history of psychology

Psychology

History of Psychology

Max Weitheimer (Laws of Organization in Perceptual Forms)

Max Wertheimer was one of the principal proponents of Gestalt theory which emphasized higher-order cognitive processes in the midst of behaviorism. The center of Gestalt premise was the concept of grouping. The chief aspects that determine grouping include: proximity which involves elements being grouped together according to their nearness, similarity, where items of similar respect tend to be grouped together, closure where items are grouped together if they tend to complete some entity and simplicity where items will be organized into simple figures according to symmetry, regularity, and smoothness. These factors are referred to as the laws of organization and are explained in the context of awareness and problem-solving. The fundamental character of successful problem-solving behavior according to Wertheimer is that of being able to envision the overall construction of the problem.

Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (Conditioned Reflexes: An investigation of the Physiological Activity of the Cerebral Cortex)

Pavlov was a Nobel Prize-winning physiologist, whose research into the process of the conditioned reflex is considered a landmark discovery in both modern physiology and behavioral psychology. Pavlov was recognized by the Nobel Committee for his work with mammalian digestion; however, later experiments with canine salivation led to his theorization of the learned or conditioned reflex, a physiological response to associated but otherwise unrelated stimuli. Pavlov saw that when dogs were offered some additional stimulus accompanied by regular feedings, such as a flash of light, could be made to salivate when only the added stimulation, and no food, was given. During experimentation, Pavlov ascertained the physiological basis of certain types of learned behavior. He also related his discovery of the conditioned reaction to humans.

Kurt Lewin (Experiments in Social Space)

Kurt Lewin's field theory was using the concept of fields of force to explain behavior in terms of one's field of social influences. His areas of interest included human motivation, which was involved describing human behavior in its total physical and social perspective. He paid close attention mainly to social problems that affect how people live and work. He worked hard to make factories more personal instead of industrial in order to make work more personally satisfying to the employees. His understanding of field theory in physics led him to the breakthrough of the life space. Lewin thought that a person's psychological activities happen within a kind of psychological field. He called this field the life space. The life space is made up of all events in a persons past, present and future that help shape and affect them. Each of the events is thought to help determine a person's behavior in any given situation. The life space is also made up of a person's needs in dealings with the psychological environment.

Edward Chace Tolman (Cognitive Maps in Rats and Men)

Edward Chace Tolman was an American psychologist famous for his exploration of learning in rats using mazes. Tolman's objective was to comprehend human mental processes by using experimental methods. Even though he used rats in mazes as his method, and was a behaviorist in his approach, he also included major ideas from Gestalt psychology. Cognitive maps are a kind of mental processing, or cognition, that is made up of a series of psychological transformations by which a person can obtain code, store, recall, and decode information about the relative locations and attributes of phenomenon in their everyday or figurative spatial environment. Cognitive maps are a way that people use to arrange and store spatial knowledge, allowing the mind's eye to visualize images in order to reduce cognitive load, and enhance recall and learning of information.

Donald Hebb (Organization of Behavior: A Neuropsychological Theory)

Donald Hebb attempted to combine present day knowledge of physiology and psychology into a comprehensive theory of thought and emotion to explain the nature of consciousness in physicobiologic terms. The theory is founded in substantial part on the variable effect and oftentimes obvious lack of effect which major brain operations have on intelligence and behavior. The concept of the author is that any frequently repeated particular stimulation leads to a slow development of a cell-assembly in the cortex and diencephalon and perhaps in the basal ganglions of the brain capable of acting briefly as a closed system which can deliver facilitation to other such systems and having, usually, a specific motor facilitation. A succession of such events constitutes a phase sequence comparable to thought process. The process portrayed is considered essential to adult waking behavior.