Evolution of Psychology

The schools of psychology

By  Ritaj Munir 

 1. Structuralism

2. Functionalism 

3. Gestalt psychology

4. Behaviourism

5. Psychoanalysis

6. Humanism

7. Cognitive perspective
 Structuralism 
 Proposed by William Wundt and the earliest approach to psychology.
 Structuralists analysed the human mind and it's structure, and wanted to study the building
blocks of mind.
 Introspective methods were used to study mental processes and experiences, however this
method didn’t satisfy other psychologists as they thought of it as less scientific.
 This led to the development of a new perspective of psychology. 
 Functionalism
 Proposed by William James.
 He believed that instead of focusing on structure of the mind, psychology should study what the
mind does, and the function of consciousness in adjustment to the environment. 
 Functionalists believed that consciousness is an ongoing stream of mental processes and it can’t
be broken down into parts. 
 Introspection methods were used in this case as well- but for studying mind's functions, not its
structure.
 Also, John Dewey used functionalism to argue that humans seek to function effectively by
adapting to their environment i.e. b= f (p,e)
 Gestalt psychology
 Proposed by Kohler, Wertheiner, Koffka.
 This approach was a revolt against structuralism, which focused on perceptual organization and
demonstration. Gestalt stated that when we look at the world, our perceptual experience is more
than the sum of the components of the perceptions.
 Behaviourism
 Proposed by John Watson.
 Suggests that a behavior could be described objectively in terms of stimuli-response
relationship (s-r)
 according to Watson, mentalist concepts such as consciousness, image, or mind can not be
measured or studied objectively and scientifically.
 He wanted scientific psychology to mainly focus on what is observable and verifiable (i.e. overt
behaviour)

 B.F. Skinner, who came up with the skinner box experiment to understand instrumental
conditioning was also a behaviourist. He made this approach popular.
 Psychoanalysis
 Proposed by Sigmunt Freud.
 It viewed human behavior as a dynamic manifestation of unconscious desires and conflicts of
which we are not aware at present. Psychoanalysis was used as a system to cure and understand
psychological disorders.
 Psychoanalysists noticed human beings get motivated by unconscious desires for gratification
of pleasures.
 Humanism
 Proposed by Carl Rogers, Abraham Maslow.
 It emphasized on the free will of human beings an their natural striving to grow and unfold
their inner potential.
 According to the humanists, actions of human beings aren't predetermined by any force.
 Individuals have the innate tendency to self actualize and all human activities are goal directed
and worthwhile.
 Cognitive perspective/Constructivism
 Proposed by Jean Piajet and Vygotsky.
 This approach is a combination of gestalt and structuralist approach and focuses on cognition,
i.e. how we know the world through thinking, understanding, perceiving, memorizing, and
problem solving.
 Human mind was viewed as an information processing system like a computer- it is supposed
to receive, process, transform, store, and retrieve information.
 Modern cognitive psychology views human beings as actively constructing their minds through
exploration into the physical and the social world.