SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT
CHAPTER 02: SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT
SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT
Structuralism
Functionalism
Psychoanalysis
Behaviorism
Humanistic Psychology
Cognitive Psychology
Positive Psychology
Filipino Psychology/Sikolohiyang Pilipino
WILHELM WUNDT – FATHER OF PSYCHOLOGY
▪ Mannheim, Germany
▪ lonely childhood, fantasizing on being a famous writer
▪ poor grades in school
▪ no friends, ridiculed by teachers
▪ medical training in University of Tubingen and University
of Heidelberg
▪ medicine → physiology
WUNDT’S LEGACY
▪ provided Psychology with all the trappings of a modern
science
▪ laboratory in 1879 to study conscious experience
▪ systematically observed and measured stimuli of various
kinds (lights, sounds, weights)
▪ INTROSPECTION
➢ or “looking forward”
➢ his method of investigation of probe reactions to
various stimuli - CONSCIOUSNESS
STRUCTURALISM - TITCHENER
▪ the structure of mental life into “elements” or
“building blocks”
▪ deals with the conscious experience
▪ uses introspection which refers to self-observation
▪ relied on observers who were trained to describe the
elements of their conscious state rather than the
observed or experienced stimulus
▪ INTROSPECTION
➢ subjective reports of the elements of consciousness
➢ dealt with more objective and quantitative
responses to external stimulus
➢ August Comte objected introspection
➢ based on observation, experimentation, and
measurement
EDWARD BRADFORD TITCHENER
▪ relied on his considerable intellectual abilities to win
scholarships to college
▪ Malvern College → Oxford University
▪ studied Philosophy and the classics
▪ worked as an assistant in Physiology
▪ everyone learns to describe experience in terms of the
stimulus
▪ interested in analysis of conscious experience into its
component parts
▪ Titchener – parts; Wundt – whole
▪ proposed taking an experimental approach to
introspective observation
▪ tried to analyze the structure of mental life into
“elements” or “building blocks” – STRUCTURALISM
FUNCTIONALISM – JAMES
▪ how the mind functions to help us adapt to the
environment
▪ study of animals in Psychology
▪ promoted Educational Psychology
▪ potential applications of Psychology to everyday
problems of how people function in, and adapt to
different environments
▪ however, structuralists found fault with functional
psychologists’ interest in practical concerns – PURE
VS. APPLIED SCIENCE
WILLIAM JAMES
▪ schooling in England, France, Germany. Italy,
Switzerland, and United States
▪ medical degree from Harvard
▪ interested in how the mind functions to adapt in its
environment
▪ consciousness is an ever-changing stream or flow of
images and sensations – not a set of lifeless building
blocks, as structuralists claimed.
PSYCHOANALYSIS - SIGMUND FREUD
▪ deals with the unconscious
▪ clinical observation not controlled laboratory
experimentation
▪ neither a product of the universities nor pure science but
from traditions of medicine and psychiatry
▪ not a school of thought directly comparable with the
others we have studied
▪ overlaps other schools of thought because Freud’s book
was first published in 1895, wherein Wundt was 63 and
Titchener was 28. In that same year, Titchener was
developing structuralism while functionalism was starting
to flourish in the US.
▪ Wundtian psychology, Titchener’s structuralism, and
Functionalism were history by the time of Freud’s death
in 1939
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CONTRIBUTIONS OF FREUDIAN PSYCHOANALYSIS
✓ became a vital focus in modern psychology – most cited
individual in the psychology research literature
✓ developed a set of therapeutic techniques centered on
talk therapy (transference, free association, and dream
interpretation)
✓ denial, Freudian slips, the unconscious, wish fulfillment,
and the ego
✓ gave importance to Psychopathology – which was
ignored
CRITICISMS TO FREUD
× Freud’s method of collecting data
× scholars against Freud’s assumption that women have
poorly developed superegos and inferiority feelings
about their bodies because they lack a penis
× challenged Freud’s denial of free will and his focus on
past behavior while excluding hopes and goals as
motivation
GESTALT PSYCHOLOGY – KOFFKA AND KOHLER
▪ MAX WERTHEIMER KURT KOFFKA and WOLFGANG
KOHLER
▪ “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts”
▪ organizing principles do not depend on higher mental
processes nor past experiences
▪ perception as whole units, not analyzing experiences
into parts and how it influences thinking, learning, and
problem solving and perception
▪ human perception, emotions, and thoughts as wholes
that give meaning to parts
▪ focuses on conscious experiences that centered on
modern version of phenomenology – but not like
Wundt and Titchener’s approach
▪ conscious experiences are legitimate but cannot be
investigated with the same precision and objectivity as
overt behavior
▪ Contemporary Cognitive Psychology owes its origins to
Gestalt
▪ Experimental Psychologists argued that Gestalt was
vague and basic concepts were not defined with
sufficient rigor to be scientifically meaningful. Its
experimental work was inferior to behavioral psychology
because it lacks scientific methods for amenable
statistical analysis
PRINCIPLES OF
GESTALT
PSYCHOLOGY
Proximity parts that are close together in time
or space, tend to be perceived
together
Similarity birds of the same feather, flock
together
tendency in our perception to follow
Continuity a direction, to connect the elements
in a way that makes them seem
continuous or flowing in a direction
tendency to in our perception to
Closure complete incomplete figures and fill
in gaps
figure seems to stand out from its
Figure-ground background; figure and background
are reversible
BEHAVIORISM – PAVLOV, SKINNER, AND WATSON
▪ major change from previous theoretical perspectives
▪ rejected the conscious and the unconscious mind
▪ make Psychology a more scientific discipline that
focuses on observable behavior
▪ while behaviorist eventually lost its dominant grip on
psychology, the basic principles of behaviorist
psychology are still widely in use today
IVAN PAVLOV
▪ Russian physiologist
▪ Classical Conditioning
➢ reward system on dogs
➢ behaviors could be learned via conditions
associations
➢ could be used to make an association between an
environmental stimulus and a naturally occurring
stimulus
BURRHUS FREDERIC (B.F.) SKINNER
▪ most influential psychologist
▪ furthered behaviorism
▪ behavioral control of society, behavior modification
techniques, and automated crib for tending infants
▪ not concerned what might be occurring inside the
organism
▪ Operant Conditioning
➢ punishment and reinforcement on behavior
JOHN B. WATSON
▪ American psychologist
▪ advocate of behaviorism
▪ objected strongly to the study of the “mind” or
“conscious experience”
▪ consciousness is neither a definite nor a usable concept
▪ introspection is unscientific
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HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY – MASLOW AND THREE FOCUSES OF

ROGERS COGNITIVE
PSYCHOLOGY
▪ humans are more complex
▪ displaced Behaviorism and Psychoanalysis
Knowing rather than mental processes > stimulus-
➢ focus on overt behavior is dehumanizing and
response to stimuli response principle
reduced human beings to the status of mere animals
and machines
➢ disputed that we function in a predetermined
Mind mind gives form and
fashion in response to stimulus events in our lives
structures/organizes coherence to mental
➢ criticize Freudians studies focusing only on neurotic
experience experiences
and psychotic individuals

ABRAHAM MASLOW
▪ questioned/faulted because the sample size is too small
for generalizations
▪ Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
➢ people are motivated by complex needs
➢ basic needs → higher level needs → self-
actualization
➢ Self-actualization – active use of all qualities and
abilities, the development, and potential
➢ questioned/faulted because the sample size is too
small for generalizations
Individual actively and humans are capable in
creatively arranges acquisition and application of
stimuli from the knowledge
environment
POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY – MASLOW AND ROGERS
▪ scientific study of human strengths and virtues
▪ urge psychologists to adopt a more open and
appreciative perspective on human potentials, motives,
and capacities
▪ behaving our way into a different frame of mind
▪ scientific study of optimal human functioning which aims
to discover and promote factors that allow individuals,
communities, and societies to thrive and flourish.

MARTIN E.P. SELIGMAN

▪ “Psychology is not just a study of weakness and damage;

it is also the study of strength and virtue. Treatment is not
just fixing what is broken; it is nurturing what is best
within us.”
▪ PERMA model for defining well-being

optimism as well as gratitude

CARL ROGERS Positive emotions about your past, contentment in
the present, and hope for the
▪ one of the founders of Humanistic Psychology future
▪ power of free will and self-determination
▪ person-centered therapy
▪ we are not permanently restrained by unconscious Engagement achieving “flow” with enjoyable
forces or childhood experiences, rather, personality is activities and hobbies
shaped by the present and how we consciously
perceive it.
Relationship forming social connections with
COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY – MILLER AND NEISSER family and friends

▪ cognitive revolution → cognitive psychology

▪ replaced behaviorism and psychoanalysis as the Meaning finding a purpose larger than you
dominant approach to the study of psychology
▪ perception, memory, decision-making, problem-solving,
intelligence, and language Accomplishment goals and successes

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WHY POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY IS NEEDED TODAY?

✓ positive emotions and adaptive behaviors = satisfying

and productive life
✓ helps against terrible social and personal costs of social
problems
✓ contribute to positive outcomes in life

POTENTIAL PITFALLS

× confused with positive thinking and misconstrued as self-

help tactics rather than research-backed theories

FILIPINO PSYCHOLOGY/SIKOLOHIYANG PILIPINO

– ENRIQUEZ
▪ scientific study of the ethnicity, society, and culture of
people and the application to psychological practice of
indigenous knowledge rooted in people’s ethnic
heritage and consciousness
▪ reservations appropriateness and applicability of
Western models to third world settings
▪ INTERDISCIPLINARY – to become more solid and closer
to Philippine reality

DR. VIRGILIO ENRIQUEZ

▪ foster national identity and consciousness, social

involvement, and psychology of language and culture
▪ eliminated its bondage to the Western perspective, not
only in theory and method, but in practice
▪ health psychology, livelihood psychology, rural
psychology, psychology of the arts, and others

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