Module 2

MODULE 2
Introduction
• Structuralism, a systematic movement founded in Germany
• Highly developed introspective psychology
• In 1898, in order to differentiate his perspective from the others, Titchener came
up with the name structural psychology or structuralism .
• Structuralism had the following aims:
• To describe the components of consciousness in terms of basic elements.
• To describe how these basic elements are combined.
• To explain the connections of the elements of consciousness to the nervous
system (i.e., physical processes).
The definition of psychology, according to structuralism is as
follows -
“psychology is the analytic study of the generalized adult normal
human mind through introspection.”
Antecedents of
Structuralism
• German physiologist Hermann von Helmholtz (1821–
1894) measured the speed of the neural impulses and
explored the physiology of hearing and vision.
• His work indicated that our senses can deceive us and
are not a mirror of the external world.
• Helmholtz developed two major theories in
psychophysiology
• transduction of physical stimuli into nervous
impulses
• how qualitative, stimulus information is coded into
neural signals.
 Wundtian psychology has its roots in natural science
as it is adopts the methodology and analytic goals
common to physics, chemistry, and biology.
 The approach emphasizes that psychology should be

studied by defining psychological events in terms of
variables
 Introspection
 This system is sometimes also referred to as content

psychology, as its aim was to study the content of the
mind
Wilhelm Maximilian
Wundt (1832 – 1920)
Source: https://en.wikipedia.orgWilhelm Maximilian
Wundt (1832 – 1920)
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org
Titchener’s Structuralism
Titchener asserted that conscious experience is
the subject matter of psychology
conscious experience: real time experience
Titchener also talked about stimulus error which
is quantifying a object on the basis of it’s
physical properties
Subject matter is focusing on the sensations
Consciousness: sum or aggregate of our
Edward Bradford experiences as they exist at a given period of
Titchener (1867-1927)
Source: www.verywellmind.com time
Mind: sum or aggregate of our experiences as they exist at a given
period of time
Difference between consciousness and mind
consciousness consists of the mental processes occurring at a given
moment,
mind consists of the sum total of these processes
According to him, the purpose of psychology was not to reform societies

or cure sick minds, but to discover the facts of the structure of the mind
Introspection
Titchener described his method of introspection by using the term
systematic experimental introspection, which was given by Oswald
Külpe
• Titchener used subjective, detailed, qualitative reports of his subjects’
mental activities for the purpose of introspection, in a similar way as
used by Külpe
• Titchener’s aim was to uncover the so-called atoms of the mind.
• Titchner focused on the elements or on the parts of the consciousness
The Mechanistic Approach
The mechanistic spirit of philosophy also inspired Titchener, as can be
seen in his image of the observers who used to bring in the data in his
laboratory.
He actually thought that human beings are more like machines if we do
consider the observers in the laboratory to be machines.
This thinking was influenced by the Galilean-Newtonian mechanical view
of universe, an idea that continued to exist even after the slow death of
structuralism.
The Elements of Consciousness
Titchener proposed that psychology had three crucial goals:
To reduce conscious processes to their simplest components.
To identify laws by which these elements of consciousness were
associated.
To connect the elements with their physiological conditions.
Tichener’s research primarily focused on the first aspect

 Sensations
 Images
Affective states
Sensations: are the basic elements of perception and can occur in
the smells, sights, sounds, and other experiences that arise from
physical objects presentin the natural world.
• Images: are the elements of ideas that can be found in the process
that reflects past experiences,
• Affective states: or affections, are the elements of emotion and are found
in experiences like love, anger hate, happiness, sadness etc
In his book, An Outline of Psychology (1896), Titchener gave a list of all
the elements of sensation that he had discovered through his extensive
research.
The list included approximately 44,500 individual sensation qualities
11,600 were identified as auditory sensations, whereas the rest Structuralism
32,820 were identified as visual sensations
• Titchener believed that each of these elements was conscious and

different from all of the others that would combine with other
elements to give rise to perceptions and ideas
• Titchener added clearness and duration to the Wundtian attributes of
intensity and quality.
• Quality: is the characteristic, such as “warm” or “red” that explicitly differentiates
each element from every other element,
• Intensity refers to the strength, weakness, loudness, or brightness of a sensation,
• Duration is the course or time till a sensation lasts
• Clearness is concerned with the significant role that attention plays in conscious
experience; experience towards which our attention is directed is clearer than
experience towards which our attention is not
• directed.
Titchener added clearness and duration to the Wundtian attributes of
intensity and quality.
Quality: is the characteristic, such as “warm” or “red” that explicitly
differentiates each element from every other element,
Intensity: refers to the strength, weakness, loudness, or brightness of a
sensation,
Duration: is the course or time till a sensation lasts
Clearness: is concerned with the significant role that attention plays in
conscious experience; selective attention
Contributions of Structuralism
Their subject matter, conscious experience, was clearly defined.
Their research methods were in the highest traditions of science, as they
were based on observation, experimentation, and measurement.
The method of introspection: Also, responses on attitude scales and
personality tests or inventories, and clinical reports from patients etc. are all
introspective in nature.
Cognitive
processes such as reasoning that are based on introspection are
commonly used in psychology today; gather information
Finally, cognitive psychology also put greater emphasis on introspection
as its interest in conscious processes revived
Criticism
Definition of introspection; introspection can be thought of as a generic
term that includes a large number of specific methodical procedures.
The second source of criticism in Titchener’s methodology was the
training process of introspection, or precisely, the uncertainty about what
the introspectors were trained to do.
Observersat different laboratories frequently obtained different results,
even when experimental conditions were most rigidly controlled.
Yet another criticism of introspective method arose from the notion of the
unconscious mind, which was proposed by Sigmund Freud in the early
years of the 20th century.
Critics also argued that introspection was actually a form of retrospection,
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MODULE 2

 The approach emphasizes that psychology should be

 This system is sometimes also referred to as content

According to him, the purpose of psychology was not to reform societies

Tichener’s research primarily focused on the first aspect

• Titchener believed that each of these elements was conscious and

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