Edward Titchener

Edward Titchener

Edward Bradford Titchener, a disciple of Wundt, brought experimental psychology to the United States. Titchener studied many types of psychology, but was the considered a leader of structuralism. He did not consider applied psychology a valid method to study. He did not believe in studying animals, children, abnormal behavior, or individual differences. Titchener's belief was that psychology should be the study of experience from the point of view of the experimenting individual. He also believed that all elements, such as habit and instinct, must exist in the consciousness. Although Titchener was a strong advocate of structuralism, he did, at one point, reveal is limitations. This freed the development of psychology from structuralist boundaries.

One of Titchener's major accomplishments was his core-context theory of meaning. According to this theory, a new mental process acquired its meaning from the context of other mental processes within which it occurs.

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