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Psychology
Lecture 2
Intro to Psychology-101
Instructor: Anam Zafar
School of Thoughts
The formal history of Psychology
can be described by school of
thoughts which guided
Psychologists in their actions.
Each school determined a subject
matter and the methods to be used
in investigating that particular
subject matter.
Cont..
Group of people who share common
ideas/opinion related to any discipline, social
issue or subject belongs to a single specific
school of thought.
School of Thoughts
There are five historical school of thoughts of
Psychology:
1. Structuralism (study of conscious experience)
2. Functionalism (study of functions of
consciousness)
3. Behaviorism (study of observable behavior)
4. Psychoanalysis (study of unconscious
experiences)
5. Gestalt Psychology (study of whole)
1: Structuralism:
The science of psychology had its formal
beginning in 1879 when Wilhelm Wundt
(1832-1920), a German psychologist set up a
laboratory at the University of Leipzig to study
mind/mental activities. He studied the
conscious experience of mind through
introspection.
Introspection: “looking inward”
observation or examination of one's own
mental and emotional state, mental
processes, etc.
Wilhelm Wundt also known as father of
psychology
Wundt was the first person to believe that
consciousness could be studied through
experimentation.
Earlier he devoted attention on studying
the building blocks of the mind. Later he
defined psychology as the study of
conscious experiences, he found the
system of psychology known as “
Structuralism”.
Edward B. Titchener who first coined the
term to describe this school of thought.
Cont.
Structuralism: An early
approach to psychology which
focused on the fundamental
elements that form the foundation
of thinking , consciousness,
emotions , and other kinds of
mental states and activities.
Its emphasize on studying the
most basic components or
structures of conscious
experiences / mental activities.
Introspection:
Structuralism held that even our most
complex conscious experiences could
be broken down into components or
elemental structures, to identify these
structures of conscious thoughts a
procedure used that is called
“introspection”
Structuralists held the belief that
“ Whole is equal to the sum of the parts”
Structuralists concluded that all conscious
experiences consisted of three elements:
Sensations, images and feelings
e.g. a person having a slice of cake, would not
simply define the type of food, this conscious
experience comprised of basic elements:
taste, smell, texture, color, shape etc.
Cont..
Using introspection , Wundt presented his
trained subjects with a stimulus such as
bright green object and asked them to
describe it in their own words.
He thought that we can understand the
structure of mind through the reports of
subjects. The subject might first report on the
colors they saw, then the smells and so on, to
create a total description of their conscious
experiences.
Cont..
Wundt did not have the technologies at his
time. Therefore he had to rely on combination
of external stimuli and reports of internal
observations by the participants
He believed that there were two sides of any
explanation of phenomenon
External side: Measured in laboratory which
involve sensory processes (Physiological
response to an external stimuli e.g eye
registering a small, round, green object)
Cont..
Psychological side: Measured by self report
of internal observations known as perception
(psychological interpretation of sensation)
Strengths of Structuralism:
Structuralism influenced experimental
psychology
Criticism on Structuralism
By today’s scientific standards,
the experimental methods used to study the
structures of the mind were too subjective—
the use of introspection led to a lack of
reliability in results.
Other critics argue that structuralism was
too concerned with internal behavior, which
is not directly observable and cannot be
accurately measured.
.
2:Functionalism:
William James was the founder of this
School of thought. He was influenced
by Darwin’s work and he believed that
psychology should explain the functions
of consciousness as it influences
behavior.
Functionalism concentrated on what the
mind does. They asked what the roles
behavior played in allowing people to
better adapt to their environments. They
examined the ways in which behavior
allows to satisfy their needs.
Cont..
William James regarded consciousness is an
ever-changing stream or flow of images and
sensations not a set of lifeless blocks.
Structuralism focus on “ what happens” when
we engage in mental activity whereas
functionalism focus on “ how it happens” and
“why” such as why behavior and mental
processes worked in a particular way.
Cont..
Functionalist used not only introspection to
study behavior but also used tests, surveys
and experimental techniques to study
functions of psychology as science of
consciousness
Psychologists of this school studies the topics
such as thinking, memory, learning,
motivation, intelligence. They were also
interested in applying psychological concepts
in schools, homes and business.
Criticism on Functionalism
Functionalists did not explain the concepts of
unconsciousness, so they were criticized by
many psychologists
They used introspective method which was
not scientific method
Strengths of Functionalism
Influenced behaviorism and applied
psychology.
Influenced the educational system
3: Behaviorism:
School of Psychology and theoretical
viewpoint that emphasizes the study of
observable behaviors
John B Watson (1878-1958) became the
founder of this school of thought.
He believed that Psychology should be the
science of overt behavior that can be
observed and studied through objective
measurements.
Cont..
He rejected the ideas of structuralists and
functionalists.
He maintained that the proper subject matter for
Psychology was Behavior and Behavior.
He shifted an emphasis from instincts to learned
behavior
According to him, environment was all important
and give the opportunity to raise children as he
wished
He emphasized that all human behavior was
learned
Cont..
Watson used experimental
method to study behavior
Behaviorists performed
many experiments on rats,
pigeons and concentrated
how behaviors are modified
by events in an environment
Watson realize he could
study the behavior of
animals even though he
couldn’t ask them questions
or know what they are
thinking
He simply observe the relationship between
stimulus and animal’s responses.
These observations were objective because they
did not involve introspection (subjective).
Skinner: actions are controlled by rewards and
punishments.
The school of behavior greatly influenced
Psychology
Criticism on Behaviorism:
Behaviorists went to the extreme with their
ideas.
They did not explain consciousness and sub
consciousness
It disregards the activities of the mind
4: Psychoanalysis:
Sigmund Freud(1856-1939), an Austrian
physician was the founder of psychoanalytical
school.
He specialized in the disorders of the nervous
system.
He observed that some of his patients had
nothing physically wrong with them, even
though they had
symptoms of physical
illness (headaches, insomnia).
Cont..
He suspected that mental conflicts lay behind
these symptoms_ conflicts that had been
pushed out of normal awareness and into a
part of mind called “ unconscious”.
He believed that if unconscious conflicts
could be brought into patient’s
consciousness, they would lose their power
to control the patient’s life.
He used psychoanalytic technique to uncover
unconscious conflicts of his patients.
Cont..
Freud helped his patients to interpret and
understand their mental problems.
He called his approach to treatment as
Psychoanalysis.
Freud believed that early past experiences of
which a person is unaware significantly
influence his current behavior.
He treated people with psychological
problems.
Criticism on Psychoanalysis:
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