Andrea B.

Leonor
PSY 311 – A
Final Output

The establishment of psychology had several phases that lead up to the

present practice of psychology. The earliest movements of psychology were rooted
in a discipline very similar to ours. The philosophical influences on psychology made
a great impact on the distinction of psychology as a discipline. Mechanism is a
concept in philosophy that paved the way for psychology to be seen as an important
mechanism to the great machine (the universe). It greatly amazed me that the
influence of philosophers who were very interested to contribute to the
concepts/ideas in psychology helped how well it is established now. Moving on to the
physiological influences on psychology, we learned how several scientists would be
curious as to how the human brain works and would conduct experiments that
helped psychology become the scientific discipline it is now. These scientists
acknowledge the complexity and importance of the human brain to how we act,
think, and feel. Because of their curiosities, we learned about Bessel’s personal
equation which takes into account the perspective of the observer, Hall and
Flourens’ experiment helped us identify parts of the brain that had a specific function
in terms of human behavior, emotions, thoughts, and feelings. Albeit the method of
extirpation used on the test subjects would probably be regarded as unethical right
now but nevertheless, their experiment helped us better understand the human brain
and know about the parts of the brain dedicated to specific mental functions such as
the amygdala being involved in the processing of emotions and memories. After
these philosophical and psychological influences, psychology began to establish
itself through several contributors to the movements of psychology.
The earliest movement in psychology started with Wilhelm Wundt with his
foundation of new psychology as the first school of thought which established
psychology as a formal academic/scientific discipline. He also started psychology as
a discipline with experimental psychology at the forefront by establishing his
laboratory in Leipzig which aimed to conduct experiments that could explain our
thoughts, actions, and feelings. Edward Titchener was Wundt’s student and his
contribution to psychology led to the definite foundation of the next school of thought
in psychology which was structuralism. This school of thought was originally Wundt’s
theory but it is more associated with Titchener over the years as he devoted to
refining Wundt’s theory and its proponents. This school of thought examined the
adult mind in terms of dissecting the fundamental components of ideas and
experiences and then sought to understand how these components fit together in
intricate frameworks. Titchener’s proponents aimed to reduce complex mental states
to the simplest mental processes, basically taking the complex ideas and reducing it
to basic ideas for a better understanding and introspection. Most schools of thought
developed from one psychologist to another, with most new schools of thought
evolved by the student from their teachers like Wundt’s new psychology and
Titchener’s structuralism. Functionalism was then developed which is concerned with
how the mind functions or how it is used by an organism to adapt to its environment.
Functionalism widened the breadth of psychological study and application, which
was crucial for the advancement of psychology. Psychologists acknowledged the
value of studies done on animals, kids, and persons with psychiatric problems
because of the broader viewpoint.
Behaviorism is a very familiar concept in psychology as we learned earlier on
in our general psychology classes the concept of the behaviorist approach such as
operant conditioning and other related concepts. It was formally established with the
1913 publication of John B. Watson’s classic paper entitled, “Psychology as the
Behaviorist views it”. This school of thought highlights how human or animal
psychology can be objectively studied through observable actions (behaviors).
Behaviorism emerged as a reaction to mentalism which used self-examination
(introspection) of one’s thoughts and feelings to examine human and animal
psychology. Gestalt psychology was then introduced which is a school of thought
that married the two concepts of behaviorism and mentalism. Gestalt psychology is a
school of thought that looks at the human mind and behavior as a whole, the core
belief of this movement is holism which means that the whole is greater than the sum
of its parts. It looks at the human psyche as more than just its broken down little
parts but looks at how these parts fit together to make up the whole person.
As we move on to the more complex movements in psychology, we learn
about psychoanalysis which is a commonly talked about school of thought that even
those not in the psychology field know about Sigmund Freud. It is based on Freud’s
theory that by bringing the contents of the unconscious into conscious
consciousness, people can experience catharsis and acquire an understanding of
their mental condition. This school of thought also greatly highlights the importance
of ‘sexual urges’ in the development of one’s personality which was heavily criticized
by several other psychologists. Some psychologists who agree with the
tenets/principles of Freud’s school of thought eventually went and found their own
school of thought which had some slight modifications from Freud’s ideas. Neo-
Freudian Psychoanalysis did not agree with Freud’s emphasis on sexual urges as a
primary motivator but instead focused more on the positive aspect of personality
development. Such is seen in different theories under Neo-Freudian Psychoanalysis
like the theory of Erik Erikson’s psychosocial stages of development and Piaget’s
theory of cognitive development. The field of evolutionary psychology looks at
human behavior from an evolutionary perspective, it brings together the study of
biology and psychology. This school of thought explains how all of our thoughts,
feelings, and behaviors are determined by out evolutionary/biological traits, basically
saying that our personality is shaped by our biological markers.
Positive psychology is a subfield of psychology that focuses on the character
traits and actions that enable people to have meaningful lives and flourish rather
than just survive. The components of a good life have been sought for by theorists
and researchers in the subject. Additionally, they have suggested and put to the test
methods for raising wellbeing and life satisfaction. Instead than focusing only on
momentary enjoyment, positive psychology stresses inner purpose and fulfillment.
From these broad schools of thought, specific and targeted schools of thought
have been developed. One of them would be Indigenous Psychology, which is a
scientific study of human behavior or mind that is native and not transported from
other regions and designed for its people in each particular local cultural context.
Sikolohiyang Pilipino was then developed by Virgilio Enriquez and focuses on the
tenets born out of the experience, thoughts, and orientation of Filipinos. Sikolohiyang
Pilipino paved the way for core concepts in our culture help us understand the
psychology of Filipinos, it also gave way to the development of our own
psychological test which takes into account several Filipino cultures such as the
concept of respect, utang na loob, and other related concepts. This school of thought
is something we should aim to contribute to as it will greatly help how psychology
and mental health is received here in our own country.
Out of all the movements in psychology we learned about, the one that made
the most sense to me was the movement of positive psychology. I remember joining
the 1st Mindanao Psychology Convention when I was still an undergraduate and we
were asked to choose one workshop to attend to on the last day, I chose the
workshop of “Applied Positive Psychology: Moving from the pursuit of happiness to
the happiness of pursuit”. I believe that our role as psychology practitioners is to help
our peers (and ourselves) to achieve the best life they possibly can with a good
mindset despite the challenges in life. This school of thought aligns with how I view
the world where despite all the challenges, applying positive psychology can help
one achieve inner peace and fulfillment.
The practice of psychology has been growing ever since it came to light as a
discipline. I think that psychology is such an underrated practice still as many are still
unaware of what we do as a discipline and how psychology practitioners contribute
to society but we are a long way from where we came from and if we just keep on
advocating for mental health and the practice of psychology, we would surely be
regarded as part of the important practices to deal with. It has been indicated in
several studies and news articles that the practice of psychology is not yet well-
established in some countries and even here in the Philippines. We are fortunate
enough that our country already has the Mental Health Act (R.A. No. 11036), which
acknowledges the need for mental health services to be strengthened and promoted
but we still have a long way to go in order for us to be better in how we promote our
discipline. I think that, for now, we are fortunate enough to be in a period of time
where we can now talk about mental health in an open setting for the most part.