Structuralism emerged as the first school of thought and some of the ideas associated with the structuralist school were advocated by the founder of the first psychology lab, Wilhelm Wundt.
Titchener actually changed much of what Wundt taught. Edward Titchener, the main structuralist, gave psychology its first definition as a science of the study of mental experience, of consciousness, to be studied by trained introspection. Though Titchener is usually the one credited with the establishment of structuralism and bringing the ideas to America, the ideas started with Wundt. Was Wundt really the founder of this early school of thought?
Almost immediately other theories surfaced to vie for dominance in psychology…
While Wundt is often listed as the founder of structuralism, he never actually used the term. Functionalism, in psychology, a broad school of thought originating in the U.S. during the late 19th century that attempted to counter the German school of structuralism led by Edward B. Titchener. Instead, Wundt referred to his ideas as voluntarism.1 It was his student, Edward B. Titchener, who invented the term structuralism. This is because just as legs have been selected by evolution for their function so too have mental faculties. Chomsky (1975) commented that it is a peculiarity of intellectual history that physical structures, like legs, are taken to be genetically determined whilst mental structures, like those responsible for speech, are thought to be products of the social environment.
Functionalism was a philosophy opposing the prevailing structuralism of psychology of the late 19th century.
Functionalism was important in the development of psychology because it broadened the scope of psychological research and application. Functionalists, including psychologists William James and James Rowland Angell, and philosophers Wundt believed that the mi… Turing (1950) noted this teleological functional …
One of Wundt's students, a man named Edward B. Titchener, would later go on to formally establish and name structuralism, although he broke away from many of Wundt's ideas and at times even misrepresented the teachings of his mentor. Understanding that this distinction is incorrect is an important first step in understanding functionalism. Because of the wider perspective, psychologists accepted the validity of research with animals, with children, and with people having psychiatric disabilities.