Foundations Of Psychology Essay

FLike any good solid structure, it needs a foundation. In psychology, in order to build a strong structure, one has to not only adhere to one specific thought, idea, or foundation, but more than one. In psychology there are three major schools of thought; structuralism, functionalism, behaviorism, psychodynamic, humanistic, gestalt, and cognitive. These theories can be used seperately but it is found that in psychology it is better to have a more "ecelectic" attitude and mind. Combining these theories is found useful and as we know the mind is complex therefore no one such theory should be used to determine the thought process of an indivdual.

Structuralism, founded by Wilhelm Wundt, was the first school of thought. This theory breaks down the mental process into basic components. (Major Schools of Thought in Psychology, Kendra Cherry, About.com) Fucntionalism, founded by William James, and used by and Harey Carr, was the theory that says "that mental states; beliefs, desires, being in pain, etc., are constituted solely by their functional role. (Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia) Basically, functionalists developed this theory with the thought that "a mental state is more a matter of what it does, not what it is made of." (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, http://www.iep.utm.edu/functism/) Therefore, beliefs, desires, pain, etc., are realized states of mind and that is what causes them to be. Behaviorism, majorly used by John B. Wason, Ivan Pavlov, and B.F. Skinner, is the thoery that all behavior can be explained by the person environemental state; that a person is solely affected by their surrondings. Psychodynamic or psychoanalysis, was founded by the worldly know, Sigmund Freud. Freud believed that the human mind was broken into three main parts; the id, the ego, and the superego. This school of thought suggested that our behaviors were affected by our unconscious mind. The humanistic theory, studied by Abraham Maslov and Carl Rogers, was a spn off of...