Psychology Development
Psychology as a science has developed over
a long period of time, literally
centuries. During this period of time, man
individuals have had an impact on the
development of Psychology as a science.
Select three individuals, describe in
detail the contributions of the
individuals, and discuss the significance of the
person to the development of
Psychology as a science. In this paper I am going
to talk about three
different individuals, and describe their contributions to
Psychology. I
am also going to talk about how there contributions had a
significant effect
on Psychology as a science. These three people are the three
that I consider
the most important people of Psychology. Psychology is an
interesting science
in which we need people to help explain why things are the
way they are. Many
people make an attempt to explore this science , but it takes
dedication to
actually get something out of it.( Themes ). One of the three
people I
consider a big impact on Psychology is Wilhelm Wundt. Known as the
founder of
psychology as a formal academic discipline. Wundt founded the school
of
Structuralism. This concept evolved out of the mechanistic nature of
the
Industrial Revolution and the Scientific method of
experimentation.
Structuralism attempted to discover the nature of
consciousness into separate
parts, and to ultimately discover the structure
of consciousness. Wundt held the
first academic course in psychology in 1862,
and he set up the first
experimental laboratory where he conducted a series
of experiments to determine
the dimensions of feeling and perception. Wundt
help people to be able to break
things down into groups for what he thought
easier management . Wundt
significance was that he was the first person to
actually introduce the subject
of psychology to others and get them involved
( uidaho.edu ). Another great
Physiologist is Ivan Pavlov. Ivan Pavlov
was born in a small village in central
Russia. His parents wanted him to
be a priest , but he soon found that he cared
more for scientific pursuits.
He then began to study chemistry and physiology
and soon began to research
topics that interested him the most: digestion and
blood circulation. His
work became well known , and he was appointed professor
of physiology at the
Imperial Medical Academy. The work that made Pavlov a
household name in
psychology actually began as a study in digestion. He began
looking at the
digestive process in dogs, especially the interaction between
salivation. He
soon after doing much studying relized that the reason for dogs
salivating
was the excitement of getting food. In his study of the he used
different
types of conditioning seeing different points when the dog salivates.
His
over all theory is that the dogs salivates because of the expectation of
food
becoming present .Pavlov signigicance to psychology is that something such
as
dog salivating and no one understood why or much less even thought about
it,
but Pavlov wondered why and found and answer ( uidaho.edu). The third
person
that I will discuss in this paper is B. F. Skinner. Skinner went to
Harvard to
study psychology since he had always enjoyed observing animal and
human
behavior. Skinner found himself more and more a behaviorist. He worked
in the
lab of an experimental biologist, however, and developed behavioral
studies of
rats. He then decided to design boxes to automatically reward
behavior, such as
depressing lever, pushing a button, and so on. He then had
an interest in
pigeons, he developed the ideas of operant
conditioning and shaping
behavior. Unlike Pavlov`s classical
conditioning where an existing
behavior is shaped by association
it with a new stimulus. Operant conditioning
is the rewarding of a partial
behavior or random act that approaches the desired
behavior. Skinner`s over
all believe is that someone with an empty system can be
anything at that
point and time only ( Themes ). Skinner`s significance to
psychology was that
he helped people understand that he can get someone or
something to do
anything by using types of conditioning. All three of these
people had a big
impact on psychology. All of them had a desire to learn and a
passion for the
science as a whole. This paper talk about how Wilhelm Wundt that
of things as
Structurlism as he broke it down. It also talks about B.F. Skinner
who
believed he could take anything with a completely empty system and make
it
into anything he wanted to. This paper also talked about Ivan Pavlov and
how he
came interested in dogs, and why they salivate. Pavlov used (
Classical
Conditioning. All three of these people had a great influence
in psychology and
help other people understand different behaviors.