The Origin of Psychology

Abstract

In this paper I will define three important roles of a child psychiatrist in the juvenile court system. Although punishment of some fashion must be administered for youth committed crimes, there is a concern whether youth are mentally competent to stand trial. Serving as legal advisors on behalf of juvenile rights, a child psychiatrist's role expands beyond rehabilitation.

The Origin of Psychology

Psychology is a science that concentrates on the analysis of the mind with emphasis on the mental activities, and human conduct. Psychologists use direct study and gathering of information to monitor, vindicate, and calculate mental and behavioral methods. The methods used in psychological research vary from informative researches to controlled experiments. The descriptive research defines conduct as it expected to happen, without swaying environmental surroundings. Throughout the history and evolution of psychology, human beings have contemplated on the characteristics of the mind. The debate over whether the mind and body have a connection and how they are connected has baffled philosophers for centuries. There are different psychological perspectives that identify human behavior.

Behaviorism

Between 1920 and 1960, the United States was seriously focused on behaviorism. This approach concentrated on the effects of rewards verses punishments that are associated with specific human behavior. Speaking freely, behaviorism is a point of view where opinions can vary, but speaking truly, behaviorism is accepted as an authoritative belief. From a doctrine stand point, behaviorism has caused substantial tension between critics and advocates. There are three sets of claims that behaviorism has been known to be committed to in truth. The first is that psychology is the knowledge of behavior not the mind, secondly behavior sources are external, not internal and lastly the replacement of mental terms or concepts should be replaced or translated into behavioral concepts. Although logically distinctive, these three claims collectively help to outline a manner of behaviorism. From a methodological view, behaviorism is obligated to the truth. Behaviorism psychologically and analytically are committed to the truth that mental terms can and should be translated into behavioral concepts (Graham, G., 2010, Behaviorism).

Functionalism

The doctrine of that any type of mental state depends not on its interior structure, but exclusively on its function, the role it plays, and the cognitive structure of which it is a part of is known as "Functionalism". Functionalism is used to label an assortment of positions in a variety of disciplines; sociological, psychological, economical, and architectural solely focus on functionalism as a philosophical theory about the disposition of mental conditions.

Functionalism is the doctrine that what makes something a thought, desire, pain (or any other type of mental state) depends not on its internal constitution, but solely on its function, or the role it plays, in the cognitive system of which it is a part. More precisely, functionalist theories take the identity of a mental state to be determined by its causal relations to sensory stimulations, other mental states, and behavior.

Functionalism in the philosophy of mind is the doctrine that what makes something a mental state of a particular type does not depend on its internal constitution, but rather on the way it functions, or the role it plays, in the system of which it is a part. This doctrine is rooted in Aristotle's conception of the soul, and has antecedents in Hobbes's conception of the mind as a "calculating machine", but it has become fully articulated (and popularly endorsed) only in the last third of the 20th century. Though the term 'functionalism' is used to designate a variety of positions in a variety of other disciplines, including psychology, sociology, economics, and architecture, this entry focuses exclusively on functionalism as a philosophical thesis about the nature of mental states.

What is Functionalism?

Functionalism is the doctrine that what makes something a thought, desire, pain (or any other type of mental state) depends not on its internal constitution, but solely on its function, or the role it plays, in the cognitive system of which it is a part. More precisely, functionalist theories take the identity of a mental state to be determined by its causal relations to sensory stimulations, other mental states, and behavior.

Varieties of Functionalism

As suggested earlier, it is helpful to think of functionalist theories as belonging to one of three major strains -- "machine functionalism", "psychofunctionalism" and "analytic functionalism" -- and to see them as emerging, respectively, from early AI theories, empirical behaviorism, and logical behaviorism. It's important to recognize, however, that there is at least some overlap in the bloodlines of these different strains of functionalism, and also that there are functionalist theories, both earlier and more recent, that fall somewhere in between. For example, Wilfrid Sellars's (1956) account of mental states as "theoretical entities" is widely regarded as an important early version of functionalism, but it takes the proper characterization of thoughts and experiences to depend partially on their role in providing a scientific explanation of behavior, and partly on what he calls the "logic", or the a priori interrelations, of the relevant concepts. Still, it is instructive to give separate treatment to the three major strains of the doctrine, as long as these caveats are kept in mind.

" "Methodological" behaviorism is committed to the truth of (1). "Psychological" behaviorism is committed to the truth of (2). "Analytical" behaviorism (also known as "philosophical" or "logical" behaviorism) is committed