Edward Bradford Titchener, born January 11, 1867, had big plans ahead of him put together by his family. Titchener’s family intended on him becoming a clergy member, but his heart was somewhere else (Cherry, 2014). Titchener had bigger plans for himself. While attending Oxford University, he began studying comparative psychology and began translating Wilhelm Wundt’s Principles of Physiological Psychology into the English language. After graduating from Oxford, Titchener went to study with Wundt and soon after earned his Ph.D. in the study of Psychology (Cherry, 2014). While there, Wundt taught Titchener everything about his introspective psychology and how it helped determine one’s own emotions through their physical reactions. Titchener returned with an American perspective on Wundt’s ideas. He went on to become a professor at Cornell University where he taught Wundt’s ideas using his own technique known as structuralism, starting the first psychology program at the university (Kardas, 2014).
While a professor at Cornell, Titchener introduced his new idea of structuralism, which f...
D. Brett King, Wayne Viney, & William Douglas Woody, (2013). A History of Psychology, Ideas & Context. 3rd ed. United States: Pearson.
Edward Theodore Gein was born on August 27, 1906 in La Crosse, Wisconsin. The son of an alcoholic father and a very religious mother, Gein grew up alongside his older brother, Henry, in a household ruled by his mother preaching about the sins of carnal desire. With an effeminate demeanor, Ed Gein became a target for bullies. Classmates and teachers brought up mannerisms from the past, such as seemingly random laughter, as if he were laughing at his own personal jokes. His mother scolded him whenever he tried to make friends, so he never tried anymore because of the pain it caused him. Not being distracted by his social life, he did well in school, mostly in reading. (http://www.biography.com/people/ed-gein-11291338).
On November 17, 1957 police arrived to the house of Ed Gein, they had suspected him of robbing the local hardware because he was found loitering around the store and being the last person seen at the store. When the police entered the house they found chairs, couches, lampshades, bowl made from a skull, a belt of female nipples and a costume made from human skin.
The study of psychology began as a theoretical subject a branch of ancient philosophy, and later as a part of biological sciences and physiology. However, over the years, it has grown into a rigorous science and a separate discipline, with its own sets of guidance and experimental techniques. This paper aims to study the various stages that the science of psychology passed through to reach its contemporary status, and their effects on its development. It begins with an overview of the historical and philosophical basis of psychology, discusses the development of the various schools of thought, and highlights their effects on contemporary personal and professional decision-making.
Edward Estlin Cummings was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts on October 14, 1894. He earned a BA from Harvard and volunteered to go to France during World War I with the Ambulance Corps. After the war, he stayed in Paris, writing and painting, and later returned to the US. He died in Conway, New Hampshire, in 1962. Cummings is one of the most innovative contemporary poets, he used unconventional punctuation and capitalization, and unusual line, word, and even letter placements - namely, ideograms. Cummings' most difficult form of poetry is probably the ideogram; it is extremely terse and it combines both visual and auditory elements. There may be sounds or characters on the page that cannot be verbalized or cannot convey the same message if pronounced and not read. Four of Cummings' poems "la," "mortals," "!blac," and "swi" illustrate the ideogram form quite well. Cummings utilizes unique syntax in these poems in order to convey messages visually as well as verbally.
Titchener, who was a one student of Wundt, on the other hand, described his system as structuralism, which involves the analysis of the structure of the mind. Tichener broke down consciousness into elemental feelings and sensations. Wundt held the belief that consciousness was vital in scientific psychology, thus dependent on structuralism. He used introspection to study the functions of the mind occurring in active experience. It is however, imperative to note that Wundt’s introspection could not be used to establish higher functions of the mind. He divided the active experiences as feelings and sensations (Titchener, 1915).
There is great reward in the study of psychology; the study of the Homo sapiens species. Their minds that include intellect, intelligence, habits and behavior rationalizing just as the quote at the beginning advocates—the entire world, history and future, revolves around them. Psychology, not limited to contemporary, “is a rich and varied subject that can simulate theoretical questions while at the same time offering practical application in almost all areas of everyday life” (Cherry). This is the gift that Leon Festinger was born with in New York City on May 8th, 1919. From there, he would go on to earn his Bachelor of Science degree from City College of New York in 1939 (Cherry). Psychology is a science. It has its methodology and asks for phenom...
The use of symbols in surrealism and the meaning within these paintings by Max Ernst played a significant influence on the notion of my experimental art making. He was a German painter, sculptor and a graphic artist but also considered as one of the primary pioneers of the Dada and Surrealism movement. They aimed to revolt against everyday reality by exploring the construction of the unconscious mind. By exploring the mind and transforming reality by surveying the desires of the human nature, it allows one to contemplate on the actuality and the realities of our world. Uniquely, Ernst created his own set of techniques such as collage, frottage, grattage, decalcomania and oscillation in order to convey his symbolism of his art making – but it also later incentivized artists such as Jackson Pollock and William De Kooning, revealing his such influence and impact in the art world.
The development of psychology like all other sciences started with great minds debating unknown topics and searching for unknown answers. Early philosophers and psychologists such as Sir Francis Bacon and Charles Darwin took a scientific approach to psychology by introducing the ideas of measurement and biology into the way an indi...
of variations, but withheld his work in deference to J. L. Lagrange. He was a
The psychological genre as it relates to sociological and medicinal matters has gained an increasing amount of scientific approval. Impartiality and the scientific method are both integral components to a psychologist’s mode of practice. However, even the most esteemed of psychologists can only speculate at what makes human beings act the way they do. Absolutes play no function in psychology. Everything is relative and open to conjecture. Theologians give us their visions or thoughts about life. In the field of psychology, there have been many different regions of interest and speculation.
Hergenhahn, B.R. (2009). Social and Theoretical Psychology: Conceptual and Historical Issues 1. An introduction to the History of Psychology. 1 (1), p1-28.
Psychology started, and had a long history, as a topic within the fields of philosophy and physiology. It then became an independent field of its own through the work of the German Wilhelm Wundt, the founder of experimental psychology and structuralism. Wundt stressed the use of scientific methods in psychology, particularly through the use of introspection. In 1875, a room was set-aside for Wundt for demonstrations in what we now call sensation and perception. This is the same year that William James set up a similar lab at Harvard. Wilhelm Wundt and William James are usually thought of as the fathers of psychology, as well as the founders of psychology?s first two great ?schools? Structuralism and Functionalism. Psychologist Edward B Titchner said; ?to study the brain and the unconscious we should break it into its structural elements, after that we can construct it into a whole and understand what it does.? (psicafe.com)
Boneau, C. A., Kimble, G. A., and Wertheimer, M. (1996) Portraits of Pioneers in Psychology, Volume II. Washington D.C. and Mahwah, NJ: American Psychological Association & Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
Psychology is the study of the mind, its biology, and behavior of the individual. The father of psychology, Wilhelm Wundt, used objective measurement and controlled analysis to find and emphasize separation between psychology and philosophy (McLeod). Wundt opened the Institute for Experimental Psychology at the University of Leipzig in Germany in 1879, using his background in physiology to study reactions and sensations (McLeod). There is no doubt that he, along with the later help of Sigmund Freud, launched what is now modern psychology. Psychology and its research help the world understand the inner workings of the mind and how it affects everyone around us.