Outline any 3 major schools of thought and highlight how each has contributed to the field of

psychology.

Psychology is the scientific study of the mind and human behavior. Therefore, school of thought
is a branch of philosophy and it was accepted in the academic discipline of the first century.
Most of the psychologists who established these schools of thoughts are known as the founders
of psychology.

There are three major schools of thoughts which are; structualism, functionalism and
behaviorism.

Structualism

Structuralism uses the method of introspection to identify the basic element or structures of
psychological experience, (Wilhelm Wundt, Edward B Titchener). Wundt began structuralism
whose goal was to identify the basic elements of structures and their psychological experience.
These structuralists used the method of introspection. Introspection involves asking research
participants to describe exactly what they experience as the work on mental tasks. For example,
viewing colours or just reach a page in a book. A person can be asked what he or she has seen
and can report that it was only a black mark on a white background. According to Edward
Bradford Titchener, 1867-1927, the main aspect of structuralism was that it was rigorous and
scientific. It meant scientific in the sense that the events mental can be quantified. Thus, they
realized the importance of the unconscious process because many of human psychology occurs
outside of our conscious awareness.

Functionalism

Functionalism is the school of thought that attempts to understand why animals and humans have
developed the particular psychological aspects that they are currently possessing (William
James). Contrary to Wundt, William James’ goal was to understand the definition, (Hunt, 1993).

James stated that one’s thinking was relevant only to one’s behavior. For example, a person who
is always looking down upon themselves, this will cause a change in his behavior, like having
low self-esteem or lack of confidence, (James, 1890) used a phrase, “My thinking is first and last
and always for the sake of my doing.” James and other structuralists were influenced by Charles
Darwin’s 1809-1882 theory of natural selection. It proposes that the physical characteristics of
animals and humans evolved because they were useful or functional. He contributed to the
psychology field in the sense that his theory applied to psychology characteristics as to for
example just like animals have developed strong muscles to run faster so as the human brain
must have adapted to serve a particular function in the human experience. This school of thought
accepts the assumption (basic) that human psychological systems, for example, memory,
emotion and personality serves key adaptive functions.

Behaviorism

Behaviorism is based on the premise that it is not possible to objectively study the mind,
therefore, psychologists should limit their attention to that study of behavior itself, (John and
Watson BF Skinner).

Conclusion

In conclusion, we noted that these schools of thoughts are theories and experiments, they cannot
be exhausted since environment and behavior changes, because behavior can be learnt and can
be unlearnt.