Structuralism is a philosophy and method that developed from insights in the field of linguistics in the mid-20th Century to study the underlying patterns of social life.

Structuralism is about the interpretations being focused on the analization on what the art piece truly is and not the symbols in the piece. Non-Structuralism is the focus of the symbols and not what the piece is actually about.

Structuralism is a method of interpreting and analysing such things as language, literature, and society, which focuses on contrasting ideas or elements of structure and attempts to show how they relate to the whole structure.

Wilhelm Wundt

Structuralism suggests that the goal of psychology is to study the structure of the mind and consciousness, while functionalism puts forth that understanding the purpose of the mind and consciousness is the aim of psychology. Functionalism was developed as a response to structuralism.

Functionalism, in psychology, a broad school of thought originating in the U.S. during the late 19th century that attempted to counter the German school of structuralism led by Edward B. Titchener. Functionalists, including psychologists William James and James Rowland Angell, and philosophers George H.

Both structuralists and functionalists agreed that psychology should study conscious experience. Functionalists explain mental processes more systematically and accurately, meanwhile, structuralists focus on the essential elements of consciousness using a method called introspection.

The functionalist perspective, also called functionalism, is one of the major theoretical perspectives in sociology. It has its origins in the works of Emile Durkheim, who was especially interested in how social order is possible or how society remains relatively stable.

In functionalism, structures emerge organically from the intent to communicate, whereas structuralism divorces all functionality from its assessment of the makeup of language structure. Functional linguistics is concerned with the “function” of language.

Structuralism studies the human mind and the basic units that can be identified through introspection. Functionalism focuses on more objective forms of study and argues that it’s necessary to study aspects of the mind and behavior in terms of function.

Structuralism as a school of psychology seeks to analyze the adult mind (the total sum of experience from birth to the present) in terms of the simplest definable components and then to find how these components fit together to form more complex experiences as well as how they correlate to physical events.

What is Functionalism? Functionalism is the doctrine that what makes something a thought, desire, pain (or any other type of mental state) depends not on its internal constitution, but solely on its function, or the role it plays, in the cognitive system of which it is a part.

The primary concepts within Functionalism are collective conscience, value consensus, social order, education, family, crime and deviance and the media. Functionalist sociologists like Parsons and Durkheim have been concerned with the search for functions that institutions may have in society.

Functionalism emphasizes a societal equilibrium. If something happens to disrupt the order and the flow of the system, society must adjust to achieve a stable state. According to Durkheim, society should be analyzed and described in terms of functions.

The functionalist perspective sees society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability. This approach looks at society through a macro-level orientation and broadly focuses on the social structures that shape society as a whole.

William James founded the school of functionalism. James was influenced by his early physiology education and the work of Charles Darwin. Functionalism was built around a more systematic approach to understanding mental processes. William James developed functionalism to search for consciousness and behavior.

James and Functionalism William James (1842–1910) was the first American psychologist who espoused a different perspective on how psychology should operate. James was introduced to Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection and accepted it as an explanation of an organism’s characteristics.

His belief in the connection between mind and body led him to develop what has become known as the James-Lange Theory of emotion, which posits that human experience of emotion arises from physiological changes in response to external events.

Wilhelm Wundt (1832–1920) was a German scientist who was the first person to be referred to as a psychologist.

Margaret Floy Washburn was the first woman to earn a doctoral degree in American psychology (1894) and the second woman, after Mary Whiton Calkins, to serve as APA President. Ironically, Calkins earned her doctorate at Harvard in 1894, but the university trustees refused to grant her the degree.

Behaviorism is primarily concerned with observable behavior, as opposed to internal events like thinking and emotion: While behaviorists often accept the existence of cognitions and emotions, they prefer not to study them as only observable (i.e., external) behavior can be objectively and scientifically measured.

Psychologists are guided by these basic scientific assumptions: Events are lawful—that is, behavior and mental processes follow consistent patterns. Events are explainable—that is, behavior and mental processes have a cause or causes that can be understood through careful, systematic study.