Learn more about his life, career, and influence on psychology in this brief biography.
While his family originally intended for him to enter the clergy, Titchener’s interests were elsewhere.
In 1885, Titchener began studying at Oxford.
He initially focused on biology, but he soon shifted to the study ofcomparative psychology.
Titchener graduated from Oxford in 1890 and began studying with Wundt in Leipzig, Germany.
He earned his Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Leipzig in 1892.
At Cornell he established the psychologicalschool of thoughtknown as structuralism.
He utilized Wundt’s method of introspection but with much more stringent guidelines.
Introspection was a technique that relies on self-observation.
Trained observers were presented with different objects or events and then asked to describe the mental processes they experienced.
Major Contributions to Psychology
Titchener is credited with introducing Wundt’s scientific ideas to the United States.
Titchener was an original member of the American Psychological Association.
However, he never attended a single meeting.In 1904, he founded his own group known as the Experimentalists.
Titchener believed the APA was flawed and too accepting of applied psychology topics.
In 1894, she became the first woman to earn a Ph.D. in psychology.
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