Skip to main content
  • 203 Accesses

Edward Bradford Titchener was an Anglo-American psychologist and founder of the American school of psychology called structuralism.

Titchener was born in Chichester, Sussex England on January 11, 1867 and died on August 3, 1927 in Ithaca, New York (Boring 1927). He excelled in his public school education and attended Brasenose College, Oxford for his undergraduate education. He was attracted there to the ideas of George Berkeley, Herbert Spencer, and James Mill, among others. It was from one of Mill’s books that he realized that it was possible to analyze the mind into simpler parts (Titchener 1909). It was also at Oxford that Titchener discovered the ideas of Wilhelm Wundt. He was accepted to Wundt’s laboratory in Leipzig, Germany but, to get laboratory experience, Titchener spent a year in the physiology laboratory of John Burdon Sanderson. Burdon Sanderson imbued in Titchener the importance of explanation of mental events in terms of physiology. What Titchener came away from Oxford...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 679.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 649.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Boring, E. G. (1927). Edward Bradford Titchener: 1867–1927. The American Journal of Psychology, 38, 489–506.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boring, E. G. (1938). Titchener and the existential. The American Journal of Psychology, 50, 470–483.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bradley, J. (1971). Mach’s philosophy of science. London: Anthlone.

    Google Scholar 

  • Danziger, K. (1979). The positivistic repudiation of Wundt. Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, 15, 205–230.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ernst, M. (1887/1914). The analysis of sensations and the relation of the physical to the psychical (C. M. Williams & S. Waterlow, trans.). Chicago: Open Court.

    Google Scholar 

  • Evans, R. B. (1975). The origins of Titchener’s doctrine of meaning. Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, 11, 334–341.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Evans, R. B. (1990). The scientific and psychological positions of E. B. Titchener. In Ruth Leys & R. B. Evans (Eds.), Defining American psychology: The correspondence between Adolf Meyer and Edward Bradford Titchener. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Külpe, O. (1893). Grundriss der psychologie. Leipzig: Wilhelm Engelmann.

    Google Scholar 

  • Titchener, E. B. (1896, 1897, 1899). An outline of psychology. New York: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Titchener, E. B. (1901, 1902, 1905). Experimental psychology. New York: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Titchener, E. B. (1909). The experimental psychology of the thought processes. New York: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Titchener, E. B. (1910). A textbook of psychology. New York: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Watson, R. I., & Evans, R. B. (1991). The great psychologists: A history of psychological thought (5th ed.). New York: Harper Collins.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rand B. Evans .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2012 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

About this entry

Cite this entry

Evans, R.B. (2012). Titchener, Edward Bradford. In: Rieber, R.W. (eds) Encyclopedia of the History of Psychological Theories. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0463-8_271

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0463-8_271

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-0425-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4419-0463-8

  • eBook Packages: Behavioral Science

Publish with us

Policies and ethics