The Beginnings of Psychology

                Structuralism

                Psychology emerged as a new scientific discipline in Germany at the research laboratory of Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920). Wundt was the first person to identify himself as a psychologist, and he established the first psychological laboratory in 1879. Wundt interpreted psychology as the study of the mind and its structure, and in so doing participated in another first; he founded the first school of psychology. He believed that the human mind was another part of the body, and as such, that it could be studied scientifically by analyzing its components. This approach soon became known as structuralism.

                Structuralists believed the primary objective of psychology was to study directly the basic elements of conscious experience—sensations (such as sights, sounds, smells), images (memory), and emotions (such as love, hate, joy, and sorrow). Their goal was to identify and then see how these basic through introspection, a highly disciplined self-analysis of conscious experiences. Structuralists trained themselves as well as their subjects to describe accurately the sensations, images, and emotions they experienced as they were stimulated by carefully selected stimuli, for example, a light or a sound.

                Suppose you were a structuralist. You might look in your refrigerator and see a lemon. How would you explain this experience? You would realize that this image of a lemon that your brain has constructed is based on its component properties, such as the form, size, and color of the actual lemon. You would try to understand how the more complex perception of the lemon is related to these more basic components; that is, how the brain assembles all of these parts into the experience of seeing the lemon as a complete object.

                Wundt’s theories have not had much impact upon modern American psychology, partly because of the development of other schools of psychology, especially behaviorism, and partly because Americans turned away from Germanic influences following the onset of World War I. Wundt’s influence, however, was great as he established the first psychological laboratory and taught over 24,000 students during his long career (Fancher, 1979).

                Functionalism

                Other early psychologists believed that the structuralist’s definition of psychology was too restrictive. They believed that many psychological processes could not be meaningfully broken down into more basic components. William James (1842-1910), a prominent American psychologist, for example, often referred to the active and fluid nature of psychological processes and the stream of consciousness (James, 1890).

                James ideas formed the basis for a school called functionalism, which stressed that the mind functions to aid the organism in adjusting to changes in its environment. The function of the mind rather than its structure was or paramount interest. Influenced by Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, functionalists were basically interested in studying the function of cognitive processes in aiding the survival of both human and nonhuman organisms. Although some functionalists used introspection as their primary analytical tool, others directly observed behavior as a means for studying conscious experience. Hence, functionalism broadened the scope of psychology to include the study of behavior as well as the study of cognitive processes.

                Gestalt Psychology

                Unlike the other early schools of psychology, Gestalt psychology focused on describing the organization of cognitive processes. Gestalt is a German words that roughly translates into “form” or “overall shape.” Like the functionalists, Gestalt psychologists were not interested in breaking down conscious experience into its component parts; rather, Gestalt psychologists analyzed consciousness as a unified process. Gestalt psychologists, such as Wolfgang Kohler (1887-1967), were particularly influential in studying perceptual processes.

                One problem that fascinated early Gestalt psychologists was based on the then recent invention of motion pictures. How is it that we perceive motion as a unified process when viewing a motion picture? In essence, the motion picture is composed of nothing but a series of individual still photographs running in rapid succession through the projector. Yet in some way, the perception of motion is something more than the sum of the information provided by each individual frame. According to Gestalt psychologists, our perception of continuous motion is formed by the way that the mind actively organizes the pattern of changing photographs, constructing the illusion of continuity from the sequence of individual photographs. Studying how the mind creatively organizes pieces of information into unified wholes, or gestalts, was the core of Gestalt psychology.

                Early Behaviorism

                The school of psychology known as behaviorism argued that observable behavior and not cognitive processes were the proper subject matter for psychology. Early behaviorists such as John Watson (1878-1958) even went so far as to reject the introspective method in its entirety, avoiding all references to consciousness and mental experience. To Watson (1913), the matter was a closed case. He felt that “Introspection forms no essential part of its methods, nor is the scientific value of its data dependent upon the readiness with which they lend themselves to interpretation in terms of consciousness” [p.158].

                Of all the early schools of psychology, behaviorism, by far, had the greatest influence on the development of the emerging science of psychology. As we soon see, this influence continues to the extent that a modified form of behaviorism is one of the major forces in contemporary psychology.

                Early Psychoanalysis

                The school of psychoanalysis was founded on the theory that human behavior and personality development is due primarily to unconscious motivations, those feelings, desires, and wishes that are blocked from our conscious awareness. Psychoanalysts such as Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) conducted detailed studies of the lives and experiences of individuals for the purpose of diagnosing and treating abnormal behavior such as hysteria and anxiety. Freud and his students believed that the unconscious contains numerous anxiety provoking wishes and desires that influence our conscious thoughts and actions. Using techniques such as analyzing dreams and studying slips of speech, psychoanalysts believed they could open a window and peer into the unconscious regions of the human mind.

(Source: Buskist W., Gerbing D. W. Psychology: Boundaries and Frontiers. United States of America: HarperCollinsPublishers. 1990. Page 3-6 )

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