Explain and analyze how psychological thought has developed through the analysis of important people, theoretical approaches, and psychological domains.

School of PsychologyDescriptionImportant Contributors

StructuralismUses the method of introspection to identify the basic elements or “structures” of psychological experienceWilhelm Wundt, Edward B. Titchener

FunctionalismAttempts to understand why animals and humans have developed the particular psychological aspects that they currently possessWilliam James

PsychodynamicFocuses on the role of our unconscious thoughts, feelings, and memories and our early childhood experiences in determining behaviourSigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Alfred Adler, Erik Erickson

BehaviourismBased on the premise that it is not possible to objectively study the mind, and therefore that psychologists should limit their attention to the study of behaviour itselfJohn B. Watson, B. F. Skinner

CognitiveThe study of mental processes, including perception, thinking, memory, and judgmentsHermann Ebbinghaus, Sir Frederic Bartlett,

Social-culturalThe study of how the social situations and the cultures in which people find themselves influence thinking and behaviourFritz Heider, Leon Festinger, Stanley Schachter