Philosophy:Functional approach
The Functional approach is considered to be the second paradigm of psychology. This approach focuses on the function of the mental processes involving consciousness. This approach was developed by William James in 1890. James was the first American psychologist and wrote the first general textbook regarding psychology. In this approach he reasoned that the mental act of consciousness must be an important biological function.[1] He also noted that it was a psychologist's job to understand these functions so they can discover how the mental processes operate. This idea was an alternative approach to Structuralism, which was the first paradigm in psychology. (Gordon, 1995). In second language acquisition (SLA) functional approaches are share similarities with Chomsky's Universal Grammar (UG). Focus is on the use of language in real situations (performance), as well as underlying knowledge (competence).
Successors to functionalism
Functionalism was the basis of development for several subtypes of psychology including child and developmental psychology, clinical psychology, psychometrics, and industrial/vocational psychology.[2][3]
Functionalism eventually dropped out of popular favor and was replaced by the next dominant paradigm, behaviourism.[2]
References
- ↑ Schacter, Daniel; Gilbert, Daniel; Wegner, Daniel; Hood, Bruce (2016). Psychology. doi:10.1007/978-1-137-40673-6. ISBN 978-1-137-40674-3.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Green, Christopher D. (2009). "Darwinian theory, functionalism, and the first American psychological revolution.". American Psychologist 64 (2): 75–83. doi:10.1037/a0013338. ISSN 1935-990X. PMID 19203139.
- ↑ Hart, Joseph (1981-09-01). "The significance of William James' ideas for modern psychotherapy" (in en). Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy 12 (2): 88–102. doi:10.1007/BF00946185. ISSN 1573-3564.
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