Answers to "The History of Psychology"

  1. Rene Descartes was a philosopher who believed that the body and the mind worked together. He called this theory "mutual interaction."

  2. Wilheim Wundt is the father of scientific psychology.

  3. The Structuralists believed that the basic elements of experience were sensations, images or ideas, and affections. They believed that experiences must be broken down into their separate parts in order to be studied and understood.

  4. Behaviorists like Skinner believed that all of our actions are responses to stimuli in our environment. Something happens around us and we react to it.

  5. The Gestalt psychologists believed that we perceive the world in unitary wholes.

  6. Incubation helps us think over the problem so that we may arrive at a good solution. Incubation also helps lead us to insight, where we suddenly realize the correct solution to a problem.

  7. The cognitive psychologists believed that the human mind operates like a computer processing information.

  8. The functionalists believe that our behavior is an attempt to help us adapt to and survive changing conditions. If reality were too painful for a person, s/he might withdraw from it. The schizophrenic person loses touch with reality. A functionalist would say that losing touch with reality is a way for the person to survive a very painful situation.

  9. Freudians believe that everything we do can be traced back to experiences we had in childhood. The effects of painful childhood experiences stay with us when we are adults. A traumatic or painful experience in childhood might lead a person to withdraw from reality. This is how a Freudian psychologist would explain schizophrenia.

Posted to the Web on May 18, 2001