Schools of Psychology (Historical)

Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)

structuralism (person)

Structuralism

break conscious experience down into objective sensations, subjective feelings, and mental images

Objective Sensations

sight, taste

Subjective feelings

emotional responses

mental images

dreams

Structuralism

the mind functions by combining objective and subjective elements of experience

William James (1842-1910)

major figure in the development of psychology in the US

William James (1842-1910)

he focused on the relation between conscious experience and behavior

William James (1842-1910)

founder of functionalism

Functionalism

focused on behavior as well as the mind or consciousness

Functionalism

how experience helps us function more adaptively in our environments

Structuralism

"What are the pieces that make up thinking and experience?"

Functionalism

"How do behavior and mental processes help people adapt to the requirements of their lives?"

Charles Darwin (1809-1882)

he argued that organisms with adaptive features survive and reproduce

Adaptive behavior patterns

Charles Darwin:
behavior that are learned and maintained

Maladaptive behavior patterns

Charles Darwin:
behavior that tend to drop out, only the fittest behavior patterns survive

John Broadus Watson (1878-1958)

founder of American behaviorism

John Broadus Watson (1878-1958)

(person) believed that psychology was to be a natural sicence, it must limit itself to observable/measurable events

Behaviorism

focuses on learning observable behavior

Observable behaviors

behaviors known by means of specialized items: heart rate, blood pressure, brain waves

Public behaviors

behaviors that can be measured easily and different observers would agree about their existence and features

B.F. Skinner (1904-1990)

he believed that organisms learn to behave in certain ways because they have been reinforced for doing positive behaviors

structuralism

school of psychology that argues that the mind consists of 3 basic elements: sensations, feelings, and images, that combine to form experience

functionalism

school of psychology that emphasizes the uses of the mind rather than the elements of experience

behaviorism

school of psychology that defines psychology as the study of observable behavior

behaviorism

studies relationships between stimuli and responses

Max Wertheimer (1880-1943), Kurt Koffka (1886-1941), Wolfgang Kohler (1887-1967)

Gestalt psychology founders

Gestalt psychology

focused on perception and how perception influences thinking and problem solving

pattern or organized whole

gestalt (german) meaning in english

perception

more than the sums of parts

Gestalt psychology

learning could be active and purposeful

insight

much learning, especially in problem solving, is accomplished by _____, not by mechanical repetition

flash of insight

manipulate the elements of problems until we group them in such a way that we can reach a goal, has mental trial and error

Psychoanalysis

theory of personality and the method of psychotherapy

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)

Pyschoanalysis developed by

Psychoanalysis as theory of personality

much of our lives is governed by unconscious ideas and impulses that originate in childhood conflicts

Psychoanalysis as psychotherapy

aims to help patients gain insight into their conflicts and to find socially acceptable ways of expressing wishes and gratifying needs