Structuralism vs. Functionalism

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• Structuralism vs Functionalism Essay

  ...Structuralism vs. Functionalism Jessica A. Brooks Psychology 426 August 14, 2009 Structuralism vs. Functionalism Structuralism and functionalism investigate the human mind and use the mind as the subject of every study. They are also both are concerned with the conscious self. While they share some similarities, they also show some variation. Structuralism focuses on “revealing the most basic structures or components of the mind” (Zimbardo, 2006). Functionalism, on the other hand, focuses on mental life and behavior according to how a person interacts, or functions, in their environment. Structuralism was introduced to the United States by Titchener, with his own twist on Wundt’s structure of psychology. It is the study of the fundamentals of consciousness: sensation and perception, memory, attention, emotion, cognition, learning, and language. Structuralism focuses on breaking down mental processes into the most crucial components, or basic terms. Titchener hoped “to analyze consciousness into its component parts and determine its structure” (Schultz, D.P. & Schultz, S.E., 2008, p.123). To accomplish this, a method called introspection is used, where a description of the participant’s sensations are reported. Introspection brought criticism. Introspection...

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• Functionalism vs Structuralism Essay

  ...methods. These processes come to shape a hypothesis that in turn becomes a theory. Structuralism and Functionalism are the theories of many opinions and methods that came to form schools of thought. Structuralist’s believed psychology was the science of conscious experience and immediate thought and in contrast Functionalists believed in practical results of the mental processes. Structuralism and Functionalism served their unique purpose in the world of psychology. Both Structuralism and Functionalism used each other to gain legitimacy to the science world and further continue the evolution of modern psychology. One difference between the two theories was Structuralism focused all of psychology on the experience of an observer. Edward B Titchener the noted founder of structuralism stated, “the experience is dependent on the person who is actually experiencing it…” “We… assume that…[experience] goes on only when someone is there to have it” (Shultz & Shultz, 2008). Rather than focusing on a car a structualist would observe the blue shining from the reflection of the glowing source. If you were to report that this car was a blue car sitting in the sun, Titchener would refer to this as a stimuli error thereby the researcher “confuses the mental process with the object we are observing”. In contrast Functionalism would focus the mental processes...

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• Structuralism and Functionalism Essay

  ... Structuralism and Functionalism Cesar De La Riva National University Psychology 426 – History of Psychology Professor Mary Rogers Structuralism and Functionalism The 20th Century has provided people today with the ability to sit down, turn on a computer and educate themselves on a historical subject such as psychology, up to its present state. Psychology was established as a science, structuralism and functionalism emerged as theories to explain how the human mind works. Structuralism was the first school of thought as the ideas were associated and advocated by the founder of the first psychology lab, Wilhelm Wundt. Soon after, many other theories began to surface with their own ideas to gain dominance in psychology. Charles Darwin and William James later provided their own perspective to counter structuralism, calling it functionalism. Despite structuralism and functionalism’s different view-points, they both had similarities and ultimate concern with the conscious self. Structuralism was the first American school of thought and lasted approximately 20 years” (Schultz, D.P, Schultz, S.E, 2012). Edward Bradford Titchener, a student of Wilhelm Wundt, later became a professor at Cornell University, first introduced his idea of psychology and called it structuralism. His ideas emphasized on breaking down...

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• Structuralism and Functionalism Essay

  ...Structuralism VS. Functionalism Breanne Jagiello National University Structuralism VS. Functionalism “We are the cosmos made conscious and life is the means by which the universe understands itself.” –Brian Cox. Both structuralism and functionalism were intended to seek answers to questions of the conscious mind. The basis for scientific psychology began with structuralism and later attempted to model psychology on evolutionary theory (functionalism). Both sciences share some commonalties as well as many differences and are still used and relevant in modern psychology. Structuralism can be defined as “E.B Tichener’s system of psychology, which dealt with conscious experience as dependent on experiencing persons” (Schultz & Schultz, 2012, p. 18). In this system mental processes are broken down into the most basic components. This science taught that all human knowledge had been derived from human experience, and that there is no other source of knowledge. Following structuralism was functionalism “A system of psychology concerned with the mind as it is used in an organism’s adaptation to its environment” (Schultz & Schultz, 2012, p. 18). Functionalism focused on how the mind operated, and sought to answer what mental processes accomplished. Both sciences are...

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• Structuralism and Functionalism. Essay

  ...One could say that Titchener is seen as the father of structuralism. Thought he gives great credit to Wundt, he altered Wundts theory extensively resulting in a new theory. Structuralism, in short, is the "system of psychology, which dealt with conscious experience as a dependant on experiencing persons" (Schultz, 2004, p509). This varies greatly from the functionalism approach that's focus is on the mind and how it adapts with its environment. Structuralism brought forth the focusing on mental attributes and linking them through the process of association. Titchener believed that psychology's goal was to "discover the nature of the elementary conscious experiences--to analyze consciousness into its component parts and thus determine its structure." (Schultz, 2004, p117). Much of this was done thought introspection. Functionalism, on the other hand, began as a result of Titchener's Structural theory and greatly influenced American education. It incorporated basic ideology from William James and Charles Darwin. It's an eclectic viewpoint that focuses on function rather than the structure of the mental process. Harvey A. Car defined psychology as having two major components. He defined "the subject matter of psychology as mental activity--those processes such as memory, perception, feeling, imagination, judgment, and will." (Schultz, 2004, p199) He also stated that the "function of mental activity is to...

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• DISTNGUSH BETWEEN STRUCTURALISM AND FUNCTIONALISM Essay

  ...BETWEEN STRUCTURALISM AND FUNCTIONALISM 1879 a new child was born into an unsuspecting world. The sire of this grand progeny, William Wundt. Thomas Leahey 1987 states that “Wundt is the founder [of modern psychology] because he webbed together philosophy and physiology and made the resulting offspring independent” this new age birth of magnificent proportions was the cornerstone of modern psychology. He started Structuralism which was based on philosophical ideas but merged with a science. As a founding principle one may note that this school of thought was subject to criticism as new scholars became more enlightened. One noted contention in the paradigm was the school of Functionalism and this verses duality started a new spark in the early field of psychology. It can be argued that Structuralism was based more on philosophical ideas than then pseudo-science Wundt attempted to introduce into the field. The advent of functionalist ideologies can be perceived as amendments to this as the school aimed to bring the scientific realm into the so Structuralists assumed that the goal of psychology was to understand the structure of the mind, and they mainly use introspection as the tool to study objects.  Therefore a structuralist would definitely study a topic in human intelligence by introspection only. But relaying on introspection alone it meant that the information could be biased due subjectivity. On the...

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• Structuralism Essay

  ...University PS210 Professor Erica St. Germain Tuesday, January 17, 2012 Structuralism Structuralism was founded by E.B. Titchener but only lasted two decades because of newer movements in the psychology; however it was still know as the first school of thought. Structuralism is a mode of thinking and a method of analysis practiced in the 20-centruy social sciences and humanities; it focuses on recurring patterns of thought and behavior, it seeks to analyse social relationships in terms of highly abstract relational structures. In other words structuralism is a study based on ones unconsciousness and observation, the things a person does, the way a person acts in his/her society, which is acted out unconsciously. Although there is a dispute between who is actually the founder of structuralism between Wundt and Titchener it is still considered a great contribution to psychology. Psychologist like James Gibson felt that his generation had no intentions of using the theory or method of structuralism. Just like many things in life structuralism was also criticised, “structuralism provided a strong, established orthodoxy against which newly developing movements in psychology could array their forces” (Schultz, 2011). All people think in to terms of opposites so as to classify-meaning we must be able to distinguish between our conscious and unconscious...

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• Functionalism and Structuralism Essay

  ...In this essay I will be using Malinowski’s Functionalist approach and Levi-Strauss’s Structuralism, whilst analyzing the Trobrianders society and way of life. Bronislaw Malinowski initially created the Anthropological school of Functionalism. Malinowski’s version of Functionalism is more psychologically linked, and focuses on his idea that people have psychological and physical needs, and hence social institutions develop in order to meet these needs. Malinowski divides these needs into seven categories, nutrition, reproduction, bodily comforts, safety, relaxation, movement and growth. Through his fieldwork and ethnography Malinowski demonstrates how each of these needs are met through certain functions in society. Malinowski is best known for the fieldwork that he conducted among the Trobrianders of the Trobriand Islands. Malinowski was among the Trobrianders from 1915 till 1918. Though the ethnographies that Malinowski published, the functionalist analyst approach is clearly presented. French structuralism is another approach, which concerns itself with the psychological aspect; this is because it also deals with the cognitive processes. Levi-Strauss essentially led the way for French structuralism, however he was not the first to come up with it. Structuralism in reference to Levi-Strauss is different to that which is associated with Radcliffe-Brown. As Levi-Strauss uses...

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