In 1879 Wilhelm Wundt started the first laboratory for studying humans. This is the reason he is called the "father of Psychology" (F. McMahon, J. McMahon, and Romano 12). Since Wundt first started his laboratory there have been great strides made in the field of Psychology. Many theories about what the human is and how we develop have arisen. Some theories have come and gone, but four approaches have survived up to the present. I will discuss three of the four that have been of interest to me, in further detail.

The Behavioral Model dates back to the late 1800s and early 1900s. One of the first psychologists to lay the foundation for behaviorism was Edward Thorndike. He conducted different experiments on animal learning. In 1898 Thorndike conducted an experiment using cats. In this study he put cats in a cage, put food outside the cage, and timed how long it took the cats to learn how to unlock the door to get to the food. Continuing this over and over again, Thorndike found that the cats would repeat behaviors that worked successfully escaping more quickly each time. Soon thereafter he proposed the law of effect:

Of several responses made to the same situation, those which are a

and misery; with the turmoil of social discontent and violence, as well as the

Many people think of psychologists as individuals who dispense advice, analyze personality, and help those who are troubled or mentally ill. But psychology is far more than the

problems, with the central questions that had been treated by great thinkers,

symbols and memories from their ancestral past. Alfred Adler theorized that people are primarily motivated to overcome inherent feelings of inferiority. He wrote about effects of birth order in the family and coined the term sibling rivalry (Durand and Barlow 18). Unlike Freud, both Jung and Adler believed that the basic quality of human nature is positive and that by removing barriers to both internal and external growth the individual would improve and flourish into self-actualization.

Robinson, Daniel. Systems of Modern Psychology. New York: Columbia University Press,

in your life. Finally, the behaviorist theory sees us as little more than robots (B. McMahon, J. McMahon, and Romano 15).

The humanistic model contributed relatively little new information to the field of psychology. One reason for this that its proponents, with some exceptions, have not been much interested in doing research that would discover or create new knowledge. Rather, they stress the unique experiences of the individual, emphasizing that people are more different than they are alike. The humanistic model found its greatest application among individuals without psychological disorders.

understand the conscious mind, free will, human dignity, and the capacity for self-reflection and growth. An alternative to psychoanalysis and behaviorism, humanistic psychology became known as "the third force" (Robinson 237).

Durand, Mark, and David Barlow. Ed. Abnormal Psychology: An Introduction. 2nd ed.

Faced with a choice between psychoanalysis and behaviorism, many psychologists in the 1950s and 1960s sensed a void in psychology's conception of human nature. Freud had drawn attention to the darker forces of the unconscious, and Skinner was interested only in the effects of reinforcement on observable behavior. Humanistic psychology was born out of a desire to

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