NAME: MANYA SINGHANIA

CLASS: XI- F
ROLL NO:
SUBJECT: PSYCHOLOGY
TOPIC : EVOLUTION OF
PSYCHOLOGY
EVOLUTION OF PSYCHOLOGY

Evolutionary psychology is a theoretical approach in

the social and natural sciences that examines psychological
structure from a modern evolutionary perspective. It seeks to
identify which human psychological traits are
evolved adaptations – that is, the functional products of natural
selection or sexual selection in human
evolution. Adaptationist thinking about physiological
mechanisms, such as the heart, lungs, and immune system, is
common in evolutionary biology. Some evolutionary
psychologists apply the same thinking to psychology, arguing
that the modularity of mind is similar to that of the body and
with different modular adaptations serving different functions.
Evolutionary psychologists argue that much of human behavior is
the output of psychological adaptations that evolved to solve
recurrent problems in human ancestral environments.
 SCHOOLS OF PSCHOLOGY
THESE ARE THE SCHOOLS OF
PSYCHOLOGY

 Structuralism
 Functionalism
 Behaviourism
 Gestalt
 Psychoanalysis
 Humanistic psychology
 Cognitive psychology
 STRUCTURALISM
 Modern psychology was established in Leipzig ,
Germany (1879) by Wilhelm Wundt .
 Wundt was interested in the study of conscious
experiences and wanted to analyze the
constituents in the building blocks of mind .
 Wundt analyzed the structure of mind by using
the method INTROSPECTION .
 But this method was not scientific. That is why ,
another group of psychologist discarded this
method and tried to explain psychology from the
functional aspect .
 FUNTIONALISM
 William James was regarded as one of the
members of the functional school of psychology
.he was an American psychologist who had setup
a psychological laboratory in Cambridge ,
Massachusetts soon after the setting up of the
Leipzig laboratory .
 He was strongly influenced by the Darwin theory
and its interests in anatomy , psychology and
medicine . He believed that instead of focusing on
the structure of the mind , psychology should
instead study what the mind does and how
behaviour functions in making people deal with
their environment .
BEHAVIORISM
GESTALT PSYCHOLOGY
 In the early 20th century a new perspective called
Gestalt psychology emerged in Germany and as a
reaction to the structuralism of Wundt .
 According to him , perceptual experience is more
than the sum of the components of the
perception. For example : Light from a series of
flashing bulbs fall on our retina , we then
actually see a series of rapidly moving images of
still pictures falling on our retina .
 The most prominent members of this school were
Wertheiner , Kurt Koffka , W.Kohler , and
Kurtlewin.
Wertheimer Kurt Koffka
W . Kohler Kurt Lewin
 PSYCHOANALYSIS
 Psychoanalysis is a set of theories and therapeutic techniques related to
the study of the unconscious mind, which together form a method of
treatment for mental-health disorders. The discipline was established in
the early 1890s by Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud .
 The basic tenets of psychoanalysis include:
• a person's development is determined by often forgotten events in early
childhood, rather than by inherited traits alone.
• human behaviour and cognition are largely determined by irrational
drives that are rooted in the unconscious;
• attempts to bring those drives into awareness triggers resistance in the
form of defense mechanisms, particularly repression;
• conflicts between conscious and unconscious material can result in mental
disturbances such as neurosis, neurotic traits, anxiety and depression;
• unconscious material can be found in dreams and unintentional acts,
including mannerisms and slips of the tongue;
• liberation from the effects of the unconscious is achieved by bringing this
material into the conscious mind through therapeutic intervention;
HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY

 Humanistic psychology is a psychological perspective that

rose to prominence in the mid-20th century in answer to the
limitations of Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory and B.
F. Skinner's behaviorism. With its roots running
from Socrates through the Renaissance, this approach
emphasizes individuals' inherent drive towards self-
actualization, the process of realizing and expressing one's
own capabilities and creativity.
 It helps the client gain the belief that all people are inherently
good. It adopts a holistic approach to human existence and
pays special attention to such phenomena as creativity, free
will, and positive human potential. It encourages viewing
ourselves as a "whole person" greater than the sum of our
parts and encourages self exploration rather than the study of
behavior in other people. Humanistic psychology
acknowledges spiritual aspiration as an integral part of
the psyche. It is linked to the emerging field of transpersonal
psychology.
COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY
 Philosophically, ruminations of the human mind and its processes
have been around since the times of the ancient Greeks. In 387
BCE, Plato is known to have suggested that the brain was the seat of
the mental processes. In 1637, René Descartes posited that humans
are born with innate ideas, and forwarded the idea of mind-body
dualism, which would come to be known as substance dualism
(essentially the idea that the mind and the body are two separate
substances). From that time, major debates ensued through the 19th
century regarding whether human thought was solely experiential ,
or included innate knowledge . Some of those involved in this debate
included George Berkeley and John Locke on the side of empiricism,
and Immanuel Kant on the side of nativism.
 From the 1920s to the 1950s, the main approach to psychology
was behaviorism. Initially, its adherents viewed mental events such
as thoughts, ideas, attention, and consciousness as unobservables,
hence outside the realm of a science of psychology. One pioneer of
cognitive psychology, who worked outside the boundaries (both
intellectual and geographical) of behaviorism was Jean Piaget. From
1926 to the 1950s and into the 1980s, he studied the thoughts,
language, and intelligence of children and adults.
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We would like to express our special
thanks of gratitude to our teacher R .
Bandhopadhyay as well as our
principal who gave us the golden
opportunity to do this wonderful
project on the topic Evolution of
Psychology , which also helped us in
doing a lot of Research and we came
to know about so many new things ,
we am really thankful to them.