

how is the mind used for adaption, deliberate protest against structuralism, functionalism not founded as a school of thought, focusing on function led to applied psychology

Jean Baptiste Lamarck

Inhertiance of traits, French, Most influential evolutionary thinker before darwin, inheritance of acquired characteristics

Thomas Robert Malthus

English, An essay on the principle of population, survival of the fittest, promoted late marriages, abstinence, not helping the poor, thought people should get used to poverty

Charles Lyell

Scottish geologist, Lyell’s father was a naturalist, principle of geology, known friend of darwin.

Charles Darwin

British naturalist, Theory of evolution (natural selection), Origin of species

Natural Selection

variablitiy exists among species, offspring show variations

The descent of man

evidence for human evolution from lower forms of life, emphasized similarity between animal and human processes

The expression of the emotions in man and animals

mind and culture result from natural selection

Biographical sketch of an infant

darwins description of the early development of his children, baby-biography

darwins influence on psychology

his ides promoted an animal psychology-led to comparative psychology, emphasis on function rather than structure, data derived from diverse souces, focus on individual differences

Francis Galton

British, darwins cousin, individual differences, among first to measure intellectual differences, developed tests to measure sensory abilities, first to report “co-relation” between measured variables

Anthropometric laboratory

Francis Galton created it

Who used the first systematic use of questionnaires and data sheets

Francis Galton was the first

Animal Psychology

no clear distinction between mind of human animal and mind of non human animal

George Romanes

darwins hand picked successor, used comparative observations to show mental development continuity across species

Conway Lloyd Morgan

Romanes successor, morgans canon, learning through association, first large scale experimental animal studies.