Philosophy Unit 1 IP

The purpose of this papers it to give definition on three perspectives of phycology, and to compare the differences of them and explain the similarities, of behaviorism, structuralism, and gestalt. Behaviorism was used in psychology and philosophy that focused on the outward behavior, and dismissed the inward experiential, and sometimes the inner procedural. (Hauser, 2013) Behaviorism describes how behavior is learned by explaining that people have no free will and that a person’s environment is the cause of behavior, and that behavior is the result of stimulation. Or situations can change the behavior of an individual, or individuals leading to different types of behavior, which can be positive or have a negative outcome. Structuralism in psychology was founded by Wilhelm Wundt, but most will identify this theory with Edward B. Titchener. Structuralism was about analyzing the mind. In studying the minds the process of introspect was used to observe in controlled conditions, in theory it is the study of the elements of consciousness. The information that was outlined from these controlled observations in theory did not hold up to be fact, and could be disputed given a different controlled situation. (Hall, 1998) For example the brain processes by color, shape, feel, and taste of food, in the descriptive will everyone perceive the same thing about the same food, is it sensory that guides us or knowledge of what it is supposed to feel, or taste like using the word spicy.
Gestalt psychology is the modern study of perception; this theory strongly believes that the whole of anything is greater than its parts. Gestalt means the way a thing has been placed or put together. In Gestalt psychology they made use of phenomenology, “which is the study of structures of consciousness as the experienced from the first-person point of view”. (Smith, 2013) This method was use to add a humanistic dimension to what was considered to be an aloof

Cited: Hall, R. (1998). Structuralism . Retrieved February 15, 2014, from Psychology World: http://web.mst.edu/~psyworld/structuralism.htm Hauser, L. (2013). Behaviorism. Retrieved February 16, 2014, from Internet Encyclopedia of Phylosophy: http://www.iep.utm.edu/behavior/ Smith, D. W. (2013, December 16). Phenomenlogy. Retrieved February 15, 2014, from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/phenomenology/