school of psychology matrix

School of Psychology Major Thinkers Theory Strength Criticism

1. Structuralism Wilhelm Wundt. He founded psychology as an academic discipline. He established the first laboratory in Leipzig University. Known as the father of experimental psychology. Edward Titchener.Hel iked to emphasize the use of introspection to uncover the elements of experience, such as sensations, images, and feelings. He also developed experimental techniques that were more fully accepted than his atomistic approach.

-Structuralism was the first school of psychology which focused on breaking down mental processes into the most basic components. Its focus was on reducing mental processes down into their most basic elements. According to Titchner, the main goal of psychology was to understand the structure of mind, that is why this concept was labeled as Structuralism. Wundt proposed that psychology should focus on analyzing the content of consciousness in order to determine its basic elements and the relationship between them, his main interest was in immediate consciousness. Titchener and Wundt believed that the immediate consciousness has great importance to understand the mind. And this experience of immediate consciousness is like Experience of Awareness. Structuralists used techniques such as introspection to analyze the inner processes of the human mind.

-Structuralism is important because it is the first major school of thought in psychology and it influenced experimental psychology

The experimental methods used to study the structures of the mind were too subjective and 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 John Dewey. The main person credited as the founder of functionalism. He was the first functionalist to apply functionalism to social problems and education.

James Rowland Angell. He was a student under John Dewey. He was interested in what the mind was doing, how mental functions of the mind help for survival. He thought the body and the mind worked together to survive.

Harvey Carr. His main focus was on learning. He thought learning happened when needs for survival were accomplished.

Functionalism was formed as a reaction to the Structuralism. It was heavily influenced by the work of William James and the evolutionary theory of Charles Darwin. Instead of focusing on the mental processes themselves, functionalist thinkers were instead interested in the role that these processes play.

James was interested to understand the mental process of Adaptation, the process that helped the humans and animals adapt to their environment. He said that psychology should concern with not only what the mind is made of but also how and why it works as it does. Functionalists sought to explain the mental processes in a more systematic and accurate manner. Rather than focusing on the elements of consciousness, functionalists focused on the purpose of consciousness and behavior. Functionalism also used the method of Introspection as a tool. Functionalism covered some mental processes like Learning, Perceiving, Memory, Thinking, and Personality.

-Functionalism influenced behaviorism and applied psychology.

-It influenced the educational system, especially with regard to John Dewey’s belief that children should learn at the level for which they are developmentally prepared.

According to Wilhelm Wundt, “It is literature. It is beautiful, but it is not psychology."


3. Behaviourism John B. Watson. He sets the stage for behaviorism and was famous for his controversial experiment, known as the Little Albert experiment.

Ivan Pavlov. His work had a major influence on the field, particularly on the development of behaviourism. His discovery and research on reflexes influenced the growing behaviorist movement.

Burrhus Frederic Skinner. Skinner thought all animal and human behavior was linked to rewards or reinforcers. He came up with the Stimulus- Response- Consequence model.

The term behaviorism refers to the school of psychology founded by John B. Watson based on the belief that behaviors can be measured, trained, and changed. Behaviorism was established with the publication of Watson's classic paper Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It (1913).

Behaviorism, also known as behavioral psychology, is a theory of learning based upon the idea that all behaviors are acquired through conditioning. Conditioning occurs through interaction with the environment. Behaviorists believe that our responses to environmental stimuli shapes our behaviors.

According to behaviorism, behavior can be studied in a systematic and observable manner with no consideration of internal mental states. This school of thought suggests that only observable behaviors should be studied, since internal states such as cognitions, emotions and moods are too subjective.

-Behaviorism is based upon observable behaviors, so it is easier to quantify and collect data and information when conducting research.

-Effective therapeutic techniques such as intensive behavioral intervention, behavior analysis, token economies and discrete trial training are all rooted in behaviorism. These approaches are often very useful in changing maladaptive or harmful behaviors in both children and adults.

-Many critics argue that behaviorism is a one-dimensional approach to understanding human behavior and that behavioral theories do not account for free will and internal influences such as moods, thoughts and feelings. moods, thoughts and feelings.

-Behaviorism does not account for other types of learning, especially learning that occurs without the use of reinforceme and punishment.

-People and animals are able to adapt their behavior when new information is

Edward Thorndike. Best-known for the theory he called the law of effect, which emerged from his research on how cats learn to escape from puzzle boxes. According to the law of effect, responses that are immediately followed by a satisfactory outcome become more strongly associated with the situation and are therefore more likely to occur again in the future. Conversely, responses followed by negative outcomes become more weakly associated and less likely to reoccur in the future.

There are two major types of conditioning:

1. Classical conditioning is a technique used in behavioral training in which a naturally occurring stimulus is paired with a response. Next, a previously neutral stimulus is paired with the naturally occurring stimulus. Eventually, the previously neutral stimulus comes to evoke the response without the presence of the naturally occurring stimulus. The two elements are then known as the conditioned stimulus and the conditioned response.2. 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.

introduced, even if a previous behavior pattern has been established through reinforcement.


4. Gestalt Psychology Max Wertheimer. He noted that we perceive motion where there is nothing more than a

The term ‘Gestalt’ was first used in psychology by the Austrian philosopher and psychologist Christian von Ehrenfels in 1890.

-The Gestalt Psychology’s contribution is in the field of learning,

rapid sequence of individual sensory events.

Wolfgang Kohler. He met and worked with max Wertheimer. In 1929, he wrote Gestalt Psychology.

Kurt Koffka. He published Principles of Gestalt Psychology in 1935.

Gestalt Psychology took birth in 1912 at Germany by efforts of Max Wertheimer, Wolfgang Kohler and Kurt Koffka. The development of this area of psychology was influenced by a number of thinkers, including Immanuel Kant, Ernst Mach and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. According to Gestalt psychology, this apparent movement happens because our minds fill in missing information. This belief that the whole is greater than the sum of the individual parts led to the discovery of several different phenomena that occur during perception.

Gestalt means wholeness, thus, it is based upon the idea that we experience things as unified wholes. This approach to psychology began in Germany and Austria during the late 19th century in response to the molecular approach of structuralism. Instead of breaking down thoughts and behavior to their smallest elements, the gestalt psychologists believed that you must look at the whole of experience. According to the gestalt thinkers, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

creative thinking and insight. Work of Kohler gave birth to theory of Insight learning.


5. Psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud. Discovered that a lot of the thoughts and feelings that influenced personality were operating in the unconscious. He started recording his dreams at a very young age. He even did psychoanalysis on himself at one point in his life. He discovered the talking treatment, after meeting a troubled young woman named Ana. She traced back her problems to childhood abuse, as did many of his patients. This is where he came up with a lot of his ideas about sexuality and the Oedipus complex.Anna Freud. Created the field of child psychoanalysis and her work contributed greatly to our under-standing of child psychology. She also developed different techniques to treat children. She also provided clear explanations of the ego's defense mechanisms in her book The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defense (1936).Carl Jung. He was

This school of thought emphasizes the influence of the unconscious mind on behavior. Psychoanalysis was based on the theory that behaviour is determined by powerful inner forces, According to Freud and other psychoanalysts, from early childhood people repress (force out of conscious awareness) any desires or needs that are unacceptable to themselves or to society. The repressed feelings can cause personality disturbances, self-destructive behaviour, or even physical symptoms.

Freud believed that the human mind was composed of three elements: the id, ego and the superego. The id is composed of primal urges, while the ego is the component of personality charged with dealing with reality. The superego is the part of personality that holds all of the ideals and values we internalize from our parents and culture. Freud believed that the interaction of these three elements was what led to all of the complex human behaviors.There are six assumptions that show the main ideas of psychoanalytic theory. One is that unconscious mental processes exist. The second is all human behavior is motivated and purposeful. Third, past experiences influence current changes and reactions. Fourth, personality functioning is very complex and can be understood through the Id, Ego, and Superego. Fifth, thinking processes involve energy, strength

-While most psychodynamic theories did not rely on experimental research, the methods and theories of psychoanalytic thinking contributed to experimental psychology.

-Psychodynamic thinkers are stil influential influential today, including Erikson's theory of psychosocial stages and Freud's psychosexual stage theory..

-Psychoanalysis opened up a new view on mental illness, suggesting that talking about problems with a professional could help relieve symptoms of psychological distress.

-Freud's theories overemphasized the unconscious mind, sex, aggression and childhood experiences.

-Many of the concepts proposed by psychoanalytic theorists are difficult to measure and quantify.

-Most of Freud's ideas were based on case studies and clinical observations rather than empirical, scientific research.


8. Existential Perspectives

Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)•The founder of the “philosophy of existence”•Proposed that truth lies in subjective rather than presumptions of objectivity•True existence is achieved by intensity of feeling•Anguish: a revelation of the possibilities which lie beyond one’s constricted existence•Passion: the quality of striving to come into being•True heroism: a “daring to be entirely oneself, alone before GodFriedrich Nietzsche•Talked about our “will to power” &•“herd mortality”

-Existential psychology attempts to explore meaning in life and seeks a balance between the limits on human existence and the possibilities of humanity. The focus is on “understanding what it means to be human.”

The key assumptions of existential psychology is that life’s meaning is never fixed and is constantly being created and recreated. The Existential Approach is rooted in attempting to understand several basic human dimensions (6 propositions):

•The capacity for self-awareness•Tension between freedom and responsibility•creating one’s identity & meaningful relationships with others•the search for meaning & purpose•Accepting anxiety as a condition of living•awareness of death.

Jean-Paul Sartre •"Freedom is existence, & in it existence precedes essence."•This means that what we do, how we act in our life, determines our apparent "qualities“•Existential guilt is what we experience when we allow others to define us or to make our choices for usViktor Frankl. He struggled to find meaning while in a concentration camp during World War II. He suggests that the will to meaning is the most human phenomenon of all, since other animals never worry about the meaning of their existence. He used logotherapy as treatment.

The most defining element of existentialism is the concern with existence- the person in the human condition. The existentialist is concerned with the phenomena that are inherent in the nature of being alive, human, existing. What constitutes the essence of existence varies for different existentialist; however, all agree that certain concerns are fundamental to the very nature of our being and cannot be ignored, dismissed, explained away or trivialized. In the existentialist view freedom, consciousness and self-reflection are what distinguish humans from other animals.

School of Psychology Major Thinkers Theory Strength Criticism9. Evolutionary Psychology

- an approach in the social and natural sciences that examines psychological traits such as

-For evolutionary psychologists, the most interesting

Most of these critics are philosophers of biology who argue

memory, perception, and language from a modern evolutionary perspective. Its historical roots in Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection. It seeks to identify which human psychological traits are evolved adaptations – that is, the functional products of natural selection or sexual selection. One of many biologically informed approaches to the study of human behavior. Evolutionary psychologists propose that much, if not all, of our behavior can be explained by appeal to internal psychological mechanisms. They proposed that the relevant internal mechanisms are adaptations—products of natural selection—that helped our ancestors get around the world, survive and reproduce. The psychological mechanisms invoke by the Evolutionary Psychology are computational, sometimes referred to as “Darwinian algorithms” or as “computational modules.”

Evolutionary psychology is founded on several core premises: 1. The brain is an information processing device, and it produces behavior in response to external and internal inputs. 2. The brain's

contribution that evolutionary theory makes is the explanation of apparent design in nature or the explanation of the production of complex organs by appeal to natural selection. Evolutionary psychologists generate evolutionary hypotheses by first finding apparent design in the world, say in our psychological make up, and then presenting a selective scenario that would have led to the production of the trait that exhibits apparent design. The hypotheses evolutionary psychologists generate, given that they are usually hypotheses about our

that the research tradition suffers from an overly zealous form of adaptationism, an untenable reductionism, a “bad empirical bet” about modules, a fast and loose conception of fitness.

adaptive mechanisms were shaped by natural and sexual selection 3. Different neural mechanisms are specialized for solving problems in humanity's evolutionary past. 4. The brain has evolved specialized neural mechanisms that were designed for solving problems that recurred over deep evolutionary time, giving modern humans Stone age minds. 5. Most contents and processes of the brain are unconscious; and most mental problems that seem easy to solve are actually extremely difficult problems that are solved unconsciously by complicated neural mechanisms and lastly human psychology consists of many specialized mechanisms, each sensitive to different classes of information or inputs. These mechanisms combine to produce manifest behavior.

Evolutionary Psychologists sees humans as often in conflict with others, including mates and relatives. Even mothers sometimes struggle with their children over weaning, which benefits the mother more than the child. Evolutionary psychology also recognizes the role

psychological capacities, are tested by standard psychological methods.-Adaptation is the one biological concept that is central to most debates over evolutionary psychology.

-Evolutionary theory can provide a foundational, metatheoretical framework that integrates the entire field of psychology, in the same way it has for biology.

of kin selection and reciprocity in evolving prosocial traits such as altruism.


10. Positive Psychology

Martin Seligman, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Raymond Fowler.

Positive psychology is one of the newest branches of psychology to emerge. This particular area of psychology focuses on human prospering. While many other branches of psychology tend to focus on dysfunction and abnormal behavior, positive psychology is centered on helping people become happier.

Martin Seligman and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi describe positive psychology in the following way: "We believe that a psychology of positive human functioning will arise that achieves a scientific understanding and effective interventions to build thriving in individuals, families, and communities."

-Seligman observes that "Before World War II, psychology had three distinct missions: First is to cure mental illness,Secondly, to make everyone's lives

-A call for psychological science and practice to be as concerned with strength as with weakness; as interested in building the best things in life as in repairing the worst; and as concerned with making the lives of normal people fulfilling as with healing pathology.

-Positive psychology does not involve ignoring the very real problems that people face and that other areas of psychology strive to treat. "The value of positive psychology is to complement

-Many criticisms seem to arise from the assumption that if there is a positive psychology, then the rest of psychology must be negative psychology, and if we need a positive psychology it is because this so-called negative psychology has taught us little.

-People who study positive psychology fail to recognize the very real negative sides of life, preferring a Polly- anna view of the world.

-The most daunting chal- lenges to positive psychology

happier and more productive and fulfilling and lastly, to identify and nurture high talent and genius. After the war, two of the missions were forgotten. Positive psychology is intended to bring attention back to the pursuit of happiness and the nurturing of genius and talent.

Positive Psychology focuses on well-being, happiness, flow, personal strengths, wisdom, creativity, imagination and characteristics of positive groups and institutions. It focused on what makes individuals and communities flourish rather than languish. It has traditionally conceptualized authentic happiness as a mix of hedonic (Hedonic happiness encompasses high levels of positive affect and low levels of negative affect, in addition to high subjective life satisfaction) and eudaimonic well-being (focuses more on the creation of meaning and purpose in life).Authentic Happiness indicates a life that is a combination of a pleasurable life, an engaged life and a meaningful life. The pleasurable life encompasses feelings of positive emotions (for example,

and extend the problem-focused psychology that has been dominant for many decades

stem from defining what actually is positive and the ambiguous line between describing something as “good” and prescribing it as “good”

joy, gratitude, serenity, interest, hope, pride, amusement, inspiration, awe and love which are integral components to our success and wellbeing. Positive emotions widen our thought processes, which can be built up over time and banked to create a ‘protective reservoir’ upon which a person can draw from during unpleasant or distressing times.

Positive Psychology concentrates on positive experiences at three points: 1. The Past: centering on well-being, contentment, satisfaction, serenity, pride and fulfillment 2. The Present: focuses on concepts such as happiness and flow experiences (joy, ecstasy, calm, zest, ebullience and pleasure) 3. The Future: with concepts including optimism, faith, hope and trust.

The “three pillars” of positive psychology according to Seligman were positive subjective experience, positive individual characteristics (strengths and virtues), and positive institutions and communities.

One of the major findings of positive psychology include:• People are generally happy.• Money doesn't necessarily buy

well-being; but spending money on other people can make individuals happier.

• Some of the best ways to combat disappointments and setbacks include strong social relationships and character strengths.

• Work can be important to well-being, especially when people are able to engage in work that is purposeful and meaningful.

• While happiness is influenced by genetics, people can learn to be happier by developing optimism, gratitude and altruism.

School of Psychology Major Thinker Theory Strength Criticism11. Feminist Psychology

Judith WorrellPam RemerSandra BemLaura Brown

Jean Baker MillerCarolyn EnnsEllyn Kaschak

Boonie BurstowJudith V. Jordan

•Feminist psychology grew out of the influence of the women’s movement of the late 1960’s. It originated as a backlash against the traditional assumptions of male dominated theory, research and practices, especially in psychoanalytic theory. Its emergence arises from Freud’s theories, such as “ penis envy” and

Scholar Susan Thomas argued that feminist therapy was "more part of a social movement than type of psychotherapy," and was so intimately tied to broader social and political feminism

hysteria, which were gender-biased and based on developmental studies of men, were particularly distasteful to supporters of the feminist movement. Feminist Psychology was found by women who had become aware of the pressures of patriarchy, sexism and male chauvinism that therapy and counseling were not exempt from these pressures. Women discovered that they were put down in a number of subtle ways, and that all sorts of expectations about the female role and how it should be played were built in to the therapy process. Therefore, they started to set up their own therapy centers and their own network of therapists. In this way, a feminist therapy started to come into being.

Feminist Therapy examines sociological as well as psychological factors, helps people understand the impact of gender roles and power differences in societyA. Sex: biological differenceB. Gender: socially determined thoughts, beliefs and attitudes about men and women

that its legitimacy as a therapeutic school was questionable.

-Satal argues that the feminist presumption that women are oppressed can actually worsen a patient's feelings of helplessness by placing the patient's locus of control outside herself.

-Other critics have argued that feminist therapy embraces and promotes a number of inaccurate and discredited a priori assumptions, such as the belief that men are responsible for initiating, perpetrating and perpetuating most interpersonal violence

Three distinct phases of development:

•The first phase was characterized by borrowing therapeutic techniques that fit into the feminist philosophy, with the goal to “empower all women by strengthening individual women.•The second phase is marked by the inclusion of feminism into more psychological theories where feminists attempted to keep the parts of psychological theories that were sensible and that worked, but tried to eliminate the sexist elements that were present•The final and ongoing phase consists of trying to develop a complete theory that explains the common experiences of women and their difficulties arising from living in a society where they are devalued. Such a theory would also integrate the impact of social oppression based on ethnicity, race and culture.

Goals of Feminist Therapy:•To become aware of one’s gender-role socialization process•To identify internalized gender-role messages and replace them

with functional beliefs•To acquire skills to bring about change in the environment

References:

Burger, J. (2010). Personality: Fifth Edition. United States of America: Wadsworth.

John, Oliver and Lawrence Pervin (1997). Personality: Theory and Research Seventh Edition. United States of America: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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