Psychological Schools Of Thought

3 Pages 822 Words

The thematic approaches of early psychology…





Psychological Schools of Thought





Abstract
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), Austrian physician, neurologist, and founder of psychoanalysis. ‘The thematic approaches of early psychology’. The paper poses the issues of how psychology came to be. Also noted are the psychological schools of thought, Behaviorism, Cognitive Psychology, Developmental Psychology, Functionalism, Gestalt Psychology, Humanistic Psychology, Psychoanalytical Psychology, and Structuralism.
Psychological Schools of Thought
The founder of psychology is believed to be Sigmund Freud because his studies were so controversial. Freud had developed the psychodynamic perspective with the help of his followers. This all started with his sudden interest in Hypnotherapy, which is the therapeutic use of suggestion. It was later to be abandoned because his studies proved that not everyone could be hypnotized. Moving on, Freud had developed a treatment for maladaptive behavior known as psychoanalytic therapy. It is the attempt to bring the unconscious causes of distress to the conscious level. Freud believed that once you bring the sources of distress to the awareness of the patient, they can be changed. This is believed to be how psychology was born.

From Freud’s studies was born the many different psychological schools of thoughts. Behaviorism, Cognitive Psychology, Developmental Psychology, Functionalism, Gestalt Psychology, Humanistic Psychology, Psychoanalytical Psychology, and Structuralism.

Behaviorism, discovered by John B. Watson, is the psychology of studying human behavior. There are two types of condition associated with behaviorism. The first one, classical conditioning, is when a new stimulus is paired with an already existent stimulus-response bond. The second one, operant conditioning, on the other hand is when a behavior is immediately reinforced or punished. Behaviorism...