As soon as it began, the 20th century had already experienced such a young science as psychology for strength. The main areas of psychology that existed at that time were not able to answer questions that arose in the context of the historical and cultural conditions of modern times. It was during this period that science experienced the first crisis in its history, which was primarily associated with the insufficiency of its theoretical principles developed by the introspective school to explain the real situation in society.
This led to the fact that the main
directions of psychology of the 20th century differ even in their
subject of study, and different schools are studying different aspects of practical reality. In particular, Wundt, the representative of structuralism, sets himself the goal of studying direct experience and its structures, while the functionalists do not pay attention to this, focusing on analyzing the work of these structures. Thus, the aforementioned main lines of Western psychology differ in their approach to the definition of human experience: structuralists define it as a “chain of elements”, and functionalists as a “stream of consciousness” that can be studied only in its entirety. Over time, it was the approach of the representatives of functionalism that proved itself in practice.
Also, the main directions of psychology of the 20th century include reflexology, which was developed mainly by Russian scientists, for example, Pavlov and Bekhterev. Their subject of study was the sense organs, as well as the sensations experienced by man. Pavlov, in particular, coined the term “conditioned reflex”, and also explained its appearance. The other main areas of psychology, perhaps, were not so closely connected with biology and did not have such great significance for it.
Behavioralists led by Watson considered their main task to understand all the mysteries of the behavior of living beings. And while other main areas of psychology suffered from some subjectivism, the adherents of this concept sought to explain all the mysteries in the behavior of living beings by objective factors that are associated with adaptation to the environment. Basically, they used white rats for their experiments, because consciousness and the psyche for behaviorists are one, so the difference between these animals and humans is insignificant. The main achievement of this school was to explain the acquisition of skills through trial and error.
And finally, one of the concepts of psychology that arose at this time is Freudianism. Freud focused on actions whose motives people cannot explain. So he came up with the idea of “unconscious” and devoted his whole life to his study. He believed that the cause of unconscious acts can be identified through the study of dreams, random reservations and
involuntary movements. Freud believed that the entire development of personality can be reduced to two basic instincts: sex drive and fear of death. Living in society, we suppress these forces, so they are forced into the realm of the unconscious, but sometimes they still make themselves felt.