PSYCHOLOGY???

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PSYCHOLOGY???

• WHATS IT ALL ABOUT?

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Psychology

• Psychology is the science of mind behaviour.
• The word can be split into two
• Psych In the mind
• Ology study
• The mind is the most complex machine on earth, it
  governs all our thoughts and behaviours, thus it
  is important to understand the discipline more
  thoroughly.

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Psychology

• The study of this mind is difficult
• We cannot see thoughts, emotions, feelings, and
  perception.
• Therefore psychologists study the mind by using
  clues given via human behaviour, much like other
  science disciplines.

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Psychology.

• Psychology lies at the intersection of many other
  different disciplines, including biology,
  medicine, linguistics, philosophy, anthropology,
  sociology, and artificial intelligence (AI).
• Since Wilhelm Wundt and William James we have
  learnt a great deal.

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Wilhelm Wundt and William James

• Both of the above men were what we consider to be
  founding members of psychology for differing
  reasons
• One was a Functionalist.
• One was a Structuralist.
• And ever the twain shall meet (well in the
  beginning anyway!!)

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Divided Camps.1879-1910.

• Structuralists
• Introspection
• Every physical event has a mental counterpart
• Determinisitic approach.

• Functionalists
• Experience
• Cause, effect, prediction and control.

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Do they ever agree?

• In 1906, Mary Whiton Calkins published an article
  in Psychological Review asking for a
  reconciliation between these two schools of
  thought.
• Structuralism and functionalism were not so
  different, she argued, since both are principally
  concerned with the conscious self.

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Structuralism

• Structuralism was the first school of psychology
  and focused on breaking down mental processes
  into the most basic components.
• Researchers tried to understand the basic
  elements of consciousness using a method known as
  introspection.
• Wilhelm Wundt, founder of the first psychology
  lab, was an advocate of this position and is
  often considered the founder of structuralism,
  despite the fact that it was his student, Edward
  Titchener who first coined the term to describe
  this school of thought. While Wundt's work
  helped to establish psychology as a separate
  science and contributed methods to experimental
  psychology, the structuralist school of thought
  did not last long beyond Titchener's death.

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Functionalism

• Functionalism formed as a reaction to the
  structuralism and was heavily influenced by the
  work of William James and the evolutionary theory
  of Charles Darwin. Functionalists sought to
  explain the mental processes in a more systematic
  and accurate manner. Rather than focusing on the
  elements of consciousness, functionalists focused
  on the purpose of consciousness and behaviour.
  Functionalism also emphasized individual
  differences, which had a profound impact on
  education.

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Tale of two cities!

• In the Blue corner we have William James He
  wrote that structuralism had plenty of school,
  but no thought (James, 1904)

• In the Red corner we have Wilhelm Wundt who
  dismissed functionalism as literature.

Eventually both of these schools of thought lost
dominance in psychology, replaced by the rise of
behaviorism, psychoanalysis, and humanism.
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Critical Analysis-Structuralism.

• Criticisms
• By todays scientific standards, the experimental
  methods used to study the structures of the mind
  were too subjective the use of introspection led
  to a lack of reliability in results.
• Other critics argue that structuralism was too
  concerned with internal behaviour, which is not
  directly observable and cannot be accurately
  measured.

• Strengths
• Structuralism is important because it is the
  first major school of thought in psychology.
• Structuralism also influenced experimental
  psychology

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Critical Analysis-Functionalism

• Criticisms
• It is literature. It is beautiful, but it is not
  psychology, said Wilhelm Wundt of functionalist
  William James
• The Principles of Psychology (Fancher, R.E.,
  1996).

• Strengths
• Influenced behaviorism and applied psychology.
• Influenced the educational system, especially
  with regards to John Deweys belief that children
  should learn at the level for which they are
  developmentally prepared.

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Structuralism and Functionalism bred.

• New schools of thought
• Psychodynamic theory.
• Behaviourism
• Humanist Psychology
• Cognitive Psychology

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Quiz time

• Task 1 Answer the following questions.
• The most prominent difference between
  Structuralism and Functionalism is.. One is
  applied science one is a pure science.
• Logos mean study
• The main questions that structuralism askWhat
  are the main principles that govern the way the
  human mind works?

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Had enough...feeling burnt out??