Structuralism
Main article: Structuralism (psychology)
German physician Wilhelm Wundt is credited with introducing psychological discovery into a laboratory setting. Known as the "father of experimental psychology",[16] he founded the first psychological laboratory, at Leipzig University, in 1879.[16]
Wundt focused on breaking down mental processes into the most basic
components, motivated in part by an analogy to recent advances in
chemistry, and its successful investigation of the elements and
structure of material. Although not himself a structuralist, his student
Edward Titchener, a major figure in early American psychology, was a structuralist thinker opposed to functionalist approaches.Functionalism
Main article: Functional psychology
Functionalism formed as a reaction to the theories of the
structuralist school of thought and was heavily influenced by the work
of the American philosopher, scientist, and psychologist William James.
James felt that psychology should have practical value, and that
psychologists should find out how the mind can function to a person's
benefit. In his book, Principles of Psychology,[17]
published in 1890, he laid the foundations for many of the questions
that psychologists would explore for years to come. Other major
functionalist thinkers included John Dewey and Harvey Carr.Other 19th-century contributors to the field include the German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus, a pioneer in the experimental study of memory, who developed quantitative models of learning and forgetting at the University of Berlin,[18] and the Russian-Soviet physiologist Ivan Pavlov, who discovered in dogs a learning process that was later termed "classical conditioning" and applied to human beings.[19]
Starting in the 1950s, the experimental techniques set forth by Wundt, James, Ebbinghaus, and others would be reiterated as experimental psychology became increasingly cognitive—concerned with information and its processing—and, eventually, constituted a part of the wider cognitive science.[20] In its early years, this development was seen as a "revolution",[20] as it both responded to and reacted against strains of thought—including psychodynamics and behaviorism—that had developed in the meantime.
Psychoanalysis
Main article: Psychoanalysis
From the 1890s until his death in 1939, the Austrian physician Sigmund Freud developed psychoanalysis,
a method of investigation of the mind and the way one thinks; a
systematized set of theories about human behavior; and a form of psychotherapy to treat psychological or emotional distress, especially unconscious conflict.[21] Freud's psychoanalytic theory was largely based on interpretive methods, introspection and clinical observations. It became very well known, largely because it tackled subjects such as sexuality, repression, and the unconscious mind as general aspects of psychological development. These were largely considered taboo
subjects at the time, and Freud provided a catalyst for them to be
openly discussed in polite society. Clinically, Freud helped to pioneer
the method of free association and a therapeutic interest in dream interpretation.[22][23]
Psychoanalytic theory and therapy were criticized by psychologists such as Hans Eysenck, and by philosophers including Karl Popper. Popper, a philosopher of science, argued that psychoanalysis had been misrepresented as a scientific discipline,[25] whereas Eysenck said that psychoanalytic tenets had been contradicted by experimental data. By the end of 20th century, psychology departments in American universities had become scientifically oriented, marginalizing Freudian theory and dismissing it as a "desiccated and dead" historical artifact.[26] Meanwhile, however, researchers in the emerging field of neuro-psychoanalysis defended some of Freud's ideas on scientific grounds,[27] while scholars of the humanities maintained that Freud was not a "scientist at all, but ... an interpreter."[26]
Behaviorism
Main article: Behaviorism
Classical conditioning was an early behaviorist model. It posited that behavioral tendencies are determined by immediate associations between various environmental stimuli and the degree of pleasure or pain that follows. Behavioral patterns, then, were understood to consist of organisms' conditioned responses to the stimuli in their environment. The stimuli were held to exert influence in proportion to their prior repetition or to the previous intensity of their associated pain or pleasure. Much research consisted of laboratory-based animal experimentation, which was increasing in popularity as physiology grew more sophisticated.
Skinner's behaviorism shared with its predecessors a philosophical inclination toward positivism and determinism.[28] He believed that the contents of the mind were not open to scientific scrutiny and that scientific psychology should emphasize the study of observable behavior. He focused on behavior–environment relations and analyzed overt and covert (i.e., private) behavior as a function of the organism interacting with its environment.[29] Behaviorists usually rejected or deemphasized dualistic explanations such as "mind" or "consciousness"; and, in lieu of probing an "unconscious mind" that underlies unawareness, they spoke of the "contingency-shaped behaviors" in which unawareness becomes outwardly manifest.[28]
Notable incidents in the history of behaviorism are John B. Watson's Little Albert experiment which applied classical conditioning to the developing human child, and the clarification of the difference between classical conditioning and operant (or instrumental) conditioning, first by Miller and Kanorski and then by Skinner.[30][31] Skinner's version of behaviorism emphasized operant conditioning, through which behaviors are strengthened or weakened by their consequences.
Linguist Noam Chomsky's critique of the behaviorist model of language acquisition is widely regarded as a key factor in the decline of behaviorism's prominence.[32] Martin Seligman and colleagues discovered that the conditioning of dogs led to outcomes ("learned helplessness") that opposed the predictions of behaviorism.[33][34] But Skinner's behaviorism did not die, perhaps in part because it generated successful practical applications.[32] The fall of behaviorism as an overarching model in psychology, however, gave way to a new dominant paradigm: cognitive approaches.[35]
Humanism
Main article: Humanistic psychology
Gestalt
Main article: Gestalt psychology
Wolfgang Kohler, Max Wertheimer and Kurt Koffka co-founded the school of Gestalt psychology.
This approach is based upon the idea that individuals experience things
as unified wholes. This approach to psychology began in Germany and
Austria during the late 19th century in response to the molecular
approach of structuralism. Rather than breaking down thoughts and
behavior to their smallest element, the Gestalt position maintains that
the whole of experience is important, and the whole is different than
the sum of its parts.Gestalt psychology should not be confused with th
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