Psychology
Psychology is a very useful subject and this has been proved time and again. Psychology mainly deals with human development and it is classified as a science that studies the human behavior. Psychology studies various aspects of human beings like emotions, behavior etc and most importantly it also studies the unconscious mind of human beings. This paper will throw light upon structuralism, functionalism and cognitive. There three will be compared and contrasted from time to time to give a clear picture of all the three topics.
Structuralism
Structuralism analyzes a specific field for instance history. This started off when the field of linguistics was ventured into. This was done by Ferdinand de Saussure, the French psychologists firmly believed that the theory of Structuralism was not restricted to linguistics alone and later this theory was also applied to various other subjects. This theory was later applied to several other fields like anthropology, architecture, psycho analysis etc.
“Structuralism is not mutually exclusive to literary theory. The philosophy of science also consists of several structuralists theories. There is a formation of intellectual trend according to a very renowned personality by the name Alison Assiter. Each element of a whole is largely determined by a structure, according to several structuralists, every system largely depends on the element when considered on the whole. There are several laws and the structuralists believe that all laws must be used to deal with coexistence rather than changes. And finally structures are the ‘real things’ that lie beneath the surface or the appearance of meaning.” (Althusser and structuralism).
Functionalism
This theory explains about several institutions and how they fulfill our biological needs. According to this theory the social institutions are pivotal in fulfilling our biological needs. For instance marriage is an institution and it fulfills more biological needs than one. It provides emotional support to human beings and emotional support is one of the most important needs of human beings, hence in this way it satisfies the biological nees of human beings. “In 1906, Mary Whiton Calkins published an article in Psychological Review asking for reconciliation between these two schools of thought. Structuralism and functionalism were not so different, she argued, since both are principally concerned with the conscious self.” (Structuralism and Functionalism). Structuralism and functionalism are very similar because both were one of the very first established schools of thoughts in psychology. These theories focus on different things; functionalism is more specific and focuses upon various institutions, on the contrary structuralism focuses on more things than one. These are the similarities between Structuralism and Functionalism.
Cognitive
The process of thought is usually known as cognition. It is aimed at solving the problems of human beings like it is helpful in solving various mental problems. Hence Cognitive psychology involves a bit of Structuralism as well as Functionalism. It focuses on mental problems and tries to resolve all the mental problems found in human beings. To conclude, all these theories have similarities as well as differences and this has been comprehensively discussed in this paper.
References
Assiter, A 1984, ‘Althusser and structuralism’, The British journal of sociology, vol. 35, no. 2, Blackwell Publishing, pp.272-296
Structuralism and Functionalism. In Early Schools of Thought.