Edward Titchener and structuralist psychology

Together with his mentor, the celebrated Wilhelm Wundt, Edward Titchener was the founder of structuralist psychology, a psychological current of a theoretical and methodological nature that focused on the analysis of mental processes through introspection and that emerged during the early years of the 20th century.

Although this school of thought was defeated by the functionalism of William James, which gave way to behaviorism, and by other psychological orientations that opposed the proposals of Wundt and Titchener (such as the German Gestalt), had a key influence on the development of scientific psychology, even if this happened mostly by reaction.

• Related article: "History of Psychology: main authors and theories"

Biography of Edward Titchener

When he began studying at the university, the British Edward Bradford Titchener (1867-1927) focused on classical literature; however, he became increasingly interested in biology. In particular, the book "Principles of Physiological Psychology" by 

Wilhelm Wundt, who founded the first psychological laboratory and is considered the father of scientific psychology.

After translating the German psychophysiologist's work into English, Titchener moved to Leipzig to study with his idol; It was the year 1890. Tutored by Wundt, Titchener published his doctoral thesis, in which he analyzed binocular or stereoscopic vision (the phenomenon by which the images captured by the two eyes are processed jointly).

In 1892 Titchener returned to the UK for a few months; he later he moved to Ithaca, a city in the state of New York, to work as a professor of psychology and philosophy at Cornell University. There he founded his own psychology laboratory, in addition to disseminating and developing Wundt's ideas until giving way to structuralist psychology.

Titchener not only dedicated himself to teaching, despite the fact that this was his main profession; He also published several books focusing on psychological theory and methodology., among which stands out Experimental psychology (1901-1905), and was the editor of such important scientific journals as the American Journal of Psychology.

Structuralist psychology

The structuralist school had a relevant role in the psychology of the early twentieth century. Titchener, Wundt and the rest of theorists of this orientation had the objective of analyze the mind from the basic elements that make it up, and how these come together to form complex processes. For this they relied above all on the introspective method.

There is debate about whether the foundation of structuralist psychology should be attributed to Wundt or Titchener. Yes OK the central ideas of this psychological orientation come from WundtIt was Titchener who systematized, extended and popularized his proposals in the United States, which by then was becoming the world nucleus of psychology.

Structuralist psychology proposes that we can understand the structure of mental processes through definition and categorization of the elements that make up the psyche, particularly the mental contents and the processes by which these occur.

Titchener claimed that consciousness (or mind) is made up of three types of phenomenon: sensations, affects and images. When several of the same class join, complex processes appear. The sensations would be the elements that make up the perceptions, while the affects would give rise to emotions and ideas to thoughts.

The introspective method

Titchener's structuralist psychology was based on the use of the introspective method, by which a trained subject exercises the role of observer and descriptor of their own psychological processes. To provoke them, different types of stimuli were used, which varied depending on the task to be carried out and the type of mental content studied.

The introspective method had already been used by Wundt; however, Titchener applied it much more rigorously. In particular, this author rejected the study of unconscious processes, which includes constructs such as “instinct”. Thus, his study techniques focused on the description of conscious psychological experience.

According to Titchener, it is possible to obtain reliable information about the nature of the mind through introspection and self-knowledge. In fact, for this author this is the only method that can reliably analyze mental processes, since he affirmed that psychology must necessarily be a discipline based on introspection.

• You may be interested: "The 31 best Psychology books you can't miss"

The legacy of structuralism

Structuralist psychology is generally considered to have disappeared with Titchener: schools psychologists who opposed this author's approaches won the ideological battle in the community scientific However, in the same way as Wundt, Titchener played a key role in the development of experimental and scientific psychology.

William James' functionalism arose as a reaction to Titchener's structuralism. This orientation focused on the relevance of aspects forgotten by structuralist psychology such as the methods empirical, statistical comparison or systematic experimentation, and was the fundamental antecedent of behaviorism of Watson.

Today the type of psychology that Titchener advocated lives on in a different form in the cognitive psychology, which also focuses on the description of mental processes and phenomena in many cases subjective. In addition, the usefulness of the introspective method has been valued by a large number of psychologists in recent decades.

A curious fact regarding Titchener is the fact that it was this author who coined the Anglo-Saxon term "empathy" (empathy). The word comes from the classical Greek "empatheia", which means "passion or physical affection"; it was adapted into German ("Einfühlung") by Hermann Lotze and Robert Vischer and finally Titchener himself translated it into English.

Bibliographic references:

• Hothersall, D. (2004). History of psychology. New York: McGraw-Hill.

• Titchener, E. B. (1902). Experimental psychology: A manual of laboratory practice (Vol. 1). New York: MacMillan & Co., Ltd.