Schools of Psychology

William James

**main functionalist
established first American psych lab (1875)
viewed mind as stream, "stream of consciousness," which cannot be meaningfully broken down into discrete elements
believed mind not suited for the kind of analytic study favored by structuralists

Edward B. Titchener

thought mind had 3 basic elements; went to Cornell
*structuralism

3 basic mental elements

images, sensations, feelings

influenced by Darwin's theory of evolution

Functionalism
most important way of adapting is learning

assumed that the conscious mind evolved bc it promoted the survival of individual human beings

Functionalism

80% of people get fired for

not being able to work well with others

Structuralism

school of psych; sought to identify components of the conscious mind
(first school)

introspection

method where highly trained individual reports contents of their conscious mental experiences
*structuralism

school of psychology inspired by scientists' analytic skills

structuralism

Functionalism

school of psych; studied how the conscious mind helps individual adapt to environment

argued structuralists emphasized the wrong psych questions

functionalists

felt psych should not be concerned with components of mind but with the why and how the mind worked

functionalists

focused on operations & processes of the mind, not the structure

Functionalism

insisted all activity/behavior is adaptive or functional

allows individual to adapt to his/her ever-changing environment
*funtionalism

who established pysch lab, 1875 (same years as Wundt), at Harvard

William James; used labs for demonstrations, not experiments like Wundt

group that broadened range of subjects used in psychological research by including animals, children, and people suffering from mental disorders

functionalists

John Dewey

applied psych to the improvement of educational practices

James Cattell

first psychology professor in the world

Wilhem Wundt

attributed with founding the new discipline of psychology- Germany 1875, University of Leipzig

Behaviorism

school of psych; rejected study of mental processes in favor of the study of overt behavior

John B. Watson

founder of Behaviorism
works led to redefinition of psych as the science that studies the behavior of organisms.

group that claimed psych should only be concerned with observable/measurable behavior

behaviorists

Ivan Pavlov

Russian; behaviorist
found that all behavior is a response to some stimulus in the environment

B.F. Skinner

theory of Operant conditioning (positive reinforcement)

school of psych that had a violent reaction to structuralism

Behaviorism

Gestalt Psychology

early school of psych; claimed that we perceive and think about wholes rather than combinations of separate elements

Max Wertheimer

founder of Gestalt; used gestalt bc means "form" or "shape" to punctuate how we see wholes and not pieces

"The whole is different than the sum of its parts"

-Max Wertheimer, Gestalt

Phi Phenomenon

apparent motion in the absence of actual motion
shows the mind doesn't respond passively to discrete stimuli but organizes stimuli into coherent wholes

Kurt Koffka

prolific writer; popularized Gestalt psych

Wolfgang Kohler

promoted Gestalt as a natural science

2 who helped introduce Gestalt psych to America

Kurt Koffka & Wolfgang Kohler

Psychoanalysis

school of psych; emphasized importance of unconscious causes of behavior

Sigmund Freud

founder of psychoanalysis; austrian neurologist who considered himself a "conquistador of the mind"

Freud concluded that unconscious conflicts, usually related to ___ and ___ , were the primary motivators of behavior

sex and aggression
psychoanalysis

early childhood experiences are important in personality

psychoanalysis

conversion hysteria

disorder result of unconscious psych conflicts about sex caused by cultural prohibition against sexual enjoyment
freud

psychic determination

Freudian assumption that all human behavior is influenced by unconscious motives