History of Psychology

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Please see response below. I also attached some other resources to consider. I hope this helps and take care.

RESPONSE

Your question is this:

1. Compare and Contrast three of the ten different perspectives (specific theories) of early described in your text or on the Internet. These theories include: Structuralism, Functionalism, Behaviorism, Gestalt, Psychodynamic, Humanistic, Evolutionary, Physiological, Cognitive, and Culture and Diversity.

I am wondering if you have considered the theories that are most appealing and interesting to you. Since you did not specify, let's focus on Behaviorism, Humanistic and Cognitive psychology. I also provided links and resources for other considerations. One approach to helping with a paper like this is to provide a tentative outline, and then look at information from various sources, which you can then draw on your final copy. This is the approach that this response takes. Briefly, for a compare and contrast assignment, it is often helpful to present one theory first, and then the next two theories can be compared to the first, such as:

E.g. In contrast to Behaviorism, Humanistic Psychology looks at...

Or,

Whereas Behaviorism considers only the environment, Cognitivism includes...

Or,
Similar to Humanistic theorists, the Cognitive theorist assume...

And so...

Your tentative outline might look something to the effect...

I. Introduction (e.g., Introduce the topic; include a purpose statement: The purpose of this paper is to compare and contrast...).
II. Behaviorism (e.g., description, main players, beliefs, assumptions, and implication for education, etc.).
III. Humanistic (e.g., description, main players, beliefs, assumptions, and implication for education, etc.).
IV. Cognitive (e.g., description, main players, beliefs, assumptions, and implication for education. etc.).
V. Conclusion

Let's look at some information to consider for the above outline.

1. Behaviorism

Behaviorism is the philosophical position that says that psychology, to be a science, must focus its attentions on what is observable -- the environment and behavior -- rather than what is only available to the individual -- perceptions, thoughts, images, feelings.... The latter are subjective and immune to measurement, and therefore can never lead to an objective science. http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/beh.html

Examples of behaviorists include Ivan Pavlov, Edward Lee Thorndike, John Broadus Watson and B. F. Skinner. In a recent survey, Skinner was listed as the most influential psychologist of the 20th century (Review of General Psychology). He was an incredibly prolific author, publishing 21 books and 180 articles. http://www.bfskinner.org/BFS_Bibliography2003.pdf

From one source:

Early in its inscription, for example, John Broadus Watson (1878-1958), a 35-year-old "animal behavior man" from Johns Hopkins University, called for a radical provisioning of the scope and method of psychological research:
"Psychology as the behaviorist views it is a purely objective experimental branch of natural science. Its theoretical goal is the prediction and control of behavior. Introspection forms no essential part of its methods, nor is the scientific value of its data dependent upon the readiness with which they lend themselves to interpretation in terms of consciousness. The behaviorist, in his efforts to get a unitary scheme of animal response, recognizes no dividing line between man and brute. The behavior of man, with all of its refinement and complexity, forms only a part of the behaviorist's total scheme of investigation." (Watson, 1913)

Therefore, Behaviorism focuses on those aspects of behavior that can be publicly observed and verified. The mental processes associated with behavior are not considered, because they cannot be measured objectively. The basis of behaviorism was the fact that all organisms adjust to stimuli the environment through certain responses or behaviors. Because of this, it was thought ...