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Functionalism and Structuralism
Psychology is one of the youngest sciences and emerged as a separate discipline only in the late 19th century; it has its roots in the philosophy of ancient times. As a matter of fact every development in virtually all fields of human activity is in some way related to its past stages of development. Without these 'building blocks' of development, the present phenomenon of accelerating human progress would simply not be possible and we would forever be stuck in a process of 're-inventing the wheel' without making any material headway.
In a similar vein, psychology -- the scientific study of behavior and mind -- has progressed due to this phenomenon. At the same time, each school of psychology was formed largely as a reaction to the previous school, e.g., Functionalism grew out of Structuralism and so on. This is the subject of my essay.
Ancient Greek philosophers' exploration of psychological topics such as epistemology, ethics and mental illness; the 17th century French Philosopher Rene Descartes and his theory of...
Compared to earlier philosophers, Wundt's approach to the study of mind was much more scientific. It was based on systematic and rigorous observation -- his primary method of research being introspection. Wundt and his students like the American psychologist Titchener believed that the task of psychology is to identify the basic elements of consciousness just as physicists break down the basic particles of matter. The 'structuralists' believed that any given conscious experience must be described in its most basic terms, e.g., an object such as an apple could be described in terms of the basic perceptions such as "cold," "crisp'" and "sweet." In…
References
Gestalt Psychology Challenges Behaviorism." [Available online]. Retrieved on October 31, 2002 at http://www.unb.ca/web/courses/fields/module/textbook/ch1pt2e.html
Leonard Carmichael. "Functionalism." Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia, 2002
Sul Kassin. "Psychology." Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia, 2002
Sul Kassin. "Psychology." Encarta, 2002
Behavioral activities are more of reactions to stimuli and have less to do with cognitive (or brain) processes and more to do with how one acts in a certain environment. Some behavioral activities would include: 1) sitting quietly while in the classroom or in church; 2) opening the door for somebody to walk in ahead of you; 3) using good manners while at a restaurant; 4) helping an old
Structuralsim vs. Functionalism The structuralist/functionalist debate in the field of psychology focuses on the framework that psychological approaches should take. In the pioneer days of psychology, scholars argued whether one should take a structuralist or a functionalist approach to interpreting how the mind works. The essence of structuralism was promoted by Wilhelm Wundt in Germany and his pupil, Edward Titchener, is the man who gave the approach its name when he
Psychology Throughout its history, psychology has undergone a number of evolutions. As the study of mind, the discipline has necessarily been subject to change as new research revealed information about the functions of the mind and its effect upon behavior. Relatively simple conclusions drawn by those who are currently considered the founding fathers of psychology have been challenged and modified to become the various subdisciplines in psychology that we know
The Origins of Behaviorism: A Synthesis Paper Introduction Although behaviorism is now considered part of psychology, the scientific study of human behavior started out as its own investigative field. In fact, early behaviorists actively endeavored to set themselves apart from the psychology of their day. Many behaviorists believed psychologists—particularly Sigmund Freud--focused too much on the subconscious mind. Behaviorism was the first attempt to study human behavior using the scientific method. A multitude
If you fail to reproduce my findings, it is not due to some fault in your apparatus or in the control of your stimulus, but it is due to the fact that your introspection is untrained." (1878-1958) IV. Functionalism Structuralism resulted in a reaction that became known as Functionalism which was influenced greatly by the work of William James and the theory of Charles Darwin. Functionalism had as its emphasis intelligence
According to Bales, 1999, the concept behind SYMLOG is that "every act of behavior takes place in a larger context, that it is a part of an interactive field of influences." Further, "the approach assumes that one needs to understand the larger context -- person, interpersonal, group, and external situation -- in order to understand the patterns of behavior and to influence them successfully." With SYMLOG, measurement procedures are