Download Modern Psychology`s Roots

Modern Psychology’s Roots
• Modern psychology has only been around for
about 125 years.
• Wilhelm Wundt
– Called the “father” of psychology
– Opened the first psychology laboratory
• E. B. Tichener
– Student of Wundt
– Introduced structuralism
– Structuralists attempt to analyze the individual parts
of conscious experiences
Disagreements with structuralism
• Gestalt psychology
– Believed that the whole was different than the
sum of its parts
– This brand of psychology is mostly made up of
“apparent motion”
Disagreements with structuralism
• Gestalt psychology
– Several laws in gestalt
psychology
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Law of similarity
Law of closure
Law of proximity
Law of symmetry
Law of continuity
Figure ground
Figure ground
Figure Ground
Figure Ground
Figure Ground
Figure Ground
Closure
Closure
Closure
Proximity
Continuity
Continuity
Similarity
Symmetry
Disagreements with structuralism
• Functionalism
– William James was the first American psychologist
– Wrote the first psychology textbook
– Studied the functions of consciousness
• Psychoanalysis
– Sigmund Freud, the pioneer of the field, focused
on abnormal behavior
– Attributed most behavior to unconscious urges
stemming from childhood
Disagreements with structuralism
• Behaviorism
– Ivan Pavlov proved that animals learned through
association in his behavioral studies.
• This is called classical conditioning– we learn through
doing
Alternatives to Structuralism
• Behaviorism
– John B. Watson studied only observable and
objectively describable acts
• Believed that anything you could not see had little
value
– Today behaviorism focuses on metal processes as
well as behaviors
• Humanistic psychologists
• Emphasized conscious experience as a focus of
psychology
Schools of Thought in Psychology