DISTNGUSH BETWEEN STRUCTURALISM AND FUNCTIONALISM

DISTNGUSH BETWEEN STRUCTURALISM AND FUNCTIONALISM
1879 a new child was born into an unsuspecting world. The sire of this grand progeny, William Wundt. Thomas Leahey 1987 states that “Wundt is the founder [of modern psychology] because he webbed together philosophy and physiology and made the resulting offspring independent” this new age birth of magnificent proportions was the cornerstone of modern psychology. He started Structuralism which was based on philosophical ideas but merged with a science. As a founding principle one may note that this school of thought was subject to criticism as new scholars became more enlightened. One noted contention in the paradigm was the school of Functionalism and this verses duality started a new spark in the early field of psychology.
It can be argued that Structuralism was based more on philosophical ideas than then pseudo-science Wundt attempted to introduce into the field. The advent of functionalist ideologies can be perceived as amendments to this as the school aimed to bring the scientific realm into the so
Structuralists assumed that the goal of psychology was to understand the structure of the mind, and they mainly use introspection as the tool to study objects. Therefore a structuralist would definitely study a topic in human intelligence by introspection only. But relaying on introspection alone it meant that the information could be biased due subjectivity. On the contrary, functionalism is more practical and scientific. Functionalism supported evolutionary theory and aimed to understand how the mind and behaviour work in aiding an organism’s adjustment to the environment (Hergenhahn, 2009) ,they believed that the information from introspection should be supplemented by observation of actual behaviour, including the study of animal behaviour and development of behaviour . Functionalists had wide choices of research tools including the study of animal behaviour, and the study of the mental disorder, and introspection as well.
Structuralism implemented a systematic study of the mind and how it is made up it was the first school of psychology and focused on breaking down mental processes into the most basic components. Researchers tried to understand the basic elements of consciousness using a method known as introspection, which was the careful, systematic self-observation of one’s own conscious experiences. Functionalists sought to explain the mental processes, how the brain functioned in a more systematic and accurate manner. According Atkinson and Atkinson in the book “Hilgard`s introduction to psychology” James felt that less emphasis should be placed on analysing the elements of consciousness and more emphasis should be put on understanding its fluid, streaming and personal characteristics .it also focused on the purpose of consciousness and behaviour. Functionalism also were more interested in what made organisms different from one another than what made them similar.
In addition one have to note that structuralism stated that knowledge was any instinct which is enhanced by self-awareness. W. Wundt and E.B Titchener believed that as long as one is being aware of what is happening in his mind and that if he can tell it out without leaving any necessary details that person will be acquiring knowledge of certain principles in life. As for the functionalists they appreciated the method of introspection but defied in that they believed that a person`s mind was a “table rasa” a clean cloth. In other words they believed that a person is born with any knowledge but gains that knowledge through life experience and learning the issues of life and also through self-awareness.
Wiiliam James stated that Structionalism missed the mark in the real nature of conscious experience. He believed that consciousness consists of a contious flow of thought. He termed it “Stream of Consciousness” in one quotation James postulates. “it is just this free water of consciousness that psychologists resolutely overlook.” This flow in the intellectual dynamic was further evidently seen in the way in which the two schools of thought conducted their research. Structuralists went to the lab to observe and the functionalists observed man in the real world. Structuralists viewed the elements of mental processes as a set principle yet James advocated for the new science to turn into a flow of mental thought.
Structuralist explored many questions most, they work concerned sensation and perception in vision, hearing and touch. One can trace this idea to the early studies of the Greek philosopher Alcameon. The essence of his early thoughts was that sensation and perception we firmly rooted in the mind. Therefore Wundt used this early principal and evolved into a new age movement termed introspection. By attaching labels to mark specific sensation one can note that Wundt’s concept had limitations. James arguing this advocated for sensations and perception to be viewed as raw experiences. The languages available to subjects to describe them could be limited due to a lack of word to name some subjective experience
More so both schools analyse fields of thought and ideology among other things and examine how they are interrelated. That is involves analysing something, such as a person, society, or work of art, by breaking it down into its most basic elements and exploring how these elements are related to each other and to the whole. For example, a structuralist linguist might study language by concentrating on the basic physiological distinctions that contribute to the production of different sounds. But functionalism have developed into the studies societal institutions that is education, non-governmental and governmental institutions and examine how they affect and meet people`s needs. This is mainly applied in the industrial psychology.

The following tablej compares the difference between Structuralism and functionalism

Structuralism
Functionalism
Foundation
Philosophy
Science
Approach
Theory
Practice
Study
Structure of mind
Function of mind
Tool
Introspection
Scientific studies
Regarding knowledge
Knowledge is instinct
Knowledge is learned
Acquiring knowledge
Self-awareness
Life experience
Focus
Inner mind
Behavior, organism, and environment
Support
Nomothetic generalization
Evolutionary theory
Position
Criticized
Accepted

When psychology was first established as a science separate from biology and philosophy, the debate over how to describe and explain the human mind and behavior began. 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, Wilhem Wundt.One of Wundt's students, an man named Edward B. Tichener, would later go on to formally establish and name structuralism, although he broke away from many of Wundt's ideas. However the fundamental basis of the study of the school of thought of structurism was mental processes could be analyzed into simple elements, sensations and images which formed their structure were known as structurulists and their school of thought as structuralism, this is according to Schultz & Shultz 1996. The method used to study once on conscious mental experiences was known as introspection. In fact in the late 19th centaury psychology was defined as the study of consciousness Annett 1974, the philosophical view of which introspectionism was called empiricism. Empiricism was a philosophy of the nature of the human mind; it was the most famous and influential of all British philosophies according to Robinson 1981. It was dualist, in its belief that the mind and body were separate entities and each was capable of affecting the other, for example an emotion of fear a stimulus in the mind may lead to running away. Structuralism was the first school of psychology and focused on breaking down mental processes into the most basic components. Researchers tried to understand the basic elements of consciousness using a method known as introspection. rature.