Edward B. Titchener

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Edward Bradford Titchener, D.Sc., Ph.D., LL.D., Litt.D. (January 11, 1867-August 3, 1927) was an Englishman and a student of Wilhelm Wundt before becoming a professor of psychology and founding a psychology laboratory in the United States at Cornell University.

Edward Bradford Titchener
Edward Bradford Titchener
Edward Bradford Titchener
Born January 11, 1867
Died August 3, 1927
Citizenship English
Fields psychology
Institutions Cornell University
Known for structuralism

He was educated in Europe. He would put his own spin on Wundt's psychology of consciousness after he emigrated to the United States. He translated and brought in the English language the concept of empathy, which had been developed and coined by Robert Vischer (in German). Titchener attempted to classify the structures of the mind, not unlike the way a chemist breaks down chemicals into their component parts - water into hydrogen and oxygen, for example. Thus, for Titchener, just as hydrogen and oxygen were structures, so were sensations and thoughts. He conceived of hydrogen and oxygen as structures of a chemical compound, and sensations and thoughts as structures of the mind. This approach became known as structuralism.

Professor Titchener received honorary degrees from Harvard, Clark, and Wisconsin, translated Külpe's Outlines of Psychology and other works, became the American editor of Mind in 1894, and associate editor of the American Journal of Psychology in 1895, and wrote:

  • An Outline of Psychology (1896; new edition, 1902)
  • A Primer of Psychology (1898; revised edition, 1903)
  • Experimental Psychology (four volumes, 1901-05)—1.11.22.12.2
  • Elementary Psychology of Feeling and Attention (1908)
  • Experimental Psychology of the Thought Processes (1909)
  • A Textbook of Psychology (two volumes, 1909-10)
  • A Beginner's Psychology (1915)

[edit] External links