Exploring the Foundations of Cognitive Psychology: Structuralism, Functionalism, Behaviorism, and Gestalt Psychology

Roots of Cognitive Psychology: 

Structuralism: 

It was the first school of thought in Psychology. It was established by Wilhem Wundt and his student Edward Titchener. Wilhem Wundt established the first laboratory of Psychology in Germany. Structuralism studies the mental components of the human brain to understand perceptions, conceptions, and thinking. They used introspection, a method in which the subjects were asked to describe how they were feeling when they were given stimuli.

Functionalism: 

Functionalism came after structuralism. It was established by American psychologist William James. It seeks to define the function of the brain rather than its components. 

Behaviorism:

It is one of the schools of thought in psychology that stresses on the idea that only observable behaviour should be examined and any individual can be trained to have any behaviour. It is based on the works of John B Watson and B.F Skinner.

Gestalt Psychology:

Gestalt psychology explains that humans perceive whole and complete things rather than the individual parts. The proponents of gestalt psychology were Max Wertheimer and Wolfang Kohler.They used experiments and observations to support their work.