Psychology is the study of mind and behaviorist is an academic

discipline and an applied science which seeks to understand individuals and groups

by establishing general principles and researching specific cases. In this field, a
professional practitioner or researcher is called a psychologist and can be classified
as a social, behavioral, or cognitive scientist. Psychologists attempt to understand
the role of mental functions in individual and social behavior, while also exploring
the physiological and biological processes that underlie cognitive functions and
behaviors. Psychologists explore concepts such
as perception, cognition, attention, emotion, intelligence, phenomenology, motivati
on, brain functioning, personality, behavior, and interpersonal relationships,
including psychological resilience, family resilience, and other areas. Psychologists
of diverse orientations also consider the unconscious mind. Psychologists
employ empirical methods to infer causal and correlation relationships between
psychosocial variables. In addition, or in opposition, to employing empirical and
deductive methods, some—especially clinical and counseling psychologists—at
times rely upon symbolic interpretation and other inductive techniques.
Psychology has been described as a "hub science” with psychological findings
linking to research and perspectives from the social sciences, natural
sciences, medicine, humanities, and philosophy. While psychological knowledge is
often applied to the assessment and treatment of mental health problems, it is also
directed towards understanding and solving problems in several spheres of human
activity. By many accounts psychology ultimately aims to benefit society. The
majority of psychologists are involved in some kind of therapeutic role, practicing
in clinical, counseling, or school settings. Many do scientific research on a wide
range of topics related to mental processes and behavior, and typically work in
university psychology departments or teach in other academic settings (e.g.,
medical schools, hospitals). Some are employed in industrial settings, or in other
areas[9] such as human development and aging, sports, health, and the media, as
well as in forensic investigation and other aspects of law.

SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT

Every academic discipline, from literature and history to sociology and

theology, has competing theories or schools of thought: perspectives from which to
study the subject. Psychology, the study of the mind, has hundreds of theories and
sub theories, but it is possible to identify six main schools of thought every
psychology student should know. Wilhelm Wundt, in Germany, established the
foundations of modern psychology in 1879. He wanted to study, experimentally,
the conscious experience of individuals. As discussed earlier, the different schools
of thought gradually emerged after psychology took this scientific turn. These
schools were basically different ways of observation, description, understanding,
and prediction of psychological phenomena; in the present context, mental
processes and behavior

EARLIER SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT

The earlier schools that paved the way for further developments in
modern psychology were
1.STRUCTURALISM:
This has focused on studying the conscious experience by looking into its
individual parts or elements. Wundt’s ideas formed the basis of the first school of
thought (or perspective) in psychology, known as structuralism. In reality, though,
it was one of Wundt’s students, Edward B. Tichener, who formally established this
psychological school of thought. Structuralism, as the name suggests, was centered
on investigating the structure of the mind. Wundt believed that psychology should
focus on breaking down consciousness into its basic elements, in much the same
way a child would pull apart a toy to reveal its component parts. The idea of
determining the specific structure of something as abstract and dynamic as the
mind may seem absurd to many today. Yet, structuralists were confident that not
only could they accomplish this goal, but that they could do so scientifically
2. FUNCTIONALISM:
This has focused on what the mind does and how it does. Functionalism has
the most influence of any theory in contemporary psychology. Psychological
functionalism attempts to describe thoughts and what they do without asking how
they do it. For functionalists, the mind resembles a computer, and to understand its
processes, you need to look at the software -- what it does -- without having to
understand the hardware -- the why and how underlying it.

3. GESTALT PSYCHOLOGY:
This has focused on studying the whole experience of a person rather
than breaking it into individual components. According to Gestalt psychologists,
the human mind works by interpreting data through various laws, rules or
organizing principles, turning partial information into a whole. For example, your
mind might interpret a series of lines as a square, even though it has no complete
lines; your mind fills in the gaps. Gestalt psychotherapists apply this logic to
problem-solving to help patients.
4. PSYCHODYNAMIC /PSYCHOANALYSIS SCHOOL:
This has focuses on the
unconscious forces that drive/ motivate human behavior. Psychoanalytic theory,
which originated with Sigmund Freud, explains human behavior by looking at the
subconscious mind. Freud suggested that the instinct to pursue pleasure, which he
described as sexual in nature, lies at the root of human development. To Freud,
even the development of children hinged on key stages in discovering this
pleasure, through acts such as feeding at the mother's breast and defecating, and he
treated abnormal behavior in adults by addressing these stages.
5. BEHAVIORIST / BEHAVIORAL SCHOOL:
This focuses on studying the behavior that is observable and overt. In the
1950s, B.F. Skinner carried out experiments with animals, such as rats and
pigeons, demonstrating that they repeated certain behaviors if they associated them
with rewards in the form of food. Behaviorists believe that observing behavior,
rather than attempting to analyze the inner workings of the mind itself, provides
the key to psychology. This makes psychology open to experimental methods with
results that can be replicated in the same way as any scientific experiment.

PREVALENT APPROACHES / MODELS / PERSPECTIVES

At present some of the earlier approaches still exist. Psychologists belonging to

these sets of theories have contributed a lot to the body of psychological
knowledge and practice. Today, we can see at least six approaches or models of
dealing with the psychological phenomena.
1. BIOLOGICAL APPROACH

The psychological model that views behavior from the perspective of

biological functioning. The role of brain, genes, neurotransmitters, endocrine
glands etc. How the individual nerve cells are joined together, how the inheritance
of certain characteristics from parents and other ancestors influences behavior, how
the functioning of the body affects hopes and fears, what behaviors are due to
instincts, and so on.
Psychologists using the biological model view even more complex kinds of
behaviors such as emotional responses e.g. anxiety, as having critical biological
components.
2. PSYCHODYNAMIC APPROACH
The approach that concentrates on the belief that behavior is motivated
by the inner forces, over which individuals have little control. Founded by the
Viennese physician Sigmund Freud in early 1900s, proponents of psychodynamic
perspective give importance to the inner unconscious experiences and the forces
that led that behavior. Freud believed that unconscious determinants of behavior
had a revolutionary effect on 20th century thinking, not just in psychology but also
in related fields a well. Although many of the basic principles of psychodynamic
thinking have been highly criticized, the model grown out of Freud’s work has
provided a way not only for treating mental disorders but also for understanding
everyday phenomena such a prejudice and aggression.

3. BEHAVIORIST / BEHAVIORAL APPROACH

The psychological model that focuses on the overt observable behavior. The model
emerged as a reaction to the earlier approaches that emphasized the significance of
hidden, underlying, predetermined forces. The behaviorists suggest that observable
behavior alone should be the main area of interest to psychology.
4. HUMANISTIC APPROACH
The psychological model, that suggests that people are in control of their lives. It is
considered as one of the most recent approaches to psychology. This approach
rejected the view that predetermined, automatic, biological forces, unconscious
processes or the environment determines behavior. On the contrary, it proposes
that people themselves decide about their lives. A failure in being capable of doing
so leads to psychological problems. It also stresses the idea that people, by nature,
tend to move towards higher levels of maturity and maximum potential.
5. COGNITIVE APPROACH
The psychological model that focuses on how people know, understands, and
thinks about the world. Main emphasis is on how people understand of the world,
and their thinking, affects their responses; how it may lead to positive or negative
psychological consequences, and even health-related outcomes.

SUBJECT MATTER OF PSYCHOLOGY

According to Wundt, the subject matter of psychology is to be

immediate experience, as contrasted to mediate experience. By mediate experience
Wundt meant experiences used as a way to find out about something other than the
experience itself. This is the way in which we use experience in gaining knowledge
about the world. Immediate experience is the experience as such, and the task of
psychology is to study this immediate experience. The physicists are, on the other
hand, interested in studying only the mediate experience, but the Wundtian
psychologists study immediate experience.
Main Presumption
• All human mental experience could be understood as the combination of simple
events or elements. By analyzing the basic elements of sensations and other mental
experiences, the underlying structure of the mind could be unveiled
• Task of psychology is to identify the basic elements of consciousness just like
physicists could break down the basic particles of matter At Wundt’s Laboratory
• Studies and experiments were conducted on the fundamental elements that form
the foundation of thinking, consciousness, emotions and other mental states
• Systematic, organized and objective procedures were used so that replication was
possible
• The procedure used for studying the “structure of mind” was called
“Introspection”; a method used to study the structure of the mind, in which
subjects were asked to describe in detail what they were experiencing when
exposed to a stimulus.
Behavior; Human behavior is complex. Psychology attempts to unpack this
complexity. Psychologists interested in behavior ask questions around mental,
physical and social processes that contribute to different behaviors. What is it that
influences or determines human and non-human behavior and how can it be
measured. Psychologists pose a variety of theories to explain human behavior.
Personality; The term ‘personality’ refers to a person’s unique behavioral and
cognitive patterns. Personality is closely linked to identity. Every day and all the
time, we assess the personalities of people around us – why do they do what they
do and in the way that they do it? This informal process of reflecting is not unlike
what personality psychologists do. Psychologists use broadly applicable
conceptions of personality. They have developed a number of theories that help
explain how and why different personality traits arise.
Motivation; Motivation is largely about values and rewards. Motivation theories
tend to assume that every learned response is the result of some motivation.
Psychologists do not agree, however, on whether motivation is a primary influence
on behavior or whether environmental and ecological influences, perception,
memory, cognitive development, or emotion provide better explanations.
Intelligence; While intelligence is one of the most widely discussed subjects in
psychology; psychologists have very different views as to what it actually consists
of. Some believe that intelligence is a single, general ability; while others believe it
encompasses a range of aptitudes, skills, and talents.