Before psychology became a formal scientific discipline, philosophers and physiologists began to question the mind and how it works. Some focused on the innermost workings of the mind, such as consciousness and introspection, while others were more interested in its mechanics. Knowing how the field was founded is instrumental in its current applications and how it will continue to be altered and constructed in the future.
A system of psychology originally advocated by William Wundt, to identify the components of the mind; Structuralism was organization of consciousness of the mind - the mind could voluntarily order and organize mental elements. The term introspection, coined by Wundt, was used as the method of understanding the conscious mind by researchers (K. Cherry, n.d). E.B. Titchener, a student and follower of Wundt, translated material brought from Germany to the United States. While he claimed it was Wundt’s material, his translations were drastically different, misrepresented even, from those ideas originally formed by Wundt. In direct opposition (Schultz, 2011), Titchener was more focused on the mechanical linking of elements through association instead of apperception. He believed that psychology’s main focus was to examine each individual piece of consciousness- consequently, finding its structure. The zeitgeist of the time inferred that the broken down pieces of consciousness was equal to the sum of the parts. According to Titchener, “Consciousness and
Psychology had been the study of mind from a very long time and was represented by the method of introspection defined as studying the mind by analyzing the thoughts.
Throughout the earlier years, psychology was known as, “the science of mental life” Initially, psychology began on a December day in 1879, at a local German university, by Professor Wilhelm Wundt. The experiment, was to determine the time in which it took an individual, whom initially heard a bell, to press a telegraph’s key in response to the sound omitted. Wundt’s attempt was aimed at measuring the “atoms of the mind”. A fast and simple approach towards the mental process of an individual’s reaction. Thus, solidify Wilhelm, within the birth of psychology, as
John Nash was extremely intelligent man but let his work take over a lot of his life. I would describe his attitude as cocky as he believed he was much smarter than others and loved to prove it which is shown in the beginning with the board game between him and Hanson. I figured that he was one that knew he was there for the education and not to party like his fellow classmates were doing. He would stay in his room studying and figuring out the hardest math problems and working them on the windows. Figuring out math problems was what made his day.The clues that were the most alarming were when Nash and Charles are sitting on the roof they are chatting on a university building roof and getting to know each other better. Nash and Charles are
Psychology is a science that seeks to answer such questions about us all—how and why we think, feel, and act as we do. it was born in December 1879, in Germany’s University
This weeks reading was over the life and research of Edward Bradford Titchener, the founder of structuralism. Titchener was a student and friend of Wilhelm Wundt. Even though he supposedly was a self-proclaimed follower of Wundt, his form of psychology was quite different than that of his teacher. As we learned in chapter four, Wundt’s theory about the human mind was based on the view that people could not focus on more than one thing at a time with precision, that the mind had a self organizing capability, and also that only sensation and perception could be studied experimentally via apperception. Wundt was interested in the whole experience, Titchener was interested in the components of the experience. Also, Titchener, believed the opposite of Wundt, that mental processes could be studied through introspection by trained “reagents.”
Humans are categorized as being diverse, and as such, there are no two humans that are exactly the same. Humans and their behavior are not black and white. So why, in the field of psychology, do psychologists try to explain human behavior by using only one explanation? Psychology is the study of the human mind and of human behavior. Through the years, psychologists have created several theories to try to explain the cause of human behavior. These are called the approaches to psychology. The seven main approaches to psychology are: Behavioral, Biological, Cognitive, Evolutionary, Humanistic, Socio-cultural, and Psychodynamic. Many psychologists believe only one approach explains the cause of human behavior. However, considering only one approach to human behavior is limiting because there are many factors that can play a role in human behavior. All approaches should be considered when explaining human behavior because there are many weaknesses to each approach, considering all approaches is stronger, a therapy that considers all approaches is more beneficial, and many studies have proven there are multiple causes of behavior.
At the end of the nineteenth century, Titchener brought Wundt’s basic ideas of psychology to America. He was responsible for translating many of Wundt’s works into English as they were all in German. Many did not now that Titchener only translated what he agreed with and choose not to translate anything he disagreed with. Titchener called Wundt's ideas structuralism, and tried to study the structure of mental life or consciousness. His structural psychology had three aims:
The first academic to look at is Wilhelm Wundt by applying the scientific principles to his work and his contribution to establish psychology as a science. Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) was a German physician who became interested in applying the physiological methods to psychological phenomena and “wanted to model the study of the mind after the natural sciences.” (Passer et
put your opinion in e.g. I believe this perspective can help an individual who has a fear or phobia by seeing why the individual is so scared. I also think that the behaviourist perspective can help measure changes of a behaviour. On the other hand I feel that the behaviourist perspective doesn’t take in the biological perspective.
In the history of psychology, there are several problems that have persisted throughout the years. One major issue is the mind body relationship. This topic has been examined for numerous times and several viewpoints have been taken from like philosophers from the western world, who focused on two views of the problem mostly, and later other views and subtypes emerged. The Mind-Body theme attempts to identify the relationship between the mind and body, in other words, between the mental realms like thoughts and emotions and physical realms like neurons. Although there is evidence for all the viewpoints, the problem continues and remains unresolvable.
Trying to figure out why humans do what they do has been around as long as humans themselves. Psychology is simply the study of human actions and reactions. John B. Watson made great strides in psychology but was a subpar person.
Psychology has had many changes throughout the time that man has first wonder how does the human mind work. There are many major schools of thought that try to understand this question. Psychodynamic and Behavioral are some the major schools of thought in the field of psychology.
3. What do you expect will be your most lasting contribution to the field of psychology?
Psychology is the study of the mind, its biology, and behavior if the individual. The father of psychology, Wilhelm Wundt, used objective measurement and controlled analyzing to find and emphasize separation between psychology and philosophy (McLeod). Wundt opened the Institute for Experimental Psychology at the University of Leipzig in Germany in 1879, using his background in physiology to study reactions and sensations (McLeod). There is no doubt that he, along with the later help of Sigmund Freud, launched what is now modern psychology. Psychology and its research helped the world understand the inner workings of the mind and how it affects everyone around us.
25. Which approach to psychology would be apt to say “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts?”