Wilhelm Wundt (1832–1920)

was a German scientist who was

the first person to be referred to as
a psychologist. He is also
considered as “father of
psychology.” Wundt believed that
the goal of psychology was to
identify components of
consciousness and how those
components combined to result in
our conscious experience, known
as structuralism. Wundt used
introspection (he called it “internal
perception”), a process by which
someone examines their own
conscious experience. Wundt’s
version of introspection used an
external stimulus to produce a
scientifically observable
(repeatable) experience of the
mind. Wundt established the first
psychology laboratory at the
University at Leipzig, Germany in
1879. But it remained highly
subjective and became short-lived.
William James (1842–1910) was the
first American psychologist who
supported different perspective on how
psychology should operate. James was
introduced to Darwin’s theory of
evolution by natural selection and
accepted it as an explanation of an
organism’s characteristics. Key to that
theory is the idea that natural selection
leads to organisms that are adapted to
their environment, including their
behavior. Adaptation means that a trait of
an organism has a function for the
survival and reproduction of the
individual. As James saw it, psychology’s
purpose was to study the function of
behavior in the world and as such, his
perspective was known as functionalism.
Functionalism focused on how mental
activities helped an organism fit into its
environment. Functionalism has a
second, more subtle meaning in that
functionalists were more interested in the
operation of the whole mind rather than
of its individual parts, which were the
focus of structuralism.
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) was
an Austrian neurologist who believed
that understanding the unconscious
mind was absolutely critical to
understand conscious behavior. This
was especially true for individuals that
he saw who suffered from various
hysterias and neuroses (an ancient
diagnosis for disorders). Freud
theorized that many of his patients’
problems arose from the unconscious
mind. According to Freud, the
unconscious mind could be accessed
through dream analysis, by
examinations of the first words that
came to people’s minds (or free
association), and through seemingly
innocent slips of the tongue. Also,
Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic
theory of personality argues that
human behavior is the result of the
interactions among three component
parts of the mind: the id, ego, and
superego.
Max Wertheimer (1880–1943),
Kurt Koffka (1886–1941), and
Wolfgang Köhler (1887–1967) were
three German psychologists who
immigrated to the United States to
escape Nazi Germany. These men
are credited with introducing Gestalt
psychology in the United States. The
word Gestalt translates to “whole;” it
deals with how parts of sensory
experience relate to each other is
what the individual responds to in
perception. Unfortunately, in moving
to the United States, they abandoned
their work and were unable to
continue to conduct research. These,
prevented principles of Gestalt
psychology from being as influential
in the United States as they had been
in Germany. Despite these issues,
the ideas of Gestalt have continued to
influence research on sensation and
perception.
Alfred Binet (1857–1911) and
Theodore Simon (1872–1961) developed
a series of tests designed to assess mental
abilities. Rather than to focus on learned
information such as math and reading,
Binet instead concentrated on attention
and memory. The scale became known as
the Binet-Simon Intelligence Scale. The
test was later revised by psychologist
Lewis Terman (1877–1956) that known as
the Stanford-Binet. While Binet's original
intent was to identify children who needed
additional academic assistance; the test
soon became to identify those deemed
"feeble-minded" by the eugenics
movement. Eugenics was the belief that
the human population could be improved
by controlling who was allowed to have
children. This shift in how the test was
used is notable since Binet himself
believed that the intelligence test had
limitations and that intelligence was
complex and could not be fully captured by
a single quantitative measure. Binet also
felt that such measures of intelligence were
not always generalizable and could only
apply to children with similar experiences.
Hermann Rorschach (1884–
1922) was a Swiss psychiatrist
and psychoanalyst. His education
in art helped to spur the
development of a set of inkblots
that were used experimentally to
measure various unconscious
parts of the subject's personality.
His method has come to be
referred to as the Rorschach test,
in which subjects' perceptions
of inkblots are recorded and then
analyzed. Some psychologists
use this test to examine a
person's personality
characteristics and emotional
functioning, especially in cases
where patients are reluctant to
describe their thinking processes
openly.
John B. Watson (1878–
1958) was an influential
American psychologist. While
Wundt and James were
concerned with understanding
conscious experience, Watson
preferred to focus directly on
observable behavior and try to
bring that behavior under
control. Watson was a major
proponent of shifting the focus
of psychology from the mind to
behavior, and this approach
known as behaviorism.
Behaviorism commonly used
animals in experiments under
the assumption that what was
learned using animals could be
applied to human behavior.
 Ivan Pavlov (1849–
1936) was a Russian
physiologist who studied
behavior in which an
animal or human
produced an unconscious
response to a stimulus
and, over time, was
conditioned to produce
the response to a different
stimulus that was
associated with the
original stimulus. Pavlov’s
“classical conditioning” is
only one form of learning
behavior studied by
behaviorists.
B. F. Skinner (1904–1990)
was an American psychologist.
Skinner concentrated on how
behavior was affected by its
consequences. As a part of his
research, Skinner developed
the “operant conditioning
chamber” or Skinner box, a
chamber that isolates the
subject from the external
environment and has a
behavior lever or a button.
When the animal pushes the
button or lever, the box is able
to deliver a positive
reinforcement of the behavior
(such as food) or a punishment
(such as noise) or a token
conditioner (such as light).
 Abraham Maslow (1908–
1970) was an American
psychologist and proponent
of Humanism, a perspective
that emphasizes the
potential for good that exist
to all humans. He is best
known for proposing a
hierarchy of human needs
in motivating behavior.
Maslow asserted that so
long as basic needs
necessary for survival were
met (e.g., food, water,
shelter), higher-level needs
(e.g., social needs) would
begin to motivate behavior.
Carl Rogers (1902–1987)
was also an American
psychologist who, like Maslow, a
proponent of Humanism. Rogers
used a therapeutic technique
known as client-centered
therapy in helping his clients
deal with problematic issues.
Client-centered therapy involves
the patient taking a lead role.
Rogers believed that a therapist
needed to display three features
to maximize the effectiveness of
this particular approach:
unconditional positive regard;
refers to the fact that the
therapist accepts their client for
who they are, no matter what he
or she might say, genuineness,
and empathy.