10 Perspectives of Early Psychology

As described, there are 10 different perspectives of early psychology. These perspectives are: Structuralism, functionalism, Gestalt psychology, Behavioral, psychodynamic, humanistic, physiological, evolutionary, cognitive, and cultural and diversity. Here is a summary of each.

Structuralism is "the earliest approach in modern psychology, founded by Wilhelm Wundt; its goal was to evaluate the basic elements of a cognizant experience: (Davis and Palladino, 2000). Wilhelm had a student whose name was Edward Tichener. Upon his research, Tichener depended upon a method that he liked to call introspection, "in which participants gave verbal reports of their conscious experiences" (Davis and Palladino, 2000).

In the late 1800's the United States became the founders of a new perspective known as functionalism. "It was an approach to psychology that focused on the purpose of consciousness" (Davis and Palladino, 2000). The basic consensus was how the mind went about what it did and why. "Because consciousness was like a continually flowing stream, it could not be easily broken down into its elements as Wundt had hoped. According to James, if it were broken down into elements, it would lose its reality" (Davis and Palladino, 2000).

Members whom believed in Gestalt Psychology were: Max Wertheimer, Kurt Koffka, and Wolfgang Kohler. These gentlemen believed "that our perception of a whole is different from our perception of an individual stimuli" (Davis and Palladino, 2000). This psychology is founded on the principals known as "apparent motion, in which a rapid sequence of stationary images creates the illusion of movement, as in a movie" (Rock & Palmer, 1990). The name Gestalt is an actual German word which could translate into shape, or pattern in English.

The behavioral perspective "focuses on the observable behavior and emphasis the learned nature of behavior" (Davis and Palladino, 2000).Unlike the other approaches, the behavioral perspective accentuates how it is important to learn and understand and doesn't focus on coconscious. B. F. Skinner, a well known psychologist, was a strong advocate to this thinking. He has since been called the "greatest contemporary psychologist" (Fowler, 1990). Skinner basically took an easy angle on his methods. "Behavior changes as a result of consequences (Bjork, D. W., 1997). When it comes down to it, Skinner teaches basic skills.

The psychodynamic perspective is "based on the belief that the unconscious mind exerts greater control over behavior and that the early childhood experiences are a major influence on personal development" (Davis and Palladino, 2000).The major innovator of this thinking is Sigmund Freud. He said if you want to get an understanding on someone's persona, you have to look at childhood experiences. He created a treatment known as the Psychoanalytic therapy. This is the "treatment for maladaptative behavior, which its goal is to bring unconscious causes of behavior to the conscious level" (Davis and Palladino, 2000).

The humanistic perspective "focuses on the creative potential and psychological health of human beings while emphasizing the individuals interpretation of events" (Davis and Palladino, 2000).This was more of a human approach to psychology which was to look and study humans by the choices they make. Laboratory specimen can not possibly equate to what a human can achieve deeming any laboratory experiment illogical. Instead of developing principals about their theories, they concluded that each individual is their own being.

The physiological perspective "focuses on the underlying physiology involved in all forms of behavior and mental processes; uses increasingly sophisticated research tools to investigate brain functioning and condition of nerve impulses; also investigates the role of heredity in normal and abnormal behavior patterns" (Davis and Palladino, 2000).This theory basically takes the physiological sides and combines it with the sciences and body functions.

The evolutionary perspective "focuses on why a particular behavior or physical structure developed and how the behavior or structure aids in adaptation to the environment" (Davis and Palladino, 2000). Charles Darwin was the innovator who popularized the evolutionary theory. This summarizes how a being can adapt to an environment and keep certain habits, in turn passing these traits along to future generations.

"A view that focuses on the study of how thought occurs, how our memories work, and how information is organized and stored" (Davis and Palladino, 2000), is the Cognitive perspective. This focused more on the thinking remembering, and storing of information in the mind, unlike the behaviorists, who only focused on observational behaviors. For about a 40 year period, there was no attention being paid to this area. George Miller and Jerome Bruner established the "Center for cognitive Studies at Harvard University in 1960, and Ulrich Neisser published the book Cognitive Psychology in 1967" (Davis and Palladino, 2000).

He cultural and diversity perspective "focuses on the influence that different cultures and diverse individuals have on the research process and the result of that process" (Davis and Palladino, 2000). At a point in time the psychology field was dominated by Caucasian males. Females and people from different races were not allowed to be in the field or even to obtain a doctoral degree. Thought the years, the percentage of men and women in the field have changed dramatically. Once dominated by men, the field has shifted more toward women dominating the field.