Titchener's Impact: Psychology's Evolution

Chapter 8: Structure or Function? A History of Psychology (3rd Edition) John G. Benjafield

Edward B. Titchener (1867–1927) • Graduated from Oxford • 1890–1892: Studied with Wundt at Leipzig • Established psychological laboratory at Cornell University, Ithaca

Titchener’s Method • Believed ‘the unconscious’ = fiction • Introspection: process by which individuals describe their experience • Psychophysical parallelism: by referring to events in the nervous system we may be able to explain mental processes without regarding those events in the nervous system as causing mental processes • Psychology = the study of the generalized human mind by means of experimental introspection

Phases of Titchener’s Career 1. 1890s: Titchener established the basic characteristics of his introspectionist approach • Structural vs. functional psychology 2. First decade of the twentieth century: Titchener was preoccupied with methodological issues • Experimental Psychology 3. Until 1915: Titchener was taken up with defending himself against various critics • Ex. imageless thought controversy 4. Titchener made some radical changes to his previous beliefs • Consciousness

Structuralism • Structuralism: aimed to uncover the elementary structures of mind = Titchener’s psychology

Experimental Psychology • Provides details about how a beginner student in experimental psychology can acquire the fundamental skills of the discipline • Explains that a psychological experiment consists of an introspection or a series of introspections made under standard conditions • Content divided into two parts: • Qualitiative • Quantitative

Imageless Thought Controversy • Critics: the Würzburgers • Reported that introspection often yielded nothing more clear and distinct than imageless thoughts • The concept of imageless thought was inconsistent with Titchener’s way of analyzing mental processes

Dimensions of Consciousness • Titchener developed an abstract approach to the study of consciousness • Stressed the analysis of consciousness in terms of dimensions • Never settled the questions of what dimensions of consciousness were or how many there were • He died before producing the great work on the subject that many of his students expected

Boring and the Dimensions of Consciousness • E.G. Boring published an account of what he considered to be Titchener’s central views • Singled out four dimensions for discussion: • Quality, intensity, extensity, and protensity • These dimensions all refer to sensory experience • Noted the phenomenological nature of the dimensional approach to experience

Titchener’s Influence • Little left of the content of Titchener’s system to influence subsequent generations of psychologists • His method of introspection received less and less support • Proposition that psychology was an experimental discipline continued to receive widespread support in academic psychology

Functionalism • Set out to violate the strictures that Titchener tried to place on psychology • Open to methods other than introspection • Attempts to select the method to fit the particular problem • Interested in what function psychological processes serve • Focus on how organisms adapt to their environment • Attempts to be practical as well as scholarly

John Dewey (1859–1952) • Undergraduate at the University of Vermont • 1884: PhD in philosophy at Johns Hopkins • 1894: joined the University of Chicago • Chair of the Department of Philosophy, Psychology, and Education • 1904–1930: Teacher’s College at Columbia University

Reflex Arc Concept • Paper contains: • A criticism of the reflex concept as elementaristic and mechanistic • A positive statement of a more organic approach to psychological phenomena • Suggested that a stimulus is created by an organism through the act of paying attention to something

Dewey’s Influence on Educational Practice • Teachers influenced by the psychological assumptions they make about children and the educational process • Children and adults are different • Adult is already in possession of cognitive abilities that the child is only in the process of developing • Argued against teaching the 3Rs • Progressive education movement

James R. Angell (1869–1949) • Studied with both Dewey and James • 1894: Professor of Psychology at Chicago • Did not believe in restricting psychology to laboratory investigation

Robert S. Woodworth (1869–1962) • Background in mathematics and physiology • 1903: Taught Psychology at Columbia • 1942: Retirement • Continued to be extremely productive • Wrote an introductory text, Psychology • Sold over 400,000 copies between 1922 and 1939 • 1938: wrote Experimental Psychology

S-O-R Framework • S-O-R • S = stimulus • R = response • O = organism (subject) • W-O-W • O = organsim • W = world (environment) • Set: similar in meaning to the determining tendency of the Würzburgers • Combination formula: W-S-Ow-R-W • Ow = individual’s adjustment to the environment, or set

Intelligence Testing • Functionalism created a climate in America within which applied psychology could flourish • Ex. emergence of intelligence tests in the United States

James McKeen Cattell (1860–1944) • Trained with Wundt at Leipzig • Year at Cambridge • Became acquainted with Sir Francis Galton’s methods • Cattell spent much of his career at Columbia University to the further development of measures of individual differences • 1890: first to introduce the term mental test

Examples of Cattell’s Mental Tests

Alfred Binet (1857–1911) • Invented the most influential form of intelligence test • In collaboration with Theophile Simon • Test to discriminate between normal and subnormally intelligent children • The Binet-Simon scale allows children to be compared in terms of their mental age • Mental age: determined by the age level of the items a child can pass

Examples of Binet and Simon’s Items

Evolution of Binet and Simon’s Test • Lewis M. Terman • Developed the most successful adaptation of the Binet-Simon scale in an American context = Stanford-Binet • Innovation of the intelligence quotient, or IQ • William Stern • IQ obtained by dividing the person’s mental age (MA) by his or her chronological age (CA)

Army Intelligence Testing • 1917: Robert M. Yerkes appointed chair of a committee to investigate how psychology could contribute to the war effort • The tests that Yerkes and his group developed were derived from many sources, including the Binet tests • Army Alpha = literate soldiers; Army Beta = illiterate soldiers • Group test administration • Problems: • Cultural bias • National differences in intelligence • Racial differences in intelligence

What is ‘Intelligence’? • Acquired? Innate? • Binet: intelligence as a collection of different skills • Boring: capacity to do well in an intelligence test

Psychology in Business As the mental testing industry was beginning to develop, the application of psychology to problems of interest to business was also emerging as a discipline.

Frederick W. Taylor (1856–1915) • Lifetime focus on efficiency • Scientific management • Ex. Bethlehem Steel Company • Methods developed further by Frank and Lillian Gilbreth • Time and motion study

Elton Mayo (1880–1949) • 1926: National Research Council studied the effect of changes in the level of lighting in the Western Electric Plant in Hawthorne, Illinois on workers’ output • Mayo became part of a group called in to investigate • Hawthorne effect: any change in work conditions increases output

Taylor Assumed that an individual is motivated by self-interest Focused on individual behaviour seen as a collection of bodily movements Mayo Saw the individual as motivated by the interests of the group to which the person belonged Focused on behaviour as determined by the quality of one’s interpersonal relationships Taylor vs. Mayo

Comparative Psychology • Comparative psychology: understanding the evolution of behaviour through the comparison of different species • George John Romanes • Mind = subject matter • Anthropomorphic • Continuity • Criticism: anecdotal • C. Lloyd Morgan • Experimental approach to study of animal behaviour • Canon

Edward L. Thorndike (1874–1949) • Research animal intelligence • Puzzle box: apparatus assembled by Thorndike out of wood • Procedure: • Cat placed in puzzle box with food outside • Cat required to pull on a string; push a latch • Thorndike concluded that the cat did not use reason to escape • Law of Effect

Titchener's Impact: Psychology's Evolution