Foundations and Schools of Thought in Psychology
General Psychology
General psychology studies mental processes and conduct in the normal individual. Key historical perspectives include:
- Rationalism (Mentalism): Descartes proposed a duality of mind and body (res cogitans and res extensa) and introduced the concept of reflex. Leibniz posited that monads, through pre-established harmony, reflect individual behavior. He also differentiated between conscious, unconscious, and perception.
- Empiricism (Behaviorism): Emphasized the role of senses over innate ideas. Associationism influenced Wundt. Hobbes advocated for a materialistic view. Locke proposed that substance is unknown. Hume argued that induction is inferred from experience.
- Kant (Constructivism): Synthesized rationalist and empiricist approaches, arguing that reason and science support psychology. However, he viewed introspection as a flawed method, proposing natural anthropology instead.
- Biology: The experimental method, particularly Bernard’s hypothetical-deductive approach, revealed the workings of the nervous system.
- Evolutionary Theory: Lamarck’s ideas on biological evolution from simple to complex and Darwin’s theory of natural selection influenced the study of function and behavior.
- Influence of Medicine: Charcot’s work on neurosis and Mesmer’s mesmerism contributed to the field.
Psychological Science
Psychological science examines human behavior, often considered a byproduct of underlying psychic processes. Different schools of thought have varying perspectives:
- Psychoanalysts focus on the unconscious.
- Behaviorists, being mentalists, tend to ignore the mind and focus on observable behavior.
- Mentalism views the mind indirectly through behavior.
- Behavior analysis studies observable stimuli and responses.
- Neobehaviorists like Tolman studied the mind and behavior in terms of cognitive processes.
- Cognitivism and constructivism, influenced by Piaget, view the mind as an information processor.
Conception of the Body: Innate ideas, associationism, and Kantian cognitivism influenced the development of a hybrid model of information processing, similar to von Neumann’s computer architecture.
Scientific Method
Epistemology, scientific systems, theoretical language, causality, deductive universal scientific laws, and probabilistic induction are central to the scientific method. The hypothetical-deductive method, contrasting experimental and correlational approaches, is also crucial. Correlation is measured using the correlation coefficient.
Founding of Scientific Psychology
In Leipzig, the analysis of elements and psychic processes (stimulation, perception, apperception) continued using the experimental method and introspection.
- Franz Brentano: Act psychology.
- Würzburg School: Külpe studied thought without images.
- Ebbinghaus: Studied memory.
- Structuralism: Titchener focused on the object of consciousness.
- Functionalism: Examined the purpose and function of mental processes, influenced by Darwin. William James explored the mind’s activities and conditions, using introspection and experimentation. He also proposed a theory of individual differences in emotion.
- Measurement: Gauss’s bell curve, Galton’s work on individual differences, Cattell’s mental tests, and Binet’s intelligence test (IQ) were significant contributions.
Psychoanalysis
Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, introduced the concepts of the unconscious (1st topic: conscious, preconscious, unconscious; 2nd topic: id, ego, superego), libido, and the replacement of hypnosis with free association. Transference involves the patient transferring past ideas and feelings onto the analyst. Adler and Jung developed individual and analytical psychology, respectively, with Jung introducing the concept of the collective unconscious.
Behaviorism
Influenced by empiricism, positivism, and evolution, Watson proposed cognitive maps (stimulus-response). Skinner developed radical behaviorism. Neobehaviorism used the hypothetical-deductive method and experimentation, with Hull focusing on deduction.
Cognitivism
Influenced by Bertalanffy’s general systems theory, Shannon’s information theory, Turing’s automata, and Wiener’s cybernetics. McCulloch and Pitts developed neural network models. Newell and Simon created computational models. Connectionism was advanced by Smolensky.
Humanistic Psychology
An alternative to behaviorism and psychoanalysis, humanistic psychology emphasizes subjectivity and drives but lacks empirical validation.
Constructivism
A subparadigm of cognitivism, constructivism views knowledge as actively constructed. Bartlett and Gestalt psychology influenced Piaget’s work on developmental stages.
Psychological processes reflect innate instincts.
Cognitive Processes
These include perception (complex, recurrent, selective), memory (storage, register, recovery), and thinking. Watson viewed thinking as behaviorist, while Skinner saw it as related to artificial intelligence. Language is studied within epistemology.
Personality
Personality is a theoretical construct. Models include the personalistic (Jung, Freud, Rogers, Kelly), situationist (Skinner), and interactionist (behaviorism).
Educational Psychology
Bruner focused on discovery learning, while Ausubel emphasized meaningful learning.