Element psychology

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Element psychology refers to a direction of psychology that deals with complex psychological events such as B. attempts to trace back processes of consciousness-building to a limited number of smaller, more easily identifiable units or elements. (a) It thus proves to be structuralist psychology.

Representative

In a narrower sense, Wilhelm Wundt (1832–1920) and Edward Bradford Titchener (1867–1927) can be seen as representatives of elemental psychology . (b), (a)

method

In terms of methodology, elemental psychology is methodologically similar on the one hand to the older rational psychology and its division into individual faculties , and on the other hand similar to certain natural sciences which, through analysis , arrive at ever smaller structures and components or elements, see research into chemical and physical elements . The concept of the element psychology was in the psychodynamics , psychophysics by Gustav Theodor Fechner (1801-1887) with his work elements of psychophysics (1860) and in the experimental psychology by Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) with his work Physiological Psychology (1874) as well as represented in the psychoanalysis of Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) with his theory of instances and psychological topics . Freud, however, also criticized Wundt's elemental psychology, see Chap. Criticism . (c)

Wundt saw associations as such simple elements . They can be tested and evaluated experimentally using association methods. Experience and sensation were regarded as further elementary units , cf. a. → introspection . These units, together with the experimentally reproducible association processes, appeared to be essential for the exploration of states of consciousness . The corresponding research direction was also called consciousness psychology. (b) Element psychology is part of consciousness psychology alongside other psychological directions such as holistic psychology, which is methodologically opposed . In addition to feeling, Carl Gustav Jung (1875–1961) emphasized three further basic functions, those of thinking , feeling and intuition .

history

In the history of ideas there are many parallels to a theory of the elements. Such are above all the four-element-doctrine developed in antiquity and the Chinese five-element-doctrine , whose beginnings ( I Ching , Laotse ) up to the 3rd millennium BC. Go back BC. More often in the humanities in synthetic intention of monism or mono pluralism talk. Here an attempt is made to reduce the variety of phenomena to a single principle or to a small number of elements. (c), (a)

The elementary psychologists referred to the so-called Anglo-Saxon association psychologists . These included: John Locke (1632–1704), David Hartley (1705–1757), David Hume (1711–1776), James Mill (1773–1836), Thomas Brown (1778–1820) and John Stuart Mill (1806– 1873). (d)

criticism

Objections in the sense of reductionism were raised against the analytical methodology of elemental psychology from Gestalt psychology and humanities psychology . With Goethe , this criticism of the production of ever smaller units had already been raised in the "absence of the intellectual band". In response to this elementary tendency, there was also a more holistic current in elemental psychology that was more in line with Gestalt psychology. A distinction is therefore made between holists (gestalt psychology) and elementaryists. Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) and Carl Gustav Jung (1875–1961) contradicted equating psyche and consciousness .

The problem of elemental psychology goes back to Aristotle (approx. 384–322) and his theory of act and potency as well as the materia prima . The derivation of psychic phenomena from unchangeable elements has already been criticized by Heraklit (c. 544–483). An immutable being was considered impossible by him. Rather, all being takes place in the sense of an eternal process of becoming ("Everything flows."). Wilhelm Wundt also took the position that all reality can ultimately be traced back to acts without any underlying substance . (b) Nonetheless, representatives of American functionalism also criticized elemental psychology because they rejected non-materially verifiable structured connections, but in particular the analysis of the content of experiences. (e)

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Wilhelm Karl Arnold et al. (Ed.): Lexicon of Psychology . Bechtermünz Verlag, Augsburg 1996, ISBN 3-86047-508-8 : (a) Sp. 452 on Lemma “Element Psychology”; (b) Col. 452 as (a); (c) Col. 2236 on Lemma "Structuralism", res. "Edward Bradford Titchener", Col. 1777 on Lemma "Psychophysics" on Res. "GT Fechner".


  2. ↑ Philip G. Zimbardo , Richard J. Gerrig: Psychology . Pearson, Hallbergmoos near Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-8273-7275-8 ; P. 9 on head. "Structuralism" ;.
  3. ↑ a b c d e Peter R. Hofstätter (Ed.): Psychology . The Fischer Lexicon, Fischer-Taschenbuch, Frankfurt a. M. 1972, ISBN 3-436-01159-2 : (a) p. 72 on Lemma “Behaviorism”, Stw. “Titchener as a representative of structuralism (of elementary psychology)”; (b) pp. 70 f., 77, 263, 348 on stw. “Sensations”; (c) p. 29 on Lemma “Association”; (d) p. 208 on Lemma “body-soul problem” stw. “monism”; (e) p. 72 on head. “Criticism of Titchener”.




  4. ^ Carl Gustav Jung : Definitions . In: Collected Works. Walter-Verlag, Düsseldorf 1995, paperback, special edition, volume 6, Psychological types , ISBN 3-530-40081-5 ; Sections 7, 28, 113, 520 f., 584, 700, 711, 833, 835, 899 ff., 905, 913 f. to tax "basic functions".
  5. ^ A b Heinrich Schmidt : Philosophical Dictionary (= Kröner's pocket edition. 13). 21st edition, revised by Georgi Schischkoff . Alfred Kröner, Stuttgart 1982, ISBN 3-520-01321-5 : (a) p. 436 on Lemma “Monopluralism”; (b) p. 10 on the lemma “actuality theory”.

  6. ↑ Johann Wolfgang Goethe : Faust I . In: Goethe Werke anniversary edition, Volume 3, "Faust I and II - The Elective Affinities" Insel-Verlag 1998, ISBN 3-458-16913-X ; P. 69 Study room II, verse 1939 on tax "spiritual bond".
  7. ↑ Sigmund Freud : The I and the It . In: Collected Works, Volume XIII, “Beyond the Pleasure Principle - Mass Psychology and Analysis of the Ego - The I and the It” (1920–1924), Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt / M 1999, ISBN 3-596-50300-0 ; P. 239 f. to Stw. "Limits of Consciousness Psychology".
  8. ↑ Carl Gustav Jung : About the energetics of the soul . In: Collected Works, Volume 8, “The Dynamics of the Unconscious”, Walter-Verlag, Düsseldorf 1995, paperback, special edition, ISBN 3-530-40083-1 ; P. 26 f., § 29 on the section “Consciousness Psychology”.
  9. ↑ Markus Antonius Wirtz (ed.): Dorsch - Lexicon of Psychology . 18th edition, Verlag Hogrefe, Bern, 2014; P. 594 on Lemma: ".functionalism"; Updated online since 2014 .

See also