Psychology in the New World

1. Psychology in the New World • Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) • Puritan minister • Studied Locke • “Human actions are divinely determined.” • Will is determined by experience and understanding. • Free will is an illusion

2. Psychology in the New World • Joseph Buchanan (1814-1899) • Faculty Dean and Professor in the Eclectic Medical Institute of Covington, Kentucky • Coined the term “Psychometry” for measuring the soul in 1842 • Interested in sensation memory • The Law of Exercise (usually attributed to Thomas Brown): "Every action, or process of excitement, becomes more easily excited in proportion as it is frequently and forcibly performed"

3. Psychology in the New World • Amariah Brigham (1798-1849) • Remarks on the Influence of Mental Cultivation upon Health (1832) • Public fear about the “growing tide of insanity.” • Advice on the proper education of children, the importance of physical health, the dangers of excess mental excitement, and the need for improved education of women • For the first time, maintaining mental health became part of the American cultural ideal.

4. Williamsburg Hospital

6. Psychology in the new World • Benjamin Rush (1746-1813) • Physician (Psychiatrist) • Signer of the Declaration of Independence • An Enquiry into the Influence of Physical Causes upon the Moral Faculty (1786)

7. Edward Bradford Titchener • Oxford Englishman • Philosophy and the classics • Research assistant in physiology • No Psychology at Oxford • Ph.D. with Wundt in Leipzig (1892) • Returned to Oxford • His views were not accepted • Settled for Cornell

8. Edward B. Titchener (1867-1927) • Introduced Wundt’s experimental psychology to America • Although Titchener claimed to represent Wundt's ideas, in fact he radically altered them • The label “structuralism” can only be applied to Titchener’s work

9. Titchener at Cornell • 1893-1900: Established laboratories, did research, wrote • From 1900 • Directed students’ research • That research produced his system • Translated the works of Wundt books (Problem?)

10. Titchener and “The Woman Problem” • Regular meetings to share research observations and listen to guest speakers • Wundt’s rule: No Women • Desire for active discussion and interaction in a smoke-filled room • Refused Christine Ladd-Franklin's request to present her research • Advanced female grad students when other schools refused them

11. Titchener at Cornell • 1896: An Outline of Psychology • 1898: Primer of Psychology • 1901-1905: Experimental Psychology: A Manual of Laboratory Practice • Popular texts, translated into 5 languages • Stimulated growth of laboratory work in psychology in the United States • Influenced a generation of experimental psychologists

12. Titchener and “The Woman Problem” • Accepted female graduate students • 1/3 of the 56 doctorates awarded by him were to women • More female doctorates than any other contemporary psychologist • Hired female faculty • His first student, Margaret Floy Washburn, was 1st woman to earn doctorate in psychology

13. Margaret Floy Washburn • Columbia rejected her application • Wrote The Animal Mind (1908), major comparative psychology book • 1st female psychologist elected to national academy of sciences • President of APA

14. Structuralism • Structural Psychology: Titchener aimed to make it a pure science • Only legitimate purpose: to discover the facts (structure) of the mind • No applied aspects • Only interested in normal adult humans • No interest in abnormal psychology, child psychology, animal behavior, personality, etc.

15. Titchener’s Modifications • Titchener: Structuralism • Emphasis on elements of consciousness • Not concerned about Wundt’s Voluntarism • Wundt wanted to explain conscious experience, Titchener wanted to describe it • Association is mechanical • Central task of psychology: analysis of conscious experiences – Determine its Structure

16. Introspection (Again) • Introspection: “examination of one’s own mind to inspect and report on personal thoughts or feelings.” • Trained observers in self-observation • Adopted Külpe's label, “systematic experimental introspection” anti-Wundt • Used detailed, qualitative, subjective reports of mental activities during the act of introspecting

17. Introspection (Again) • Warned against stimulus error: “confusing the mental process under study with the stimulus or object being observed” • Consciousness: the sum of our experiences existing at a given time • Mind: (not brain) the sum of our experiences accumulated over a lifetime

18. Introspection (Again) • Goal: To discover the atoms of the mind • Mechanist approach: subjects were “reagents”: impartial, detached, recording instruments (machines) • Titchener’s experimental approach • Experiment = an observation “that can be repeated, isolated, varied” • Frequent repetition • Strict isolation (control) • Vary observations widely

19. Elements of Consciousness • Defined three essential problems for psychology (the bulk of his work) • Reduce conscious processes to simplest components • Determine laws by which elements associated • Connect the elements with their physiological conditions • Just like those of the natural sciences

20. Elements of Consciousness • Sensations: “...Basic elements of perception and occur in the sounds, sights, smells, and other experiences evoked by physical objects in our environment.” • Images: “...Elements of ideas...Not actually present in the moment,” e.g., “Memory of a past experience.” • Affective states: emotions

21. Elements of Consciousness • Elements categorized according to: • Quality: attribute differentiating each element from the other , e.G., “Cold,” “red” • Intensity: strength, weakness, loudness, or brightness of sensation • Duration: sensation’s path over time • Clearness: similar to attention • One Exception: Affective states lack clearness. If you study an emotion, it tends to fade. • Still a central component of CBT!!

22. Elements of Consciousness • Characteristics of mental elements • Discovered 44,000 basic and irreducible elements of sensation • Each is conscious • Each is distinct from all others • Each could combine with others to form perceptions and ideas • Rejected Wundt's tridimensional theory; Proposed only 2, pleasure and displeasure.

23. Losing the Faith? • By 1918, Titchener dropped concept of mental elements from his writings and lectures! • Early 1920s • Questioned term structural psychology!! • Called it “existential psychology” • Considered replacement of introspection with phenomenological approach (experience as it occurs, without analysis)

24. Criticisms of Structuralism • Methodology of Introspection • Had been attacked for a century or more • Kant, Comte, Maudsley • Titchener’s approach more precise yet did not give exact definition! • Precise task of trained observer is unclear/unknown • Introspection is retrospection

25. Contributions of Structuralism • Subject matter of psychology clearly defined • Research methods: good science • Although data were rather subjective • Introspection remains a viable method • Psychophysics, Clinical Cognitive and Medicinal Therapy, Unusual Environments • Impact on cognitive psychology • Strong base against which others could rebel, especially in America!

26. Lonely Titchener “He wanted to work on the mind; Americans were beginning to be concerned with minds.” - (Boring 1950)