Schools of Psychology

SCHOOLS OF PSYCHOLOGY

=SCHOOLS OF PSYCHOLOGY

SYSTEMSOF

THOUGHT

Group of psychologists who became associated with the leader of a movement. They shared the same ideas about what psychology is and how it is to be studied.

SCHOOL

Structuralism (Introspective Psychology or Elementarism, 1879)

Wilhelm Wundt

Leader and Founder

Edward B. TitchenerFollower

Purposes of Study

To discover all elements of which consciousness be composed (structure of the mind). Its main concern was the study of what made up consciousness.

Purposes of Study

Structuralism attempted to break down conscious experience into objective sensations such as sight or taste, and subjective feelings, such as emotional responses, will, and mental images like memories or dreams.

INTROSPECTION

Method used in Structuralism

INTROSPECTION

It refers to the observation and recording of the nature of one’s own perception, thoughts and feelings; looking into one’s mind; a mental self-analysis.

INTROSPECTION

Using the method of introspection involves reflecting to one’s own feeling, then the subject report sensations, feelings and images through his own sensory experiences.

INTROSPECTION

Controversies arose as to the fallibility of introspection due to the fact “it is not immediate” but is “an observational inferential process that takes time and is subject to errors of observation”.

INTROSPECTION

By 1940, introspection disappeared from scientific psychology.

Functionalism

(1898)

William James

Harvey Carr

John Dewey

James Rowland Angell

G. Stanley Hall

James McKeenCattell

Purpose of Study

Function of the mind

Purpose of Study

Study how the mind works so that an organism can adapt to and function in its environment

Purpose of Study

Functionalism, was a protest against structuralism. It was not interested in the elements of consciousness but in the purpose which consciousness serves in life.

Purpose of Study

The most important contribution of functionalism was changing the focus of psychology to learning, motivation and thinking and veered away from the structuralists emphasis on individual sensation and perception.

Observation

Method used

Purpose of Study

Functionalists believe in the objective method of observing behavior rather than the introspective method of observing awareness.

COMMON WITH STRUCTURALIST & FUNCTIONALIST

Both structuralists and functionalists still regarded psychology as the science of conscious experience.

Psychoanalysis (1900)

Both structuralists and functionalists still regarded psychology as the science of conscious experience.

Psychoanalysis (1900)

Sigmund Freud Leader

Alfred Adler

Carl Jung

Psychoanalytic theory proposes that most of the mind is unconscious – a seething cauldron of conflicting impulses, urges, and wishes.

Freud asserted that the sex urges in the unconscious constitute the main human drive. This is known as the “libido” theory.

People are motivated to satisfy this impulses, ugly as some of them are. But at the same time, people are motivated to see themselves as decent, and hence may delude themselves about their true motives.

As a theory of personality, psychoanalysis was based on the idea that much of our lives is governed by unconscious motives and impulses that originate in childhood conflicts.

Many human desires are directed and complicated by unconscious motives which we are not directly aware of because they lie in the substrata of our consciousness but which are nevertheless powerful drives that may dominate our lives.

Basic to Freud’s theory is the conception that the unacceptable (forbidden, punished} wishes/desires of childhood principally libidinal (sexual) are repressed in our consciousness or get driven out of awareness.

Repressed drives press to find expression in dreams, slips of speech, and in unconscious mannerisms. They are the reasons for many of our inner conflicts in life.

Dream Analysis, Clinical Investigation, Free Association

Methods Used

A method in which the patient learns to discuss embarrassing or painful thoughts simply by reporting whatever comes to mind; letting the patient freely associate on his thoughts and experiences, and with the help of the psychiatrist, analyze that causes of his difficulty.

Free Association

The disturbed subject may find catharsis (release, cleansing thru verbal expressions).

Free Association

Behaviorism (S-R Psychology) (1912)

John B. WatsonLeader & Founder

Ivan Pavlov

Edward Thorndike

B. F. Skinner

Gordon Allport

Purpose of Study

JOHN B. WATSON launched behaviorism, a philosophy of psychological study which holds that only observable behavior is the proper subject for psychological investigation.

Purpose of Study

Holds that the subject matter of psychology should be the “objective observable actions of organisms”. The only things which could be objectively analyzed and quantitatively measured are overt responses emitted by organisms.

Purpose of Study

The key assumption of behavioral psychology is that- if psychology is to be science, it must study only that which is observable namely behavior.

Purpose of Study

Its roots can be traced back to the work of Ivan Pavlov. He focused his study on CONDITIONED REFLEX- by association with the original STIMULUS which states that other stimuli acquired the process to elicit the behavior.

CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

It is a type of learning that had a major influence on the school of thought in psychology known as behaviorism.


Discovered by Russian physiologist, Pavlov, classical conditioning is a learning process that occurs through associations between an environmental stimulus and a naturally occurring stimulus.


Behaviorism is based on the assumption that learning occurs through interactions with the environment.


Two other assumptions of this theory are that the environment shapes behavior and that taking internal mental states such as thoughts, feelings, and emotions into consideration is useless in explaining behavior.

PAVLOV’S ORIGINAL EXPERIMENT

It's important to note that classical conditioning involves placing a neutral stimulus before a naturally occurring reflex (conditioned response).

PAVLOV’S ORIGINAL EXPERIMENT

In Pavlov's classic experiment with dogs, the neutral signal was the sound of a tone and the naturally occurring reflex was salivating in response to food. By associating the neutral stimulus with the environmental stimulus (the presentation of food), the sound of the tone alone could produce the salivation response.

OPERANT CONDITIONING

B. F. Skinner coined the term “operant conditioning” and started this whole school by inventing the first operant conditioning chamber, otherwise known as the Skinner Box.


Skinner used the term operant to refer to any "active behavior that operates upon the environment to generate consequences"


Operant conditioning (sometimes referred to as instrumental conditioning) is a method of learning that occurs through rewards and punishments for behavior.


Through operant conditioning, an association is made between a behavior and a consequence for that behavior.

Basic Principles ofOPERANT CONDITIONING

Reinforcement: Any event that increases the probability that a response will recur. It strengthens a response.


Positive Reinforcement:

Adding (or presenting) a stimulus, which strengthens a response & makes it more likely to recur


When a response is followed by a reward or other positive event


Negative Reinforcement

Taking away (or removing) a stimulus, which strengthens a response & makes it more likely to recur


When a response is followed by the removal of an unpleasant event; ends discomfort


Punishment:

weakening a response


Positive Punishment:

adding (or presenting) a stimulus that weakens a response & makes it less likely to recur


Negative Punishment or Omission Training:

taking away (or removing) a stimulus that weakens a response & makes it less likely to recur

Schools of Psychology

Education

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