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Early Psychology - Different Prospectives On Functionalism, Humanistic and Structuralism.
This will compare and contrast different perspectives of early psychology on Functionalism, Humanistic and Structuralism.
I will be covering three of the ten different perspectives of early psychology in a comparison and contrast mode. The three that I have chosen is
· Structuralism – A psychological approach emphasizing of immediate experience into basic elements. (Psychology p. 665)
· Functionalism – A psychological approach emphasizing the purpose of behavior and consciousness. (Psychology p.659)
· Humanistic – A psychological approach emphasizing on free will, the achievement of human potential, resilience, and personal growth. (Psychology p. 659)
Created by Wilhelm Wundt, and being the first school of psychology, Structuralism focused on breaking down mental processes into the most basic components. Using a method known as introspection, researchers tried to understand the basic elements of consciousness (Early Schools of Thought, n.d.). Introspection is the process by which someone comes to form beliefs about his or her own mental states (The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy n.d.). Structuralism breaks down thought into feelings, images, and sensations, combining these elements to form experience (Perspectives: Cognitive, n.d.).
Functionalism was formed as a reaction to Structuralism seeking to explain the mental processes in a more systematic and accurate manner. They are different in that Functionalist focused on the purpose of consciousness and behavior rather than the elements of consciousness, also emphasized individual differences (Early Schools of Thought, n.d.). “Where the structuralists asked what happens when an organism does something, the functionalists asked how and why” (Psychology p. 18).
Humanistic psychology emphasizes self-awareness, the importance of human consciousness, and the capacity to make choices (Perspectives: Cognitive n.d.).
Humanistic Psychology steered away from the abnormal and mechanistic philosophies and focused on what makes human beings unique (Humanistic Psychology n.d.).
Stressing the importance of growth and self-actualization, Humanistic psychology focused on each individual’s potential. The fundamental belief was that people are innately good, with mental and social problems resulting from deviations from this natural tendency (Schools of Thought – Humanistic Psychology n.d.).
Although all three did recognize and focus on the consciousness, Humanistic psychology is different from Functionalism and Structuralism in that the major focus is emphasizing on the role of the individual as compared to internal behavior concerning the purpose and/or elements of consciousness (Early Schools of Thought n.d.).
In conclusion, as we can see, these three theories in psychology share some common threads of thought, and greatly diverge on others. The use of introspection led to a lack of reliability in results therefore, by today’s scientific standards, the experimental methods used to study the structures of the mind were too subjective and no longer used, (Early Schools of Thought n.d.) however, although humanism is no longer a dominant movement both inside and outside the psychology field it has had a profound influence. Although most regard humanism as a philosophy of life rather than a systematic approach to psychology, many psychologists across all perspectives embrace some humanist ideas (Psychology p. 23).
References
Wade, C., & Tavris, C., (2006). Psychology: What is Psychology (8th Ed). New Jersey : Pearson Prentice Hall
Psychological Schools of Thought – Humanistic Psychology (n.d.) Retrieved from http://psychology.about.com/od/historyofpsychology/a/hist_humanistic.htm
Humanistic Psychology (n.d.) Retrieved from http://www.webrenovators.com/psych/HumanisticPsychology.htm
Early Schools of Thought – Structuralism and Functionalism (n.d.) Retrieved
from http://psychology.about.com/od/historyofpsychology/a/structuralism.htm
Perspectives:Cognitive (n.d.) Retrieved from http://www.purgatory.net/merits/cognitive.htm
The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy – Introspection (n.d.) Retrieved from http://www.iep.utm.edu/i/introspe.htm |
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This intel was contributed by D. STEVENS
D. STEVENS
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May, 2012
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