On the origins of Titchener's experimentalists

Abstract

E. B. Titchener's Society of Experimentalists was founded in 1904, partly as a result of Titchener's personal conflicts with certain members of the American Psychological Association and partly out of his frustration over the structure and content of the Association's annual meeting. However, though Titchener was clearly the prime mover in organizing the experimentalists, the Society's formation reflected the more widespread dissatisfaction of a number of experimentalists over the direction being taken by the Association. Lightner Witmer, for example, attempted but failed to form a separate association for experimentalists six years prior to Titchener's successful effort.