PY401 Final Essay This paper address the founding of psychology along with the schools of structuralism, functionalism, behaviorism, psychoanalytic, gestalt, and humanistic psychology. Each school is unique in the different ways in which they were discovered, built up, and how they influenced psychology itself.
Founding of Psychology The founding of psychology can be dated back to the time of Descartes, but really took off during the Age of Enlightenment, where the work of Whytt (stimulus-response connections), Magendie (Bell-Magendie Law), Müller (doctrine of specific energies of nerves), and Helmholtz (unconscious inference) was most popular. This emphasized the importance of brain functioning and nervous system structure. Wilhelm Wundt is generally known as the father of experimental psychology. He was responsible for creating the first laboratory for experimental psychology and the first journal describing results of scientific research in psychology. Wundt was interested in the minds ability to actively organize information. Thus, he coined the process of apperception and the term volunteerism. Whytt’s idea that stimulus-response connects were produced by habits is similar to modern behaviorists accounts of conditioning.
Structuralism
Structuralism is a school of psychology, associated with Titchener that focused on identifying the structural elements of human conscious experience, primarily through basic laboratory and introspective methods. In 1904, Titchener
Here he established Psychology as a discipline. The first U.S. psychology lab didn’t come until 1883, when G. Stanley Hall opened a lab at John Hopkins University. In addition to this, in 1892 he develops the American Psychological Association (APA) and later founds the American Journal of Psychology (1887) and Journal of Applied Psychology (1917). William James develops the theory of Functionalism in the 19th century which focuses on acts and functions of the mind (consciousness). Sigmund Freud introduces Psychoanalysis in 1896. He concludes that powerful unconscious drives and conflicts motivate people. People are motivated by powerful, unconscious drives and conflicts. Also in 1896, Structuralism (focused on the contents of the mind) develops and is introduced to the U.S. in a 1901 publication by Edward Titchener, Manual of Experimental Psychology. In the year 1900, Sigmund Freud’s theory “The Interpretation of Dreams” is published. Mary Calkins is the first elected woman president of the APA in 1904. She was however, denied her Ph.D. after studying at Harvard University due to her gender. Clifford Beers details his personal experiences as a patient in a mental asylum during the 19th century in his publication A Mind That Found Itself. Through this publication he called for humane treatment and better education about mental illness. In 1913, the theory of Behaviorism develops which focuses on observable and measurable behavior. Psychiatrist, Hans Berger invents the electroencephalogram in 1929 and tests it on his son. Kurt Koffka develops Principles of Gestalt Psychology in 1935. B.F. Skinner introduces his theory of Operant Conditioning in 1938. The Psychoanalytic Treatment of Children (1945) by Anna Freud introduces concepts in the theory and practice of psychoanalysis of children. The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) established in 1949. The
In this essay I am looking at where Psychology as a discipline has come from and what affects these early ideas have had on psychology today, Psychology as a whole has stemmed from a number of different areas of study from Physics to Biology,
The history of psychology is in infancy at the present time. Many philosophers can be credited to the development of this science. Starting in the early 18th and 19th centuries philosophers such as Rene’ Descartes and John Locke opened the world of what we know as psychology today. The British empiricists also contributed to psychology. Some of these men include David Hume and David Hartley.
Psychology explores human behavior and the human mental process figuring ways to improve the thinking and attitude of an individual’s existence. Sometimes, different techniques are used and tried to properly resolve the problem within the multitude of possible behavioral issues. Moreover, Sigmund Freud, an Austrian neurologist, developed many theories, psychodynamic therapy, for clinically treating people with mental health problems through their unconscious mind; Then, Sigmund Freud’s theories or therapy, rather, diverged into other types of therapies such as Biological Psychology or Cognitive Psychology. No doubt, there are various perspectives, both strong and weak, in the field of Psychology using different techniques on different
In this laboratory, Wundt and his followers undertook the study of psychology, which to them consisted of the study of experience. (Read more about it at) http://www.wiley.com/college/psyc/huffman249327/ch_01.pdf
History and Systems of Psychology is a course requirement offered to Psychology majors and minors. This course is used to provide majors and minors with the foundation and the evolution of the field of psychology. Within this class, many scholars of discussed. Two scholars that stood out to me in this course would be John Watson and Max Wertheimer. These two particular scholars are responsible for two of the most influential and famous schools of thought, behaviorism and Gestalt psychology. These two schools of thought are responsible for changing the field of psychology and introducing the field to new theories and ways of thinking. Although the two schools of thought are similar in being influential but they are different in many ways. The two schools of thought are even said to be contradictory of one another and one is even said to be the cause of the fading out of the other.
As far back as the time when man first discovered ways to communicate with one another he has attempted to understand and explain the course of historical events. In considering the historical development of scientific psychology two main views of the historical progress the field of science have emerged: personalistic theory and naturalistic theory.
Psychology is not just philosophical speculation and reasoning over the years it has evolved and it is now also recognised as a science, to understand what psychology is all about it is necessary to know it’s origins and the theorist who brought it out of obscurity, Sigmund Freud. He developed the Psychodynamic or Psychoanalytical perspective to enable better understanding of human behaviour these concepts will be discussed further later in this study. After Freud opened the gateway other perspectives and approaches have been developed, now with five main areas of psychology - Cognitive, Behaviourist, Biopsychology and Humanist approaches. For a comparison with the Psychodynamic theory, Behaviourist Theory will be discussed.
The History of Psychology In order to discuss Psychology's history, it is important to understand that psychology still does not have one unifying approach unlike the natural sciences; even the definition of Psychology and what it truly means is still undecided. However I shall attempt to review chronologically its philosophical origins, include how the science of Physics and Biology were placed in history and how they influenced research and determined the development of Psychology as its recognised today. Beginning with the philosophers Plato and Aristotle (between 428- 347) in ancient Greece, they began to ask
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.
Basically, Structuralism was firstly set up in Europe by Ferdinand de Saussure, a structural linguist. It is a kind of methodology which discusses hat elements of human culture must be understood in terms of their relationship to a larger, overarching system or structure. It works to uncover the structures that underlie all the things that humans do, think, perceive, and feel. In fact, structuralism is aimed to find the inner structure logic behind millions of words. In literary, structuralism the narrative dimension of literary texts because Structuralism Criticism deals mainly with narrative.(Tyson, 219)
When psychology was first established as a science it separated from biology and philosophy, the debate over how to describe and explain the human mind and behavior began. The first school of thought, structuralism, was advocated by the founder of the first psychology lab, Wilhelm Wundt. Almost immediately, other theories began to emerge and vie for dominance in psychology. The following are some of the major thought that have influenced our knowledge and understanding of psychology: Structuralism, functionalism, behaviorism:
Prerequisites for the emergence of psychological doctrine have existed from ancient times. Even the ancient Greek philosophers have built that solid foundation, on which psychology arose. As Hermann Ebbinghaus has pointed out: "Psychology has a long past but a short history"(Landrum, 2016). Only with the beginning of the XX century, psychology became an independent science. At the turn of XX-XXI centuries, in connection with the increasing demand for application of psychological knowledge in different practical activities, the value of psychology has significantly increased. This demand has led to the emergence of a large number of psychological schools and theories, which sometimes complemented each other, but often contradicted each other. Consequently, different psychological branches have arisen. Gestalt psychology occupies the essential role among this
At the age of 40 in 1896, Sigmund Freud introduced the world to a new term- psychoanalysis (Gay 1). Psychoanalysis is a method of treating patients with different nervous problems by involving them in dialogues which provide the physician with insight into the individual’s psyche. These dialogues provided the basis for Freud’s psychoanalytic theory, which “attempts to explain personality, motivation, and psychological disorders by focusing on the influence of early childhood experiences, on unconscious motives and conflicts, and on the methods people use to cope with their sexual and aggressive urges” (Weiten 363). Part of this theory involves the structure of the mind. This is a concept that touches
Structuralism is segment of social science and humanities. It focuses on recurring patterns of though and behavior. Psychology intergrades with philosophy in many ways. With the ideas and concept brought into play by British Empiricist from the 1600’s it open the gates to psychologist and their experimental minds such as the “father of psychology” Wilhelm Wundt. By the 1800’s E.B. Titchener created his perspectives on structuralism. He focused on human elements on conscious experience. Titchener primarily analyzed this process through the basic laboratory and introspective methods.