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Psychology Approaches
There are different ways to view and explain behavior. As the field of psychology evolved, various schools of thought arose to compete and offer new approaches to the science of behavior.

Directions: For each of the historical and contemporary approaches of psychology below, use the textbook (and other research methods if necessary) to complete the table. Use the examples as guides.
Approach
Description/Important Contribution to Psychology
One important figure
Image that represents the perspective
Historical:



Structuralism (p.8)
(example) Structuralists were interested in the basic elements of human experience

Established psychology as a separate field of study, studied behavior systematically for the first time
Wilhelm Wundt

Functionalism (p.11)
Focused on the functions or actions of the conscious mind and the goals or purposes of behaviors.

Studied how animals and people adapt to their environments.
William James

Inheritable Traits (p.11)
Focus on how heredity or biological traits passed from parents to children, influences abilities, character, and behavior.

Raised the question of behavior as determined by heredity or environment.
Sir Francis Galton

Gestalt (p.11-12)
They argued that perception is more than the sum of its parts, it involves a whole pattern.

Before the forerunner for cognitive approaches to the study of psychology.


Wolfgang Kohler

Contemporary:



Psychoanalysis (p.12-13)
Believed that our conscious experiences are only the tip of an iceberg, that beneath the surface are primitive biological urges that are conflict with the requirements of society and morality.

Introduced free association, dream analysis and case to study psychology.



(example) Sigmund Freud

Behaviorism (p.13)
That psychology should concern itself only with observable facts of behavior.

popularized the concept of changing behaviors through repeated rewards or punishments.




John B. Watson
(example)
Humanism (p.13)
Developed as a reaction to behavioral psychology.

Focus on how we process, store, receive, use information and how information influences thinking, language, problem-solving and creativity.


Abraham Maslow

Psychobiology (p.13)
How the brain, the nervous system, hormones, and genetics influence our behavior.

Found a wide variety of genetic factors that influence a range of human behaviors such as autistic kids.
William James

Sociocultural Psychology (p.14)
Considers how our knowledge and ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving are dependant on the culture to which we belong.

Study the attitudes, values, beliefs, and social norms of these various racial and ethnic
Leonard Doob