The Subject Psychology — Important Questions

Structuralism

Step 1: Different schools of thought used different methods to study the mind. Step 2: Structuralism, founded by Wundt and Titchener, was the FIRST school of thought in Psychology. Step 3: Its goal was to identify the basic structures or components of conscious experience — like breaking a chemical compound into its elements. Step 4: The method used was 'introspection' — a systematic self-examination of one's own thoughts and feelings. Step 5: Behaviourism rejected introspection; Gestalt focused on holistic perception; Psychoanalysis focused on the unconscious. So Structuralism is correct.

Consciousness serves adaptive functions and helps individuals cope with their changing environment

Step 1: William James, the 'Father of American Psychology', founded Functionalism as a challenge to Structuralism. Step 2: He argued that the mind is always changing, so identifying fixed building blocks (as structuralists did) is pointless. Step 3: His central idea: since consciousness is a characteristic feature of humans, it MUST serve useful functions — specifically, helping people adapt to their environment. Step 4: Option A describes Structuralism, Option C describes Behaviourism, and Option D describes the Gestalt idea. Step 5: Functionalism focused on HOW and WHY the mind works, not ju

Form, configuration or an organised whole

Step 1: Gestalt Psychology was founded in Germany in 1912 by Max Wertheimer, Kurt Koffka and Wolfgang Kohler. Step 2: The very name of this school comes from the German word 'Gestalt'. Step 3: 'Gestalt' means 'form', 'configuration', or 'an organised whole'. Step 4: This meaning is central to their philosophy — humans perceive things as complete wholes, not as separate elements. For example, when you see a flower, you see it as a whole (colour, shape, fragrance together), not as individual petals. Step 5: This is the opposite of Structuralism's approach of breaking things into parts. The whole

Ivan Pavlov

Step 1: J.B. Watson's Behaviourism proposed that behaviour is a response to stimulus and is shaped by environmental conditioning. Step 2: Watson built his theory on the findings of Ivan Pavlov, a famous Russian physiologist. Step 3: Pavlov had proposed the Classical Conditioning Theory — where an animal (dog) could be conditioned to respond to a neutral stimulus (bell) by pairing it with a natural stimulus (food). Step 4: Johannes Müller, Helmholtz, and Fechner were physiologists who contributed to explaining sensation and perception — they were not directly the foundation of Behaviourism. Ste