The 7 main psychological currents

Man has been verycurious about the phenomena that surround him, especially in those to answer the reason for the diversity of human behavior, and to explain it he has seen the need to create theories.

This is how throughout history,varied and diverse psychological currentshave emerged that have tried to study and understand the behavior of the individual.

In this article, we refer to thedifferent schools or currentsthat have tried to explain human behavior, its characteristics and implications within a very diverse and complex society.

What are psychological currents?

Before conceptualizing what refers to psychological currents, it is necessary to know what psychology is. In general terms, psychology is ascience whose motivation is the study, understanding and analysis of the cognitive areaof the human brain, its mind and manifested behavior.

Thus, psychology studies andinvestigates the conscious processes and states of the individual, as well as their origins and effects. We emphasize that the object of study of this science is the human being.

Note: Due to the complexity of the human being and the intricacy of his mind, there is no global way to explain and understand his behavior and that is why psychological currents arise, being theseapproaches in which researchers try to explain the different behavioral manifestations ofman.

So, psychological currents are all those tendencies, theoretical models, approaches, perspectives that aim to explain thereason for man’s behavior in its different facets. Each statement is influenced by the particular vision of its founder, by the geographical environment that is lived, the political and economic moment that predominated in its research environment.

What are the main psychological currents?

Since psychology was considered as a science, many currents have emerged, however, in this article we will mention those that have had a relevant importance in the context of the study of human behavior:

1. Psychoanalysis

Characteristics of psychoanalysis

• The object of study is the unconscious. His thesis is that the psyche is not reduced to the conscious. The unconscious contents have a determined role in the psychic life.
• The clinical method applied by psychoanalysis is cure by word , based on the method of free association.
• Psychoanalysis is useful for those people who periodically suffer symptoms of mental disorders , preventing the development of their full potential to be happy individually and socially, at work or in the daily tasks of life.
• In this introspective process of the patient, they find surprising connections that reveal hitherto hidden aspects such as desires and unresolved conflicts that emerge from the unconscious, allowing the individual with the help of the psychoanalyst to recognize the origins of their suffering.
• It resolves the conflicts discovered through speech, placing the patient in a new perspective of their problems, it inhibits them, offering them another perspective of the problem being treated.
• The free association method has proven to be a Central Tool for Psychoanalytic Research .

2. Structuralism

To highlight: The authors of the current current, considered that all conscious experience could be divided into basic conscious elementstag. Edward Titchener, his disciple, considers experience as a phenomenon of consciousness, which is the sum total of mental processes.

Characteristics of structuralism

• The understanding of mental processes is proposed , based on the definition and subsequent categorization of those elements that make up the set of conscious and unconscious processes typical of the human mind of people.
• It looks at the sum total of experience from birth to adult life.
• The method for investigating the simple processes of consciousness is experimentation .
• His study technique is the Description of the conscious psychological experience in different emotional states, through the introspection of the patient.
• Structuralist psychology describes the facts of consciousness (perceptions, feelings, impulses) and associate them, as well as the search for its regulatory principles.
• The experimental subjects describe in detail how they perceive their sensations and mental states while performing a task or attending to a stimulus.
• The objective of this current is to study the forms of organizationthat condition what happens within a system and to analyze the connection between them, observing how they shape the various sociocultural systems and the activity that gravitates in their area of influence.
• The main contribution of structuralism was the scientific support that psychology needed to become a discipline susceptible to the application of the scientific method.

3. Behaviorism

This psychological approach was founded at the beginning of the 20th century by the American psychologist John B Watson ((4) and continued by other researchers such as BF Skinner (5)tag. At that time psychology was developed in the study throughsubjective or introspective methods.

You should know: This clearly positivist cutting current received the name of classical or empirical Behaviorism since its developments were carried out in the field of Classical conditioning , within the framework of the experimental method.

Watson did not deny the existence of internal experiences or emotions , but he insisted that these could not be the object of scientific study because they were impossible to observe, measure or quantifytag. He then proposed turning the practice of psychology into a scienceusing only objective, observable and verifiable procedures , captured in laboratories and that allowed statistics to be produced.

Characteristics of behaviorism

• The object of study of behaviorism is conduct and that human behavior can be understood by analyzing the relationship between stimuli and responses .
• It is explained on the basis of environmental causes , of the individual’s relationship with the environment that surrounds him and not based on internal forces.
• It is based on the observation of simple behaviors in the subject, on the general premise that every stimulus is followed by a response, which arises from the interrelationship between the subject and the surrounding environment.
• Other techniques called behavioral techniqueshave been derived from this method, used for the treatment of addictions, phobias, disorders, anxiety, among others.
• The contributions of behavioral studies have focused on knowledge about behavior modification and its analysis , useful mechanisms for therapy, teaching and training methods, and the effects of non-controlled substances (drugs) on behavior.

4. Humanism

The main representatives of this current of psychology are Abraham Maslow (6) and Carl Rogers (7) , founded in the 1960stag. Born in the United States of America, from a group ofPsychologists and progressive thinkers , including Kurt Goldstein, Erich Fromm, Carl Rogers, Abraham Maslow, Fritz Perls, Rollo May, Karen Horney, Aldous Huxley, Herbert Marcuse.

Note: They declare their will to Develop a new perspective that will go beyond the deterministic concept and the fragmentation of the current models of psychoanalysis and behaviorism up to that time.

Characteristics of humanism

• Therapy gives you an important role in finding the reason for your problem .
• The object of study of this approach is given by the conscious meanings that allow the existential understanding of man.
• More than importing the understanding of the reason for human behavior, an attempt is made to understand its meaning .
• It focuses on the patient and part of the central hypothesis is that the individual has means for self -understanding and for changing the concept of himself, attitudes and self-directed behavior.
• Two relevant aspects of therapy are: The radical trust in the person of the patient and the rejection of the directive role of the therapist.
• He aspired for the man to be studied in its entirety, that is, to unify the mind, behavior and spirit, all these elements interrelating with the environment.

5. Functionalism

The main exponents of Functionalism were William James (8)  and John Dewey (9)tag. James is traditionally considered the predecessor ofFunctional Psychology with the publication of his book “The Principles of Psychology”tag. It arose atthe end of the 19th century in the United States.

To highlight: This current promoted the importance in the Application of techniques such as intelligence tests , and controlled experiences to measure the ability of animals to learn and solve problems.

This type of research breaks with the introspective methodsused by the first psychologists of the 19th century. The object of study is the functioning of mental processes and behavior.

Characteristics of functionalism

• The functionalists included introspection and behavior observationas a method. It is mostly supported by Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution.(10)
• Knowledge would arise by studying individual differences and generalities , emotions and Irrational Impulses , knowledge.
• This current is more interested in psychological operations and not in the elements of consciousness as proposed by the structuralist approach.
• This current has as its object of study the adaptive activity of psychic operations .
• Attempts to explain the nature of Mental States .
• His intention is to get to know better How the Human Mind Works and use what he has learned to solve everyday and specific problems.
• The contributions of functionalism are not frequently associated with therapeutic practices.
• He managed to show the world that the human mind is not as complex a system as it seems and that it can be analyzed from a broad perspective, identifying patterns, problems and dynamics of thought.

6. Cognitivism

You should know:   Its main authors were: Alan Baddeley, Frederic Bartlett, Donald Broadbent, Jerome Bruner, Hermann Ebbinghaus, among others. His study focuses on various cognitiveprocesses, including problem solving, reasoning, perception, decision making, and language learning.

Characteristics of cognitivism

• It focuses on changing thepatient’s way of thinking and reasoning.
• They place emphasis on knowing the influence of informationprocessing on behavior, since the individual compares new information with pre-existing information.
• For cognitivism, Knowledge is functional because when the individual is faced with a situation that his mind has already processed and solved (that is, that he already knows), he can anticipate his actions in similar situations.
• Cognitivists emphasize that depending on the way in which a person processes information and understands the world around him, he manifests a type of behavior.
• It uses the Experimental hypothetical-deductive method as study methodology.

7. Gestalt

Emerged in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century, its main exponent was the Austrian philosopher Christian Von Ehrenfels (11)tag. The Gestaltcan be interpreted as totality, structure, formamong others. Its principle is that“The whole is greater than the sum of its parts”It represented an alternative for those people who did not feel represented by the traditional currents of psychology.

Note: The main antecedents of this current lie in philosophy. The area of study is perception , looking for simple explanations that will adapt to our natural way of perceiving reality.

Gestalt characteristics

• He opposed Behavioral approaches because we perceive reality in different ways, perception is individualized and according to our experiences.
• Its object is the totalities present in consciousnesstag. His study methodology is based on phenomenological analysis.
• From a humanistic approach, this current considers people as active and autonomous beings .
• It analyzes the human mind from its most valuable side, from a holistic point of view andfocuses on the positive aspects of life.
• Gestalt therapyadopts the Kantian ideathat we do not have the capacity to know how things are in reality, but we do have the ability to experience them(12). The purpose of the Gestalt current isto delve into the field of individual perception and attention.
• The psychologists of this current are famous for their contributionsto the study of learning and problem solving.
• His most relevant contribution, which was enunciated by Wertheimer, is the elaboration ofthe basic laws that govern perception.

What is the importance of psychological currents?

All these currents are focused on the purpose of psychology, which is to describe, understand, predict and influence all psychological phenomena in the most complete and effective way possible.

To highlight:The human being is eager for knowledge and converts the environment that surrounds him into a totally changing world. This constant change influences theindividual and collective motivations and behaviors of the individual.

Therefore, each approach presented here tries to study psychological disorders from their perspective of knowledge , applying different procedures and techniques in the search for definitive answers to human behavior.

Key Findings

• The psychological currents are born from the need to address the solution of the individual problems of people, who somehow manifest a dissociation with the world that surrounds them.
• Each current is influenced by the particular vision of its founder, by the geographical environment in which it lives, the political and economic moment.
• Psychological currents Study Psychological Disorders applying different procedures and techniques.
• Thanks to psychological currents, there are different types of alternatives to treat most of the existing psychological pathologies.
• Among the best known psychological currents arepsychoanalysis, behaviorism, structuralism, humanism and Gestalt.
• Many of these currentsare still alive today, yet the psychological therapists of our times do not work under the influence of a single approach.