HISTORY OF PSYCHOLOGY

1
HISTORY OF PSYCHOLOGY  The Rise Fall of German
Structuralism (and a bit about Sir Francis
Galton)    
Dr Richard Roche   Dept of Psychology,  NUI
Maynooth. Email Richard.Roche_at_nuim.ie
2

• Wündts Leipzig Lab
• Psychophysics
• Time Sense
• Mental Chronometry
• Interested in the difference between perception
  and apperception
• In apperception, the stimulus is perceived,
  recognised, interpreted, and thought about

3
Experiments on the Span of Apperception Wündt and
colleagues would present arrays of stimuli very
briefly (100ms) and test a participants recall
of what was presented Regardless of the nature
of the stimuli (letters, numbers, words, shapes),
usually between 4-6 objects could be correctly
recalled Concluded that 4-6 thoughts or ideas
could be held in consciousness at any one moment
4
(No Transcript)
5
Wündts Leipzig Lab The idea of Creative
Synthesis Wündt argued that perceived ideas will
be organised and combined in a way consistent
with prior associations or experience Apperceived
ideas, however, could be combined in many
different ways, including novel ways that have
not been experienced before. In this respect,
Wündt was not really a reductionist
6
Wündts Leipzig Lab The Method of Introspection
if Psychology is to study conscious experience,
then the main tool for this study should be the
observation recording of ones own subjective
experience. Sensations and Feelings Sensations
Mode (visual, auditory etc.) Quality (colour,
pitch etc.) Intensity Duration
7
Wündts Leipzig Lab Sensations and
Feelings Feelings three basic
dimensions pleasantness unpleasantness
tension relaxation activity passivity
But Wündt himself expressed reservations about
the use of introspection as an investigative tool
for psychology
8
E.B. Titchener (1867-1927) Born
Chichester Philosophy Classics, and
later Physiology at Oxford. Spent 2 years at
Wündts lab in Leipzig. When experimental
psychology was met with scepticism in England, he
went to Cornell to teach and direct the lab. He
ran the lab for the rest of his life, becoming a
cult figure in Cornell, being very popular with
his students
9
While he maintained that he followed Wündts
teachings, he actually differed significantly
from his old mentors approach. He termed his
approach Structuralism the subject matter of
Psychology should be the study and analysis of
the basic elements of conscious experience
atomistic view of consciousness not shared by
Wündt Structural Psychology was a pure science
for Titchener interested in generalisable
aspects of human mind, not individual differences
or case studies of abnormality.
10
The Methodology of Structuralism Titchener
trained his students to become adept at trained
introspection to report only the sensations as
they were experienced without reliance on
meaning words he called this stimulus error
11

• Using this approach, Titcheners students
  (reagents) meticulously reported various
  visual, auditory, tactile, gustatory, olfactory
  etc. experiences
• In An Outline of Psychology (1896), he reported
  over 44,000 elements of sensation
• 32,820 Visual,
• 11,600 Auditory,
• 4 Taste, etc.

12

• Elements of Consciousness
• Titchener proposed 3 elementary states of
  consciousness
• Sensations
• basic elements of perception sights, sounds,
  tastes, smells etc. Evoked by physical objects
  present in the environment.
• Images
• elements of ideas reflects experiences not
  actually present at that time, e.g. memory of a
  sight.
• Affective States
• feelings the elements of emotion love, hate,
  anger, sadness etc.

13
Characteristics of the Elements Claimed that
elements could be distinguished by Quality
cold or red distinguishes each element
from the others. Intensity how strong,
loud, bright etc. the sensation is. Duration
course of a sensation over time how long it
lasts Clearness role of attention in
consciousness clearer if attention is
directed toward it Later he identified
dimensions as quality, intensity, protensity
(duration), attensity (clearness) extensity
14
The Fate and Criticisms of Structuralism Structur
alism effectively died with Titchener in
1927. The main criticisms of it were aimed
at Introspection as an investigative tool
Kant, Comte, Maudlsey Lack of agreement across
reagents no consistency. Objections to the
extreme reductionist approach This objection
was best captured by the Gestalt movement, which
emerged in Germany from 1890 onwards
15
Gestalt Psychology 1890 Christian von Ehrenfels
coined the term Gestalt (meaning form or
shape) to describe the way certain qualities
(gestaltqualitäten) could not be broken down into
separate sensory elements
16
Gestalt Psychology 1910 Max Wertheimer, former
student of von Ehrenfels, founded the Gestalt
movement with colleagues Kurt Koffka and Wolfgang
Köhler
17
Gestalt Principles Some qualities are emergent
from the arrangement of elements, rather than
from the elements themselves. Human perceptual
system must somehow impose attributes on stimuli
over and above the mere elements that are
perceived. Perception is more than the addition
of sensory elements it imposes its own order on
the elements of sensation, organising them into
wholes or gestalts.
18
(No Transcript)
19
(No Transcript)
20
A the Kanizsa triangle. B Tse's volumetric
worm. C Idesawa's spiky sphere. D Tse's "sea
monster".
21
Francis Galton (1822-1911) and Individual
Differences Born Birmingham Cousin of Darwin
estimated IQ of 200 Educated in medicine and
mathematics, later became an explorer Sudan, SW
Africa meteorology... When his cousin
published On the Origin of Species he became
interested in the idea of the heritability of
characteristics in humans.
22
Galtons Influence Galton made several major
contributions to psychology 1869 Hereditary
Genius proposed that greatness or genius
occurred within families too often to be
attributable to environmental factors. Often, the
specific type of genius was inherited music,
science etc. He founded the science of Eugenics
dedicated to improving the hereditary qualities
of the human race. Wanted to encourage the birth
of eminent people and discourage the birth of the
unfit. Suggested breeding the more talented,
like livestock, to ensure that the offspring
would be exceptional
23
His work in this area led him to become
interested in the areas of measurement and
statistical methods Previously, Quetelet (a
Belgian statistician) had been first to apply
statistical methods and the normal distribution
to human data.
24
Galton proposed that mental capacities may be
similarly distributed, e.g. intelligence. He
also arrived at an important tool in statistics
the correlation (he called it co-relation) For
example, he found a way to quantify the
relationship between body size and head
length Later, his student Pearson went on to
develop the mathematical formula for correlation
which is still used today
25
Mental Tests Galton developed a number of mental
tests, assuming that the measurement of sensory
capacities could reveal intelligence (agreeing
with Lockes view). Invented apparatus to measure
sound frequency discrimination, a photometer
(colour matching), measures of reaction time,
sensitivity to movement, olfactory
discrimination Founded his Anthropometric
Laboratory in 1884 in London.
26
(No Transcript)
27
(No Transcript)
28
Association Galton was fascinated by the
association of ideas, and the speed at which they
took place. Famous Pall Mall walk he would
focus on an object until it suggested one or more
associated ideas. He repeated the walk several
days later and found high consistency for many of
the associations. From this, he developed a Word
Association Test consisting of 75 words, each on
a separate card reaction time taken to generate
2 associations was measured with a stopwatch.
Many associations originated in childhood This
type of test is still used in some clinical
contexts today, and Carl Jung was to use it
heavily in his work
29
Mental Imagery Among the other things to interest
Galton were mental imagery, which led him to use
a psychological questionnaire extensively as
subjects tried to recall, and then generate an
image of, what they had for breakfast. He was
horrified to discover that some people had little
or no capacity for generating mental imagery at
all! Later he concluded that imagery is normally
distributed in the population, with clarity and
vividness varying normally. Further, he also
reported data which suggested that it was also an
hereditary capacity. Also studied number forms,
synaesthesia, paranoia etc.