STRUCTURALIST SCHOOL OF PSYCHOLOGY
Before the arrival of the Structuralists, psychology was already being considered as the study of
consciousness. This meant that the entire scope of psychology encompasses the study of man’s
consciousness. The distinguishing feature of the Structuralists was that they added further to the definition
of psychology being the study of consciousness; psychology to them was concerned with the study of the
structure of consciousness. Therefore, Structuralists are philosophers/psychologist who defined psychology
as the study of consciousness. Further, Structuralists also tried to solve the enigma of a definition of
consciousness. It was imperative to give a definition of consciousness in order to substantiate the view
point of psychology being the study of structure of consciousness. Therefore, Structuralists put forward the
view that consciousness has a definite structure and it can be defined in terms of its structure. The concept
of definite structure was given by this school named Structuralists.
The structuralist school has many followers, but two of the very important names who belong to
the Structuralist school of thought are Wilhelm Wundt and Edward Bradford Titchner.
Wilhelm Wundt
Wilhelm Wundt was born in 1832 and died in 1920. Thinking of man evolved with the passage of
time as his surroundings change. Earth shaking events like the industrial revolution had caused man to shift
towards empiricism. As a result of the work of Russians, Sechenov and Pavlov on discovering laws of
learning by conditioning, through experimentation; the contributions of Darwin discovering the relationship
between psychology and physical sciences; and Fechner discovering physical ways to measure psychological
experiences, psychology was defined as the study of consciousness. Psychology had finally ceased to be a
merely speculative science and was gradually becoming an experimental science based on facts and logical
conclusions which were drawn through carefully conducted experiments and profound observations.
But most of the credit goes to Wilhelm Wundt who recognized that psychologists must adopt a
scientific outlook and adopt experimentation as the methodology, if psychology is to expand and flourish.
As mentioned earlier, by this time, events like the French revolution and the Industrial revolution had
changed the outlook of man. Man had become more logical in his approach and tried to find reasons for
everything. Therefore, based on these grounds, Wundt based his proposition that since speculation could
not be the mode of scientific investigation any more; therefore, psychology also has to adopt the new mode
of investigation if it has to be become a science.
Wilhelm Wundt is known for establishing the first psychology laboratory at Leipzig, Germany, in
the year 1875. This was one of the greatest leaps in the transition of speculative outlook to the scientific
outlook, facilitated by Wundt.
Wundt defined psychology as the study of consciousness. He further argued, that if consciousness
exist, which actually does, then it must have a structure. To elaborate his viewpoint further, he went on to
explain the structure of consciousness. According to him, consciousness could be studied by three things:
• Experimentation:
Experimentation was the most important mode of scientific investigation which according to
Wundt was the need of hour for psychology to develop. Psychologists therefore, needed to conduct
experiments which revealed the true nature of consciousness. In this regard, Pavlov was known for
his experiments that he conducted on dogs to discover the process of learning.
• Introspection:
Although Wundt believed that psychologists should adopt a scientific outlook, he did not reject
introspection as a method of gaining knowledge, because he regarded introspection as a mean of
looking into and understanding the structure of consciousness.
• Looking at the past history of man that has shaped his consciousness:
Another method of studying the structure of consciousness is by looking at the past history of man.
Darwin was the first one to give rise to the nature versus nurture controversy. According to him, it
was the environment that shaped the thinking of man, or the way he is brought up. Therefore,
according to Wundt, looking into the past of individuals gave insight into the consciousness of the
individuals.
Wundt himself also conducted some experiments and based upon them he proposed that consciousness is a
process which has three compartments:
• Ideas
• Feelings
• Emotions
He went on to say that the compartment of feelings can be divided as follows:
• Pleasant/unpleasant
• Relaxed/tense
• Calm/excited
Wundt also outlined the abnormal states of consciousness. He then went on to elaborate hallucinations,
hypnotic states and dreams. According to him, all of these abnormal activities of the consciousness are
caused due to the break down of attention.
Because of his elaboration of various parts of consciousness, he is classified as a structuralist today. He is
regarded as one of the greatest psychologists of the year and holds a high position in the history of
psychology.
Edward Bradford Titchner
Edward Bradford Titchner was born in 1867 and died in 1927. He was an English man and pupil of Wundt.
He studied in Germany, and worked all his life in America.
Contributions of Titchner to psychology can be gauged from three things that he tried to do, are:
• Contents of consciousness
This means that Titchner explained what consciousness is actually composed of. He then went
on to elaborate the contents of consciousness.
• Combination of these contents
The second contribution of Titchner is that he described the combination of contents of
consciousness which means that, which contents get together to result in an activity.
• Connections between the contents
The third contribution of Titchner is that he explained the connection between the contents of
consciousness which means that consciousness is a product of contents being related with each
other and working together.
Unlike Wundt, who gave three methods to study consciousness, the subject matter of psychology,
Titchner argued that since the only way psychology could be studied was introspection which he defined as
systematic and controlled self observation.
This is where he carried forward the view of his teacher, although he did not emphatically propose
experimentation as the way of understanding consciousness. Titchner went on to say that introspection is a
special method of gaining knowledge and understanding consciousness and not everyone could introspect.
This made him train subjects to introspect.
Wilhelm Wundt, who was a teacher of Titchner, tried to establish a scientific outlook of
psychology. But there was a flaw in Titchner’s ideas, which was that he took psychology back to the realm
of speculation and moved away from the modern empirical approach.
Wundt is also regarded as a Structuralist because he also emphasized on psychology being the study
of consciousness and explained the structure of consciousness and described the content of consciousness.