1. Germans, Germans Everywhere!
Psychology 4006

2. Germany in the 1870s
You have to understand that Germany, as a unified country was only founded in 1871
Before then there were loose confederations of some 39 German states.
Prussia defeats France in the Franco Prussian war, German Empire declared.
Germany was, up until 1914, the dominant industrial economy in Europe, and maybe in the world
Their education system was second to none

3. Education in Germany Wissenschaft Philosophy of education in Germany
Of course the Germans have a word for ‘pure science unencumbered by the need for application’
Philosophy of education in Germany
Permeated university system in mid to late 19th century
Academic freedom highly valued
Emphasis on research and research-based degrees rather than a specific curriculum

4. Freud is not the father of psychology
It’s this guy
Wilhelm Wundt ( )
M.D. (1855), then assistant to Helmholtz ( )
Began thinking about psychology as a science
Principles of Physiological Psychology ( )
Famous statement in the Preface “a new domain of science”
At Leipzig 1875
Lab 1879
Journal 1881

5. Wundt at Leipzig Wundt preferred the term Voluntarism for his system.
Laboratory work employed a rigorous introspection.
Included methods such as naturalistic observations, archeological methods, and historical approaches.
Emphasized psychological causality, flexible goals and means, and adaptability.
Voluntary behavior did not imply free behavior.
some free will is possible through reflective self-consciousness
Agreed with Darwin’s ideas of adaptation
placed far greater emphasis on psychological adaptation

6. Wundt at Leipzig
Wundt defined psychology as the science that investigates “the facts of consciousness.”
Psychology must discover the elements of consciousness.
Then psychology must discover possible combinations of elements (a simple sensation).
sensation as an element of consciousness and perception as a combination of outward sense impressions
an idea referred to combinations that may arise from memory, early associations, and other sources

7. Wundt at Leipzig Wundt’s new psychology two parts
Immediate conscious experience
Investigated in the laboratory precise control
Use of “internal perception” (form of self report)
Higher mental processes
Investigated outside of the lab precise control not possible
Observation, case study, etc.
Thinking, language, culture, social psychology

8. Inside the Wundt Lab Sensation & perception Psychophysics
Mental chronometry
Reaction time

9. More Wundt Changing conceptions of Wundt
Old view: structuralist, goal is analysis, the lab is all that matters
New view: voluntarism, active mind, apperception, Völkerpsycologie, lab is important (among other things)
principle of creative synthesis.
the belief that there is real novelty and creativity in higher mental operations
heterogeny of ends, the emergence of new motives during the course of a chain of activities

10. A Little History Lesson
Good illustration of need to continue to do history
Old view believed by Titchener, promoted by Boring’s history text
New view outcome of renewed interest in history and the development of cognitive psychology
i.e., revision of Wundt would not have occurred prior to the context of renewed interest in cognition in 1970s

11. Everything’s Coming Up Psychology!
Hermann Ebbinghaus ( )
First experimental investigations of memory
Desired to study formation of original associations
Nonsense syllable (CVC)
Sequence of them would not have pre-existing associations
Therefore, serial learning task
N=1

12. Ebby
Findings
Early finding of what later came to be called STM capacity
Max CVCs repeated accurately after just one reading = 7
Effect of increased repetitions
Advantage of distributed practice
Existence of remote associations
Time course of forgetting

13. More Ebby Method of savings Ebbinghaus forgetting curve
Forgetting initially rapid
Then levels off

14. Act Psychology Franz Brentano (1838-1917) Act as in active
differentiated between inner observation and inner perception
developed a classification system for mental phenomena
phenomena were viewed as part of three intertwined categories:
presentations, judgments, and desires
influenced figures in Gestalt Psychology, Functionalism, and Existentialism, among others
Had a sort of hippie vibe…..

15. The Würzburg School Oswald Külpe (1862-1915)
Systematic experimental introspection
Fractionation, to deal with memory issue
Mental sets
Imageless thought
Conscious attitudes
challenged Wundt’s reductionist methods
argued for the study of psychogenesis, the study of the development of mental phenomena
Most German looking German ever

16. The Germans Influence Goes Global
Titchener’s 1898 paper
Analogy to biology
Structuralism is to functionalism as anatomy is to physiology
Hence, understanding structure precedes understanding function
E. B. Titchener ( )
English, educated at Oxford
Developed the values of a “proper British gentleman”
1892 a Ph.D. from Wundt at Leipzig
1892 first (and only) academic position Cornell

17. Titchener Titchener’s Experimentalists
APA too “eclectic for Titchener - not sufficiently “experimental”
Informal annual spring meetings
discussed recent research and promoted experimental psychology
No women (analogy to British men’s club)

18. Structuralism Analysis of immediate conscious experience
Systematic experimental introspection
Elements of human conscious experience
Sensations basic elements of perception
attributes quality, intensity, duration, clearness
Images basic elements of ideas
attributes quality, intensity, duration, but less clearness
Affective states basic elements of emotions
Only two qualities pleasant, unpleasant

19. Evaluating Titchener Study of “generalized adult mind”
Only adults could be trained to introspect properly
So experimental psychology could not include the study of children, the insane, or animals
Interesting topics, but not “psychology”
Structuralism became isolated
Problems with introspection
Titchener’s lasting contribution
advocate for basic laboratory research

20. Conclusions Hugely influential, no Germans, no psychology
Notice how their influence kind of goes away around oh 1914…