Major Schools of Thought in Psychology: Methods and Core Principles

Foundational Systems in Psychology

A psychological system can be defined as an organization and interpretation of data and theories, built upon special budgets (postulates), definitions, and methodological preferences.

In essence, each system represents a particular bias towards the selection of problems, methods, observations, and interpretations within the field of psychology.

Criteria for a Psychological System

1. It should include a clear definition within its field.
2. It should make its results explicit.
3. It must specify the nature of the data to be studied.
4. It should explain the organization of data and its connection principles.
5. It must specify the method used.

Major Psychological Systems and Their Principles

1. Structuralism (Wilhelm Wundt / Edward Titchener)

• Method: Introspection (focusing on sensations, images, and feelings).
• Key Idea: Mental elements are connected and combined.
• Postulates:
  • Utilizes scientific methodology.
  • Psychology is an independent science.
  • Mind, consciousness, and experience can be studied objectively.
  • Its primary method is introspection.
  • There are principles and laws governing mental elements and processes.

2. Functionalism (William James / John Dewey)

• Method: Objective observation and experimentation.
• Postulates:
  • Focuses on mental operations: how and why of experience.
  • The mind mediates between the needs of the organism and the environment.
  • Consciousness is utilitarian; it serves to adapt.

3. Connectionism

This system, often associated with the study of neural networks and learning, emphasizes the formation of connections between ideas or events.

4. Associationism

• Method: Objective observation and experimentation.
• Postulates:
  • Behavior must be analyzed in terms of stimulus-response associations.
  • Behavioral processes are quantifiable.
  • The study of learning in animals is useful for understanding the nature of this process in humans.

5. Behaviorism (John B. Watson, Ivan Pavlov, B.F. Skinner)

• Method: Objective observation and experimentation.
• Postulates:
  • Behavior is composed of responses and can, and should, be analyzed by objective methods of natural science.
  • Behavioral components can be reduced to physicochemical processes.
  • A response is issued primarily when an internal or external stimulus is provided, thus behavior is a strict cause-and-effect determinism.
  • Processes of consciousness cannot be subject to scientific study.
  • For human development, the environment is radically more important than biological inheritance.

6. Gestalt Psychology (Fritz Perls)

• Method: Objective observation and experimentation.
• Postulates:
  • Psychological life always dominates the whole, not merely its parts.
  • The whole is the primary unit of study.
  • The whole is a field governed by the laws of Gestalt psychology's organization.

7. Psychoanalysis (Sigmund Freud)

• Method: Free Association.
• Postulates:
  • Mental life is determined (humans are not masters of themselves).
  • The unconscious exerts the dominant role in determining human behavior; that is, humans are fundamentally irrational.
  • Explains human behavior dynamically.
  • The individual's history is of vital importance for understanding present behavior.