The Importance of Psychology Today
Alexandra Hamlet
September, 30, 2000 The Importance of Psychology Today
The study of mental functions and human behavior in which scientists develop hypotheses and test these theories are referred to today as psychology. In effort to explain the human behaviors, psychologist research and use the studies of other psychologist in effort to find the answers to question like why a person acts or behaves the way they do? The most common approaches in psychology are behavioral, psychoanalytic, cognitive, social/cultural, and physiological. The complexity of humans has fascinated scientist for years. Psychologists have been investigating human’s cognitive, humanistic, social/cultural and behavioral responses since the beginning of this century. It has been only recently that the physiological approach has begun to understand how the brain affects behavior and how behavior affects the brain.
In the 1800’s psychology used two major approaches known as structuralism and functionalism. Structuralism approach analyses the basic elements of experiences in which people acknowledged. In effort to research mental awareness of people, psychologies recorded the verbal explanations of their experiences. Functionalism focused on how the brain processes information when people are being observed in the ideal learning conditions. Frances Galton believed that intellectual abilities were inherited and fixed at birth because when he observed that people in the same family often were similar in terms of intelligence. By the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, a psychologist named Stanley Hall was the first president of the American Psychological Association and the founder of the first scientific psychological journal. The American Psychological Association provided a way from many psychologists to share their researches. Hall was one of the first psychologists to explain the biological view of human behavior with an emphasis on stages of development unfolding in a
September, 30, 2000 The Importance of Psychology Today
The study of mental functions and human behavior in which scientists develop hypotheses and test these theories are referred to today as psychology. In effort to explain the human behaviors, psychologist research and use the studies of other psychologist in effort to find the answers to question like why a person acts or behaves the way they do? The most common approaches in psychology are behavioral, psychoanalytic, cognitive, social/cultural, and physiological. The complexity of humans has fascinated scientist for years. Psychologists have been investigating human’s cognitive, humanistic, social/cultural and behavioral responses since the beginning of this century. It has been only recently that the physiological approach has begun to understand how the brain affects behavior and how behavior affects the brain.
In the 1800’s psychology used two major approaches known as structuralism and functionalism. Structuralism approach analyses the basic elements of experiences in which people acknowledged. In effort to research mental awareness of people, psychologies recorded the verbal explanations of their experiences. Functionalism focused on how the brain processes information when people are being observed in the ideal learning conditions. Frances Galton believed that intellectual abilities were inherited and fixed at birth because when he observed that people in the same family often were similar in terms of intelligence. By the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, a psychologist named Stanley Hall was the first president of the American Psychological Association and the founder of the first scientific psychological journal. The American Psychological Association provided a way from many psychologists to share their researches. Hall was one of the first psychologists to explain the biological view of human behavior with an emphasis on stages of development unfolding in a
References: Branches of Psychology (September, 30, 2000). Psy/300. Class notes Dreikurs, R. (1987). Are Psychological Schools of Thought Outdated? Individual Psychology: The Journal of Adlerian Theory, Research & Practice, 3(43), 265. Retrieved from http://proquest/ retrieved from Academic Search Complete database Overskeid, G. (1995). Cognitive or Behaviorist -- Who can tell the difference? The case of implicit and explicit knowledge. British Journal of Psychology, 86(4), 517. Retrieved from http://proquest/ Retrieved August 30, 2010 from Research Library Schichksanz, D. L., Schickdcanz, J. A., Forsyth, P. D., & Forsyth, G. A. (1998). Understanding Children and Adolescents (3rd ed.). Needham Heights, MA: A Viacom Company.