But at the end of the 19th century and lasting only 25 years Structuralism was still seen as a historically important school of thought and it was the movements that it developed, rather than structuralism itself that pushed forward the progress of psychology
Functionalism as a psychology developed from the philosophy of Pragmatism (practical, matter-of-fact way of approaching or assessing situations or of solving problems).
William James (1842-1910) laid the foundations with the publication of “Principles of Psychology” a book that gave Psychology its distinction and it’s well used definition “the science of mental life” for its study. He introduced a methodology for the inclusion of conscious mental processes and believed consciousness to be the primary object of psychology (function of the mind). And in contrast to Structuralism James emphasised the notion that the human consciousness is not a static element which can be broken down through experiment (no mind body distinction) but rather a succession and continuation of ideas (streaming consciousness), including feelings, memories and thoughts and argued that psychological function, rather than structure should be the main topic of psychology.
Adopting Charles Darwin’s recent discoveries and his theories of “individual variation” evolution by natural selection and instincts, animal psychology became more highly regarded than any other school of that time. Although James approach was unscientific and unconventional humans now had been linked closely to animals and it opened further opportunities for animal research to study the effects on behaviour.
Together Functionalism and structuralism built an important bridge to the development of behaviorism.
Behaviourism is a school of psychology which seeks to explain animal and human behaviour entirely in terms of observable and measurable responses to environmental stimuli. Behaviourism was introduced by the American psychologist John B. Watson (1878-1958), who insisted that behaviour is a physiological reaction to environmental stimuli. He rejected the exploration of mental processes claiming Structuralism and introspection to be unscientific and subjective. Adding the (empirical and observable) experiment of Pavlov. He said that salivation of dogs is an innate or unconditioned response to the presentation of food and that the dog could be taught or conditioned to salivate only through the sound of a bell in association to food.
Therapy developed from S-R (stimulus & response) experiments attempted to shape behaviour through techniques that includes systematic desensitization (used with anxiety or phobia) and aversive conditioning (addiction)
One of the issues surrounding behaviorism relates to its ideas about control, believing people can be trained. Behaviourism is strongly deterministic; this means it is unfalsifiable since it always assumes a cause exists, even if one has not yet been discovered. The behavioural model denies the existence of the mind and has been criticised for ignoring the possibility of evolutionary, instinctive, and inherited characteristic learning. Also psychologists and philosophers realised that they could not eliminate the idea of belief and desires from explanations of human behavior.
But Behaviourism has produced many practical applications associated with the reductionist theory, breaking the whole down into smaller parts enables it to be empirically and scientifically tested.
Sigmund Freud (1856-1932) introduced the influential theory of the “unconscious”. He felt that our behaviour is guided by this and devised methods to unlock what may have been repressed or forgotten, he achieved this by attaching meaning to an individual’s behaviour and interpreting events that may have been deeply submerged in early experiences. Theorising that Inner conflict was divided into three areas (the id, the ego, and the super ego) each with its own motives and suggested that they had combined for our survival and added “although there are an indefinitely large number all human behaviour is motivated by drives or instincts”. The techniques to access the unconscious would include, slip of the tongue or pen, dreams, transference (emotion associated with person or object with unconscious shift to another) and free word association, resurfacing covert forms of what would otherwise be unknown to the conscious mind.
Freud’s ideas were highly controversial and he was now the subject of criticism, being dismissed as unscientific, that his methods were limited and not testable, and his observations were primarily through correspondence with fathers or husbands and not with patients.
Developed in the 1960s Humanistic Psychologists believed in free will, that individuals are subjective, and our perception or the sense of self (phenomenal) and the world is unique.
Abraham Maslow (1908-1970) demonstrated with a graphical pyramid and a number of horizontal levels, five hierarchical needs starting at the top with Self-Actualization, esteem, love, belonging, safety, and the Physiological. Each layer taking precedent over the one above, and as Maslow describes “A need does not become salient until the needs below are met” meaning that human existence is made up of layers and that when basic needs are met the higher motive and self actualization can be revealed. Criticising Freud’s emphasis on the negative aspects of human nature, Humanists concentrated on the positive attributes of attaining “peak experience”
Humanistic psychology has been criticized for promoting an optimistic but often vague view of the mind, and lacking an integrated, clearly defined theory, considering behaviour holistically, that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
Cognition refers to the mental processes i.e.: beliefs, perception, memory, intentions, embracing philosophy, neuroscience, linguistics and psychology. Research is usually scientific or quantitive and involves models to explain behaviors with emphasis on understanding and thinking. Although the boundaries of Cognitive Psychology are less defined than other approaches, parallels between humans and computers for this discipline are used. Ulric Neisser (1928- ) defined Cognition as the “process by which the sensory input is transformed, reduced, elaborated, and stored”. Extending the metaphor, computers take symbolic input, recode and make decisions, in much the same way as human beings process information. Cognitive psychology has helped explain many aspects of everyday behaviour and experience, i.e. memory loss, why eyewitness testimony is often inaccurate and why we experience visual illusions. Cognitive psychology has influenced many other approaches and areas of study to produce, social learning theory, cognitive neuropsychology, and artificial intelligence.
Cognitive Psychology ignores the complexity of biological human function, conscious experience, and free will, by comparing its approaches to computer logic, because it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck does not mean that it really is a duck. There is more to a duck than walking and quacking. To date, the computer metaphor remains an inadequate way of modelling human cognitive processes.
Conclusion
In 2000 years Philosophical explanations and its branches of Metaphysics and Epistemology do not appear to have found direct solutions that still continue with the abstract notion of learning, motivation, memory, dreaming and perception that faced Plato and Aristotle. But In the last century natural science discoveries have provided very important contributions to Psychology. Biology, Physics and chemistry have furnished this discipline with a huge variety of answers in assisting the human condition and the future of Psychology.
Bibliography
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Reference Books
R. Gross “Psychology The Science Of Mind And Behaviour” 5th Ed, Pub: Hodder Arnold
E. Cox “Psychology AS Level” Pub: Oxford
N. Hayes “A First Course In Psychology” 3rd Ed, Pub: Thomas Nelson
N C. Benson “Introducing Psychology” Pub: Icon
Ref Dates: 31/10/05 – 7/11/05
