Philosophers have greatly influenced how the world sees things and perceives them since they are analyzed using various schools of thought. The study of psychology is interesting and from the lessons learned, I believe that a new school of thought can be established to better explain and understand human behavior by collecting information from the variable factors affecting an individual. The variables are their surroundings, existing knowledge, the people they receive influences form and adjustments to these factors can have a possible influence on a person’s school of thought (Jung, 2016). Psychology is broken down into five primary schools of thought that have been developed by scholars such as Wundt, William James, Sigmund Freud, John Watson, Max Wertheimer, and Carl Rogers.
Structuralism
Structuralism is a school of thought that investigates the structure of the mind that has resulted in the primary focus of psychology to break down consciousness into multiple basic elements. This was compared to a child pulling a toy apart to understand its inner functioning (Brennan " Houde, 2017). The mind is an abstract concept to many and structuralism thinkers are confident that they can accomplish the goal of understanding the abstract structure of the mind through using scientific means. Introspection was advanced for use as a technique that would make it possible to analyze and reflect on internal experiences to objectively understand concepts. We are able to choose to eat different types of foods by identifying their smell, texture, taste, and color and make a decision.
Functionalism
Functionalism disapproves of structuralism and calls it misguided and identifies that consciousness is ongoing therefore making it impossible to understand the structure of the mind, if any would exist. The fluidity of the mind was the support for adaption into the world and focuses on how and why instead of focusing on the what. This approach helps in data collection on the premises that one is in and allows people to adapt to changes in environment and other changing needs for survival. Functionalism has changed psychology by improving its understanding and the process of data collection
Behaviorism
The approach behaviorism disapproves of the shared perspective of functionalism, structuralism and psychoanalysis that mental processes which are invisible events are the basis of the theories. The method is fueled by scientific scrutiny to understand some beliefs and processes despite stating that covert operations such mental behavior have no scientific explanation to them (Brennan " Houde, 2017). The idea is supported by the view that human behavior is explainable by punishment and reinforcement without the need for consideration of environmental factors that do not need to make considerations for inner mental processes.
Gestalt Psychology
The theory focuses on psychology from a holistic point of view and not as separate elements which other theorists attempted to analyze psychology through. The theory uses the approach of the larger body being more important than analysis of the minor components that culminate in the larger body (Brennan " Houde, 2017). Simply put, if a person reading a book put the words they were reading into separate contexts instead of reading them together to get the meaning they were combined to provide, then the book would make no sense. However, the combination of the letters into whole parts made the statements conveyed complete. Therefore, psychology should look at a situation form a holistic point of view by bringing together the various facts and sew them together to portray the bigger picture.
Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis focuses on the study of unconscious thoughts to explain psychology and understand an individual. The responses, actions and thoughts of a person are governed by the unconscious underlying states where there are motives, drives and impulses that guide a person to reason in a certain manner and understand concepts the way they do. Changing the underlying concepts would shape how a person responds to different stimuli therefore it was important to focus on the underlying factors (Brennan " Houde, 2017).
Humanistic Psychology
The humanistic psychology model has come up with the rise of increasing concerns and lack of satisfaction of the current models with the major forces that govern psychology being highly deterministic and focused on behaviorism and psychoanalysis. The deterministic model is that the actions that we undertake are governed by forces which are beyond human control. From the point of view of a psychologist, the forces are caused by a person being in a state of unconsciousness and are often caused by environmental factors. Humanistic psychologists have identified that human beings are free agents who can make their own choices and set goals for their achievement and put the necessary resources in place to meet the goals. The humanistic model asserts that by helping people achieve their full potential, then psychoanalysis can be focused on a different perspective. The model insists that human beings are inherently good.
Personal School of Thought
The personal school of thought I would come up with would be a combination of the different schools of thought. The model will look at psychology from a perceptive of a person’s conscious and unconscious thoughts then relate them to their education and environment because these have a significant effect on a person’s response to stimuli. I believe my school of thought will be more inclusive and will affect the understanding and translation of knowledge on the topic of psychology to incorporate multiple factors for a more accurate analysis. The model will be holistic of the person’s conscious and unconscious state, their influences such as the knowledge and their ability to interpret the information presented to them.
The personal school of thought will change the impact of current theories explaining psychology and will be more applicable due to its ability to incorporate factors such as the technological evolution and other aspects of development that cannot be ignored because they are strong influences to explaining modern habits of people. The current theories also have controversies that people do not conform to and this theory will attempt to disapprove the other theories by building on the knowledge presented as premises for a more comprehensive approach to be formed. The new approach to analyzing the psychological concepts also will incorporate behavioral theories to explain human behavior.
A new model of approaching psychology would be relevant to accommodate the changes that have occurred over the past decade with technology and other factors disrupting humanity and having an influence on how humans operate and function. Cognitive processes are affected by various factors and they need to be accounted for to make the new theoretical model reasonably placed to explain the different phenomenon that surround the process of thinking and the role of psychology.
References
Brennan, J. F., " Houde, K. A. (2017). History and systems of psychology. Cambridge University Press.
Jung, C. (2016). Psychological types. Routledge.
