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Chapter 11

The Founding of Modern Psychology

Chapter Objectives:

• Review the zeitgeist that provided a supportable context for the emergence of psychology as a formal discipline in Germany during the 1870s.
• Compare two views of psychology in the writings of Wundt and Brentano: Psychology as a Natural Science, Psychology as a Human Science.
• Contrast two views of empiricism: Experimental or open-ended?
• Relative impact of Psychology as a Natural Science.

Chapter Summary

Psychology emerged in Germany during the 1870s as a recognized scientific discipline. The recurrent theme in German philosophy of the essential activity of the mind provided the exciting intellectual setting that made a compelling case for psychology's founding, and also gave rise to competing models of the proposed substance and methodology of psychology. One model, an outgrowth of studies of sensory physiology and psychophysics, has been labeled structural, or content, psychology, and Wundt and Titchener were its major spokesmen. Under this natural science approach, psychology was defined as the experimental study of the data of immediate experience through the method of trained introspection. The goal of psychology was to reduce the contents of consciousness to constituent elements of sensory origin. Both its restricted subject matter and ambiguous methodology led to structural psychology's being seriously challenged as the definitive framework for the new science. Nevertheless, structural psychology did secure a recognition of psychology as a new science, and others, such as Müller, Hering, and Ebbinghaus, attempted to modify structural psychology to accommodate more sophisticated psychological issues. Moreover, philosophers such as Mach and Avenarius bolstered the justification for the natural science approach to psychology. An alternative, described as a human science model, proposed more open methodologies empirically based upon observation, but not necessarily experimental. Within this context, Brentano's act psychology defined its subject matter as processes of psychological events inseparable from the environment and consciousness. This phenomenological view offered a greater scope and several accepted methodologies for psychology. The works of Stumpf and Külpe, supported by the philosophical critiques of the natural science methods proposed by Dilthey and Bergson, fall into the human science model. However, these men's individual views did not offer a coherent or systematic theory able to compete successfully with structural psychology. Nevertheless, subsequent developments in psychology did establish viable alternatives. In many respects, the "founding” of modern psychology was a false beginning. Neither dominant model, as expressed by Wundt and Brentano, was successful in establishing a lasting framework for psychology. It was left to the immediate successors of these German psychologists to rethink the formulation of psychology's scope and method.

Suggested topics and issues for class discussion and/or short essay examination questions:

1. Briefly describe how the post-Renaissance development of empiricism, particularly expressed in the nineteenth-century advances reviewed in Chapter 10, contributed to the zeitgeist that permitted the emergence of modern psychology.

2. Why did psychology receive formal definition as a separate discipline in Germany rather than in Britain?

3. What is meant by the model of "psychology as a natural science"?

4. Describe how the system of structural psychology of Wundt and Titchener provided a natural science model for psychology.

5. What was the definition of structural psychology, in terms of its substance and method?

6. Briefly give a biographical sketch of Wundt.

7. Why is Titchener more appropriately considered as part of early modern German psychology, rather than part of early modern American psychology?

8. How was consciousness defined within structural psychology?

9. Contrast the goals of structural psychology with those of physics.

10. How was the method of introspection defined by Wundt and Titchener?

11. What were the major problems of limiting psychological inquiry to the method of introspection?

12. What was the role of "mental images" in mental activity, according to Wundt and Titchener?

13. What were the differences between Wundt and Titchener in their views on feeling, and how did the former's position related to apperception?

14. What was the role of associations in structural psychology?

15. How was structural psychology a mixture of British empiricism and German nativism? Did it successfully resolve the disparity between the two positions?

16. Summarize the influence of structural psychology as an initial expression of a new scientific discipline.

17. What were the contributions of Hering?

18. What were the contributions of Georg Müller?

19. What was the relationship of the work of Ebbinghaus to Fechner? How did Ebbinghaus's efforts go beyond the view of mental activity proposed in structural psychology?

20. Contrast the goals as scientists between Wundt and Titchener, on the one hand, and Hering, Müller, and Ebbinghaus, on the other?

21. What were the bases of science for Mach and Avenarius?

22. What is meant by the model of "psychology as a human science”?

23. Describe how the act psychology of Brentano provided a human science model of psychology.

24. What was the definition of the act psychology, in terms of its substance and method?

25. Briefly give a biographical sketch of Brentano. How did Brentano's academic circumstances affect his influence on the emergence of psychology?

26. What were Brentano's views on consciousness?

27. What were the classes of psychical phenomena for Brentano and how were these classes considered psychological acts?

28. What was the methodological focus of Brentano's psychology?

29. Summarize the influence of Brentano and his act psychology as an initial expression of a new scientific discipline.

30. Summarize Stumpf's major contributions to the substance and method of psychology.

31. What was the debate between Wundt and Stumpf in terms of implications for mental activity?

32. How did Dilthey view science and psychology?

33. What was Bergson's alternative to empiricism?

34. What was the Würzburg School and why did the controversy over "imageless thought" provide a serious challenge to structural psychology?

35. Compare structural psychology and act psychology in terms of unified, cohesive positions on psychological issues.

Objective Questions:

1. The zeitgeist for the emergence of a separate discipline of psychology was prepared during the nineteenth century by

A. the philosophical tradition of Britain.

B. the success of post-Renaissance empiricism.

C. the support of national governments.

D. the support of church authorities.

E. the final triumph of deductive logic.

2. Psychology emerged as a separate discipline in Germany because

A. British philosophy was hostile to the study of psychology.

B. French philosophy was hostile to the study of psychology.

C. German philosophy was hostile to the study of psychology.

D. German philosophy was not in agreement with empiricism.

E. German philosophy readily accommodated empirical psychology.

3. "Psychology as a natural science" implies

A. the recognition of psychic phenomena of a dynamic nature.

B. a reliance on deductive methods.

C. the analytic study of variables under experimental scrutiny.

D. a reliance on nonempirical methods.

E. the equation of psychology with physics.

4. The subject matter of structural psychology was the

A. analytic study of the adult human mind.

B. study of psychic phenomena expressed as acts and processes.

C. analytic study of mediated experience.

D. analytic study of higher thought processes.

E. analysis of sensations into stimulus dimensions.

5. Wundt's Principles of Physiological Psychology contained

A. the justification for reducing psychology to physiology.

B. the justification for reducing psychology to psychophysics.

C. methodologies that were largely deductive in approach.

D. acceptance of various methods of empiricism.

E. a systematic justification for a new method of psychological inquiry.

6. Titchener's views on psychology were

A. consistent with American psychology of his time.

B. inconsistent with American psychology of his time.

C. more aligned with British psychological theories.

D. largely modified after he came to America.

E. responsible for the direction of twentieth-century American psychology.

7. In structural psychology, consciousness was defined in terms of

A. psychic phenomena. B. mental passivity.

C. mediated experience. D. associations.

E. immediate experience.

8. A major goal of structural psychology was to

A. determine the elements of consciousness.

B. describe psychic processes.

C. analyze the phenomena of consciousness.

D. determine the elements of mediated experience.

E. determine the stream of consciousness.

9. Structural psychology accepted data from

A. phenomenology. B. metaphysics. C. introspection.

D. common sense. E. utilitarianism.

10. Introspection as the method of structural psychology could be conducted by

A. naive subjects. B. any scientist.

C. psychological descriptions. D. trained scientist.

E. only Titchener.

11. According to Titchener, stimulus errors were

A. improper scaling techniques. B. chance variation.

C. psychological descriptions. D. associations.

E. physical descriptions.

12. Introspection as the method of structural psychology suffered from

A. the self-reports of naive subjects.

B. too many stimulus errors.

C. the lack of consensus among introspectionists.

D. improper scaling techniques.

E. an extreme phenomenological approach.

13. According to structural psychology, thought must be accompanied by

A. images. B. sensations.

C. introspections. D. past associations.

E. perceptions.

14. The dimension of feeling, agreed to by both Wundt and Titchener, was

A. strength-weakness. B. pleasant-unpleasant.

C. strain-relaxation. D. excitement-calm.

E. conscious-unconscious.

15. Wundt extended Helmholtz's notion of unconscious inference to the creative process of

A. introspection. B. sensation.

C. perception. D. apperception.

E. conscious inference.

16. According to structural psychology, the primary mechanism in the combination of mental elements was

A. sensation. B. mediate experience.

C. immediate experience. D. introspection.

E. association.

17. Structural psychology

A. succeeded in establishing introspection as a valid method.

B. pushed psychology into science.

C. served as the guiding force of twentieth-century psychology.

D. resolved the difference between empiricistic and nativistic positions.

E. established the foundation of Gestalt psychology.

18. Hering, Georg Müller, and Ebbinghaus

A. all succeeded in establishing systematic positions on psychology.

B. were act psychologists.

C. accepted the value of introspection.

D. were experimentalists rather than system builders.

E. were students of Wundt.

19. The three-substance, six-color theory of vision was proposed by

A. Helmholtz. B. Hering. C. Ebbinghaus.

D. Wundt. E. Müller.

20. The goal of analyzing memory as Fechner had analyzed sensations was pursued by

A. Helmholtz. B. Hering. C. Ebbinghaus.

D. Wundt. E. Müller.

21. Mach and Avenarius were

A. radical empiricists. B. anti-positivists.

C. metaphysicists. D. act psychologists.

E. opposed to sense validation.

22. "Psychology as a human science" implies

A. the recognition of psychic phenomena of a dynamic nature.

B. a reliance on deductive methods.

C. the analytic study of variables under experimental scrutiny.

D. a reliance on nonempirical methods.

E. the equation of psychology with physics.

23. The subject matter of act psychology was the

A. analytic study of the adult human mind.

B. study of psychic phenomena expressed as acts and processes.

C. analytic study of mediated experience.

D. analytic study of higher thought processes.

E. analysis of sensations into stimulus dimensions.

24. Brentano's Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint contained

A. the justification for reducing psychology to physiology.

B. the justification for reducing psychology to psychophysics.

C. methodologies that were largely deductive in approach.

D. acceptance of various methods of empiricism.

E. a systematic justification for a new method of psychological inquiry.

25. In act psychology, consciousness was defined in terms of

A. psychic phenomena. B. mental passivity.

C. mediated experience. D. associations.

E. immediate experience.

26. A major goal of act psychology was to

A. determine the elements of consciousness.

B. describe psychic processes.

C. analyze the phenomena of consciousness.

D. determine the elements of mediated experience.

E. determine the stream of consciousness.

27. According to Brentano, the highest level of psychical phenomena was at the

A. representational level.

B. sensory level.

C. level of immediate experience.

D. cognitive level.

E. level of personalization.

28. The major impact of Brentano's act psychology

A. succeeded in a definitive model for twentieth-century psychology.

B. was its opposition to phenomenology.

C. was exerted through his students.

D. was its repudiation of empiricism.

E. was its essential agreement with structural psychology.

29. Stumpf's views on psychology reflect the influence of

A. Helmholtz. B. Hering. C. Husserl.

D. Wundt. E. Brentano.

30. Wundt and Stumpf debated over the

A. the use of introspection in the analysis of sensory experiences of tonal stimuli.

B. appropriate theory of color vision.

C. appropriate functions of the basilar membrane.

D. use of deductive methods of science.

E. benefits of positivism.

31. The individual person, studied in light of the meaning of historical contingency and change, was central to the views of

A. Mach B. Stumpf. C. Bergson.

D. Avenarius. E. Dilthey.

32. For psychology, Bergson's views on proper scientific methodology criticized

A. phenomenology. B. metaphysics. C. intuition.

D. applied technologies.

E. natural science methodologies.

33. The "imageless thought" controversy initiated by the Würzburg School

A. seriously challenged the position of structural psychology.

B. seriously challenged the position of act psychology.

C. resolved the problem of whether thoughts are accompanied by images.

D. rescued introspection from repudiation.

E. found support in the work of Titchener.

34. The Würzburg School served as a precursor for

A. structural psychology. B. act psychology.

C. Gestalt psychology. D. applied psychology.

E. behavioristic psychology.

35. Both structural psychology and act psychology

A. established the benefits of the experimental method.

B. established the benefits of various empirical methods.

C. contained essentially the same definition and method of psychology.

D. succeeded in establishing contemporary psychology in a definitive way.

E. failed in establishing contemporary psychology in a definitive way.