The foundations of psychology were laid after the integration of biology and philosophy into a new realm of knowledge – known as psychology in the modern age. One of the things which led to the development of psychology is some ‘mysteries’ in the early studies of biology. For example, biologists could not understand the relationship between the brain and some of the physical changes witnessed in trauma patients. This sparked interest into studying the association between emotional responses and the brain. With time, distinct schools of thought such as structuralism, functionalism, psychodynamic analysis and behaviorism were developed with the aim of understanding the emotions behind what people experience (Kellogg, 2011). The history of psychology is incomplete without the story of William Wundt, described by many as the father of psychology.
William Wundt laid the foundation of psychology through a study carried put in his lab from 1879. Wundt occasionally studied the conscious experience of his students, and the study focused on two elements: sensations and feelings. Following Wundt’s work, Edward Titchener, one of Wundt’s students, came up with a school of thought known as structuralism (Kowalski & Westen, 2005). Titchener concentrated on the structures that make up consciousness, and the assumption was that human culture serves as the best starting point in understanding what humans do and think. However, this school of thought fell out favor with other psychologists after it emerged that feelings and perception cannot be measured. This led to the development of another school of thought known as functionalism.
Functionalism, as a school of thought, focused on the psychological processes involved in adapting to the environment. The major proponent of this foundation was William James. The assumption underlying functionalism was that there was no need to classify consciousness because what matters is the purpose of consciousness and the processes that occur within the mind. From the structuralism and functionalism schools of thought other perspectives (such as cognitive, behaviorist, evolutionary and psychodynamic perspectives) evolved.
The psychodynamic perspective, developed by Sigmund Freud, was based on the assumption that the brain has three distinct parts which control the level of consciousness, and this determines the way people think, feel and behave. Freud’s perspective was that careful analysis of the subconscious mind could reveal some key pointers to an individual’s suppressed fears, and this could be used in the treatment of mental disorders. The behaviorist perspective, on the other hand, was motivated by the study of the way organisms respond to their environment.
The assumption behind behaviorism perspective was that learning plays a major role in the manner in which some organisms react to certain events or objects in a certain way. The behaviorist perspective was largely advanced by Ivan Pavlov who experimented with his dogs. During the course of experiment, Pavlov noticed that the sound of a ringing bell signaled his dogs that it was time to eat (Kowalski & Westen, 2005). As a result, the dogs would start to salivate after hearing the bell, even when there was no food. Pavlov concluded that ringing the bell was a stimulus that was associated with eating; the dogs had learned this behavior and it was now a habit. The behaviorist perspective was also developed by B.F skinner through experiments he carried out with rats and pigeons.
Through his experiments, Skinner proved that certain behaviors could be reinforced through reward and punishment. These experiments proved that some of the behaviors could be learned through experience. The behaviorists believed that observing human behavior is more important in unlocking their psychology than analyzing the inner workings of the environment.
Apart from behaviorism, the other perspective anchored on the foundations of psychology was the cognitive perspective. Cognitive perspective focuses on how learning takes place, how memory is retrieved, and how mental processing takes place. The assumption underlying this perspective is that the knowledge originates from the mind, and human behavior is predictable depending on the information received.
As stated earlier, biology is closely related to psychology, and there are several biological foundations of psychology that are linked to behavior (Furnham, 2012). One of the areas where biology and psychology interlink is in the area of behavioral science. This is an area which concentrates on the several physical factors that lead to stress, emotional fluctuations and the psychical aspects that govern memory. Behavioral neuroscience is also concerned with the nervous system, and chemical and electrical responses that are linked to the nervous system with an emphasis on the personality changes that take place. The assumption behind behavioral neuroscience is that behavior is an expression of the things that go inside the body and thus an individual’s behavior can be altered through the physical make-up.
In conclusion, the most fundamental foundations of psychology were structuralism and functionalism; other schools of thought in psychology were later developed from this two. The existence of various psychological perspectives indicates the complexity of body and the mind functions, but it is not an indication that the field of psychology is dysfunctional; it is an indication that there is a lot that lies ahead in the field of psychology.
References
Kowalski, R., & Westen, D. (2005). Psychology (4th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Furnham, Adrian. (2012). The Psychology of Behaviour at Work (2nd Ed.). New York, NY:
Psychology Press.
Kellogg, Ronald T. (2011). Fundamentals of Cognitive Psychology. Thousand
Oaks, CA: Sage
