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Foundations of Psychology

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Submitted By chrissosa72
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Foundations of Psychology Paper
Christine Rees-Sosa
PSY/300
January 9, 2012
Angeligue Grady

Foundations of Psychology Paper
Through my readings of our text and my internet research I have found seven schools of psychology. They are Structuralism, Functionalism, Behaviorism, Psychoanalysis, Humanistic psychology, Gestalt psychology, and Cognitive psychology. Structuralism and Functionalism are no longer considered schools of thought within psychology and will not be discussed within this paper.

Behaviorism According to Cherry (2012) behaviorism is a theory of learning based upon the idea that all behaviors are acquired through conditioning. Basically, behavior is learned by where and how a person lives and grows. If a person is raised in a loving and nurturing environment where they are taught to be polite and violence is wrong; odds are that the person will grow up to behave in such a manner. The person will possess personality characteristics that show love for family members or a spouse, abstain from violence and possibly a productive member of society. If a person is raised in a violent environment where they are exposed to such things such as physical abuse, drug abuse and so on, the person is likely to grow up and possess characteristics of violent tendencies toward loved ones, become drug users or even end up in a state prison due to violent acts.

Cognitive Psychology Cognitive psychology “studies mental processes including how people think, perceive, remember and learn” (Cherry, 2012). An example of how people learn would be reading or watching material on specific subjects and taking notes, or even working in a study group. Perception could be that two different people witness the exact same car accident but when they give a statement to the police officer on the scene, they describe completely different details. When one speaks of

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