Many people say how to learn psychology, how should psychology be learned? Where should I start when studying psychology? This involves a problem of underlying logic, but also a fundamental problem. Some people start by reading psychology novels, some people start by studying psychology, and some people start after many years of life experience.
In fact, every kind of beginning is normal, there is no standard, as long as you can learn some psychological knowledge and apply it to real life, then it is useful.
Today we will start with the schools of psychology, to see what schools of psychology are there? Who are the psychologists? By understanding them, there is a basic framework for psychology.
The first genre: structuralism. The representative figures are Wundt and Tiechenna. Their main point is that the object of psychology is conscious experience, and the purpose of psychology is to reveal the structure of conscious experience, using experimental introspective methods to analyze conscious experience. Our daily study and life is a kind of consciousness, which is invisible and untouchable, but can feel and feel.
The second genre: functionalism. The representative figures are James and Dewey. Their main point of view is the science of consciousness and mental life, the purpose of psychology is to reveal the function of mental consciousness, in addition to experimental introspection, but also advocate the application of a variety of methods to study consciousness. Consciousness is fluid, cultural, and not the result of all the elements organized together. The consciousness at this moment is not the same as the consciousness at that moment, and the mentality at each age stage is also different, so the conscious thinking that arises is also different.
The third genre: Gestalt psychology. Representative figures are Wertheimer and Kohler. Their main point of view is that psychology studies both consciousness and behavior. Analyze behavior with elementalist ideas. It does not oppose subjective introspection or objective observation, emphasizing that psychology is the meaning of psychology as an organization and a whole. Each of us has a consciousness, but this consciousness will allow itself to behave accordingly. For example, if you like a girl, being willing to express and unwilling to express will produce two kinds of results, willing to express and unwilling to express is an act.
The fourth genre: psychoanalysis. Representative figure Freud. His main point of view is to regard the human subconscious as the object of study, and the purpose of psychoanalysis is to understand the subconscious root behind people's concepts and behaviors, using some methods such as free association and defense mechanisms. Freud believed that most of what is real in us is not consciousness, and most of what is in our consciousness is not real. People are conscious, subconscious, and unconscious, and the emergence of each consciousness is reasonable for themselves.
Psychodynamic concepts are also mentioned in psychoanalysis: the id, the ego, and the superego. The ego is a selfish part that satisfies the desires of the individual; the ego is the impulse to satisfy the ego in a way that takes into account the reality of the situation; the superego represents the values and standards of society, especially parents. Among them, the original self follows the principle of happiness, the self follows the principle of reality, and the superego follows the moral principle.
The fifth genre: behaviorism. The representative figures are Watson and Skinner. Their main point of view is that the object of study is behavior, and it is only behavior. The purpose of psychology is to reveal the relationship between "stimulus-response". They oppose subjective introspection and advocate objective observation and experimentation. Watson once said: Give me a dozen healthy human babies, let me train them in an environment under my control, regardless of their talents, abilities, parents' professions and races, I can raise them as doctors, lawyers, artists, big businessmen, even beggars or thieves.
The sixth genre: humanism. The representative figures are Rogers and Maslow. Their main point of view is to advocate the study of positive aspects of human nature, such as love, happiness, self-actualization, etc., with the aim of promoting the realization of human potential and value. People have free will, the ability to choose and take responsibility for their actions. Among them, Maslow proposed the theory of human needs that is widely known: physiological needs, security needs, love and belonging needs, respect needs, and self-worth realization needs. Each need is incremental, requiring us to be conscious of how much our needs have been met.
The seventh genre: positive psychology. They argue that psychology in the past focused too much on the negative aspects of human nature, such as aggression, anxiety, etc. But positive psychology is more concerned with the positive aspects of human nature, such as subjective well-being, life satisfaction, optimism, creativity, etc.
The various schools of psychology argue and accuse each other, which is to some extent a manifestation of the immaturity of psychology. In fact, the various schools of psychology complement each other, not oppose each other. Psychologists have also begun to become more rational and rethink the various schools of psychology, which reflects the continuous upward maturity of psychology.