Samuel Chiltern answered
There are five main schools of thought in Psychology:
1. Structuralism and Functionalism
Structuralism was the first school of psychology, and was formally set up by Edward Titchener, a student of Wilhelm Wundt, who is considered to be the father of experimental Psychology.
Structuralism focused on de-constructing mental processes into the the smallest possible units.
Functionalism arrived after structuralism and reacted against what it saw as over-emphasis on the actual mental processes, preferring instead to look at the roles that these processes play.
2. Behaviourism
Behaviourism overtook structuralism and functionalism, and dominated psychological understanding in the 1950s. The central tenet of behaviourism is that all behaviour is merely a reaction to external influences, and the approach ignores internal motivations, since they cannot be directly observed.
Key contributors to the behaviourist school of thought included B. F. Skinner and Ivan Pavlov.
3. Psychoanalysis
Sigmund Freud, possibly one of the most famous psychologists, founded the school of psychoanalysis. Central to the movement was the notion that the unconscious mind has a profound effect upon an individual's behaviour.
4. Humanistic Psychology
Humanistic psychology differs from the earlier schools, in that it focuses on helping people improve themselves, rather than looking at what is wrong with them. Humanistic psychology was a reaction against behaviourism and psychoanalysis.
5. Cognitive Psychology
Cognitive psychology focuses on how people perceive, think, remember and learn. This field of psychology interlinks with neuroscience and linguistics, in an attempt to understand, with the backing of impartial evidence, how processes such as language, memory and perception work.
Cognitive psychology emerged in response to what its proponents saw as the significant shortcomings of behaviourism, namely that the latter failed to account for the internal processes of a person.
1. Structuralism and Functionalism
Structuralism was the first school of psychology, and was formally set up by Edward Titchener, a student of Wilhelm Wundt, who is considered to be the father of experimental Psychology.
Structuralism focused on de-constructing mental processes into the the smallest possible units.
Functionalism arrived after structuralism and reacted against what it saw as over-emphasis on the actual mental processes, preferring instead to look at the roles that these processes play.
2. Behaviourism
Behaviourism overtook structuralism and functionalism, and dominated psychological understanding in the 1950s. The central tenet of behaviourism is that all behaviour is merely a reaction to external influences, and the approach ignores internal motivations, since they cannot be directly observed.
Key contributors to the behaviourist school of thought included B. F. Skinner and Ivan Pavlov.
3. Psychoanalysis
Sigmund Freud, possibly one of the most famous psychologists, founded the school of psychoanalysis. Central to the movement was the notion that the unconscious mind has a profound effect upon an individual's behaviour.
4. Humanistic Psychology
Humanistic psychology differs from the earlier schools, in that it focuses on helping people improve themselves, rather than looking at what is wrong with them. Humanistic psychology was a reaction against behaviourism and psychoanalysis.
5. Cognitive Psychology
Cognitive psychology focuses on how people perceive, think, remember and learn. This field of psychology interlinks with neuroscience and linguistics, in an attempt to understand, with the backing of impartial evidence, how processes such as language, memory and perception work.
Cognitive psychology emerged in response to what its proponents saw as the significant shortcomings of behaviourism, namely that the latter failed to account for the internal processes of a person.
