Titchener and Gestaltists both study the structure of experience within the mind. These two theorists also hold opposing views on methods used within psychology. This paper will outline the differences between Titchener and Gestaltists methodology and how these differences have contributed to distinct views on the subject matter they study. Gestalt psychology was founded by Brentano. On the surface, Brentano and Titchener ideas seem similar but they vary in a distinct way. According to Gozli 2015, pg. 12 the ideological differences between these two theorists comes down to that Brentano was non-experimental while Titchener was experimental. Brentano’s non-experimental method is descriptive psychology, which involves describing different mental states to be able to detect and classify different types of phenomena. Brentano’s descriptive psychology took after the classification techniques of botany which he studied when training for the priesthood (Farrell 2014, pg. 291). Titchener psychology was experimental. Titchener used the idea of introspection which relied on subjective analysis …show more content…
Titchener’s uses a structuralism approach to his psychology in that he attempts to uncover mechanisms of the mind (Farrell 2014, pg. 275). Gestaltists disagree with the basic assumptions of empiricism. While Titchener, (an empiricist) believed that individual sensations are building blocks of experience. Gestaltists, on the other hand thought that the assumption of individual sensations was wrong and that experience is part of a perceptual field. The concept of gestalt-quality was coined to describe the relationship between elementals that describes the phenomena (Farrell 2014, pg. 286-287). Gestalt psychology uses a melody to describe gestalt-quality. A melody can be played in different tones but the elements remain the same. The wholeness of this property is gestalt-quality (Farrell 2014, pg.