The ancient Greeks were the first people to initiate the study of the human mind and behaviour. This was the inception of the subject of psychology (Malone, 2009). It was until the 1870’s that this study became independent and was denoted as psychology. In the quest of understanding the human mind and behaviours, various theories were developed. This paper will analyse some of the theories of psychology.
Behaviourism
This is one of the earliest theories of psychology developed by John Watson and Skinner among others. It studies the observable behaviours of humans and animals. Initially, psychology could not make predictions of behaviour. This is what this school of thought aimed at being able to correct this aspect. As such, a combination of elements of philosophy, theory and methodology were utilised (Adler, 1997).
Skinner did his experiments on animals to provide evidence in support of this school of thought. According to him, behaviour is learnt. In one of his experiments, he showed that a rat learnt that by pressing a lever it was fed. Henceforth, the rat would press the lever without any provocation. Other researchers like Thorndike and Guthrie presented more solid evidence by furthering the work of Skinner. The experiment on animals was further developed into classical conditioning by Ivan Pavlov (Adler, 1997).
The school of thought was applied successfully in various fields but most significantly in education. Teachers learnt that behaviour is learnt through practice. This theory was upheld for a while until other psychologists developed other theories.
Humanistic psychology
This school of thought was developed as a response to the theory on behaviourism. It was developed by Carl Rodgers. Apparently, a human being is driven by an internal feeling to succeed. As such, all the behaviours are aimed towards the same (Adler, 1997). Basing on the newly developed business industry, the proponents of this school of thought insisted that this theory was a driving force. The development of goods to secondary and tertiary products could be explained through this theory. To them, people are naturally good and intentional in what they do.
Evidence for this theory was largely based on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs theory. The theory has been successfully employed in studying social work (Malone, 2009). Most of the tenets and principles of social work were developed as a result of this school of thought. Other fields that have benefited from this school of thought include self help, guidance and counselling. Thus, it has been widely used in those fields and also in educational institutions.
Cognitive Psychology
This school of psychology studies the mental processes like memory, language, judging and reasoning. The origin of this school of thought can be traced back to the 18th century. Various scholars were involved in the development of this school of thought. This theory was developed as a result of the criticisms of the behavioural school of thought. Warfare technology and the development of computer science led to further development of this theory (Malone, 2009).
In their research, the developers of this school of thought revealed that behaviour is connected to mental processes. They were against the assertion that behaviour is voluntary or spontaneous (Malone, 2009). According to this school of thought, one developed behaviours mentally before performing them physically. This school of thought was upheld for a long time. This was attributed to the combination of mental processes with behaviour.
References
Adler, A. (1997). Understanding human nature. New York: Greenburg.
Malone, J.C. (2009). Psychology: Pythagoras to present. Cambridge: MIT Press.
