Functionalism
School · 1890s-1910s, United States · Psychology, stage 2: Map the schools
Functionalism was the American reply to structuralism, and its complaint was that cataloguing the elements of consciousness explains nothing. Influenced directly by Darwin, functionalists asked what mental processes are for: what a habit, an emotion, or an act of attention does for an organism trying to survive in an environment. William James set the tone by arguing that consciousness is a continuous stream rather than a set of separable elements, and that it exists because it is useful. Because the question was about usefulness, functionalism led naturally into applied work, and the American testing movement, educational psychology, and industrial psychology all grew out of this climate. It never had a fixed doctrine, and it dissolved less by being refuted than by being absorbed, with behaviourism taking its interest in adaptation and dropping its interest in consciousness.
What it claims
- The right question about a mental process is what it does, not what it is made of.
- Consciousness is a continuous stream, not a set of separable elements.
- Mind exists because it helps an organism adapt to an environment.
- Psychology should be applied to practical problems, not confined to the laboratory.
Key ideas
People
Sources
- Functional psychology Wikipedia
- William James Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- The Principles of Psychology Classics in the History of Psychology, York University
