Behaviorism was based on the belief that psychology would advance as a science only if it turned away from the study of mental processes and limited itself to the study of observable behaviors that could be recorded and measured.Įarly work in the field of behavior was conducted by the Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov. The founder of behaviorism was the American psychologist John Broadus Watson. In the early 1900s, a new force in psychology came about called behaviorism. Organisms that are the fittest, survive and reproduce.Experiences help us function more adaptively to are environments.Argued that the stream of consciousness is fluid and continuous.

Focused on the Behavior as well as the mind or consciousness.

William James, recognized as the father of American psychology, founded functionalism, the school of psychology that focused on how behavior helps individuals adapt to demands placed upon them in the environment. Hall founded the American Psychological Association (APA). The first American to work in Wundt’s experimental laboratory was the psychologist G. Structuralism: attempted to break conscious experience down into objective sensations The school of psychology that attempts to understand the structure of the mind by breaking it down into its component parts is known as structuralism. He also established the world’s first scientific laboratory dedicated to the study of psychology in Germany.Įdward Titchener, Wundt's disciple, brought Wundt's ideas to the United States and the rest of the world.

The founding of psychology as an experimental science is generally credited to a German scientist, Wilhelm Wundt. He studied mental experiences and used a method known as introspection, which is an attempt to directly study consciousness by having people report on what they are consciously experiencing.

Gustav Theodor Fechner: published book Elements of Psychophysics which showed how physical events stimulate psychological sensations and perception. People are social creatures and influence each other. Socrates: rely on rational thought and introspection or examination of one's own thoughts and emotions to gain self knowledge. Behavior is influenced by external stimulation. Aristotle: argued human behavior was subject to rules and lawsĭemocritus: think of behavior as terms of body and mind.

Mental processes are