The goal of structuralism, as a
Theory of consciousness, is to examine the constituent parts of mental experiences—such as feelings, images in the mind, and sensations—and how these parts interact to create more intricate experiences.
Wilhelm Wundt established structuralism by dissecting consciousness into itsconstituent parts using controlled techniques like introspection, all while maintaining the characteristics of the total.
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| Wilhelm Wundt |
Edward B. Titchener, a pupil of Wundt, advanced structuralism. Sensations (taste, sound, and sight), Images (thought components), and Affections (emotional components) are the three basic states of consciousness that Titchener posited. The structuralist school of thought suggests that by dissecting the fundamental components of ideas and feelings, it is possible to comprehend the structure of conscious experience.
Wilhelm Wundt founded structuralism in Germany, which is primarily connected to Edward B. Titchener. It is regarded as the founding school of psychological theory. In order to understand how thoughts and feelings fit together to form complex structures, structuralism first analyzed the basic components of cognition and experience in the adult mind.
In order to determine the underlying structure, Wundt intended to record his thoughts and sensations and break them down into their component parts, much like a chemist breaks down chemical compounds. Voluntarianism, or the process of arranging the mind, is the name of the psychology school that Wundt created.
Titchener’s pupils described a range of physical, aural, visual, and other sensations using this method: Over 44,000 parts of feeling were listed by him in An Outline of Psychology (1899), comprising 32,820 Visual, 11,600 Auditory, and 4 Taste elements. Edward Titchener (1898), Wundt’s lone pupil, expanded and popularized his theory, calling it structuralism—the study of the fundamental components of the mind.
The Primary Method of Structuralism:
Introspection
Looking inside at one's own thought processes to see how they function is the practice of introspection. It is the introspective study of one's own consciousness.
Titchener’s Structuralism
Titchener (1908) came to the conclusion that conscious experience might be divided into three categories of mental components:
- Feelings (parts of perceptions)
- Pictures (parts of ideas)
- Affections (warm-hearted sentiments, part of feelings)
Quality, intensity, duration, clarity, and extensity are the distinctive qualities he listed as being able to be separated out of these components.
- "Cold" or "red" quality: sets each component apart from the others.
- Intensity: the degree to which a sensation is intense, loud, bright, etc.
- Duration is the path a sensation takes over time; its length.
- Focusing attention on something makes clarity (attensity), which is the function of attention in consciousness, more evident.
It is possible to further divide images and warm expressions into simply collections of feelings. The conclusion that follows from this line of reasoning is that all of the aforementioned thoughts were pictures, which, since they were derived from basic sensations, suggested that all confusing thought could ultimately be reduced to just the sensations, which he could access through reflection.
Interaction of Elements
Interaction of the Components how the psychological elements combined and interacted to form any conscious experience was the subject of Titchener’s second problem in his structuralism hypothesis. His choices were typically based on associationism principles. Titchener’s work primarily focuses on the concept of the law of contiguity, or how the pieces come together.
The foundation of Wundt’s voluntarism was his concepts of apperception and inventive blend (intentional activity), which Titchener rejected. Titchener argued that the quality of “clearness” inherent in sensation was fundamentally indicated by contemplation.
Relationships on the Physical and Mental Levels
Titchener's idea focused on determining the reason behind the components' cooperation when he separated between the elements of the mind and the unique interactions they create. Particularly, Titchener was interested in the relationship that existed between the physical process and the conscious experience; he wanted to find out exactly what caused the majority of these connections.
Titchener acknowledged that the continuous basis provided by physiological cycles lends mental cycles a consistency that they would not have otherwise. Because of this, the sensory system doesn't produce any conscious experience, but it can be used to explain some aspects of mental events.
Criticism
Since structuralism is such an old concept, modern scientists and critics have found a lot of flaws in this school of thought. They argue that the experimental methods used by this school are too subjective when it comes to studying the mind structure. This even leads to unreliable results.,
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