FUNCTIONALISM (in psychology and philosophy). Functionalism is a term em ployed by modern writers both in philosophy and psychology. It occurs more commonly in psychological writers and it will be convenient to designate first the meaning which they assign to it. Functional psychology can be considered as dealing with three fairly distinct problems which we may discuss separately.
First: One of the fundamental problems which psychologists undertake to solve consists in the determination of the number and char acter of the various materials sensory, idea tional, etc., which the mind employs, e.g., the varieties of color, tone, taste etc. Their effort is directed to analyzing and describing both the elementary and the complex contents of con sciousness. This field of endeavor is ordinarily entitled structural psychology. As contrasted with this, functional psychology undertakes to discern and portray the typical operations of the mind with especial reference to the actual life conditions under which consciousness occurs. In describing sensation, for example, it would find its sphere of interest in determining the character of the various sense activities like vision and hearing, as differing in their modus operandi from one another and from other mental processes such as thinking and willing.
This branch of functional psychology is found in all important psychological writers from Aristotle to the present day. It is not, however, until the present generation that any essential distinction has been recognized in this regard between structural and functional psy chology. Indeed, as compared with the remain ing forms of functional psychology, the distinc tion is relatively unimportant. It represents nevertheless a difference in emphasis which is significant. The functionalist is peculiarly reso lute in his purpose to describe mental life as it is in the moment of experience. The analyses offered by the structuralist are perhaps apt to dwell too impartially upon details which may be evident to later introspective examination with out having constituted noticeable features of the conscious state itself when it was in progress.
Substantially identical with this first concep tion of functional psychology, but phrasing it self somewhat differently, is the view which regards the functional problem as concerned with discovering how and why conscious processes are what they are. The structuralist is sup posed to be occupied with the problem of deter mining what the conscious elements are and how they are combined. In general it will be
seen that functionalism as thus described is roughly analogous to a physiology of mind, whereas structuralism is analogous to a mental anatomy: Second: A broader conception of functional psychology and one more frequently character istic of contemporary writers takes its rise from the prevailing interest in the larger formulae of biology and particularly the evolutionary hy potheses within whose majestic sweep is now adays included the history of the whole. stellar universe. From this point of view functional psychology finds its peculiar problem in mental activity as part of a larger stream of biological forces. The psychologist of this stripe is wont to take his cue from the basal conception of the evolutionary movement, i.e., that for the most part organic life possesses its present character istics by virtue of the efficiency with which they serve to meet the conditions laid down by the environment. With this conception before him he attempts to gain some understanding of the manner in which the psychical contributes to the furtherance of organic activities — not alone the psychical in its entirety, but much more the psychical in its particularities, mind as feeling, mind as judging, as willing, etc. He seeks to discover the exact nature of the ac cornmodatory service represented by the -various great modes of conscious expression.
Animal psychology affords a concrete ex ample of the effort to discover these particular istic features of the adaptive service rendered by consciousness to organisms. Modern in vestigations in this field have thrown a flood of light upon such problems as the mechanism of instincts, the methods of animal topographical orientation, the scope and ' character of the several sense processes, etc. In a similar man ner the studies of human genetic psychology , particularly that branch entitled child study, have contributed to our knowledge of the serv ice rendered to the growing mind by its several different functions, such, for example, as the various sensations, the emotions, etc. Patholog ical psychology has also contributed in no small measure to our knowledge of the part played by particular portions of our consciousness in the development and organization of our mental life as a whole.