5 Popular Theories of Psychology

Psychology, as a multifaceted discipline, encompasses a rich tapestry of theories that seek to unravel the complexities of human behavior, cognition, and emotions. Among the myriad of perspectives, five standout theories have garnered widespread attention and intrigue due to their profound impact on understanding the human mind and behavior.

Different Schools of Thoughts

The first school is structuralism. William Wundt developed it. This school of thought explains the breaking down of complex mental processes into simple components or structures. This breakdown helps to understand how these structures interact with the conscious mind. The second school is functionalism, developed by William James. The primary focus of this school was more on behavior rather than understanding the structure. Moreover, how this behavior adapts to different environments. The third school is psychoanalysis, which became advanced with the aid of Sigmund Freud. This is a shape of psychotherapy that specializes in unconscious thoughts and helps to give an explanation for human conduct.

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The fourth faculty of the idea is behaviorism. Came in the early twentieth century developed by John B. Watson. As the call shows, this college focuses on the behavior of human thoughts and the way it is formed in distinct situations. Fifth is humanistic psychology, based on Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow. Humanistic psychology works at the man or woman revel in and is aware of the inner emotions and the way they are able to lead the character towards self-actualization. Furthermore, the 6th is cognitive psychology by Jean Piaget and Noam Chomsky. This school aims to understand the human thought process and how it forms behavior. Lastly, the seventh school is positive psychology. Martin Seligman developed it and it focuses on how the psychological process promotes mental well-being.

These were the significant schools of thought and each of them has given their theory, which helps to understand human behaviour more nicely.

5 Popular Theory Of Psychology

1. Psychoanalysis

As told earlier too, psychoanalysis is a form of psychological theory that helps you to understand your unconscious feelings. Understanding these unsaid feelings or emotions helps us to gain an idea about the repressed feelings that could be the root causes of our emotional distress. Therefore, it is also known as the depth approach to psychopathy. Throughout the process of this therapy, individuals are free to express themselves and can say whatever they feel. The therapist uses other forms of this therapy like dream analysis to give more clarity about the unconscious mind. Moreover, this therapy is complex and time-consuming.

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The developer of this theory Sigmund Freud proposed that our mind is made up of three elements, i.e. Id, ego, and superego. Each of them has distinct characteristics as the Id is the primary part, which is driven by needs, desires, and unconscious impulses. Between the Id and superego, exists the rational part of the personality i.e. ego. This ego helps us to interact with the real world and makes us guide the world in a well-mannered way. Lastly, the superego consists of our moral conscience and values. It analyses our actions based on norms and expectations.Freud believed that whenever any conflict happens between these 3 components, psychological conditions will arise.

These conflicts could be there because of the childhood experiences that leave a major impact on later life. The repressed emotions and feelings make the development of psychological conflicts. Apart from childhood experiences, dream analysis is also another way to understand the unconscious world of mind. As the dreams are the result of all these desires. Moreover, the free association technique also helped the patients to freely express their feelings.

2. Behaviorism

Behaviorism talks about the behavior that can be evaluated through the environment and learned by reinforcement. Either classical or operant conditioning is the reason behind any behavior. It puts more emphasis on the observable or seenable things rather than mental processes in mind.

Ivan Pavolv, BF Skinner, and John Watson developed this theory. Pavolv’s experiment with animal reflexive behavior is an example of how stimulus association leads to rewards. Whereas, Watson believed that it is the conditioning that leads to adopting maladaptive learning, which further creates psychological problems. Skinner had other views about this as he argued that behavior is the result of reinforcement and the environment could affect it. The main concept of behaviorism is classical and operant conditioning.

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Classical conditioning consists paring of a previously neutral stimulus that exudes a specific response. A much known example of this learning is whenever the bell rings a food reward is given to the dog. The dog will start salivating whenever the bell rings and the reward will be present. But the dog will start salivating even when the reward won’t be presented. This combination of stimulus and response forms the conditioned response.

Operant conditioning is a form of learning where the behavior is dependent on the consequences. With the help of this conditioning, the individual learns behavior with respect to the negative or positive reward. For example: if a child behaves nicely throughout the day, he will be rewarded with chocolate. This positive reward will encourage him to behave properly and if not then he will get the negative reward. Furthermore, this theory focuses on the observable things but it contains some drawbacks according to some people. In this approach, people do not give more importance to the mental health processes and more reliance on external factors. Moreover, it does not contain the complexities of human behavior.

3. Cognitive Psychology

This theory consists of all the mental processes like thinking, perception, memory, sensation, etc, It focuses on how individuals use the acquired information in their day-to-day lives.

The foundation of this theory, i.e. the information processing. This system includes the garage and usage of all the processed records in a systematic way. With the assistance of these facts, humans store and retrieve these statistics each time it is needed.
Another key concept in this theory is Schemas. Schemas are the intellectual framework that knows and recollects the supplied statistics. These ideas revolved around a central topic. For instance, a schema for going to school includes the concept of uniforms, school buses, teachers, classmates, and stationery. Moreover, this concept additionally talks about the potential to problem-remedy with the assistance of existing information. Lastly, cognitive psychology indicates the processing of language and how we used to talk with each other. It consists of special factors of language like syntax, semantics, pragmatics, and many others.

4. Evolutionary Psychology

This principle talks approximately the evolutionary standards that hyperlink up with human conduct like natural choice. It’s far from this natural choice that is shaping our behavior and questioning manner. Moreover, it also talks approximately how people have advanced their mental processes to survive and reproduce in their respective environments. The principal principles of this theory are the mate and relations selection. Both these concepts play a considerable function in the survival and duplicating of an individual. Mate choice refers back to the technique wherein people pick out their partners on the basis of developments like intelligence, splendor, specialty, and so on. In family selection, humans pick assistance who can offer food, protection, and other necessary matters.

Secondly, this idea consists of the idea of parental funding. This concept plays a tremendous role in a child’s existence. Mother and father are the number one caregivers in our lives. Therefore investing in their child helps their overall success.

5. Humanistic

The humanistic concept makes a specialty of the increase and self-actualization of humans. It also believes that people have the capacity to perform well in their lives. Not simplest does it inspire the character to do the first-class of their existence, but also embraces the uniqueness absolutely everyone possesses. Furthermore, it presents a feeling of obligation in every character’s existence. The primary key concepts of this principle are self-idea, esteem, and self-actualization. Self-idea is the beliefs a person holds up for themselves. Many outside factors like lifestyle, society, pals, and family have an impact on this perception. Whereas, shallowness is how people see themselves. Self-standards do play an important function in this. Moreover, self-actualization refers to the method of people accomplishing their fullest potential and it includes an average positive mindset approximately themselves, placing sensible goals, and taking necessary moves.