Which of the following is a criticism of structuralism?

• A. It rejects the use of experimental methods in psychological research.
• B. It relies too heavily on introspection, which is subjective and difficult to verify.
• C. It focuses primarily on the unconscious mind and childhood experiences.
• D. It emphasizes the study of observable behavior over mental processes.

Answer: (B)

Verified step by step guidance

1. Step 1: Understand what structuralism is — it is an early school of psychology that aimed to break down mental processes into their most basic components, primarily using introspection as a method.
2. Step 2: Recognize that introspection involves individuals examining and reporting their own conscious experiences, which can be highly subjective and vary from person to person.
3. Step 3: Identify the main criticism of structuralism — because it relies heavily on introspection, its findings are difficult to verify objectively and lack scientific rigor.
4. Step 4: Compare the other options to structuralism: rejecting experimental methods is incorrect because structuralism did use experiments; focusing on the unconscious mind relates more to psychoanalysis; emphasizing observable behavior is characteristic of behaviorism.
5. Step 5: Conclude that the key criticism is the reliance on introspection, making structuralism subjective and challenging to validate scientifically.