history of psychology and overview of schools
Psychology is the study of behaviour and mental processes and hopes to decipher human behaviour and the complexity of people's actions. In order to study behaviour and mental processes, psychologists are interested in things such as the way we think, what our responses are to certain situations, how humans interact with others. Psychology is a branch of philosophy that dates back to 322 BC, but psychology as a field of its own is only 100 years old. The word Psychology is of Greek origin with the term'psyche' meaning mind or soul and 'logus' meaning study or teaching. Psychology is structured by the use of schools, these are a collection of psychologists who hold the same set of beliefs about how the mind should be considered.It is the intention of this composition to depict the behaviourist, cognitive and gestalt schools of psychology One of the founders of psychology was Wilhelm Wundt(1879).Wundt set up the first experimental laboratory in Leipzig, Germany. He was a doctor who was interested in the links between psychology and physiology, his main interest in this field was the study of human consciousness, the mind. Wundt's belief was that human consciousness could be studied by the observation of human experience, that cons
Psychology, The Science of Mind and Behaviour ( Third Edition ) John B. Watson was an American psychologist who did not have any faith in Wundt's introspection method, Watson believed that behaviour should be studied, so behaviourism was born. Behaviourism was a dominant force in the 1920's-60's, it focuses on observing behaviour and the conditions that provoke certain behaviour, "studying the mind was impossible according to watson, because we could never see directly into it".(Foundations of Psychology, 1994, p5) Another psychologist who believed in the behaviourist point of view was B.F Skinner, he concluded that behaviour stemmed from the surrounding environment and that due to this it is very likely that the same behaviour will happen again. Most of Skinner's research was on animals and solely on observable behaviour, which psychologists in today's society do not think is viable for humans. "The important effect which Skinner's work was to show how even novel forms of behaviour could be understood within the framework of behaviourism! Psychology is a very complex and diverse subject and this composition has shown some of the ways in which psychologists can study human behaviour. Such as through schools such as behaviourism, cognitive and gestalt that has been explained in this essay. Bernstein, D. A , Clarke-Stewart, A. , Penner, L. A. , Roy, E. J. , Wickens, C. D Gestalt psychology originated in Austria and Germany in 1920-30's, this school was opposed to behaviourism and structuralism and focused on perception, they studied aspects of human experience that were intact and could not be reduced to component parts. They believed that the " whole is greater than
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Foundations Psychology, Austria Germany, Loftus Hoffman, Leipzig Germany, Watson American, , Psychology Greek, BF Skinner, Wundts Structuralist, Mental Life, mental processes, classical conditioning, behaviour mental, behaviour mental processes, human consciousness, study behaviour mental, word smash, human experience, study human, gross 1996, cognitive gestalt, stimulus response, conditioning classical conditioning,
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Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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