School Of Psychology

SCHOOL OF PSYCHOLOGY

STRUCTUALISM – The study focused on structure or basic things on the mind, that make up                                        our conscious mental processes.

Element of the mind

·         Sensation

·         Perceptions

• ·         Wilhelm Wundt :  The Father Of  Psychology
• ·         Wilhelm Wundt focused on the structures that make up the human mind through what he called Introspection. He would evaluate people based on thoughts and feelings and from what I understand he felt if one were properly trained they could diagnose mental illness via analyzing the subjects feelings and emotions. This was a very subjective approach.

• ·         Edward Titchener, a student of Wilhelm wundt
• ·          Titchener's ideas on how the mind worked were heavily influenced by Wundt's         theory of voluntarism and his ideas of association and apperception (the passive and active combinations of elements of consciousness respectively).
• ·          Titchener attempted to classify the structures of the mind, like chemists classify the elements of nature into the periodic table
• ·         He also brought structuralism to United States.

FUNCTIONALISM - The study of how mind function to adapt human and other animal to                                               their Environment

• ·        Functionalism was a response to Structuralism.
• ·       William James was a strong proponent /influence behind this school of thought along with theories of evolution re: Charles Darwin. 

• ·         James was a philosopher, psychologist, and Physician. While Structuralism was focused on the consciousness, the Functionalists focused on the “purpose” of our consciousness and human behavior.

• ·          This school of thought acknowledged the differences in each persons individual experience. From what I understand it is a sort of philosophical look at the way what is happening in our brains then becomes behavior and trying to understand why.

In order to understand this theory, analogy about the computer as an example.: “our brains are like the hardware of a computer and our minds (our beliefs and pains) are like the software states of a computer.”