Repudiation of Wundt

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What were the causes for the repudiation of Wundt in North America?

-- Navinder Punni (irwineering@india.com), December 13, 2001

Answers

Many and varied. Wundt's alleged "introspectionism" was a key reason. Introspectionism was repudiated in the third sentence of J.B. Watson's "Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It" (1913, see http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Watson/views.htm for an on-line version), and Wundt was specifically named (along with William James) as being a prime advocate of introspection in the first few pages of Watson's book _Behaviorism_. Thus, when behaviorism swept much the American psychological landscape in the late 1910s and the 1920s, rejection of Wundt was part of the package. Introspection was among Wundt's tools of investiagation, of course, but its importance was exaggerated by his English student in America, E.B. Titchener. Titchener's version of Wundt was then transmitted to his own student, E.G. Boring, who in turn wrote the most influential history of psychology textbook of the time.

For a much more nuanced version, see John O'Donnell's book, _The Rise of Behaviorism in North America_.

-- Christopher Green (christo@yorku.ca), December 13, 2001.


Three articles by Kurt Danziger are relevant: "The Positivist Repudiation of Wundt" (Jounral of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, 1979, Vol. 15, 205-230); "The history of Introspection Reconsidered" (same journal, 1980, Vol, 16, 241-262); and "Origins and Basic Principles of Wundt's Volkerpsychologie" (British Journal of Social Psychology, 1983, Vol. 22, 303-313)

-- Raymond Fancher (fancher@yorku.ca), December 17, 2001.

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