Functional psychology ( Eng. Functional psychology ) - a direction in psychology that examines the mental life and behavior of a person from the point of view of his active and purposeful adaptation to environmental conditions [1] .
Given the place of occurrence and some features, in the mainstream of functional psychology, two separate branches are distinguished: European and American ; the latter is often called functionalism [2] .
History
The fundamental ideas of functional psychology go back to the evolutionary doctrine developed by C. Darwin and G. Spencer [3] .
In the European countries, K. Stumpf and representatives of the Würzburg School of Psychology headed by O. Külpee and mm adhered to an idealistic interpretation of the adaptive functions of the human psyche.
The American version of functional psychology emerged in the United States at the end of the 19th century as an alternative to structuralism [4] , developed in line with the introspection method by W. Wundt and his student E. Titchener, who already worked at that time at Cornell University (Ithaca) USA.
The most famous representatives of this branch of psychology in the USA were William James, John Dewey, and James ms Rowland Angell , and the program document of functional psychology was the article by D. Dewey, “The concept of the reflex arc in psychology” ( 1896 ) [5] , in which the role of various components of the reflex act in the adaptation of an individual to environmental conditions was convincingly shown.
In 1904, John Dewey's student James Angell published his work An Introductory Study of the Structure and Functions of Human Consciousness, which was a programmatic declaration for the entire further development of functional psychology [6] .
Since in the West functional psychology developed primarily in line with idealistic views, in the USSR its principles were declared false.
One of the main critics of functional psychology "from the standpoint of a holistic Marxist-Leninist approach to the study of the human psyche" was the famous Soviet psychologist V. N. Myasishchev [7] .
Current status
See also
- Functionalism (Psychology)
- Stumpf, Carl
- Külpe, Oswald
- William james
- John Dewey
Notes
- ↑ Gary R. VandenBos, ed., APA Dictionary of Psychology (2006). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association
- ↑ Misiak N., Sexton U., History of psychology, 2 ed., NY - L., 1968.
- ↑ Schacter, Daniel L .; Wegner, Daniel & Gilbert, Daniel. 2007. Psychology . Worth Publishers. pp. 26-7
- ↑ "functionalism." Encyclopædia Britannica . Encyclopædia Britannica Online . Encyclopædia Britannica, 2011. Web. 08 Mar. 2011.
- ↑ "The Reflex Arc Concept in Psychology" (1896)
- ↑ James Rowland Angell , An Introductory Study of the Structure and Functions of Human Consciousness, 1904.
- ↑ Myasischev V.N. Mental functions and relations // Uch. app. LSU. L., 1949. No. 119.
Literature
- Yaroshevsky M.G. , History of Psychology, M., 1966.
- Leahy T , History of Modern Psychology, 3rd ed. St. Petersburg: Peter, 2003.
- Wood worth RS , Dynamic psychology, NY, 1918.
- Carr N. A .. , Psychology A study of mental activity, NY, 1927.
- Boring EG , A history of experimental psychology, 2 ed., NY, 1950.
- Misiak N., Sexton U. , History of psychology, 2 ed., NY - L., 1968.
Links
- Mary Calkins (1906) "A Reconciliation Between Structural And Functional Psychology"
- James R. Angell (1907) “The Province of Functional Psychology”
- James R. Angell (1906), Psychology: An Introductory Study of the Structure and Function of Human Consciousness
- Functionalism - Encyclopædia Britannica Online