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Contemporary Applications of Schools in Psychology

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INTRODUCTION
Psychology evolved out of both philosophy and biology. Throughout psychology's history, a number of different schools of thought have formed to explain human thought and behavior. These schools of thought often rise to dominance for a period of time. While these schools of thought are sometimes perceived as competing forces, each perspective has contributed to our understanding of psychology.
Some of the major schools of thought in psychology are Structuralism, Functionalism, Gestalt psychology, Behaviorism, Psychoanalysis and Humanistic Psychology.
Each school in psychology followed a certain viewpoint or perspective that defined it and its research and treatment methods. From each distinctive viewpoint there arose …show more content…

134). During the clinical observation of a patient’s behavior, in addition to making their own observations, many clinicians enlist their patients’ help by providing them instruction in self-monitoring: self-observation and objective introspective reporting of behavior, thoughts and feelings as they occur in various natural settings. This method can be a valuable aid in determining the kinds of situations in which a maladaptive behavior is likely to be evoked.
Now-a-days psychologists are experimenting with having individuals carry small electronic beepers that produce signal such a soft tone, at unexpected intervals. At each signal, the person is to write down whatever thoughts the signal interrupted. These ‘introspective thought reports’ are then analyzed and used for personality assessment and diagnosis as well as for monitoring progress in psychological therapy (Klinger & Kroll-Mensing, 1995).
One psychological test in which introspection is used in combination with others is the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-2) (Carson, 2007, p. 122-123).
Health Psychology: In the field of health psychology, an obvious approach to measure people’s pain is to ask them to describe the discomfort, either in their own words or by filling out a rating scale or questionnaire containing questions pertaining to where the pain is, what it feels like, how strong the pain

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