Psychology's Evolution: From Freud to Cognitive Psychology

Psychology's Evolution: From Freud to Cognitive Psychology

Freud and Psychoanalytic Psychology

 

In the 1890s, the Austrian Sigmund Freud established a unique domain in psychology with his development of psychoanalysis. Freud explained human behavior through distinctive concepts like the unconscious and conscious mind, the ego, and the superego. He believed that human behavior is driven by two primary forces: sexual energy, known as libido, and the death instinct, called Thanatos.

 

The concept of libido was introduced by the early Freud, while Thanatos was proposed by Freud after experiencing the impact of World War II. The most significant contributions of psychoanalysis to psychology are the discovery of the 'unconscious' and the principle of psychic determinism.

 

Following Freud, many psychoanalysts emerged who were directly or indirectly influenced by him. Notable among them were Carl Jung, who founded 'analytical psychology,' and Alfred Adler, who established 'individual psychology.' However, psychoanalysis soon faced severe criticism for its lack of scientific rigor, insufficient empirical evidence, and the unfalsifiability of its theoretical framework. It was particularly criticized by philosopher of science Karl Popper, who classified it as one of the three major examples of pseudoscience, significantly threatening its status. However, in recent times, Popper's emphasis on falsifiability and empirical evidence as core attributes of science has been increasingly challenged and shown to be flawed, thus diminishing much of this criticism.

 

Rather than being criticized for its scientific status, the influence of psychoanalysis has declined due to its areas of application, inherent issues within its theory, and resistance to Freud's ideas. As a result, psychoanalysis occupies a small role in contemporary psychology, representing less than 10% of the American Psychological Association (APA) and less than 5% of the Association for Psychological Science (APS). It's noteworthy that almost no experimental psychologists (basic psychologists) support psychoanalysis. Today, psychoanalysis mainly continues through clinical practitioners, and it is increasingly appreciated in fields outside psychology, such as literary criticism.

 

 

Behaviorist Psychology

 

In the early 20th century, around the 1920s, behaviorist psychology was championed by figures like John Watson, Edward Thorndike, Clark Hull, Edward Tolman, and B.F. Skinner. They used animals such as rats and pigeons to study learning processes, arguing that the learning of both animals and humans is a response to environmental stimuli. This stimulus-response theory (S-R theory) had a significant impact on various societies, especially in the United States, and greatly influenced education. Behaviorist psychologists made substantial contributions to the scientific foundation of psychology, insisting that only 'verifiable' phenomena should be subjects of study, a stark contrast to the previous dominant trend of psychoanalysis.

 

However, behaviorists' excessive focus on 'verifiable' phenomena led to a neglect of the true subject of psychology: mental and internal processes. This oversight resulted in numerous difficulties, and eventually, after the cognitive revolution, behaviorism ceded its position as the dominant paradigm to fields like cognitive psychology. The criticism leveled against behaviorism for making judgments based only on outward appearances metaphorically highlights its failure to account for internal factors and exceptions beyond observable behaviors.

 

 

Humanistic Psychology

 

In the 1950s, influenced by existentialism advocated by philosophers like Jean-Paul Sartre, humanistic psychology emerged. Key figures in this movement included Abraham Maslow, who proposed the hierarchy of needs, Carl Rogers, who introduced client-centered therapy, and Fritz Perls, who emphasized intuitive and holistic cognition with his Gestalt therapy. (Existential psychology and humanistic psychology are essentially the same.)

 

 

Cognitive Psychology

 

Cognitive psychology is the study of all mental processes involved in perceiving, processing, elaborating, storing, retrieving, and using sensory information. Historically, its roots can be traced back to Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development, but the full-fledged 'cognitive revolution' of the late 20th century (post-1960s) fundamentally transformed the paradigm of psychology. The then-dominant behaviorist psychology viewed humans as simple stimulus-response systems, earning it the criticism of being a 'black box psychology.'

 

Behaviorist psychology focused exclusively on phenomena that could be observed and measured, paying little attention to the mental and internal processes underlying stimulus-response mechanisms, revealing its limitations. Influenced by linguists like Noam Chomsky and computer scientists like Alan Turing and John von Neumann, the cognitive revolution began. Chomsky particularly criticized behaviorist psychology for neglecting internal psychological processes, asserting that these should be the primary focus of psychological research.

 

Thus began cognitive psychology, a new paradigm and one of the most important currents in modern psychology. Unlike behaviorist psychology, cognitive psychology emphasizes the study of internal psychological processes. One of its key characteristics is the analogy between human mental processes and computer information processing, reflecting the influence of adjacent disciplines. As a result, cognitive psychology is often referred to as human information processing. Today, cognitive psychology collaborates closely with related fields—philosophy, computer science, neuroscience, linguistics, and more—to unravel the mysteries of human cognitive processes. Prominent figures in cognitive psychology include Albert Ellis and Aaron Beck.