Historical Approaches

Historical Approaches

1. the history of psych is a history of alternative perspectives

2. Structuralism

   • Wilhelm Wundt is generally acknowledged as establishing modern psych as a separate, formal field of study
     • he was a structuralist...he was interested in the basic elements of human experience
     • he developed a method of self-observation called introspection

3. Functionalism

   • William James is often called the "father of psychology"
     • he wrote the first textbook of psych, The Principles of Psychology
     • functionalists study how animals and people adapt to their environments

4. Inheritable Traits

   • Sir Francis Galton wanted to understand how heredity influences a person's abilities, character, and behavior
     • he concluded that genius or eminence is a hereditary trait
       • he did not consider the possibility that the tendency of genius to run in socioeconomic advantages that also tend to surround such families
     • Galton's book, Inquiries into Human Faculty, raised the issue of whether behavior is determined by heredity or environment

5. Gestalt Psychology

   • a group of German psychologists argued that perception is more than a sum of its parts- it involves a "whole pattern", or in German, a Gestalt
     • Gestalt Psychologists studied how sensations are assembled into perceptual experiences
       • This approach became the forerunner for cognitive approaches to the study of psychology