Structuralism represents one of the earliest schools of thought in psychology, paving the way for the emergence of modern psychological science. Developed in the late 19th century, structuralism aimed to understand the fundamental elements of human consciousness and perception.
Structuralism, as a psychological school of thought, was primarily concerned with the analysis of conscious experience into its most basic components or structures. It sought to uncover the fundamental elements of human consciousness and how they combined to form complex mental processes. Key aspects of structuralism include:
Introspection: The primary method of investigation used by structuralists was introspection. This involved trained individuals observing and reporting their own conscious experiences in response to specific stimuli or mental tasks.
Elementary Sensations: Structuralists believed that the mind could be broken down into elementary sensations, which were the basic building blocks of conscious experience. These sensations were thought to be objective and measurable.
Objective Analysis: Structuralism aimed for an objective analysis of conscious experience, emphasizing precision and replicability in the process of introspection.
Structuralism emerged in the late 19th century as a response to the philosophical and scientific questions about the nature of consciousness. Several factors contributed to its development:
1. Influence of Wilhelm Wundt
Wilhelm Wundt, a German psychologist, is often credited as the founder of structuralism. In 1879, he established the first psychology laboratory at the University of Leipzig. Wundt’s work focused on the objective study of conscious experience through introspection and experimental methods.
2. Influence of Philosophy
Structuralism was influenced by the broader philosophical questions of the time, particularly those related to the nature of consciousness, perception, and the mind-body problem. Philosophers like René Descartes and Immanuel Kant provided foundational ideas that influenced early psychology.
3. Reaction to Functionalism
Structuralism emerged in response to functionalism, another early school of psychology. While functionalism focused on the functions and purposes of mental processes, structuralism aimed to uncover the underlying structures or elements of consciousness.
Key Figures in Structuralism
Several prominent figures contributed to the development of structuralism:
1. Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)
As mentioned earlier, Wilhelm Wundt is often regarded as the father of structuralism. He established the first psychology laboratory and formalized the use of introspection as a method for studying conscious experience.
2. Edward B. Titchener (1867-1927)
Edward B. Titchener, a student of Wundt, played a crucial role in popularizing structuralism in the United States. He introduced and taught the principles of structuralism at Cornell University and developed his own system of introspection.
3. William James (1842-1910)
William James, a prominent American psychologist, was a critic of structuralism. He argued for a functionalist approach to psychology, emphasizing the adaptive functions of mental processes.
Principles and Methods of Structuralism
Structuralism was guided by several principles and methods:
1. Introspection
Introspection was the primary method used by structuralists to study conscious experience. Trained individuals, known as introspectionists, observed and reported their own sensations, thoughts, and feelings in response to various stimuli or mental tasks.
2. Reductionism
Structuralism adopted a reductionist approach, breaking down complex mental processes into simpler and more elementary sensations. This reductionist perspective aimed to identify the basic building blocks of consciousness.
3. Objective Analysis
Structuralists sought to maintain objectivity and precision in their analyses of conscious experience. They believed that introspection could be conducted in a systematic and replicable manner, emphasizing the importance of standardization.
4. Elemental Components
Structuralists believed that conscious experience could be broken down into elementary sensations, such as colors, shapes, and sounds. These sensations were considered the building blocks of more complex mental processes.
5. Laboratory Research
Experimental methods were employed in laboratory settings to investigate the nature of conscious experience. Controlled experiments were designed to elicit specific sensations or perceptions in participants.
The Legacy of Structuralism
While structuralism is no longer a dominant school of thought in psychology, its legacy and influence persist in several ways:
1. Methodological Contributions
Structuralism introduced the use of systematic observation and introspection as research methods in psychology. These methods laid the foundation for later developments in psychological research.
2. Influence on Behaviorism
Structuralism played a role in shaping the early development of behaviorism, another major school of psychology. Behaviorists, like John B. Watson, were influenced by the emphasis on objective and observable behaviors in structuralist research.
3. Historical Significance
Structuralism is historically significant as one of the earliest systematic attempts to study consciousness and mental processes. It paved the way for the emergence of modern psychology as a scientific discipline.
4. Understanding Perception
Structuralist research contributed to our understanding of perception, particularly in the fields of sensation and perception. The study of how individuals experience and interpret sensory information remains a central focus in psychology.
5. Influence on Contemporary Psychology
Some contemporary areas of psychology, such as cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience, draw upon early structuralist ideas. These fields explore topics related to mental processes, memory, and information processing.
Criticisms and Limitations
Structuralism faced several criticisms and limitations, which contributed to its decline:
1. Subjectivity of Introspection
Introspection was criticized for its subjectivity and lack of objectivity. Different individuals could report different experiences in response to the same stimuli, making the method difficult to standardize.
2. Limited Scope
Structuralism focused primarily on conscious experiences and sensations, neglecting unconscious processes and emotions. This limited scope hindered its ability to provide a comprehensive understanding of human psychology.
3. Decline in Popularity
Structuralism’s emphasis on the study of consciousness waned as other schools of thought, such as behaviorism and psychoanalysis, gained prominence in the early 20th century.
4. Lack of Practical Applications
Structuralism was criticized for its lack of practical applications and relevance to real-world issues. It was often seen as an introspective and theoretical pursuit rather than a practical approach to addressing psychological problems.
Conclusion
Structuralism, despite its decline as a dominant school of thought in psychology, remains a historically significant and foundational part of the discipline. It introduced important methodological principles and laid the groundwork for the scientific study of consciousness and mental processes. While contemporary psychology has evolved and expanded beyond the boundaries of structuralism, its contributions continue to shape the field and our understanding of human cognition and perception.
Key Highlights:
Structuralism Emergence: Developed in late 19th century to study fundamental elements of consciousness.
Methodology: Relied heavily on introspection, breaking down conscious experiences into basic components.
Founders: Wilhelm Wundt, known as the father of structuralism, and Edward B. Titchener, who popularized it in the US.
Influence: Structuralism influenced early psychology, particularly in methodology and focus on consciousness.
Legacy: While not dominant today, structuralism’s contributions remain foundational to the field of psychology.
Criticism: Subjectivity of introspection and limited scope were significant criticisms of the approach.
Contemporary Impact: Structuralism’s influence is still seen in fields like cognitive psychology and neuroscience.
Overall Significance: Structuralism laid the groundwork for modern psychological research, despite its eventual decline.
Convergent thinking occurs when the solution to a problem can be found by applying established rules and logical reasoning. Whereas divergent thinking is an unstructured problem-solving method where participants are encouraged to develop many innovative ideas or solutions to a given problem. Where convergent thinking might work for larger, mature organizations where divergent thinking is more suited for startups and innovative companies.
The concept of cognitive biases was introduced and popularized by the work of Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman in 1972. Biases are seen as systematic errors and flaws that make humans deviate from the standards of rationality, thus making us inept at making good decisions under uncertainty.
Second-order thinking is a means of assessing the implications of our decisions by considering future consequences. Second-order thinking is a mental model that considers all future possibilities. It encourages individuals to think outside of the box so that they can prepare for every and eventuality. It also discourages the tendency for individuals to default to the most obvious choice.
Lateral thinking is a business strategy that involves approaching a problem from a different direction. The strategy attempts to remove traditionally formulaic and routine approaches to problem-solving by advocating creative thinking, therefore finding unconventional ways to solve a known problem. This sort of non-linear approach to problem-solving, can at times, create a big impact.
Bounded rationality is a concept attributed to Herbert Simon, an economist and political scientist interested in decision-making and how we make decisions in the real world. In fact, he believed that rather than optimizing (which was the mainstream view in the past decades) humans follow what he called satisficing.
The Dunning-Kruger effect describes a cognitive bias where people with low ability in a task overestimate their ability to perform that task well. Consumers or businesses that do not possess the requisite knowledge make bad decisions. What’s more, knowledge gaps prevent the person or business from seeing their mistakes.
Occam’s Razor states that one should not increase (beyond reason) the number of entities required to explain anything. All things being equal, the simplest solution is often the best one. The principle is attributed to 14th-century English theologian William of Ockham.
The Lindy Effect is a theory about the ageing of non-perishable things, like technology or ideas. Popularized by author Nicholas Nassim Taleb, the Lindy Effect states that non-perishable things like technology age – linearly – in reverse. Therefore, the older an idea or a technology, the same will be its life expectancy.
Antifragility was first coined as a term by author, and options trader Nassim Nicholas Taleb. Antifragility is a characteristic of systems that thrive as a result of stressors, volatility, and randomness. Therefore, Antifragile is the opposite of fragile. Where a fragile thing breaks up to volatility; a robust thing resists volatility. An antifragile thing gets stronger from volatility (provided the level of stressors and randomness doesn’t pass a certain threshold).
Systems thinking is a holistic means of investigating the factors and interactions that could contribute to a potential outcome. It is about thinking non-linearly, and understanding the second-order consequences of actions and input into the system.
Vertical thinking, on the other hand, is a problem-solving approach that favors a selective, analytical, structured, and sequential mindset. The focus of vertical thinking is to arrive at a reasoned, defined solution.
Maslow’s Hammer, otherwise known as the law of the instrument or the Einstellung effect, is a cognitive bias causing an over-reliance on a familiar tool. This can be expressed as the tendency to overuse a known tool (perhaps a hammer) to solve issues that might require a different tool. This problem is persistent in the business world where perhaps known tools or frameworks might be used in the wrong context (like business plans used as planning tools instead of only investors’ pitches).
The Peter Principle was first described by Canadian sociologist Lawrence J. Peter in his 1969 book The Peter Principle. The Peter Principle states that people are continually promoted within an organization until they reach their level of incompetence.
The straw man fallacy describes an argument that misrepresents an opponent’s stance to make rebuttal more convenient. The straw man fallacy is a type of informal logical fallacy, defined as a flaw in the structure of an argument that renders it invalid.
The Streisand Effect is a paradoxical phenomenon where the act of suppressing information to reduce visibility causes it to become more visible. In 2003, Streisand attempted to suppress aerial photographs of her Californian home by suing photographer Kenneth Adelman for an invasion of privacy. Adelman, who Streisand assumed was paparazzi, was instead taking photographs to document and study coastal erosion. In her quest for more privacy, Streisand’s efforts had the opposite effect.
As highlighted by German psychologist Gerd Gigerenzer in the paper “Heuristic Decision Making,” the term heuristic is of Greek origin, meaning “serving to find out or discover.” More precisely, a heuristic is a fast and accurate way to make decisions in the real world, which is driven by uncertainty.
The recognition heuristic is a psychological model of judgment and decision making. It is part of a suite of simple and economical heuristics proposed by psychologists Daniel Goldstein and Gerd Gigerenzer. The recognition heuristic argues that inferences are made about an object based on whether it is recognized or not.
The representativeness heuristic was first described by psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky. The representativeness heuristic judges the probability of an event according to the degree to which that event resembles a broader class. When queried, most will choose the first option because the description of John matches the stereotype we may hold for an archaeologist.
The take-the-best heuristic is a decision-making shortcut that helps an individual choose between several alternatives. The take-the-best (TTB) heuristic decides between two or more alternatives based on a single good attribute, otherwise known as a cue. In the process, less desirable attributes are ignored.
The bundling bias is a cognitive bias in e-commerce where a consumer tends not to use all of the products bought as a group, or bundle. Bundling occurs when individual products or services are sold together as a bundle. Common examples are tickets and experiences. The bundling bias dictates that consumers are less likely to use each item in the bundle. This means that the value of the bundle and indeed the value of each item in the bundle is decreased.
The Barnum Effect is a cognitive bias where individuals believe that generic information – which applies to most people – is specifically tailored for themselves.
First-principles thinking – sometimes called reasoning from first principles – is used to reverse-engineer complex problems and encourage creativity. It involves breaking down problems into basic elements and reassembling them from the ground up. Elon Musk is among the strongest proponents of this way of thinking.
The ladder of inference is a conscious or subconscious thinking process where an individual moves from a fact to a decision or action. The ladder of inference was created by academic Chris Argyris to illustrate how people form and then use mental models to make decisions.
Goodhart’s Law is named after British monetary policy theorist and economist Charles Goodhart. Speaking at a conference in Sydney in 1975, Goodhart said that “any observed statistical regularity will tend to collapse once pressure is placed upon it for control purposes.” Goodhart’s Law states that when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.
The Six Thinking Hats model was created by psychologist Edward de Bono in 1986, who noted that personality type was a key driver of how people approached problem-solving. For example, optimists view situations differently from pessimists. Analytical individuals may generate ideas that a more emotional person would not, and vice versa.
The Mandela effect is a phenomenon where a large group of people remembers an event differently from how it occurred. The Mandela effect was first described in relation to Fiona Broome, who believed that former South African President Nelson Mandela died in prison during the 1980s. While Mandela was released from prison in 1990 and died 23 years later, Broome remembered news coverage of his death in prison and even a speech from his widow. Of course, neither event occurred in reality. But Broome was later to discover that she was not the only one with the same recollection of events.
The bandwagon effect tells us that the more a belief or idea has been adopted by more people within a group, the more the individual adoption of that idea might increase within the same group. This is the psychological effect that leads to herd mentality. What in marketing can be associated with social proof.
Moore’s law states that the number of transistors on a microchip doubles approximately every two years. This observation was made by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore in 1965 and it become a guiding principle for the semiconductor industry and has had far-reaching implications for technology as a whole.
Disruptive innovation as a term was first described by Clayton M. Christensen, an American academic and business consultant whom The Economist called “the most influential management thinker of his time.” Disruptive innovation describes the process by which a product or service takes hold at the bottom of a market and eventually displaces established competitors, products, firms, or alliances.
Value migration was first described by author Adrian Slywotzky in his 1996 book Value Migration – How to Think Several Moves Ahead of the Competition. Value migration is the transferal of value-creating forces from outdated business models to something better able to satisfy consumer demands.
The bye-now effect describes the tendency for consumers to think of the word “buy” when they read the word “bye”. In a study that tracked diners at a name-your-own-price restaurant, each diner was asked to read one of two phrases before ordering their meal. The first phrase, “so long”, resulted in diners paying an average of $32 per meal. But when diners recited the phrase “bye bye” before ordering, the average price per meal rose to $45.
Groupthink occurs when well-intentioned individuals make non-optimal or irrational decisions based on a belief that dissent is impossible or on a motivation to conform. Groupthink occurs when members of a group reach a consensus without critical reasoning or evaluation of the alternatives and their consequences.
A stereotype is a fixed and over-generalized belief about a particular group or class of people. These beliefs are based on the false assumption that certain characteristics are common to every individual residing in that group. Many stereotypes have a long and sometimes controversial history and are a direct consequence of various political, social, or economic events. Stereotyping is the process of making assumptions about a person or group of people based on various attributes, including gender, race, religion, or physical traits.
Murphy’s Law states that if anything can go wrong, it will go wrong. Murphy’s Law was named after aerospace engineer Edward A. Murphy. During his time working at Edwards Air Force Base in 1949, Murphy cursed a technician who had improperly wired an electrical component and said, “If there is any way to do it wrong, he’ll find it.”
The law of unintended consequences was first mentioned by British philosopher John Locke when writing to parliament about the unintended effects of interest rate rises. However, it was popularized in 1936 by American sociologist Robert K. Merton who looked at unexpected, unanticipated, and unintended consequences and their impact on society.
Fundamental attribution error is a bias people display when judging the behavior of others. The tendency is to over-emphasize personal characteristics and under-emphasize environmental and situational factors.
Outcome bias describes a tendency to evaluate a decision based on its outcome and not on the process by which the decision was reached. In other words, the quality of a decision is only determined once the outcome is known. Outcome bias occurs when a decision is based on the outcome of previous events without regard for how those events developed.
Hindsight bias is the tendency for people to perceive past events as more predictable than they actually were. The result of a presidential election, for example, seems more obvious when the winner is announced. The same can also be said for the avid sports fan who predicted the correct outcome of a match regardless of whether their team won or lost. Hindsight bias, therefore, is the tendency for an individual to convince themselves that they accurately predicted an event before it happened.
Gennaro is the creator of FourWeekMBA, which reached about four million business people, comprising C-level executives, investors, analysts, product managers, and aspiring digital entrepreneurs in 2022 alone | He is also Director of Sales for a high-tech scaleup in the AI Industry | In 2012, Gennaro earned an International MBA with emphasis on Corporate Finance and Business Strategy.
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