act psychology
a philosophical and psychological approach based on the proposition that the act and content of psychological processes are separate functions; for example, the act of seeing color leads to a perception of the visual content, or image. Historically, proponents of act psychology held that acts (mental representation and transformation, judgment, emotion), rather than contents, are the proper subject of psychology, in contrast to Wilhelm Wundt’s emphasis on introspection and conscious contents. Compare content psychology. See also intentionality.