History and Systems of Psychology



Abstract

In contemporary psychology discipline's mainstream has come to adopt distinct theoretical orientations for the explanation of human behavior and the human condition, and these divergent orientations have led to mutual critique. Note that the description that follows temporarily sidelines the interdisciplinary efforts that are designed specifically to either overcome or answer these mutual critiques, in an effort to draw out in high relief the different types of scientific and social explanations that tend to be offered in each discipline. These interdisciplinary efforts and their work will be discussed subsequently. In this paper, we try to focus in the History and system of Psychology. The paper focused on the major systems of Associationism, Structuralism, Functionalism, Behaviorism, Gestalt, Psychodynamic, and Existential/Humanistic psychology.

History of Psychology

Introduction

The benefits of knowing the history of psychology include providing a way of unifying the different branches of the field and grounding current psychological research in tradition and theory. There are several goals that should be pursued in a graduate level history and system course. One of these goals is to come to a better understanding of the current direction of the field by appreciating its past (Blum, 2000).

Thesis Statement

Cultural psychologists and psychological have been quick to criticize such endeavors as scientific imperialism at worst, or preemptive universalizing at best.

Discussion

An important aspect of theoretical work in psychology regards the importance of psychological constructs. A construct is an unobservable entity that is presumed to exist within an individual psyche, and that gives rise to observable phenomena, such as behavior. An example would be depression. One cannot directly observe depression, but one can observe the behavioral outcomes of this theoretical construct (e.g., crying, sad facial expressions, etc.).

Given the theoretical centrality of individual psyches, different sub disciplines of psychology have built up research enterprises around studying the theoretical constructs in the psyche. The five factors of the big five models are examples. Great effort is devoted to developing psychometric instruments that use information from the supposed observable effects of these constructs in order to test for their salience, nature, or even presumed existence. Measures of these constructs are commonly used to predict behaviors or the strength of other constructs (American Psychological Association, 2010).

Teaching the History of Psychology

Bozart (1997) suggests several different approaches for teaching the history of psychology course. One of these is a terrific idea approach, in which the course is focused around themes from the literature of psychology, such as the development of Gestalt psychology, or the historical development of the school psychology. Carpinter (2004), followed this model in his undergraduate history of psychology course, and focused on the development of the schools of psychology in a historical framework (Pomeroy, 2008).

Another approach to teaching the history of psychology is suggested by Domhoff, (2004), who advocates for a prescriptive approach. He argues one can think of prescriptions as attitudinal perspectives, orientative assumptions, or modes of thought that play an important role in allowing psychologists to deal with the problems of subject matter and ...