Edward Titchener Contribution To Psychology

Edward Bradford Titchener was a pupil of Wilhelm Wundt and is oft credited with introducing the structuralist school of thought. While Wundt is sometimes identified as the founder of structuralism, Titchener theories differed in important means from Wundt's. While he was a dominant force in psychology during his life, the schoolhouse of thought he founded essentially died with him.

Acquire more nigh his life, career, and influence on psychology in this cursory biography.

Best Known For

Structuralism
Introspection
Coined the word "empathy," a translation of the German word 'Einfühlung.'
Oversaw the graduate studies of Margaret Floy Washburn, the offset woman to receive a Ph.D. in Psychology

Early Life

Edward Bradford Titchener was born on January eleven, 1867, in Chichester, England and attended Malvern Higher on a scholarship. While his family unit originally intended for him to enter the clergy, Titchener's interests were elsewhere.

In 1885, he began studying at Oxford. He initially focused on biology, but he presently shifted to the study of comparative psychology. During his fourth dimension at Oxford, he began to read the writings of Wilhelm Wundt and subsequently translated the outset book of Wundt'southward famous text Principles of Physiological Psychology from German into English.

Titchener graduated from Oxford in 1890 and then began studying with Wundt in Leipzig, Federal republic of germany. He went on to earn his Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Leipzig in 1892.

Career

After earning his Ph.D., Titchener took a position as a professor of psychology at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. It was here that he established the psychological schoolhouse of thought known every bit structuralism.

Titchener believed that by systematically defining and categorizing the elements of the mind, researchers could empathize the structure of the mental processes.

While he is often described equally an campaigner of Wundt's, Titchener's ideas differed from those of his mentor. He utilized Wundt's method of introspection but under much more than stringent guidelines. He was just interested in things that existed in the consciousness, and then things such as instincts or the unconscious were of no interest to him.

Introspection was a technique that relies on self-observation. Trained observers were presented with different objects or events so asked to depict the mental processes they experienced. Based on this kind of research, Titchener concluded that there were three essential elements that fabricated up all conscious experiences: feelings, sensations, and images.

Major Contributions to Psychology

Titchener is credited with introducing Wundt's scientific ideas to the United States. All the same, it is of import to note that historians recognize that Titchener's theories differed from those of his mentor and many critics suggest that Titchener actually misrepresented many of Wundt's ideas. While the school of idea did not survive his death, he played a significant function in establishing psychology equally an experimental science.

Titchener was an original member of the American Psychological Association. However, he never attended a single coming together. In 1904, he founded his own group known as the Experimentalists. Titchener believed the APA was flawed and too accepting of applied psychology topics.

Titchener's group was also known for its ban on women, which continued until after his decease. Despite Titchener's refusal to admit women in his grouping, his starting time doctoral student was Margaret Floy Washburn. In 1894, she became the first woman to earn a Ph.D. in psychology.

During a time when many women were forbidden from studying at major universities including Harvard and Columbia, Titchener oversaw the doctoral studies of more women than any other male psychologist of that time menses.

In addition to his career as a distinguished and much-loved professor, Titchener served equally the editor of several prominent journals including Mind, Studies from the Department of Psychology of Cornell Academy, and the American Journal of Psychology. He as well published several critical psychology texts including Outline of Psychology (1897), A Primer of Psychology (1898), and his four-volume Experimental Psychology (1901-1905).

Titchener died on August 3, 1927, and with his death, the structuralist school of thought mostly disappeared also.

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Ganczarek J, Hunefeldt T, Belardinelli MO. From "Einfühlung" to empathy: exploring the relationship between aesthetic and interpersonal feel. Cogn Process. 2018;19(2):141-145. doi:x.1007/s10339-018-0861-x
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Henley, TB. An Introduction to the History of Psychology (8th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning; 2019.
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Additional Reading

Encyclopaedia of Britannica. Edward B. Titchener. Updated Jan vii, 2020.
Leahey, TH. A History of Psychology: From Artifact to Modernity. New York: Routledge; 2017.
Proctor RW, Evans R. E. B. Titchener, women psychologists, and the Experimentalists. The American Journal of Psychology. 2014;127(iv):501-506. doi:10.5406/amerjpsyc.127.four.0501

By Kendra Cherry
Kendra Red, MS, is an writer and educational consultant focused on helping students learn nearly psychology.

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