Psychology Development Essays - Behaviorism, Psychological Theories

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.