LECTURE :2

History

of Psychology

Different
Who

Schools of Thought

is Right?

HISTORY OF PSYCHOLOGY
Wilhelm Wundt established the first laboratory
in Leipzig Germany in 1879.
Some historians believe that William James
deserves the credit for opening up the first ever
laboratory in 1875 at Harvard University.
In fact many people founded Psychology since
they had varied interests and talents . This is
what makes Psychology such a diverse subject.

DIFFERENT SCHOOLS OF
THOUGHTS
Structuralism
Functionalism
Psychodynamic Psychology
Behaviorism
Gestalt Psychology
Existential and Humanistic Psychology
Cognitive Psychology

STRUCTURALISM
Wundts primary interest was perception.
His goal was to develop techniques for
uncovering the natural laws of the human mind.
Wundt and his students set out to strip
perception of all its associations to find out the
most fundamental elements, or atoms , of
thought. Thus training themselves in the art of
objective introspection.
For example when we look at an orange , we
instantly think that it is something to peel and
eat because of our past experience. All we really
see is a round orange object.

CONTD.
Edward Bradford Titchener was Wundts
student and was later appointed a professor at
Cornell university .
He broke consciousness down into three basic
elements:
a.
Physical sensation (what we see)
b.
Feelings (such as liking or disliking bananas)
c.
Images (memories of other bananas)

CONTD.
Even the most complex thoughts and feelings can
be reduced to these simple elements.
Titchener saw psychologys rule as identifying
these elements and showing how they can be
combined and integrated .
Because it stresses the basic units of experience
and the combinations in which they occur , this
school of psychology is called Structuralism.

FUNCTIONALISM
In 1875, James offered a class in Psychology at
Harvard, he later commented that the first ever
lecture that he heard on the subject was his own.
He suggested that Wundts atoms of
experience pure sensation without association
simply do not exist in real-life experience.
Our minds are constantly weaving associations
and revising experience.
James argued perception, emotions and images
can not be separated as consciousness flows in a
continuous stream.

CONTD.
If we could not recognize a banana was then we
would have to figure out what it was each time
we saw one.
James suggested that when we repeat
something , our nervous systems are changed and
so that each repetition is easier than the last.
Functionalist theory goes beyond mere sensation
and perception to explore how an organism
learns to function in its environment.

PSYCHODYNAMIC PSYCHOLOGY
Sigmund Freud was a doctor , although research
was his passion but he maintained a private
medical practice.
He was a trained neurologist and noticed that most
of his patients nervous ailments appeared to be
psychological rather than physiological in nature .
He came to believe that unconscious desires and
conflicts lie at the root of their symptoms .
Freuds clinical discoveries led him to develop a
comprehensive theory of mental life which deferred
radically from the views of American psychologists.

CONTD.
Freud held that human beings are not as rational
as they imagine and that we are motivated by
unconscious instincts and urges that are not
available to the rational, conscious part of our
mind.
To uncover the unconscious he developed a
technique called Psychoanalysis.
Freud maintained that personality develops in a
series of critical stages during the first few years
of life.

CONTD.

Freud believed that our personality was made up of:

a) Id: Operates on the unconscious level. It is the

unorganized part of the personality. Acts on the Pleasure
principal. For example a new born child.
b) Ego: Operates on the conscious level. The ego separates
what is real. It helps us to organise our thoughts and make
sense of them and the world around us.
c)Superego: The Super-ego strives to act in a socially
appropriate manner, The Super-ego controls our sense of
right and wrong and guilt. It helps us fit into society by
getting us to act in socially acceptable ways.

AN EXAMPLE

THE PSYCHOSEXUAL STAGES OF

DEVELOPMENT:
Freud was the first one to talk about the stage of
development which he termed as the Psychosexual
stages of development:
a) Oral stage: (0 to 1yr ) This is the stage from the
childs birth to 1 year of age. The erogenous zone
in this stage is the mouth as the child seeks
pleasure through it. If any oral needs are not met
with at this stage or of a child is under fed then
that leads to frustration and over indulgence also
causes problems. Any un resolved conflicts at that
stage cause fixation. Fixation is an unresolved
conflict at any stage and one is unable to get out
of that stage thus remaining fixated.

CONTD.
Anal stage: (1 to 3 yrs) is a stage where a lot of attention
is brought to toilet training , the child is sometimes
punished for bed wetting. If the parents are too harsh or
too lenient regarding it then that causes problems. In this
stage the erogenous zone shifts from the mouth to the
anus. Controlling the bowl movement is the primary source
of pleasure in this stage. If a child remains fixated in this
stage due to unresolved conflicts then Anal retentive and
anal expulsive personalities may be formed.
Anal Retentive: This personality type is mainly defined as
having characteristics of being compulsively clean and
orderly, obstinate and stingy .
Anal Expulsive: This personality type has characteristics
like being disorderly, , cruel, messy and usually
destructive.

CONTD.
c)Phallic stage: (3 to 6 yrs) This is the stage where the
child becomes aware of his or her gender, i.e. male or
female. When this awareness takes place, sexual
attraction toward the parent of the opposite sex is
developed which Freud termed as the Oedipus and
the Electra complex. Gradually the boy identifies
with his father and resolves his conflicts and accepts
the values of his father and similarly the girl does
with her mother.
Freud floated the idea that the girl had a complex
because of her sex and thought of herself as deprived
and less able than the male. The feminist reject the
phallic stage ideas and think that it mostly has to do
with the male dominated stage.

d)Latency Period: (Age 6 to puberty) The sexual

feelings are dormant in this stage and fixation
does not occur and if it does then the individual
remains sexually unfulfilled. Drive energy is
redirected to new activities, mainly related to
schooling, hobbies and friends.

e)Genital stage: (puberty to end of life) Upswing

in sexual energy occurs. The unresolved conflicts
of the earlier stages become very important that
is why adolescence is a period of turmoil . This
stage also gives realization of full adulthood life
and responsibility and development of families.

ASSIGNMENT # 1

Identify ID, Ego and Superego in the picture?

Which stage is the most rational for human
nature?
Which stage decides whether it is rational to
fight over the shopping cart or not? and why?