History of Psychology

Lecture 2
Content:
EarlySchools of Psychology,
Schools of Psychology,
Modern Perspective.
Early Schools of Psychology:
ClassicalGreek Philosophers,
Pioneers of Psychology,
Early Schools of Psychology,
Modern Perspective.
Pioneers of Psychology:
German Psychologist named Wilhelm Wundt
(1832-1920) at University of Leipzeg,
established first laboratory.

John Hopkins University in United States set up

first psychological laboratory in 1883.

William James recognized Psychology as a

separate field of study at the end of 19th century.
Area of Research:

Psychology as study of mind,

Conducted experiments to evaluate laws in the

physical world which have an influence on
person’s mind,

They studied attention, and did experiments in

the area of memory, imagery, thinking and
emotion.
Schools of Psychology:

Structuralism,
GestaltPsychology,
Functionalism,
Behaviorism,
Psychoanalysis,
Modern Perspective.
Structuralism:
The school of thought established around the
ideas of Wilhelm Wundt at Cornell University,
by one of his students.

The goal of the structuralists was to identify

units or elements which make up the mind.

To study mind, there should be description of

basic elementary units of sensation, image and
emotion.
Structuralism (contd.):

Method used was Introspection.

Subjective evaluation of the experiences due to

certain stimulus.

Useful Information was collected about the kind

of sensations people have.

Shortcomings.
Gestalt Psychology:

German Psychologist named Max Wertheimer

(1880-1943) and his colleagues challenged the
idea of structuralists.

According to them, study of mind can be

understood in terms of the ways elements are
organized.
Gestalt Psychology (contd.):

Mind should be thought of as resulting from

whole pattern of sensory activities and
relationships and organizations within such
pattern.
Functionalism:

John Dowey (1873-1954) and his colleagues at

University of Chicago challenged Gestalts.

They proposed that Psychology should study

“what mind and behavior do”.

They were mainly interested in the fact that

mind and behavior are adaptive.
Functionalism (contd.):

Adaptive behavior means that individuals have

the ability to adjust to changing environment.

The Functionalists did experiments on the way

of learning, memory, problem solving,
motivation and thus help people adapt to their
environment.

Focus is on the functions of mind and behavior.

Behaviorism:

John B. Watson (1879-1958) at John Hopkin

University in United States rejected mind as
subject of psychology.

According to him, psychology should be

restricted to the study of behavior i.e. both
observable and potential activities of people.
Characteristics of Behaviorism:

Conditional responses,

Learned behavior rather than unlearned

behavior,

Focus on animal behavior.

Psychoanalysis:

Sigmund Freud (1856-1938) a known

Psychiatrist from Austria, was the pioneer of
Psychoanalysis.

He proposed a theory of behavior and mind

stating that what we do and think results from
urges and drives which seek expression in
behavior and thoughts.
Psychoanalysis (contd.):

These urges and drives are hidden from the

awareness of individuals, i.e. unconscious
motivation or drive.

Unconscious motivation describes the key ideas

of Psychoanalysis.

System of Psychotherapy is based on the

concept of Psychoanalysis.
Modern Perspective:

In the last 50 years, psychologists have a variety

of viewpoints to choose from, in their task of
describing and understanding behavior.

The perspective taken depends partly on:

1). Bias of individual psychologist,
2). What aspect of behavior is under study
Modern Perspective (contd.):

Behavioral Perspective,
Biological Perspective,
Cognitive Perspective,
Social Perspective,
Developmental Perspective,
Humanistic Perspective,
Psychoanalytic Perspective.
Behavioral Perspective:

A psychologist with behavioral perspective

might be interested in teaching skills so as to
compensate for behavioral problems.

Learning and behavioral perspective can be

applied to overcome problematic situations.
Biological Perspective:

Psychologists try to relate behavior to functions of

the body, i.e. nervous system and glandular
systems in particular.
Cognitive Perspective:

Differences in the way we process information

leads to differences in behavior,

Social learning theory,

How the processing of information change

overtime.
Social Perspective:

Social Psychologists try to understand normal

social interactions.

Adapting cognitive framework described in

Cognitive perspective.

Focus is to get the cause of the behavior by

obtaining more information about participants.
Developmental Perspective:

Concerned with characteristic changes that

occur in people as they mature, i.e. Changes in
the way they think.

Cognitive Egocentrism.
Humanistic Perspective:

Emphasizes the person’s sense of self.

What does a person feel about his/her own

behavior and how can that behavior be
improved.
Psychoanalytic Perspective:

Broader perspective of psychodynamics.

Psychodynamics is a perspective that focuses on

the role of feelings and impulses which are
thought to be unconscious.
Key Aspects of
Psychodynamics:
Defense mechanism to reduce anxiety, one of
defense mechanism is displacement.

Accidents or slips happens for a reason.

Reference:

Morgan, King, Weisz and Schopler (2009)

Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Prentice
Hall.