Emergence Of Psychology

Lecture 2
Intro to Psychology-101
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.
 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.
 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.
 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