How was Wundt’s psychology influenced by the work of the German physiologists and the British empiricists? Describe the concept of voluntarism.
The British empiricists and associationists believed in the importance of the simpler mental elements. His student Titchener, would also later forward this thinking as well. However, Wundt believed in the auto- organizing ability of the mind.
He viewed the simple mental elements not to have any importance as themselves. He viewed the simpler mental elements to have importance, when they associated or organized into higher complex cognitive processes.
Wundt, defined voluntarism. The word is derived from volition. It means will or power to act. In context to the mind elements, Wundt felt that the simple elements of mind had the will, to organize themselves from simple processes to higher order cognitive processes.
Wundt believed the simple mental elements had the capability to organize into higher mental processes. He still viewed the simple mental processes to be utterly basic. He maintained that simple elements do not have any vitality as themselves but had the power to synthesize complex mental processes. Yet, he gave the elements this much importance by calling them units, without which the mind would not be organized at all.