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A 3 page research paper that contrasts and compares structuralism, functionalism and behaviorism. Bibliography lists 4 sources.
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3 pages (~225 words per page)
File: KE9_khpsy3.rtf
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when psychology was first investigated using the scientific method, early founders of the science, such as Edward Titchener, focused on how the elements that comprised mental life could be successfully
studied. Titcheners approach was to focus on the "what of mental contents, rather than the why or how" and this approach became known as structuralism (Zimbardo and Weber, 1994, p.
12). The basic premise of this approach to understanding cognition is that all human experiences can be comprehended in term so being a "combination of simple events or elements"
(Zimbardo and Weber, 1994, p. 12). This idea, that is, that it is possible to understand something by studying its elements, was appealing, but also was criticized early on as
being too simplistic (Zimbardo and Weber, 1994). Functionalism For example, Henry James (1842-1910) agreed with Titchener that the study of human consciousness should be central to psychological investigation,
he disagreed on the focus of structuralism on mental content and maintained that it is the "functions of mental processes, not the contents of the mind" that are significant (Zimbardo
and Weber, 1994, p. 12). Functionalism refers to a "philosophy of the mind" that maintains that a "mental state of a particular type" is based upon the way in which
this state functions, that is, "the role it plays," within the system to which the individual belongs (Levin, 2004). For example, a functionalist definition of pain would be that
this is a mental state associated with injury that produces the belief that there is "something wrong with the body" (Levin, 2004). Put simply, functionalist view differs from the structural
in that functionalists stress the purpose or function that a mental process services rather than the structure or contents that the mental process encompasses (Zimbardo and Weber, 1994). Behaviorism
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