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Psychology is a branch of science that studies as well as practice cognitive process to behaviorism.
Ergo-'study of the mind'. (The term 'psychology' originated from the Greek word 'psyche', which means the soul. Second part
is 'logos' which in Greek means 'study of'). It was not until the early 18th century when the term 'psychology' was gaining
recognition of use.
Profession wise, you study psychology to apply the studies attained and to use them to critical applications.
For an example, there have been studies that an individual will most likely be saved from a physical abuse in a sparse populated
area. Where as, it is less likely someone will actually help you in a crowded street.
Now taking that aside, what in our minds program us to have the urge to help out others yet less chance
of assisting in crowded areas? Companies and organizations wants to know. After all, should they deploy their new shopping
center in a quiet suburb or crowded urban areas? Also the question arise regarding safety of consumers from a corporate point
of view...is it worth the possibility of buyers being attacked in parking lots in exchange for their money? From analytical
studies to psychology, both are used to produce commercial revenues and beyond. Basically, people need to understand how our
minds work to operate a motion of civilization. Which basically is, keep goods and services embedded in society, keep people
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When modern psychology as we know it began.
Wilhelm Wundt and G. Stanley Hall both played a critical role in the development of psychology. Wundt
established the best practice of studying psychology, which the idea was received quit well in his home country, Germany.
Secondly G. Stanley Hall, an American, was receptive of Wundt's beliefs of psychology. It was at one point when Hall decided
to take Wundt's teachings to America which eventually planted the seed of American modern psychology.
More information about Wilhelm Wundt & G. Stanley Hall --> Right side of this. |
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Schools Dispute. As
the study of psychology broaden throughout schools of America. Each had their own studies and research which simply led to
'facts'. While competing schools disputed with each other as to what findings should be considered the ultimate de-facto standard
of psychology, it all came down to structuralism versus functionalism.
| Structuralism - Study of psychology to
understand the concept of consciousness into it's core building blocks. Therefore for, ultimately studying how each are related
to each other. For an example, the sense of vision and feelings were commonly used to analyze consciousness through a method
called, introspection (enabling one's self to be fully aware of one's consciousness in a systematic order).
Edward Titchener was the primary drive to the ideology of structuralism. He was taught at Cornell
University, yet he graduated from Wundt's Leipzig laboratory. Titchener basically brought his own version of Wundt's work
into America.
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Functionalism - Practically the same definition of structuralism. However, instead of studying
the building blocks of consciousness and the relations, it is the study of the purpose or the function of consciousness.
William James (1842-1910) was an advocate of functionalism teaching. He is noted for his popular published
book 'Principles of Psychology' (1890). He admired the work of Charles Darwin, especially the belief of 'natural selection'
(species with the most admirable genes have a better chance of mating to pass onto the next generation). In this sense, James
concluded that to approach the study of psychology, it is the functions that needs to be investigated instead of structure
of consciousness. Also concluding that consciousness is a process of free flow of thoughts which he labeled as "stream of
consciousness".
Structuralists were more inclined to resorting to laboratories to their studies. On the contrary, functionalists
were more interested in how people behaved or adapted to their surrendering environment. People such as James McKeen Cattell
and John Dewey experimented with the idea of functionalism to the next level. (patterns of development in children, comparing
and contrasting behavioral characteristics of sexes, etc.) With more broad yet specific ideas of approaching the study of
psychology, it had caught the attention of women in getting involved of field of psychology.
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"I am actually not at all a man of science, not an
observer, not an experimenter, not a thinker. I am by temperament nothing but a conquistador--an adventurer, if you want it
translated--with all the curiosity, daring, and tenacity characteristic of a man of this sort"
(Sigmund Freud, letter to Wilhelm Fliess, Feb. 1, 1900).
"By the 1950s and '60s, the master's warning had been drowned in a tumult
of excited voices. Psychoanalysts and psychiatrists could cure even schizophrenia, the most feared mental disease of all,
they claimed, and they could do it simply by talking with their patients" (Dolnick, 12).
"The person best able to undergo psychoanalysis is someone who, no matter how incapacitated at the
time, is basically, or potentially, a sturdy individual. This person may have already achieved important satisfactions—with friends, in marriage, in work, or through special interests and hobbies—but is nonetheless significantly impaired by long-standing symptoms: depression or anxiety, sexual
incapacities, or physical symptoms without any demonstrable underlying physical cause. One person may be plagued by private
rituals or compulsions or repetitive thoughts of which no one else is aware. Another may live a constricted life of isolation
and loneliness, incapable of feeling close to anyone. A victim of childhood sexual abuse might suffer from an inability to
trust others. Some people come to analysis because of repeated failures in work or in love, brought about not by chance but
by self-destructive patterns of behavior. Others need analysis because the way they are—their
character—substantially limits their choices and their pleasures." (American
Psychoanalytic Association)
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