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Psychology Development Essay Research Paper Psychology as

Psychology Development Essay, Research Paper

Psychology as a science has developed over a long period of time, literally

centuries. During this period of time, man individuals have had an impact on the

development of Psychology as a science. Select three individuals, describe in

detail the contributions of the individuals, and discuss the significance of the

person to the development of Psychology as a science. In this paper I am going

to talk about three different individuals, and describe their contributions to

Psychology. I am also going to talk about how there contributions had a

significant effect on Psychology as a science. These three people are the three

that I consider the most important people of Psychology. Psychology is an

interesting science in which we need people to help explain why things are the

way they are. Many people make an attempt to explore this science , but it takes

dedication to actually get something out of it.( Themes ). One of the three

people I consider a big impact on Psychology is Wilhelm Wundt. Known as the

founder of psychology as a formal academic discipline. Wundt founded the school

of Structuralism. This concept evolved out of the mechanistic nature of the

Industrial Revolution and the Scientific method of experimentation.

Structuralism attempted to discover the nature of consciousness into separate

parts, and to ultimately discover the structure of consciousness. Wundt held the

first academic course in psychology in 1862, and he set up the first

experimental laboratory where he conducted a series of experiments to determine

the dimensions of feeling and perception. Wundt help people to be able to break

things down into groups for what he thought easier management . Wundt

significance was that he was the first person to actually introduce the subject

of psychology to others and get them involved ( uidaho.edu ). Another great

Physiologist is Ivan Pavlov. Ivan Pavlov was born in a small village in central

Russia. His parents wanted him to be a priest , but he soon found that he cared

more for scientific pursuits. He then began to study chemistry and physiology

and soon began to research topics that interested him the most: digestion and

blood circulation. His work became well known , and he was appointed professor

of physiology at the Imperial Medical Academy. The work that made Pavlov a

household name in psychology actually began as a study in digestion. He began

looking at the digestive process in dogs, especially the interaction between

salivation. He soon after doing much studying relized that the reason for dogs

salivating was the excitement of getting food. In his study of the he used

different types of conditioning seeing different points when the dog salivates.

His over all theory is that the dogs salivates because of the expectation of

food becoming present .Pavlov signigicance to psychology is that something such

as dog salivating and no one understood why or much less even thought about it,

but Pavlov wondered why and found and answer ( uidaho.edu). The third person

that I will discuss in this paper is B. F. Skinner. Skinner went to Harvard to

study psychology since he had always enjoyed observing animal and human

behavior. Skinner found himself more and more a behaviorist. He worked in the

lab of an experimental biologist, however, and developed behavioral studies of

rats. He then decided to design boxes to automatically reward behavior, such as

depressing lever, pushing a button, and so on. He then had an interest in

pigeons, he developed the ideas of operant conditioning and shaping

behavior. Unlike Pavlov`s classical conditioning where an existing

behavior is shaped by association it with a new stimulus. Operant conditioning

is the rewarding of a partial behavior or random act that approaches the desired

behavior. Skinner`s over all believe is that someone with an empty system can be

anything at that point and time only ( Themes ). Skinner`s significance to

psychology was that he helped people understand that he can get someone or

something to do anything by using types of conditioning. All three of these

people had a big impact on psychology. All of them had a desire to learn and a

passion for the science as a whole. This paper talk about how Wilhelm Wundt that

of things as Structurlism as he broke it down. It also talks about B.F. Skinner

who believed he could take anything with a completely empty system and make it

into anything he wanted to. This paper also talked about Ivan Pavlov and how he

came interested in dogs, and why they salivate. Pavlov used ⌠ Classical

Conditioning. All three of these people had a great influence in psychology and

help other people understand different behaviors.