Describe the different schools of psychology stating their weaknesses

There are five Schools:
1. Structuralism
The components of this school are Wundt and Titchener. According to their argument, psychology should be divided into elements that can be studied on their own. It is based on introspection which involves self-reports. Their method of study was introspection (introduce a stimulus to somebody and ask him how to explain what he is going through). It is also called the experience of the experiencing subject (the conscious experience).

Weakness
i. Reliance on self-reports on human behaviour will no give correct results (lie from what one is experiencing)
ii. We react to a stimulus different to a similar situation (different reactions given about the same stimulus at different times-hence different data).
iii. Different subjects will react differently to same stimulus.
iv. Self-reports are normally based on memory-high doubt how much your memory can recall (many intervening variables). Hence the method is unreliable
v. A lot of our thought may be difficult to put in words(express in words). There is failure to find specific words to use.
Other schools have come out to challenge this school.
Structuralism has contributed to some level:
Mental state of persons have been studied based on self-reports.

2. Functionalism
It is not enough to study the components of the mind but the adaptability (how much the mind can adapt). This school was encouraged by Darwinism. Functionalism underscores the idea of adaptability. How adaptable the subject you are studying can be to the surrounding environment- how the mind can be able to do than the components of the mind. They were most interested in what the mind can do more than just the components, unlike the Structuralists who were interested in the components.
The subject matter is memory, thoughts; personality-all will affect our behaviour. The school of functionalism emphasised functions.

Weakness
The studies were not based in the laboratory for it to be a science.

3. Psycho-analysis
the chief proponent was Sigmund Freud. Initially he was a physician but later treated female patients who had emotional problems. The school was to find out the behaviour of human beings that is motivated by unconscious conflicts (those that we don’t understand)-most of the conflicts are related to sex and aggression. His interest is so about the hidden energy; sexual energy (libido)
Freud explains that between age 0-11/2 (oral stage), the pleasure zone is around the mouth. It is pleasurable for the child to put things in the mouth. This school explains why we behave aggressively. The prime motivators are related to sex and aggression-whether the behaviour is normal or abnormal it is influenced by unconscious motives.
He talks of early childhood development. A lot of our behaviour depends on our early childhood experiences, e.g. a child who is rejected by the mother will make him to be aggressive, delinquent. A lot of our adult personalities are formed during childhood.
He came up with 5 stages: Oral, Anal, Phallic, Genital and Adolescent


Weaknesses
i. Unconscious mind is too loose to explain behaviour.
ii. It failed to provide adequate research evidence-it based on the sick (people who had emotional problems.

4. Behaviourism
It was argued that in order to study psychology, we should look at what is observable. One of the proponents was JB Watson. He argued that psychology should stop looking at the mind but look at observable behaviour. Behaviourist psychologists said that psychology should a science of behaviour.

Weakness
Whenever you respond to a stimulus, it is based on how you understand it. Therefore there is no one specific manner of behaviour. The choice of reaction may be based on a past experience, or what you saw happen to somebody else.

5. J. Gestalt
Is a German word which means form or configuration. It says that we perceive and think in terms of whole rather than simply combinations of separate elements. The whole is greater than the sum total of the parts. The whole of an experiment is greater than the parts-we respond to the whole. Our mind is very important in organizing the stimulus into coherent wholes.

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Titany answered the question on May 10, 2022 at 11:34