SCHOOLS OF PSYCHOLOGY

Schools of psychology is a wa`y of referring to some of the main branches of psychology and the people that helped to establis the branches.

THE STRUCTURALIST SCHOOL OF PSYCHOLOGY

Structuralism is widely regarded as the first school of thought in psychology. This outlook focused on breaking down mental processes into the most basic components. Major thinkers associated with structuralism include Wilhelm Wundt and Edward Titchener. Structuralism focused on reducing mental processes to their most basic elements. Structuralists used techniques such as introspection to analyse the inner processes of the human mind. The introspective experimental technique used by the structuralists involved having trained observers examine their inner responses. Using this approach, also known as experimental self-observation, experimenters like Wundt trained people to analyse their thoughts as carefully and objectively as possible. While these methods were understandably not the most empirically rigorous, the structuralist school of thought played an important role in the development of experimental psychology.

Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) is generally considered the father of experimental psychology. After studying medicine, he worked as a physiologist at Heidelberg University and later at Leipzig University. While at Heidelberg, he delivered the first university course on scientific psychology and went on to write the first textbook on psychology, “Principles of Physiological Psychology” (Wundt, 1873-4). In 1879, at Leipzig University, he set up the first laboratory dedicated to experimental psychology. In doing so, he separated psychology from philosophy and biology and became the first person to be called a psychologist.. Wundt’s approach became known as structuralism because he used experimental methods to find the basic building blocks (structures) of thought and investigate how they interacted. To do this, he studied sensation and perception, breaking participants’ observations of objects, images and events down into constituent parts in the same way that an anatomist would study a body trying to find its constituent parts and how they interact. At first he did this by studying reaction time - systematically changing the stimuli he presented to participants and measuring how long it took them to respond - inferring that the longer it took to respond, the more mental processes must be involved. Later, he adapted and developed a process called introspection to infer more about the nature of the processes involved.

THE FUNCTIONALIST SCHOOL OF PSYCHOLOGY

Functionalism formed as a reaction to the theories of the structuralist school of thought and was heavily influenced by the work of William James. It functioned on the mind's functions and adaptations. Instead of focusing on the mental processes themselves, functionalist thinkers were interested in the roles and functions of these processes. In a functionalist approach, for example, instead of trying to understand the underlying processes that cause mental states, the focus would be on understanding the function that those states serve. Gaining a better understanding of the purpose would allow psychologists to understand how the mind allows people to respond and adapt to their environments. The functionalist school was interested in the purpose of thoughts and behaviours, whereas structuralism was concerned with the elements that make up consciousness. While functionalism largely disappeared as a school of thought, its influence persisted in applied psychology, behaviourism, and educational psychology.1

Unlike some of the other well-known schools of thought in psychology, functionalism is not associated with a single dominant theorist. Functionalist thinkers, including John Dewey, James Rowland Angell, and Harvey Carr, are associated with this outlook. Some historians have questioned whether functionalism should be considered a formal school of psychology, given its lack of a central leader or formalized ideas.

THE GESTALT SCHOOL OF PSYCHOLOGY

In a loose translation, the German word ‘Gestalt’ (pronounced “ge-shtalt”) means ‘configuration’, or ‘structure’. Gestalt psychology was a school of psychology based upon the idea that people experience things as unified wholes. This approach to psychology began in Germany and Austria during the late 19th century in response to the molecular approach of structuralism. Two of the main philosophical influences of Gestalt are Kantian epistemology and Husserl’s phenomenological method. Both Kant and Husserls sought to understand human consciousness and perceptions of the world, arguing that those mental processes are not entirely mediated by rational thought. Similarly, the Gestalt researchers Wertheimer, Koffka and Kohler observed that the human brain tends to automatically organize and interpret visual data through grouping. They theorized that, because of those “mental shortcuts”, the perception of the whole is different from the sum of individual elements. Instead of breaking down thoughts and behaviour to their smallest elements, the Gestalt psychologists believed that one must look at the whole of experience. According to Gestalt thinkers, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, a philosophy known as holism. Some examples of Gestalt thinking include explanations for optical phenomena, such as visual illusions. Wertheimer described the phi phenomenon by observing how alternating railway lights created the illusion of movement. The phenomenon suggests that a succession of images seen in rapid sequence are perceived as moving.

THE BEHAVIOURIST SCHOOL OF PSYCHOLOGY

Behaviourism became a dominant school of thought during the 1950s. Behaviourism was formally established with the 1913 publication of John B. Watson's classic paper, "Psychology as the Behaviourist Views It." It is best summed up by the following quote from Watson, who is often considered the father of behaviourism: "Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I'll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select—doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief and, yes, even beggar-man and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors." Behaviourism is focused on observable behaviour. This school of thought suggests that all behaviour can be explained by environmental causes rather than internal forces.

Examples of behavioural theories that emerged during this time include:

• CLASSICAL CONDITIONING: This is a type of learning that involves associating a previously neutral stimulus with a stimulus that naturally and automatically triggers a response. For example, pairing the sound of a bell with the presentation of food. After an association is formed, the previously neutral stimulus will produce the same response as the natural stimulus.

• OPERANT CONDITIONING: This type of learning involves using rewards and punishments to create an association between the behaviour and the consequences of that behaviour.

The behavioural school of psychology significantly influenced the course of psychology. Many ideas and techniques that emerged from this school of thought are still widely used today. Behavioural training, token economies, aversion therapy, and other methods are frequently used in psychotherapy and behaviour modification programs. Ivan Pavlov is a notable name in this school of psychology

THE PSYCHOANALYTIC SCHOOL OF PSYCHOLOGY

Psychoanalysis is a school of psychology founded by Sigmund Freud. This school of thought emphasized the influence of the unconscious mind on behaviour. Other major psychoanalytic thinkers included Anna Freud and Otto Rank and neo-Freudians such as Erik Erikson, Alfred Adler, and Karen Horney.

Freud believed that the human mind was composed of three elements: the id, ego, and superego.

• The id consists of primal urges.

• The ego is the component of personality charged with dealing with reality.

• The superego is the part of the personality that holds all the ideals and values we internalize from our parents and culture.

Freud believed that the interaction of these three elements led to all of the complex human behaviours.

Other important theories within the psychoanalytic school included the idea of the conscious and unconscious, Freud's psychosexual approach to personality development, and the concept of life and death instincts. Freud's work also played an important role in the development of talk therapy as an approach to treating mental illness. Many traditional Freudian approaches to treatment are no longer in favour, but modern psychoanalytic therapy continues to play an important role in psychology today. Research has shown that using self-examination can play an important role in emotional growth and that it can be an effective treatment for a number of conditions, including depression and anxiety.

THE HUMANISTIC SCHOOL OF PSYCHOLOGY

The humanistic school of psychology emerged during the middle half of the twentieth century in direct response to psychoanalysis and behaviourism. The founders of the humanist approach believed that Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic perspective was too negative and focused only on pathology. Whereas B.F. Skinner’s behaviourism, on the other hand, was too mechanistic and reduced human nature down to simple conditioned responses. A psychologist named Carl Rogers was instead interested in understanding all of the things that helped people grow, change, improve, and thrive. He believed that psychology was about much more than fixing problematic behaviours or mental illness. It was also about helping people live the best lives they can and achieve as much happiness as possible. Rogers believed that all people possess what is known as an actualizing tendency, or an innate need to strive to become their best possible self. This concept of the actualizing tendency helped inspire psychologist Abraham Maslow to create a hierarchy of human needs. The humanist school of thought represented a positive approach to the study of human psychology. While early schools of thought were primarily cantered on abnormal human behaviour, humanistic psychology differed considerably in its emphasis on helping people achieve and fulfil their potential.

Humanistic psychology instead focused on topics such as:

• Becoming a fully functioning person: A person who is in touch with their innermost desires and trusts their own instincts

• Individual free will: The capacity that individuals have to make choices, select courses of action, and control their own lives

• Hierarchy of needs: A theory introduced by Maslow suggesting that people were motivated by a series of increasingly complex needs, starting with their basic physiological needs up to the need to achieve an individual's full potential

• Peak experiences: Moments of pure, transcendent joy that play an important part in the reaching self-actualization10

• Self-actualization: A state of reaching one's full potentiaL

POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY

Humanistic psychology remains quite popular today and has significantly influenced other areas of psychology including positive psychology. This particular branch of psychology is centred on helping people live happier, more fulfilling lives. “Psychologists have scant knowledge of what makes life worth living,” wrote Martin Seligman and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi two of the founders of positive psychology. Positive psychology’s goal was (and still is) to provide individuals and society with the tools to flourish rather than dwell on mental ill health, which has always been the focus of psychology. Seligman believed that such a new, research-based approach could guide individuals toward flourishing, living a satisfying life, and raise the bar for the human condition. Seligman turned to research, including the work of researchers Felicia Huppert and Timothy So of Cambridge University, to develop his theory of flourishing.

They found that to flourish, we must experience all the following:

• Positive emotions – overall degree of happiness

• Engagement and interest – love of learning new things

• Meaning and purpose – feeling that what we do is valuable and worthwhile

And at least three of the following additional features

• Self-esteem – how positive we feel about ourselves

• Optimism – our degree of optimism about the future

• Resilience – our ability to return to (a new) normal when things go wrong

• Vitality – our “physical or intellectual vigour or energy” (American Psychological Association, n.d.).

• Self-determination – the degree to which we feel in control of our lives and the motivation to pursue goals in line with our values (

• Positive relationships – the sense that there are people in our lives who care about us

The promise of positive psychology was to take existing tools and techniques previously used to explain our weaknesses and treat illnesses and use them to “enhance our understanding of strengths and promote wellbeing”. Since its introduction, positive psychology has had a lot of criticism, while continuing to evolve. It has proven its value in research and application. It is now an accredited and professional field in its own right, it also deeply integrates with other psychological disciplines and continues to gain momentum and influence.

THE COGNITIVE SCHOOL OF PSYCHOLOGY

In 1967, the psychologist Ulric Neisser introduced the term cognitive psychology, which he defined as the study of the processes behind the perception, transformation, storage, and recovery of information. Cognitive psychology is the school of psychology that studies mental processes, including how people think, perceive, remember and learn. As part of the larger field of cognitive science, this branch of psychology is related to other disciplines such as neuroscience, philosophy, and linguistics. Cognitive psychology emerged during the 1950s, partly as a response to behaviourism. Critics of behaviourism noted that it failed to account for how internal processes impacted behaviour.

Examples of theories that grew out of the cognitive school of thought include

• Stages of cognitive development: A theory proposed by Jean Piaget, which suggested that children go through a series of progressive stages of intellectual development.

• Sociocultural theory: This theory, introduced by Lev Vygotsky, looked at how the interaction of cultural and social factors contributed to cognitive development.

• Informational processing theory: This theory suggests that the mind functions much like a computer to process and interpret information about the world.

Cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) was also heavily influenced by this psychological perspective. CBT is an approach to treatment that focuses on how automatic negative thought patterns influence behaviour and psychological problems. This period is sometimes referred to as the "cognitive revolution" as a wealth of research on information processing, language, memory, and perception began to emerge.

BIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY

Biological psychology's roots can be traced back to early philosophical arguments about the mind-body link. It did, however, emerge as a distinct subject in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, with the development of experimental techniques for studying the brain. American psychologist Knight Dunlap (1875–1949) was undoubtedly one of the pioneers of biological psychology (or psychobiology as he preferred to call it) and defined it in his book “An Outline of Psychobiology” as the study of the relationships between mental and physiological functions. The biological approach believes behaviour to be as a consequence of our genetics and physiology. It is the only approach in psychology that examines thoughts, feelings, and behaviours from a biological and thus physical point of view. Biological psychology, also known as biopsychology or behavioural neuroscience, is a school of thought that focuses on how biological factors influence mental processes and human behaviour. Topics of interest in this school of thought include genetics, brain structure, hormones, and neurotransmitters. This school of thought takes an interdisciplinary approach, incorporating aspects of psychology, biology, and neuroscience. Using these methods, researchers investigate how biological and psychological factors interact to influence people's thoughts, feelings, and behaviours. This school of thought emphasizes the study of the biological causes of mental health conditions. For example, psychologists working in this area might focus on the biological and genetic factors that play a role in causing mental disorders like schizophrenia, depression, and bipolar disorder. Treatments rooted in this approach may focus on medications that help improve neurotransmitter balances to address brain abnormalities. The biological school of psychology offers important insights into how genetics, biology, and physiology impact the human mind and behaviour, which can have important clinical implications when it comes to understanding the aetiology and treatment of mental disorders.