Dr.
Gerald S. Hecht
Associate
Professor of Psychology
College
of Sciences
webmaster@psiwebsubr.org
PSYC 488 - HISTORY & SYSTEMS EXAM 3 STUDY GUIDE
I.
WILHELM WUNDT'S FOUNDING OF THE SCIENCE OF
PSYCHOLOGY: VOLUNTARISM
- The name that Wundt gave
to his approach to Psychology was voluntarism because of its
emphasis
on will, choice, active synthesis and purpose
(In a sense he agreed with both Kant and Fechner).
- Wundt's Voluntarism
Consisted
of Two Elements:
- Sensations:
result of a sensory organ (i.e., eye,
ear)
receiving
stimulation from the outside world and the resulting impulse in the
nerves
reaching the brain. Sensations can vary in
a) modality
(visual, auditory, taste, etc.) and
b) quality
(within a modality i.e., red, blueetc for vision
)
- Feelings:
emotional reactions that accompany
sensations.
All feelings exist as points in a three dimensional space (tridimensional
theory):
a) pleasantness-unpleasantness,
b) excitement-calm
c) strain-relaxation.
- Wundt's Psychology was
to be the study of how the mind actively, purposefully and
creatively
combines or synthesizes these elements into the rich and complex
capabilities
of the human mind.
- Example of Wundt's
Methods: Introspective Mental Chronometry:
Measurement
of the time needed by the mind
to perform various activities: Activities which take longer are more
complex.
The time taken to perform a calculation (Calculation Time or CT)
for example, would be determined by subtracting a subjects
Simple Reaction
Time or SRT (two numbers are presented visually and the
subject
is instructed "push the button when you see two numbers") from
Calculation
Reaction Time or CRT (two numbers are presented visually
and the
subject is instructed "push the button when you know the
sum of
the two numbers ")
CRT-SRT=
CT
This would allow psychologists
to quantify mental operations the same way that physiologists measure
physical
operations
"WUNDT vs FECHNER"
Founded
modern psychology through his activities as a promoter,
advertiser, and organizer of systematic experimentation of
psychophysical
phenomena. Established the first psychological laboratory, edited the
first
psychological journal, and granted the first academic degrees in
psychology.
Without Wundt's efforts--Psychology
degrees
would
not exist.
Originated
modern
psychology-- was not trying to found a new science--his goal
was to
understand the relationshipbetween the mental and material
worlds. Without Fechner's ideas--
Psychology would
not have happened.
- TITCHENER: THE
MISREPRESENTATION
OF WUNDT'S WORK: STRUCTURALISM
Titchener: Summary of his "trashing of Wundt's work": Only
focused
on the elements-- totally disregarded Wundt's larger scheme.
Purported
to be an "exact copy" of Wundt-- but was not.
- Concentrated only on elements--left
out creative synthesis
- Association was mechanical--not
chemistry-like
- Disregarded Wundt's higher process
(apperception) stuff e.g., reaction time for mental events, etc.
- Disregarded Wundt's tridimensional
theory of feelings and only kept one of them: pleasantness -
unpleasantness
Edward
Bradford Titchener--This is
your life
- Undergrad and Masters degrees at
Oxford U.
- studied philosophy and the classics
- Left England because colleagues
were skeptical of scientific approach
to psychological issues
- Ph.D. with Wundt: 1892: Struck up
a friendship an American student--Frank Angell. Angell established one
of the first American Psychological laboratories at Cornell.
-
Went to Cornell University in
Ithaca
NY as Angell's replacement when Angell went to Stanford.
- Quickly developed the largest
doctoral
program in psychology in the United States. "RULED HIS DOMAIN WITH AN
IRON
FIST"
- To Titchener, all Americans and
Germans
who claimed to be psychologists were "...little more than
watered-down
Cartesians, codified phrenologists, or worst of all, thinly disguised
theologists...."
Yes... this guy was a piece of work...
- established labs, researched, wrote
(1893-1900)
- from 1900 onward
- Told students what their research
would
be
- Used that research to produce his
"system"
- "Bogus" translations of
Wundt's
books
- supportive (relatively speaking)
of
women in psychology graduate programs
- Margaret F. Washburn-- one of
Titchener's
students was the first woman Ph.D. in Psychology… and the first woman
elected
to the National Academy of Sciences.
TITCHENER'S STRUCTURALISM
- subject matter of psychology
- conscious experience
- as that experience is dependent on
the
experiencing persons
- immediate vs. mediate experience
- consciousness = the sum of
our experiences s they exist in the moment
- mind = the sum of our
experiences
accumulated over a lifetime
- only legitimate purpose: to
discover
the STRUCTURE of the mind
- no applied aspects allowed in
psychology
- subjects: only "normal"
adult
human beings… (whatever that means) PERIOD...no animals, children
or "defective
minds" allowed.
- yes... again...this guy was a piece
of
work...here is a quote from the man himself: "Science deals, not
with
values, but with facts. There is no good or bad, sick or well, useful,
or useless, in science..."
- goal: analysis; to discover
the "atoms of the mind"
- Total disregard of the essence
of Wundt's methods: mental chronometry,
etc.
- Elements of consciousness
- Defined three essential
problems
for Psychology
- Proposed three elementary
states of consciousness
- Contributions of Structuralism
- Subject matter clearly defined
("my way
or the highway")... provided a strong, solid base against which
younger,
prettier and smarter psychologists could rebel!
- In all fairness-- he was the
first "feminist"
in academia...
- However, he was also a fraud and
a liar
in many ways.... who almost got away with completely obliterating the
essence of the Wundt's Psychology.
- ironically, modern day cognitive
psychology is very much like
Wundt's Psychological Science.... many
generations (100 years) have elapsed between Wundt's original work and
the recent "rediscovery" of that work!