Functionalism: Scientific Determinist Perspective

Functionalism can be defined as an understanding of psychological processes ,by their casual relations to one another and to sensory inputs behavioral outputs. Functionalism was never a well-defined school, its focus is on understanding the function of the mind. Functionalists oppose the search for the elements of consciousness as futile, believe that the mind has the function of helping us adapt to the environment. They want to understand the function of the mind, the ways it helps us adapt. They want psychology to be practical not pure science and as well as psychology to be expanded to include research on animals, children, and atypical humans. Functionalism does not have one recognized leader but the most prominent one are William James
and Stanley Halls.
William James in 1896 was described by a Berlin newspaper as, “The Psychological Pope of the new world”. James started as an artist, then pursued medical studies. He graduated in 1864, then he went to Germany, where he encountered Wundt's thought, and Helmholtz's.
He became deeply depressed, mostly because German Psychology made him think there was no freedom.
Eventually, an article by a French philosopher by the name of Renouvier helped him. In this article, he found a definition of free will: "The sustaining of a thought when I might have other thoughts". This definition convinced him that freedom existed. So, he decided to believe in free will, and to believe in his individual reality and creative power.
James becomes a pragmatist. If an idea works, then it is valid. The criterion of truth lies in an idea's usefulness.
Consequently, in some areas of psychology, he will take a scientific determinist approach, but he will not assume that EVERYTHING in humans can be studied that way, for example, he studied religious experience, and wrote The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902), a work that is based on qualitative interviewing and observational methods.
William James taught at Harvard, and wrote Principles of Psychology in 1878. It is the first "Intro to Psychology" text. James established a Psych lab in 1875 (four years before Wundt's 1879), but it was mostly for the purpose of teaching demonstrations. James contributions are highly regarded but some of his important concepts
are:-
Streams of consciousness: in which consciousness cannot be divided for analysis, it is personal, always changing, functional and selective for example allows some elements to enter, while some are prohibited.
Habits and Instincts: James saw instincts as malleable, and behavior as changeable. He encourages the formation of good habits through acting in ways that are suited with the person you would want to become.
James' maxims to develop good habits:
1. Place yourself in circumstances that encourage good habits and discourage bad ones.
2.
Do not allow yourself to act contrary to a new habit you are trying to develop.
3. Do not attempt to slowly develop a good habit or eliminate a bad one. Complete and total change is better.
4. It is not the intention to engage in good habits and avoid bad ones that is important; it is the actual doing so
5. Force yourself to act in ways that are beneficial to you, even if doing so at first is distasteful and requires considerable effort.
The Self: The self is composed of the "me" (empirical self) and the "I" (transcendental self) who does the knowing. Parts of the empirical self: the material self (your body, and possessions), the social self (your friends and relatives) and the spiritual self (your ideas and belief systems).
Self-esteem: self-esteem= success/pretensions. Thus, there are 2 ways to increase self-esteem: increase success, or decrease
pretensions.
Granville Stanley Hall aka Stanley Hall, Organized the first psychology laboratory in the United States. He founded the first psychology journal and helped organize and was the first president of the American Psychological Association. Also organized a meeting of European psychoanalysis, giving American Psychology its first look at psychoanalysis. He was influenced by Darwin’s evolutionary and Haeckel’s recapitulation theory which states that the development of an individual through their lifetime mirrors the evolution of the species. Hall’s developmental ideas were very much inspired by this theory. His work on Adolescence is comprehensive. He believed that adolescence was a good time to study human instinctual makeup, he also focused on the study of end of lifespan.