Foundations of Psycology Paper
Foundations of Psychology
In this paper we will be discussing six major schools of thought in psychology and examining their major underlying assumptions. The first school of thought we will discuss is Functionalism. This thought attempts to describe thoughts and what they do without asking how they do it. It’s the “why and how” concept. This thought pattern resembles and functions like a computer in many ways. The second thought we will discuss is Gestalt Psychology. According to Gestalt psychologists, the human mind works by interpreting data through various laws, rules or organizing principles, turning partial information into a whole. For example, your mind might interpret a series of lines as a square, even though it has no complete lines; your mind fills in the gaps. Gestalt psychotherapists apply this logic to problem-solving to help patients. The third thought pattern we will discuss is Psychoanalysis. This is a theory which originated with Sigmund Freud, explains human behavior by looking at the subconscious mind. Freud suggested that the instinct to pursue pleasure, which he described as sexual in nature, lies at the root of human development. To Freud, even the development of children hinged on key stages in discovering this pleasure, through acts such as feeding at the mother's breast and defecating, and he treated abnormal behavior in adults by addressing these stages. The fourth is Behaviorism, in the 1950s, B.F. Skinner carried out experiments with animals, such as rats and pigeons, demonstrating that they repeated certain behaviors if they associated them with rewards in the form of food. Behaviorists believe that observing behavior, rather than attempting to analyze the inner workings of the mind itself, provides the key to psychology. This makes psychology open to experimental methods with results that can be replicated in the same way as any scientific experiment. Next we will examine Humanistic Psychology, this thought process teaches
In this paper we will be discussing six major schools of thought in psychology and examining their major underlying assumptions. The first school of thought we will discuss is Functionalism. This thought attempts to describe thoughts and what they do without asking how they do it. It’s the “why and how” concept. This thought pattern resembles and functions like a computer in many ways. The second thought we will discuss is Gestalt Psychology. According to Gestalt psychologists, the human mind works by interpreting data through various laws, rules or organizing principles, turning partial information into a whole. For example, your mind might interpret a series of lines as a square, even though it has no complete lines; your mind fills in the gaps. Gestalt psychotherapists apply this logic to problem-solving to help patients. The third thought pattern we will discuss is Psychoanalysis. This is a theory which originated with Sigmund Freud, explains human behavior by looking at the subconscious mind. Freud suggested that the instinct to pursue pleasure, which he described as sexual in nature, lies at the root of human development. To Freud, even the development of children hinged on key stages in discovering this pleasure, through acts such as feeding at the mother's breast and defecating, and he treated abnormal behavior in adults by addressing these stages. The fourth is Behaviorism, in the 1950s, B.F. Skinner carried out experiments with animals, such as rats and pigeons, demonstrating that they repeated certain behaviors if they associated them with rewards in the form of food. Behaviorists believe that observing behavior, rather than attempting to analyze the inner workings of the mind itself, provides the key to psychology. This makes psychology open to experimental methods with results that can be replicated in the same way as any scientific experiment. Next we will examine Humanistic Psychology, this thought process teaches