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New Schools of Pychological Thought

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28 views6 pages

New Schools of Pychological Thought

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dillyking77
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New Schools of Psychological Thought

There are several schools of psychological thought that were developed


later. These are described in the following section.

Cognitive Psychology
Cognitive psychology is associated with Jean Piaget (1896-1980) and
Edward C. Tolman (1886-1959). The major interest of this approach
is to study how people acquire knowledge. It focuses on the internal
psychological processes that are involved in the acquisition of
knowledge that is, the mental operations that enable one to think, to
solve problems, to read, to write, among others.

Cognitive psychologists are therefore interested in such topics as


perception, memory, language and thinking. They use hypothetical
concepts like memory traces, schema, mental image, among others.
They however use behavioural methods to study the effect that mental
processes have on behaviour. They can measure or observe behaviour
and therefore infer or make conclusions about the presence or absence
of given mental processes.

Humanistic Psychology
Humanistic psychology is associated with Abraham Maslow.
Humanistic psychology came up to protest against the use of scientific
methods to study psychology. It argued that we cannot reduce the
human being into an object of scientific study.

Humanistic psychologists argued that psychology should study the


subjective, conscious experience of the individual person. They
believed that people are inherently good and worthy and have an
inherent potential for growth and fulfilment. They also argued that
psychology should assist every individual person to realise maximum
growth of his or her potential. People should be given the opportunity
to grow in the direction of health, intellectual creativity, achievement,
love and understanding.

Branches of Modern Psychology


There are several branches of modern psychology and these are
described in the following section.

Experimental Psychology
This branch of modern psychology relies on experiments to study
behaviour and mental processes. Examples of areas experiments are
carried out on include experiments to determine the biological basis of
behaviour; experiments on animal learning and behaviour; and
experiments to determine cognitive processes for example perception,
memory, language, judgement and thinking.
Social Psychology
Social psychologists are interested in how social factors affect
behaviour. They study the interactions between people, peoples’
perceptions of one another, and the effects that groups have on the
behaviour of individuals for example how does your friends behaviour
affect your behaviour in some situations? Social psychologists are also
interested in group processes such as how leaders emerge. They study
such topics such as attitude change, conformity and obedience,
prejudice and aggression. In all these cases the individual’s behaviour
is influenced by others. In other words the social environment
influences ones behaviour.

Personality Psychology
Personality psychologists are concerned about individual differences
that is, how people differ in terms of given characteristics such as
authoritarianism or emotional stability or why people in the same
situation often behave differently. Personality psychologists
administer tests and classify people into types such as Type A
personality or Type B personality among others.
Developmental Psychology
This branch of psychology cuts across all areas of psychology and it is
concerned with the physical and psychological changes that occur as
a person grows from infancy to adulthood and on to old age. These
psychologists might be interested in all changes at a particular age such
as adolescence or they may be interested in how a particular function
such as memory varies across the life span.

Clinical Psychology
Clinical psychologists diagnose and treat individuals who suffer from
emotional or adjustment problems. They work in mental hospitals,
universities and some are in private practice.

Organisational and Industrial Psychology


This is an applied field. Psychologists in this field are practitioners
who apply psychological principles to the work setting. They are
concerned with the “human factor” in the technological setup for
example how satisfied are workers with their jobs? How can the
workers morale and productivity be increased? How can the quality of
the industry’s service be increased? How can better training and
placement procedure programs be developed among other areas of
personality and motivation?
These practitioners have a special set of skills. They must be able to
translate psychological knowledge and skills to practical settings as
well as be able to communicate psychological principles to an
audience with little or not background in the field.

Educational Psychology
This is a branch of psychology that studies children in educational
settings and is concerned with teaching and learning methods,
cognitive development and aptitude assessment.

Neuropsychology
This branch of psychology studies the relationship between behaviour,
emotion and cognition on the one hand and brain function on the other.
It involves the use of psychological tests and assessment techniques to
diagnose specific cognitive and behaviour deficits.

Summary

In this lecture, we have had an introduction to psychology as a course. Psychology is the


scientific study of human and animal behaviour. Psychology has grown over the years and
there are several branches of psychology in ex istence such as social psychology, educational
psychology and personality psychology.
Self-Test Questions

1. Define psychology
2. Describe Structuralism as a school of psychological thought
3. Explain the achievements of functionalism
4. Describe the branches of modern psychology

Further Reading

Hilgard, E. R. (1977). Introduction to Psychology. New York: Harcourt, Brace and


World
Lamberth, J. (1996). Foundations of Psychology. New York: Harper and Row Publishers.
Morris, C. (1980). Psychology an Introduction. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

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