268 CHAPTER 9

ethically just as valueless as an absolutely

necessary one. In spite of all these contra-
dictions, however, we not only make use
of this concept in ordinary life in judging
moral actions, but it is also the foundation
of criminal law. Without this assumption
punishment inflicted for any act would,
from an ethical standpoint, be unthink-
able, for it would simply be a precaution-
ary measure for protecting others against
crime. Our judgment of our fellow men
is likewise so completely bound up with
this ideational construct that we can no
longer do without it. In the course of
their development, men have formed

Imagno/Getty Images
this important construct from immanent
necessity, because only on this basis is a
high degree of culture and morality pos-
sible. There is nothing in the real world Hans Vaihinger
corresponding to the idea of liberty,
though in practice it is an exceedingly
necessary fiction. (1911/1952, p. 43)
it is also true in theory” (Vaihinger, 1911/1952,
There is a similarity between Vaihinger’s fiction- p. viii). Vaihinger rejected this notion. For him a
alism and the philosophy of pragmatism (see, for concept could be demonstrably false and still be
example, William James in Chapter 11). Both fic- useful. For example, although the concept of free
tionalism and pragmatism evaluate ideas in terms of will is demonstrably false, there may be benefits
their usefulness. However, Vaihinger believed that from acting as if it were true.
there was an important difference between his posi- We will see in Chapter 16 that Alfred Adler
tion and pragmatism. For the pragmatist, he said, made Vaihinger’s fictionalism an integral part of his
truth and usefulness were inseparable. If an idea theory of personality. Also, George Kelly (see Chap-
was useful, it was considered true: “An idea which ter 17) noted a similarity between his thinking and
is found to be useful in practice proves thereby that Vaihinger’s.

Summary
Wundt was the founder of both experimental which are basic mental elements; perceptions,
psychology as a separate discipline and the school which are mental experiences given meaning by
of voluntarism. One of Wundt’s goals was to dis- past experience; and apperceptions, which are
cover the elements of thought using experimental mental experiences that are the focus of atten-
introspection. A second goal was to discover how tion. Because humans can focus their attention on
these elements combine to form complex men- whatever they wish, Wundt’s theory was referred
tal experiences. Wundt found that there are two to as voluntarism.
types of basic mental experiences: sensations and Wundt believed that reaction time could sup-
feelings. Wundt distinguished among sensations, plement introspection as a means of studying

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 E A R LY A P P R O A C H E S T O P S Y C H O L O G Y 269

the mind. Following techniques developed by Brentano believed that mental acts should be
Donders, Wundt presented tasks of increasing studied rather than mental elements, and therefore,
complexity to his subjects and noted that more his position is referred to as act psychology.
complex tasks resulted in longer reaction times. Brentano used the term intentionality to describe the
Wundt believed that the time required to perform fact that a mental act always encompasses (intends)
a complex mental operation could be determined something external to itself. Like Brentano, Stumpf
by subtracting the times it took to perform the believed that psychology should be directed at
simpler operations of which the complex act con- intact, meaningful experience instead of the ele-
sists. Wundt eventually gave up his reaction-time ments of thought. Stumpf had a major influence on
studies because he found reaction time to be an those individuals who later created the school of
unreliable measure. Gestalt psychology.
In keeping with the major thrust of volun- Husserl believed that before scientific psychol-
tarism, Wundt claimed that physical events could be ogy would be possible, a taxonomy of the mind was
explained in terms of antecedent events but psycho- required. To create such a taxonomy, pure phenom-
logical events could not be. The techniques used by enology would be used to explore the essence of
the physical sciences are therefore inappropriate for subjective experience. According to Husserl, it did
psychology.Volitional acts can be studied only after not make sense to perform experiments involving
the fact by studying their outcomes. In his 10-vol- such processes as perception, memory, or judgment
ume Völkerpsychologie, Wundt considered such topics without first knowing the essences of those pro-
as social customs, religion, myths, morals, art, law, cesses. The mind itself, he said, must be understood
and language. before we can study how the mind responds to
Titchener created the school of structural- objects external to it.
ism at Cornell University. He set as his goal the Külpe agreed that the mind possesses processes—
learning of the what, how, and why of mental not just sensations, images, and feelings—and found
life. The what consisted of determining the basic that some of these processes are imageless. Exam-
mental elements, the how was determining how ples of imageless thoughts include searching, doubt-
the elements combined, and the why consisted of ing, and hesitating. Külpe and his colleagues at
determining the neurological correlates of men- Würzburg found that a mental set, which could be
tal events. His introspectionists had to be carefully created either through instructions or through per-
trained so that they would not commit the stim- sonal experience, provided a determining tendency
ulus error. According to Titchener, sensations and in problem solving. They also found that once a
images could vary in terms of quality, intensity, mental set had been established, humans could solve
duration, clearness, and extensity. Following in problems unconsciously.
the empirical-associationistic tradition, Titchener Ebbinghaus, like members of the Würzburg
said that sensations always stimulate the memories school, demonstrated that Wundt had been wrong
of events that were previously experienced along in saying that the higher mental processes could
with those sensations, and these memories give not be studied experimentally. Using “nonsense”
the sensations meaning. There were a number of material, both Ebbinghaus and Müller systemati-
fundamental differences between Wundt’s volun- cally studied learning and memory so thoroughly
tarism and Titchener’s structuralism. Many factors that their works are still cited in psychology texts.
led to the downfall of structuralism: examples are Vaihinger contended that because sensations
the unreliability of introspection and the ignoring are all that we can be certain of, all references to
of psychological development, abnormal behav- so-called physical reality must be fictional. All soci-
ior, personality, learning, individual differences, etal living is based on fictions that can be evaluated
evolutionary theory, and practicality. only in terms of their usefulness.

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 270 CHAPTER 9

Discussion Questions
1. What is meant by a school of psychology? 10. For Titchener, what were the goals of psychology?
2. Why was the school of psychology created by What did Titchener believe would be the ultimate
Wundt called voluntarism? “why” of psychology?
3. Discuss Wundt’s use of introspection. 11. Compare and contrast Wundt’s view of psychology
with Titchener’s.
4. For Wundt, what were the elements of thought,
and what were their attributes? Include in your 12. List the reasons for the decline of structuralism. Include
answer a discussion of Wundt’s tridimensional in your answer the various criticisms of introspection.
theory of feeling. 13. Summarize Brentano’s act psychology.
5. How did Wundt distinguish between psychological 14. What did Brentano mean by intentionality?
and physical causation? 15. What was the significance and legacy of Stumpf ’s
6. What did Wundt mean when he said that volitional program at Berlin?
acts are creative but not free? 16. What did Husserl mean by pure phenomenology? Why
7. Define the terms sensation, perception, apperception, did he believe that an understanding of the essence
and creative synthesis as they were used in Wundt’s of subjective experience must precede scientific
theory. psychology?
8. Summarize how Wundt used reaction time in an 17. How did the Würzburg school differ from Wundt’s
effort to determine how long it took to perform voluntarism?
various mental operations. Why did Wundt abandon 18. What did Külpe mean by imageless thought? Mental set?
his reaction-time research? 19. Discuss the significance of Ebbinghaus’s work to the
9. Why did Wundt think it necessary to write his history of psychology.
Völkerpsychologie? What approach to the study of 20. What did Vaihinger mean by his contention that
humans did it exemplify? without fictions, societal life would be impossible?

Suggestions for Further Reading

Blumenthal, A. L. (1975). A reappraisal of Wilhelm Ebbinghaus, H. (1964). Memory. New York: Dover.
Wundt. American Psychologist, 30, 1081–1088. (Original work published 1885)
Blumenthal, A. L. (1998). Leipzig, Wilhelm Wundt, and Ogden, R. M. (1951). Oswald Külpe and the Würzburg
psychology’s gilded age. In G. A. Kimble & M. school. American Journal of Psychology, 64, 4–19.
Wertheimer (Eds.), Portraits of pioneers in psychology Smith, B. (1994). Austrian philosophy:The legacy of Franz
(Vol. 3, pp. 31–48). Washington, DC: American Psy- Brentano. Chicago: Open Court.
chological Association.
Sprung, H., & Sprung, L. (2000). Carl Stumpf: Experi-
Boring, E. G. (1927). Edward Bradford Titchener: 1867– menter, theoretician, musicologist, and promoter. In
1927. American Journal of Psychology, 38, 488–506. G. A. Kimble & M. Wertheimer (Eds.), Portraits of
Dreyfus, H. (1982). Husserl, intentionality, and cognitive pioneers in psychology (Vol. 4, pp. 51–69). Washington
science. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. DC: American Psychological Association.

Glossary
Act psychology The name given to Brentano’s brand the mind rather than its elements. Brentano’s position came
of psychology because it focused on mental operations to be called act psychology. (See also Act psychology.)
or functions. Act psychology dealt with the interaction Clever Hans phenomenon The creation of appar-
between mental processes and physical events. ently high-level intelligent feats by nonhuman animals
Brentano, Franz Clemens (1838–1917) Believed that by consciously or unconsciously furnishing them with
introspection should be used to understand the functions of subtle cues that guide their behavior.

Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
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 E A R LY A P P R O A C H E S T O P S Y C H O L O G Y 271

Context theory of meaning Titchener’s contention Mental chronometry The measurement of the time
that a sensation is given meaning by the images it elicits. required to perform various mental acts.
That is, for Titchener, meaning is determined by the law Mental essences According to Husserl, those universal,
of contiguity. unchanging mental processes that characterize the mind
Creative synthesis The arrangement and rear- and in terms of which we do commerce with the physi-
rangement of mental elements that can result from cal environment.
apperception. Mental set A problem-solving strategy that can be
Donders, Franciscus Cornelius (1818–1889) Used induced by instructions or by experience and that is used
reaction time to measure the time it took to perform without a person’s awareness.
various mental acts. Müller, George Elias (1850–1934) Considered one
Ebbinghaus, Hermann (1850–1909) The first to of the early pioneers or giants of experimental psychol-
study learning and memory experimentally. ogy, Müller worked in psychophysics, perception, and
memory.
Elements of thought According to Wundt and
Titchener, the basic sensations from which more Perception Mental experience that occurs when
complex thoughts are derived. sensations are given meaning by the memory of past
experiences.
Feelings The basic elements of emotion that accom-
pany each sensation. Wundt believed that emotions con- Phenomenological methods The type of introspec-
sist of various combinations of elemental feelings. (See tive analysis that focuses on intact mental phenomena
also Tridimensional theory of feeling.) rather than on isolated mental elements.
General impression The thought a person has in Principle of contrasts According to Wundt, the fact
mind before he or she chooses the words to express it. that experiences of one type often intensify opposite
types of experiences, such as when eating something
Husserl, Edmund (1859–1938) Called for a pure phe- sour will make the subsequent eating of something sweet
nomenology that sought to discover the essence of sub- taste sweeter than it would otherwise.
jective experience. (See also Pure phenomenology.)
Principle of the heterogony of ends According to
Imageless thoughts According to Külpe, the pure Wundt, the fact that goal-directed activity often causes
mental acts of, for example, judging and doubting, with- experiences that modify the original motivational
out those acts having any particular referents or images. pattern.
Immediate experience Direct subjective experience Principle toward the development of oppo-
as it occurs. sites According to Wundt, the tendency for prolonged
Intentionality Concept proposed by Brentano, accord- experience of one type to create a mental desire for the
ing to which mental acts always intend something. That opposite type of experience.
is, mental acts embrace either some object in the physical Pure phenomenology The type of phenomenology
world or some mental image (idea). proposed by Husserl, the purpose of which was to create
Introspection Reflection on one’s subjective expe- a taxonomy of the mind. Husserl believed that before a
rience, whether such reflection is directed toward the science of psychology would be possible, we would first
detection of the presence or absence of a sensation (as in need to understand the essences of those mental pro-
the case of Wundt and Titchener) or toward the detec- cesses in terms of which we understand and respond to
tion of complex thought processes (as in the cases of the world.
Brentano, Stumpf, Külpe, Husserl, and others). Savings The difference between the time it originally
Külpe, Oswald (1862–1915) Applied systematic, takes to learn something and the time it takes to relearn
experimental introspection to the study of problem solv- it.
ing and found that some mental operations are imageless. School A group of scientists who share common
Mediate experience Experience that is provided by assumptions, goals, problems, and methods.
various measuring devices and is therefore not immedi- Sensation A basic mental experience that is triggered
ate, direct experience. by an environmental stimulus.

Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning All Rights Reserved May not be copied scanned or duplicated in whole or in part WCN 02-200-203