Percy Eusebio

In 1879 in Leipzig, Wilhelm Wundt (1832 – 1920) founded the world's first psychological laboratory. He believed that consciousness should be divided into constituent elements and study the natural connections between them. In the laboratory of W. Wundt studied the sensations, the speed of response to diverse stimuli, attention, feelings etc. and thus began the systematic accumulation of psychological facts by the experimental method. As W. Wundt proposed to allocate structural elements of consciousness, he is considered the founder of structuralistic approach to the study of the psyche. The essence of this approach is precisely the allocation of the structural components of the psyche and the study of their experimental methods. Along with structuralistic approach developed and functional (funzionanti) approach. Functionalists denied the existence of structural components of consciousness and believed that the subject of psychological research should be the processes of consciousness in terms of their function in adapting the body to the environment. Psychology was considered as the science of the functions (or activities) of consciousness in connection with the needs of the body for effective adaptation to the environment. In addition to consciousness, the motives of behavior, individual differences between people and so on were studied. The main method of research should be an experiment.