Top 15 Theories of Psychology

There are multiple Theories in psychology . This is because it is a scientific discipline that spans multiple branches and fields of study.

Psychology is the science that is responsible for studying behavior and mental processes, analyzing them from a behavioral, cognitive and affective dimension.

Symbol representing psychology.  This branch is responsible for studying the mind and welcomes various theories.

Since its inception, many theories have been developed in the field of psychology. Below are some of the most important ones. You can also see The top 6 schools of psychology .

List of the most outstanding theories in psychology

Mentalist Theories

These theories include all those who use ideas and terms such as soul, psyche, mind and mental processes, among others. They also use introspection from the methodological point of view.

1- Philosophical psychology

This psychology focuses on the study of the intimate nature of the person or life, explaining it through metaphysical principles.

The rise of psychology lies in the Greek world and in the origin of formal knowledge. It was part of the philosophy that dealt with the themes of the soul. These origins are embodied in his name; Psyche in Greek means soul and logos, rational knowledge.

The authors to emphasize within this part of the psychology would be Plato and Aristotle. Plato considered that people were formed by two opposing substances, body and mind, adopting a dualistic position.

His disciple was Aristotle, who affirmed that the soul was the form of the body that determined its essence and that living beings have different types of souls.

2- The psychology of faculties

This theory was defended by St. Augustine, Reid and John Calvin. He maintained that through the activity of certain faculties of the thinking substance mental phenomena were produced.

In his theory, St. Augustine affirms that the human soul is immortal and spiritual, not found in a specific part of the body and that joins the body in an accident or as a form of punishment.

He also explained that people have two ways of gaining knowledge; By means of the senses, which allow us to know the sensible world and through reason, which allows us to reach truth and wisdom.

3. Naturalism

This current affirms that the laws of nature are what determine the development of man and society.

It takes into account both the influence of the biological and individual characteristics of each and the environment in which the person is, in general.

4- Structuralism

It was defended by Wundt And Titchener, who are based on physical laws and use introspection as a method to study mental processes.

This theory Is centered on the person himself to carry out an observation of himself, his state of mind and his mental state, for later reflection, analysis and interpretation.

Theories of stimulus-response conditioning

These theories intended that the psychology was considered a science as well as the physics, reason why they had a methodology that focused on those aspects that were observable and testable.

5- The connectionism

Thorndike , With this theory, defines learning as the result of the association between stimuli and responses. Associations that will be strengthened or weakened by the nature of the same.

The foundation of Thorndike's connectionism was the association between sensory impressions and impulses of action. In addition it affirms that the most characteristic form of association is obtained by means of the trial and error.

Its main contribution was the formulation of the law of effect. This dictates that if a given response given by the subject is followed by reinforcing consequences, those responses are more likely to occur in the future when the same stimulus reappears.

On the other hand, when the consequences following a response are not satisfactory, the probability of emission will be less when that stimulus is re-presented.

Other laws that he established were the law of exercise or repetition. It states that the more times a response is given to the presence of a stimulus, the longer the retention time will be.

There will also be strengthened connections as a result of practice, law of use, and weakening of connections when the practice is disrupted.

6- The behaviorism

Behaviorism is developed by Watson At the beginning of the 20th century. In his studies he set aside the feelings and the inner experiences, since he thought that they were impossible objects of study when dealing with unobservable phenomena.

Therefore, he denies the use of subjective methods such as introspection because he thought that external observation was the most suitable methodology that allowed to reach a scientific psychology.

Therefore, this current has as object of study the observable behavior, resorting to experimental procedures for the observation of those responses produced to stimuli present in the environment.

His theory is known as stimulus-response, this relationship being the result of the interaction of the subject with his environment.

7- Neo-behaviorism and operant conditioning

Behaviorism is based on the main idea that a stimulus causes a specific response, this approach being nuanced by neoconduction.

This current specifies that behavior can not only be explained on the basis of stimuli, responses and prior conditioning.

Authors belonging to this stream, such as Skinner , Hull and Tolman, think that it is also necessary to study mental processes.

Its main objective is the study of human behavior, but for this it is necessary to understand and analyze also the mental processes of people. These mental processes are those that cause the individual to act in a determined way before the stimuli of the environment.

These intermediate variables between the stimulus and the response are physiological, not directly observable but necessary to understand the behavior of individuals.

The neoconductismo focused on subjects that previously had been ignored by this current as they were the motivational processes, the perception and the thought.

Psychoanalytic Theories

This set Of psychological theories focus on the study of the unconscious, giving a key importance to the persistence in the subconscious of the repressed impulses.

They think that the events lived during childhood are fundamental for the development of the person, as well as that the human behavior and the cognition Are determined by irrational units that have their roots in the unconscious.

8- Psychoanalysis

This theory emerges in the 19th century by Freud , A neurologist who is considered the father of psychoanalysis.

Freud attaches great importance to the unconscious and to the analysis of internal conflicts since he thinks that much of what the person does and thinks is determined by unconscious processes.

The term psychoanalysis designates a method of investigation and analysis of mental processes, a psychotherapeutic technique and a body of psychological knowledge.

For him, the components that make up the Personality of individuals Are the id, which acts only on the basis of pleasure and the satisfaction of impulses; The self, which represents reason and common sense and superego, an ethical and moral part that internalizes repressive forces as a consequence of education.

On the other hand, Psychosexual development Which people follow as they go through a series of stages. Each of them focuses on various activities related to the satisfaction of the impulses present in each phase. These are:

  • Oral phase: Birth to year.
  • Anal phase: From 1 to 3 years.
  • Phallic Phase: From 3 to 6 years.
  • Lag phase: From 6 to 12 years.
  • Genital Phase: From the age of 12 onwards.

If the stages are adequately overcome, a healthy personality will develop. However, if this does not occur the person will develop a life with repressions.

Such repressions are irrational defense mechanisms that the ego uses in the face of repressed drives.

9- Psychosocial theory

This theory was developed by Erikson , A psychoanalyst who thanks to his theory has marked the basis of the Evolutionary Psychology .

This psychologist has tried to explain how the person matures in all aspects of his life. He thinks that the environment surrounding the individual is key as well as the adaptation of this to that environment.

The stages in which it divides the psychosocial development of the person are eight and as each stage is successfully overcome, it would be moved to the next stage. But if this does not happen, the person will have a conflict at that stage that will lead to difficulties in that area.

  1. Stage of trust versus mistrust from birth to year.
  2. Stage of autonomy versus shame and doubt from 1 to 3 years.
  3. Stage of initiative versus guilt from 3 to 6 years.
  4. Stage of labor versus inferiority of 7 to 12 years.
  5. Stage of identity versus role confusion of the 12 to 20 years.
  6. Stage of intimacy versus isolation from 21 to 40 years.
  7. Productivity stage versus stagnation of 40 to 70 years.
  8. Stage of the integrity of the self versus the despair of the 60 years until death.

Erikson divides the lives of people into eight phases that are constituted by emotional crises with two possible solutions, one favorable and one unfavorable. The resolution of these will lead to the development of a certain personality.

Cognitive Theories

These theories form part of cognitive psychology, which develops the study of the mental processes involved in knowledge.

They are responsible for the study of those processes that individuals use to acquire and organize the information of the environment, through the use of both simple mental processes and higher processes.

10- The theory of information processing

The model established by Atkinson and Shiffrin is a theory that explains human memory, dividing it into three Different types . These types are: Sensory memory , Short-term memory and Long-term memory .

His theory explains from a structural point of view that the information is acquiring in different phases and where each of them forms a different store.

In addition, it establishes an analogy between memory and the computer, considering that both processors operate on this information, store it and retrieve it when needed.

Also it is possible to mention the system of executive control or metacognitive abilities. These have their origin in the development and its function is to conduct the information along its corresponding processing.

On the other hand, there is another theory that is in opposition to the explanation of the structural processing. This would focus more on a procedural model of information.

Among the proponents of this model are Craik and Lockhart, who assert that information passes through various phases from the person extracting the sensory characteristics until the realization of the extraction of its meaning.

11- The theory of the Gestalt

This theory Holds that the mind shapes, through certain principles, all those elements that become part of it. Mainly, this configuration is done through perception and memory.

The central principle of this theory is that the mind forms a global whole with tendencies to self-organization. Thus for its defenders, the whole forms something different that goes beyond the sum of the parts that compose it.

The main laws to highlight within this part of psychology would be:

  • Law of likeness: States that the mind makes groupings among the most similar elements.
  • Law of proximity: States that the grouping of elements is done according to the distance to which they are.
  • Closing Act: Refers to the way the mind is in charge of adding some element when it is missing to get a complete figure.
  • Law of pregnancy: Would be the tendency to group the different elements in the simplest possible way.

12- Dialectical-genetic psychology

The most influential author within this part of psychology is Vygotsky , Which considers learning as one of the main development mechanisms, giving great importance to the context in which it occurs.

For her social interaction Is key in the development of people, becoming its main engine. Thus the learning process and the development process interact.

For this genetic dialectic psychology, good teaching is one in which learning is promoted within a social environment.

His theory refers to how people already bring a genetic code or"line of cultural development", which is based on learning at the time the individual interacts with the environment.

Human development is shaped and expressed in social terms, as people develop intelligence based on the tools they find in their environment.

Theories of teaching

Theories about instruction and teaching are responsible for explaining and scientifically substantiate the teaching-learning process.

13- The theory of learning by discovery

This theory was developed by Bruner And with it exposes the active role of the learner in the learning process.

It promotes that the person is acquiring knowledge itself, so that the final content that is reached is not exposed from the beginning, but is being discovered by the person as it progresses.

With this type of learning, it aims to overcome the limitations of mechanistic learning, promote stimulation and motivation in students, as well as enhance metacognitive strategies and learn to learn.

Bruner is a theory of a constructivist nature, affirming that this is the most suitable form of learning, through guided discovery and thanks to motivation and curiosity to learn.

14- The eclectic / systemic instructional theory

This theory stems from the work carried out by Bandura , Who sought to change the traditional orientation of existing learning theories. The alternative that he proposed was the theory of observational or modeling learning.

Observational learning occurs when the learner retains in his memory the images and verbal codes obtained through the behavior of the observed model.

The initial behavior is reproduced, accompanied by the composition that is made with the images and codes retained in memory and some environmental cues.

15- The theory of meaningful learning

This theory was designed by Ausubel, and defends a position contrary to Bruner's, but also frames his theory within the constructivist psychology.

For him, the structure of knowledge has a great influence on new knowledge and experiences, conditions them. However, the latter also modify and restructure the previous ones.

Learning is significant When new information is connected with a relevant concept already existing in the cognitive structure. Thus new information can be learned to the extent that other information, such as ideas, concepts or propositions, are clear and already found in the cognitive structure of the individual.

Both form new learning or meaningful learning, manifested in multiple ways depending on the context in which the person is and their experiences.

This learning is opposed to mechanistic learning With this new model, students are expected to come to understand material in depth, which is not simply a rote process in which information is incorporated without even understanding it.

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