You are teaching a course called “The History of Psychology, “ and in your very

Question

You are teaching a course called “The History of Psychology, “ and in your very first lecture you want to cover the major “players” and beliefs of the first three perspectives in the field of psychology. Write 3 paragraphs that present the major information (theorists, dates, concepts) that you would want to disseminate to your students. Make sure to include discussion of how the various theories agreed or disagreed with each other. (Reference pages 7-8 in text) You are teaching a course called “The History of Psychology, “ and in your very first lecture you want to cover the major “players” and beliefs of the first three perspectives in the field of psychology. Write 3 paragraphs that present the major information (theorists, dates, concepts) that you would want to disseminate to your students. Make sure to include discussion of how the various theories agreed or disagreed with each other. (Reference pages 7-8 in text)

Explanation / Answer

The first use of the term "psychology" is often attributed to the German scholastic philosopher Rudolf Goeckel (Latinized Rudolph Goclenius), published in 1590.

In 1879, Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920), known as "the father of psychology", founded a laboratory for the study of psychology at Leipzig University in Germany. The American philosopher William James published his seminal book, Principles of Psychology, in 1890, laying the foundations for many of the questions that psychologists would focus on for years to come. Other important early contributors to the field include Hermann Ebbinghaus (1850–1909), a pioneer in the experimental study of memory at the University of Berlin; and the Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936), who investigated the learning process now referred to as classical conditioning.

Meanwhile, during the 1890s, the Austrian physician Sigmund Freud, who was trained as a neurologist and had no formal training in experimental psychology, had developed a method of psychotherapy known as psychoanalysis. Freud's understanding of the mind was largely based on interpretive methods and introspection and was focused in particular on resolving mental distress and psychopathology. Freud's theories became very well-known, largely because they tackled subjects such as sexuality and repression as general aspects of psychological development. These were largely considered taboo subjects at the time, and Freud provided a catalyst for them to be openly discussed in polite society. Although Freud's theories are only of limited interest in modern academic psychology departments, his application of psychology to clinical work has been very influential.

Partly in reaction to the subjective and introspective nature of Freudian psychology, and its focus on the recollection of childhood experiences, during the early decades of the 20th-century behaviourism gained popularity as a guiding psychological theory. Championed by psychologists such as John B. Watson and Edward Thorndike (and later, B.F. Skinner), behaviourism was grounded in studies of animal behaviour. Behaviorists argued that psychology should be a science of behaviour, not the mind, and rejected the idea that internal mental states such as beliefs, desires, or goals could be studied scientifically. In his paper "Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It" (1913), Watson argued that psychology "is a purely objective [emphasis added] experimental branch of natural science," that "introspection forms no essential part of its methods", and that "the behaviorist recognizes no dividing line between man and brute."

Behaviorism reigned as the dominant model in psychology through the first half of the 20th century, largely due to the creation of conditioning theories as scientific models of human behaviour, and their successful application in the workplace and in fields such as advertising.

As psychology progressed, it began to tackle the question of why we do what we do from different angles, including biological, psychodynamic, behavioural, cognitive and humanistic perspectives.

An approach is a perspective (i.e., view) that involves certain assumptions (i.e., beliefs) about human behavior: the way they function, which aspects of them are worthy of study and what research methods are appropriate for undertaking this study. There may be several different theories within an approach, but they all share these common assumptions.

You may wonder why there are so many different psychology perspectives and whether one approach is correct and others wrong. Most psychologists would agree that no one perspective is correct, although in the past, in the early days of psychology, the behaviourist would have said their perspective was the only truly scientific one. Each perspective has its strengths and weaknesses and brings something different to our understanding of human behaviour. For this reason, it is important that psychology does have different perspectives on the understanding and study of human and animal behaviour.

Let's look at each of these five main approaches that guide modern psychological research.

Biological Perspective
Biopsychologists look at how your nervous system, hormones and genetic makeup affect your behaviour. Biological psychologists explore the connection between your mental states and your brain, nerves and hormones to explore how your thoughts, moods and actions are shaped.

So what does that mean? It means that for the biological approach, you are the sum of your parts. You think the way you do because of the way your brain is built and because of your body's needs. All of your choices are based on your physical body. The biological approach attempts to understand the healthy brain, but it also examines the mind and body to figure out how disorders like schizophrenia develop from genetic roots.
Psychodynamic perspective
The psychodynamic approach was promoted by Sigmund Freud, who believed that many of our impulses are driven by sex. Psychologists in this school of thought believe that unconscious drives and experiences from early childhood are at the root of your behaviours and that conflict arises when societal restrictions are placed on these urges.

There are a lot of jokes about Freud and his now mostly outdated theories. But have you ever thought that something about who you are today comes from your experiences as a child? Say, you blame your smoking habit on an oral fixation that stems from being weaned from breastfeeding too early as a baby. Well, that also comes from Freud's theories, and it was an idea that revolutionized how we see ourselves.

Behavioral perspective
Behavioral psychologists believe that external environmental stimuli influence your behaviour and that you can be trained to act a certain way. Behaviorists like B.F. Skinner don't believe in free will. They believe that you learn through a system of reinforcements and punishment.

The behavioural approach is really effective when you don't care what someone thinks, as long as you get the desired behaviour. The influence of these theories affects us every day and throughout our lives, impacting everything from why we follow the rules of the road when driving to how advertising companies build campaigns to get us to buy their products.

Cognitive perspective
In contrast to behaviourists, cognitive psychologists believe that your behaviour is determined by your expectations and emotions. Cognitive psychologist Jean Piaget would argue that you remember things based on what you already know. You also solve problems based on your memory of past experiences.

So, with this approach, we turn away from people as machines without free will and delve back into thoughts and feelings. How you act is based upon internal processes, and there is much more stress upon individuals. From a cognitive perspective, your expectations of an upcoming party will affect how you feel and act while you're there and will colour your memory of the night after you return home.

Humanistic perspective
Humanistic psychologists believe that you're essentially good and that you're motivated to realize your full potential. Psychologists from this camp focus on how you can feel good about yourself by fulfilling your needs and goals. The prominent humanistic psychologist Carl Rogers called his patients 'clients' and offered a supportive environment in which clients could gain insight into their own feelings.

In contrast to the behavioural approach, the humanistic approach works on individual empowerment. Whether you are right or not, in a larger sense, you are motivated to be the best person you can be. All your choices come from trying to improve your life. So, if you're trying to cut back on your nightly wine consumption, a humanistic therapist would be encouraging and supportive but won't directly advise you to quit or try to analyze why you drink in the first place.

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