INTRODUTION

Even if Wilhelm James had set up a small demonstration room in Harvard in 1875 it was
until 1879(opening of the first psychological laboratory in Lepig, Germany) the scholars of the
19th century wondered if psychology could develop like other sciences , i.e. physics and
chemistry if it collects and evaluate evidences scientifically.

Wilhelm Wundt opened the first psychological laboratory and this event marked the
beginning of the era of scientific psychology. During the first decades of psychologies existence
as a science scholar’s of the time didn’t have the same views on the subject t matter of the
study of psychology and the approaches to study it

As the scholars who had the same views on the subject matter of psychology and the
approaches to study it had students, as their pupils adopt their ideas then the school of thought
are formed. The first early school of thoughts were structuralism and functionalism. Both
played an important role in the early development of psychology because each view point
provided a systemic approach to the field, two were considered competing schools of
psychology. But as psychology developed, other schools evolved. By the time of 1920,
structuralism and functionalism, were being displayed. Here in this paper we will focus on
functionalism.

As E.B Tetchier (Wundt’s) trained psychologist introduced structuralism to the USA by the
time a distinguished psychologist at Harvard University William James was impatience with the
restrictions on psychology under the structuralisms. He felt less emphasis should be placed on
analyzing the elements of consciousness and more should be given to understanding its fluid.
Streaming, personal character. His principal interest was in studying how the mind worked so
that an organism could adapt to its environment.
 WHAT WAS FUNCTIONALISM (THE US BRAND OF PSYHOLOGY)?

This school of thought attempts to understand why animals and humans have developed
the particular psychological aspects they posses. It’s an understanding on psychological process
by their casual relations to one another and on sensory inputs and behavioral outputs.

Functionalism is a theoretical level between the physical implementation and behavioral

output, therefore it was different from structuralism. One of the most recognized psychologist
of all times, James Wilhelm (the father of American psychology) was a prominent member of
this school. The functionalists focused concern on the action mind performs rather than the
mind has .it was concerned with “why?” of the mental process.

James and other members of the school were influenced by Charles Darwin’s theory of
natural selection which proposed that the physical characteristics of animals evolved because
they were useful or functional, the functionalists thought that this theory of Darwin was applied
to psychological characteristics too. As some features of animals such as camels feet enable
them to survive in a harsh environment functionalists thought there must have been adaptation
to serve a particular function in human experience.

As it was mentioned in the introduction part before James had little patience for the
functionalist’s idea on searching for the elements of he focused concerns on the activities of the
mind meaning he did not care to isolate the elements of consciousness he preferred to learn
how the mind produces useful behaviors.

HOW DID FUNCTIONALISM ARISE?

As Tetchier brought the concept of structuralism to the US scholars most of all James went
against the basic principle of structuralism as a result Functionalism arises as a reaction to
structuralism.

William James articulated some of the major issues of psychology. The functionalities
thought that the structuralism has put a limitation to the study of psychology. It rejected the
reduction of psychological processes in to basic elements.

One of the difficulties that concerned the functionalists was how to reconcile the objective,
scientific nature of psychology with its focus on consciousness, which by its nature is not
directly observable. Although psychologists like William James accepted the real consciousness
and the role of the will in people's lives, even he was unable to resolve the issue of scientific
acceptance of consciousness.
THE DECLINE OF FUNCTIONALISM

Functionalism has got limitations. Functionalists had their share of flaws. Like structural sties,
they relied heavily on the technique of introspection with all the shortcomings previously mentioned
and were criticized for only providing a vague definition of the term “function.” Despite repeated verbal
attacks aimed at each other, neither structuralism nor functionalism remained at the forefront of
psychology for very long. Both made significant contributions to psychology

THE IMPORTANCE OF FUNCTIONALISM THEN

Functionalism was important in the development of psychology because it broadened the

scope of psychological research and application. Because of the wider perspective,
psychologists accepted the validity of research with animals, with children, and with people
having psychiatric disabilities. Further, functionalists introduced a wide variety of research
techniques that were beyond the boundaries of structural psychology, like physiological
measures, mental tests, and questionnaires. The functionalist legacy endures in psychology
today.

DOSE FUNCTIONALISM HAVE AN INFULENCE ON THE CURRENT PSYCHOLOGY?

Although functionalism no longer exists a school psychology, its basic principles have been
absorbed into psychology and continue to influence it in many ways. The work of functionalist
has developed in to the field of Evolutionary psychology, a branch of psychology that applies
the Darwin theory of natural selection to human and animal behavior. Evolutionary psychology
accepts the functionalist basic assumptions, namely that human psychological system, including
memory emotion, and personality key adaptive functions. As we will see in such chapters to
come, evolutionary psychologist use evolutionary therapy to understand many different
behaviors.
REFERENCE

 HILGARD’S INTRODUCTION TO PYSCHOLOGY, 12TH EDITION , RITA L.ATIKISON, RICHARD

C.ATIKSON , EDWARD E.SMITH , DARYL J.BEM, SUSAN NOLEN.HOEKSEMA
 INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY, JAMES W.KALAT 4TH EDITION