8/6/2019 Psychology is the Scientific Study of Behavior
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Contents
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1 Early Systems of Psychology
2 Perspectives
3 History
o 3.1 Early development
o 3.2 Early modern era
o 3.3 Modern era
[edit]Early Systems of Psychology
Wundt's form of psychology is called structuralism. It is in a
class called systematic interpretations because It attempted to
explain all behavior with reference to one
systematic position. Some othersytems of psychologyare
functionalism, behaviorism, gestalt psychology, andpsychodynamic
psychology.
Functionalism is concerned with the reason for behavior and not
the structure of the brain. It allowed the study of new subjects
including children and animals.
Behaviorism is an approach to psychology based on the
proposition that behaviour can be studied and explained
scientifically without recourse to internal mental
states. Psychologists that use behaviorism are concerned mainly
with muscular movements and glandular secretions.
Gestalt Psychology is a theory of mind and brain that proposes
that the operational principle of the brain is holistic, parallel,
and analog, with self-organizing
tendencies. It has a particular interest in perceptual problems
and how they can be interpereted. A Gestaltist believes that the
whole is greater than or different than
the sum of all of the parts. Trying to break up behavior into
seperate parts is simplistic because everything affects everything
else.
Psychodynamic psychology was first practiced by Sigmund Freud,
although he didn't intend it to be a system.
[edit
]Perspectives
While the use of one system to solve all problems has been
abandoned by most psychologists, these early systems were important
in the development of new
systems and ideas. There are eight major perspectives that
psychologists usually take, although many use an eclectic approach
instead of confining themselves to just
one.
The psychodynamic perspective emphasizes unconscious drives and
the resolution of conflicts, the behavorial emphasizes the
acquisition and alteration of observable
responses, and the humanistic approaches attempt to achieve
maximum human potential as set in Maslow's hierchy of needs.
