Wilhelm vz. William

Wilhelm Wundt, and William James are both know to be fathers of Psychology so I thought It would interesting to compare and contrast their theories and beliefs, but first, I shall give a brief history of each psychologist. William Wundt, the oldest of the two, was born in 1832 in Germany and William James was born 10 years later in 1842 in America, dieing, in 1910, which happened to be ten years before the death of Wundt. William Wundt was the founder of structualism and founded the first Psychology lab in Germany in 1875. However, it is argued that William James open the first lab in America the same year.

Structualism was Wundt's thoeory. Structualist broke mental processes into basic componets and used a method know as introspection. Some of the weaknesses of structualism were that it was too subjective and could not be accurately measured. However, is was said have influenced experimental psychology.

Wundt, had a student, Tichener, who expanded the structualism theory after Wundt's death, but in the process, he broke aways from many of Wundt's ideas. Anti-structualist, based many of their beliefs about structualism on the ideas of Tichener instead of Wundt himself.

James was an anti-structualist. His theory was functionalism. Functionalist explained the mental processes in a more accurate way then the structualist. They focused more the purpose of conscienceness and behavior and they put emphasis on individual differences as well. Functionalism was also said to have influenced the education system as well as behavior and applied psychology.

"The distinguishing characteristics of the mind are of a subjective sort; we know them only for the contents of our own consciousness." - Wilhem Wundt


"The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook." - William James