Psychology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 9

Psychology - Essay Example 3. William Wundt founded structuralism. It focuses on breaking down mental processes into basic components. It is considered to be the first school of psychology. William James created functionalism and it focused on individual differences specifically focusing on the purpose of the consciousness and types of behavior. Lastly, the Gestalt school was focused on the opposite of structuralism in that they were more interested in the whole being the sum of its individual parts. 4. Anna Freud made significant contributions to the field of psychoanalysis like her father. She is considered to have started the field of psychoanalytic child psychology. June Etta Downey was an American psychologist who was one of the first to study personality from a scientific approach. Letta Stetter Hollingworth was feminist psychologist who was a pioneer in the field of women’s psychology. 5. Humanistic psychology emphasizes the will of the individual. People are capable of making choices, which influence their health and well being. Humanistic psychologists also take into consideration the effect that environment has on an individual. Behaviorism is based off observable behavior, which is what makes classical conditioning and operant conditioning a component of this theory. They also believe that all learning occurs through some form of observation. 6. Conscious thought processes are readily accessible to the person. This consists of the actions, cognitions, and beliefs, which are at the surface. Unconscious processes exist below the consciousness and are not accessible. Information from this level passes back and forth unknown to the person. Freud hypothesized that this information manifests itself in dreams. Unconscious processes cannot be observed directly, unlike conscious processes. 7. The first step for psychologists would be to determine what construct of love they would want to study.