There are four basic historical perspectives in psychology, the structuralism perspective, the introspection perspective, functionalism perspective and the Gestalt Perspective. The structuralism perspective worked to uncover the components of the mind including the consciousness, the thought process, and other forms of both mental states and mental activities; it was put forth by Edward B. Titchener. Wilhelm Wundt put forth the introspection perspective is the procedure that was used to study the inherent structure of the mind, looking at what a person is experiencing when exposed to a certain stimulus. Emile Durkheim put forth the functionalism perspective which looks at the role of behavior in an individual with specific concentration on what the mind does. Finally, the Gestalt Perspective, introduced by Christian von Ehrenfels, looks at perception and addresses thinking as a whole rather than as individual components.
The five current perspectives of psychology are the neuroscience, psychodynamic, behavioral, cognitive, and humanistic perspectives. The neuroscience perspective of Robert Feldman looks at the study of behavior as a biological brain function. Freud was responsible for the psychodynamic and behavioral perspectives, the first looks at behavior as motivated by inner forces and the second states that observable behavior is what should be concentrated on. Feldman was responsible for the cognitive perspective as well, looking at how people think and understand the world, while Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow were responsible for the humanistic perspective, which postulates that all individuals strive to not only grow and develop, but be in control of their lives and their behaviors.
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"Four Historical Perspectives in Psychology".
I am a fan of the psychodynamic perspective, given that I am able to see my behavioral actions motivated by internal forces almost entirely, with external forces having very little influence overall.
