psychology is the science of behavior and mental processes. This means that psychologists use the methods of science to investigate all kinds of behavior and mental processes from the activity of a single cell to the social conflicts in a complex society.
These are the different approach to psychology and its subfields;
Experimental psychology: Willhelm Wundt and other early psychologist such as Edward Titchener and Hermann Ebbinghaus, used the term ‘experimental psychology’ to distinguish their laboratory works from the endeavors of philosophers and others who thought and speculated about consciousness, memory and other psychological matters but performed no experiments.
Humanistic psychology(1950-present): humanism is a theoretical orientation that emphasizes the unique qualities of humans, especially their freedom and potentials for personal growth. Humanist take an optimist view of human nature. They maintain that people are not pawn of either their animal heritage or environmental circumstances. The most prominent architects of the humanistic movement have been Carl Rogers(1902-1987) and Abraham Maslow(1908-1970).
Cognitive psychology(1950s-present): cognitive refers to the mental process involved in acquiring knowledge. In other words cognition involve thinking or conscious experience. The principal contributors are Jean Plaget, Noam Chomsky, Herbert Simon.
Evolutionary psychology(1980s-present): it examines behavioral process in terms of their adaptive value for members of a species over the course of many generations. The basic premises of evolutionary psychology is that natural selection favor behavior that enhance organisms’ reproductive success. That is, passing on genes to the next generation. The principal contributors of evolutionary psychology are David Buss, Martin Daly, Margo Wilson, Leda Cosmides, John Tooby.
Psychoanalytic(1900-present): psychoanalytic theory attempts to explain personality, motivation and mental disorders by focusing on unconscious determinants of behavior. The principal contributors are Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Alfred Adler; and the subject matter is unconscious determinants of behavior.
Psychology is a discipline which seeks to study the thoughts and actions of man (as well as the behavior of animals) in a specific way. If one is to understand exactly what this means a clear definition of science is required. Science is a marvelous development in the history of human thought. It has wrought amazing benefits and wonders for the modern world. Using science as a tool man has been able to unlock innumerable mysteries. In turn these discoveries coupled with reflected technological advances have allowed a tremendous degree of dominion over the physical world. It is indeed an age of miracles. What is that tool called “science” which has allowed such developments? Stated in its most basic form, science might be defined as a “closer and more careful look”. Abraham Kaplan has defined as follows:
Scientific observation is deliberate search carried out with care and forethought, as contrasted with the casual and largely passive perceptions of everyday life. It is this deliberateness and control of the process of observation that is distinctive of science. Competing school of thoughts exist in most scientific disciplines. Sometimes the disagreement between this schools are sharp.
In psychology, the first two major schools of thought ‘structuralism and functionalism’ were involved in a first great intellectual battle in the field. Structuralism emerged through the leadership of Edward Titchener, an English man who taught at Cornell university for decades in 1892. It was based on the notion that the task of psychology is to analysis consciousness to its basic elements and investigate how this elements are related. Just as physicists were studying how matter is made of different particles, the structuralist wanted to identify the fundamental components of conscious experience, such as sensations, feelings and images. The structuralists depended on the method of introspection, or the careful, systematic observation of one’s own conscious experience. Introspection required training to make the subject-the person being studied-more objective and more aware.
