Jimmy Paku
January 24, 2013
Psychology
The Historic Perspective in Psychology Many roots can be traced back to psychology but psychology didn’t begin its peek until Wilhelm Wundt established the psychology phenomena. Wundt’s main focus was to study the mind and how it is built; this later brought him to conduct his own perspective which was known as structuralism, which “focuses on uncovering the fundamental mental components of consciousness, thinking, and other types of mental states and activities” (Feldman, 2009). Other psychologists questioned structuralism and the perspective of functionalism was formed; instead of focusing on how the mind is made up and its components, functionalism focuses on what the mind does and how it functions. The perspective was led by William James, an American psychologist, whose proposal was to question what role behavior had in helping people adapt to their surroundings. Another perspective that stimulated from structuralism was the Gestalt psychology, looked at the human mind and behavior as a whole. This was led by Herman Ebbinghaus and Max Wertheimer and they proposed that our understanding of different things is much more important than the little things that make up our understanding. Today psychology is broken down into five major perspectives. The five major perspectives show that different components of behavior and mental processes. The first perspective is neuroscience which breaks down how we function biologically. Next there is the psychodynamic perspective this states that everyone has an “inner motive” that we are not able to control; this is commonly used in psychology. Behavioral perspective which is mentioned in the book, Understanding Psychology, states that observable behavior should be the main focus of study. Also there is the cognitive perspective this is focused on how people understand and think about