Psychology as an Independent Discipline

The first use of the term “psychology” is often attributed to the German scholastic
philosopher Rudolf Göckel, who published the Psychologia hoc est de hominis
perfectione, anima, ortu in 1590. However, the term seems to have been used more
than six decades earlier by the Croatian humanist Marko Marulić in the title of his Latin
treatise, Psichiologia de ratione animae humanae. The term did not come into popular
usage until the German idealist philosopher Christian Wolff used it in his Psychologia
empirica and Psychologia rationalis (1732–1734). In England, the term “psychology”
overtook “mental philosophy” in the middle of the 19th century.

Wilhelm Wundt
The late 19th century marked the start of psychology as a scientific enterprise.
Psychology as a self-conscious field of experimental study began in 1879, when
German scientist Wilhelm Wundt founded the first laboratory dedicated exclusively to
psychological research in Leipzig. Often considered the father of psychology, Wundt
was the first person to refer to himself as a psychologist and wrote the first textbook on
psychology, entitled Principles of Physiological Psychology.
Wundt believed that the study of conscious thoughts would be the key to understanding
the mind. His approach to the study of the mind was groundbreaking in that it was
based on systematic and rigorous observation, laying the foundation for modern
psychological experimentation. He systematically studied topics such as attention span,
reaction time, vision, emotion, and time perception. Wundt’s primary method of research
was ” introspection,” which involves training people to concentrate and report on their
conscious experiences as they react to stimuli. This approach is still used today in
modern neuroscience research; however, many scientists criticize the use of
introspection for its lack of objectivity.

Structuralism
Edward B. Titchener, an English professor and a student under Wundt, expanded upon
Wundt’s ideas and used them to found the theory of structuralism. This theory
attempted to understand the mind as the sum of different underlying parts, and focused
on three things: (1) the individual elements of consciousness; (2) how these elements
are organized into more complex experiences; and (3) how these mental phenomena
correlate with physical events. He believed that if the basic components of the mind
could be defined and categorized, then the structure of mental processes and higher
thinking could be determined. Like Wundt, Titchener used introspection to try to
determine the different components of consciousness; however, his method used very
strict guidelines for the reporting of an introspective analysis.
Structuralism was criticized because its subject of interest—the conscious experience—
was not easily studied with controlled experimentation. Its reliance on introspection,
despite Titchener’s rigid guidelines, was criticized for its lack of reliability. Critics argued
that self-analysis is not feasible, and that introspection could yield different results
depending on the subject.