Foundations of Psychology

Foundations of Psychology

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Foundations of Psychology

Introduction

Psychology is an academic discipline that deals with the study of mental processes and human behavior. It tends to explain the principles and factors that influence the behavior of individuals. Initially, psychologists defined psychology as a science that was different from philosophy and biology. However, psychologists have come up with theories that give a deeper meaning to psychology. Many schools of thought explain the foundations of psychology. The schools of psychology represent the main theories of psychology. Each theory has its own propositions, but it is common for most psychologists to combine several theories in their arguments. New theories are mostly critics or advancements of previous theories. This essay looks at the major schools of thought in psychology and their assumptions. It will also explain the biological foundations of psychology linked to behavior.

Major schools of thought in psychology

The earliest schools of thought that are the foundations of psychology are structuralism and functionalism. These are the theories that explained psychology when it was founded. However, psychologists have been advancing and criticizing these classical schools of thought to come up with modern or improved schools of thought.

Structuralism

Structuralism is the earliest school of thought in psychology. Its main interest was to establish psychology as an independent science. This school focused on understanding the mental processes of the mind besides the five senses in order to understand the structure of the mind. Its focus was breaking down the mental process into distinct stages and elements through an analysis of experiences and perception. This school applied the scientific theory of introspection, which involves having a detailed analysis of something and then drawing conclusions based on conscience and experiences. The main assumption of this school of thought is that two individuals will have the same perception on an occurrence or a thing. This assumption is the basis of criticism that psychologists and other parties have leveled against structuralism. Perception depends on an individual, and it is wrong to assume that different people will have the same perception of thing.

Functionalism

This school invests in the limitations of the structuralism theory. It acknowledges that consciousness and perception keep on changing thereby challenging any efforts to study the structure of the mind. The founders of this school of thought argued that the only way of understanding the mind was through the study of its functions. The main assumption of this school is that the brain functions lead to adaptation to a certain environment. Unlike the structuralism theory, which concentrated on defining psychology as an independent science, the functionalism theory concentrated on the application of psychology in solving real problems. Functionalism depends on introspection despite its limitations. Therefore, the two classical theories have received criticism on their ability to explain psychology.

Primary biological foundations of psychology linked to behavior

The limitations of the above school of thoughts influenced psychologists in coming up with other modernized thoughts about psychology. These modern schools of thoughts towards psychology include behaviorism, psychodynamic perspective, cognitive perspective, humanistic perspective and gestalt perspective among others. These theories have one thing in common. All of them try to explain the behavior of different behaviors. Therefore, they are the biological foundations of explaining behavior in philosophy. The new schools of thought are able to propose their ideas through an analysis of the weaknesses and limitations of the classical schools. However, most of them concentrate on understanding human behaviors by looking at the biological foundations of psychology.

Behaviorism

Behaviorism suggests that the environment influences the behavior of human beings. It suggests that the internal structures of the brain and the human body have no effect on behavior. This theory uses animals as experiments of natural science. Its main assumption is that human beings will display the same features of behavior. The theory argues that the environment has some events (stimuli), which trigger behaviors seen in people (responses). Different scientists used this theory to develop their work. For instance, Charles Darwin used this school of thought to study the adaptation of animals to their environment (Westen & Kowalski, 2011).

Psychodynamic perspective

Sigmund Freud developed this school of thought. He noted the three elements of the human mind, which are the id, the ego and the superego. The id determines the urges to a behavioral pattern; the ego determines personality and reality while the superego is a collection of values and attitudes that man borrows from parents and culture. According to Freud, the three factors interact with each other and influence human behavior. Thus, the school of thought stresses the effect of the unconscious mind in determining human behavior. Individuals are not aware of the factors that influence their behavior because they cannot control the factors.

Cognitive perspective

This school of thought uses the limitations of behaviorism in its arguments. Behaviorism does not outline the role of internal functions and processes in influencing human behavior. This school examines how people think and how they perceive and remember what they learn. The school of thought examines how people perceive and process information in understanding how the brain works. However, cognitive psychology has many similarities with behaviorism. The two schools highlight the importance of the environment in determining and influencing the behavior of human beings.

Evolutionary perspective and biopsychology

Evolutionary perspective foundation of philosophy suggests that the ability of humans to perceive and respond to certain issues in the environment is a result of evolution over time. The school of thought explains how evolution helps in passing adaptive characteristics from parents to their offsprings (Westen & Kowalski, 2011). Different scientists used this theory to explain the process of evolution and heredity. The theory highlights the effect of the environment in influencing behavior just like the behaviorist perspective. Biopsychology school of thought uses the nervous system in explaining human behavior. This foundation of human behavior analyzes the limits of the brain in determining psychological functions. The school uses the example of an individual with a brain injury to show the relationship between the brain and the cognitive functions of the body.

Conclusion

The essay has outlined the main schools of thought in psychology and the basic assumptions that the theories use in their arguments. Structuralism and functionalism are the earliest theories that explain the foundations of psychology. The focus of these theories was to distinguish between psychology and other sciences. For example, the structuralism school of thought explains the difference between psychology and biology (Westen & Kowalski, 2011, p. 6). The essay has also examined the interplay of different schools of thought and their effects on human behavior. Different schools of thought lay the biological foundations of understanding human behavior. Different schools of thought of psychology focus on giving their meaning of psychology while sidelining others. However, they do not achieve this because in the end all of them narrow to the same understanding of psychology.

The combination of all schools of thought leads to new perspectives of understanding psychology, for example, the clinical and physiological perspectives. The physiological perspective focuses on the effects of the brain on behavior and the how effects of behavior on the brain. The clinical perspective is a combination of several schools of thought aimed at diversifying the field of psychology. The schools of thought are mostly the foundation of explaining human behavior. Individuals portray different characteristics due to factors that the schools of thought highlight. For instance, the environment and adaptation determines the behavior of individuals. Human beings have different ways of perceiving and understanding certain aspects and things in life. Different views of reality and the ability of individuals to make their own choices influences their behavior.

References

Westen, D., & Kowalski, R. (2011). Psychology. Chichester: John Wiley and Sons Ltd.