Psychology as a science has developed over a long period of time, literally
centuries. During this period of time, man individuals have had an impact on the
development of Psychology as a science. Select three individuals, describe in
detail the contributions of the individuals, and discuss the significance of the
person to the development of Psychology as a science. In this paper I am going
to talk about three different individuals, and describe their contributions to
Psychology. I am also going to talk about how there contributions had a
significant effect on Psychology as a science. These three people are the three
that I consider the most important people of Psychology. Psychology is an
interesting science in which we need people to help explain why things are the
way they are. Many people make an attempt to explore this science , but it takes
dedication to actually get something out of it.( Themes ). One of the three
people I consider a big impact on Psychology is Wilhelm Wundt. Known as the
founder of psychology as a formal academic discipline. Wundt founded the school
of Structuralism. This concept evolved out of the mechanistic nature of the
Industrial Revolution and the Scientific method of experimentation.
Structuralism attempted to discover the nature of consciousness into separate
parts, and to ultimately discover the structure of consciousness. Wundt held the
first academic course in psychology in 1862, and he set up the first
experimental laboratory where he conducted a series of experiments to determine
the dimensions of feeling and perception. Wundt help people to be able to break
things down into groups for what he thought easier management . Wundt
significance was that he was the first person to actually introduce the subject
of psychology to others and get them involved ( uidaho.edu ). Another great
Physiologist is Ivan Pavlov. Ivan Pavlov was born in a small village in central
Russia. His parents wanted him to be a priest , but he soon found that he cared
more for scientific pursuits. He then began to study chemistry and physiology
and soon began to research topics that interested him the most: digestion and
blood circulation. His work became well known , and he was appointed professor
of physiology at the Imperial Medical Academy. The work that made Pavlov a
household name in psychology actually began as a study in digestion. He began
looking at the digestive process in dogs, especially the interaction between
salivation. He soon after doing much studying relized that the reason for dogs
salivating was the excitement of getting food. In his study of the he used
different types of conditioning seeing different points when the dog salivates.
His over all theory is that the dogs salivates because of the expectation of
food becoming present .Pavlov signigicance to psychology is that something such
as dog salivating and no one understood why or much less even thought about it,
but Pavlov wondered why and found and answer ( uidaho.edu). The third person
that I will discuss in this paper is B. F. Skinner. Skinner went to Harvard to
study psychology since he had always enjoyed observing animal and human
behavior. Skinner found himself more and more a behaviorist. He worked in the
lab of an experimental biologist, however, and developed behavioral studies of
rats. He then decided to design boxes to automatically reward behavior, such as
depressing lever, pushing a button, and so on. He then had an interest in
pigeons, he developed the ideas of operant conditioning and shaping
behavior. Unlike Pavlov`s classical conditioning where an existing
behavior is shaped by association it with a new stimulus. Operant conditioning
is the rewarding of a partial behavior or random act that approaches the desired
behavior. Skinner`s over all believe is that someone with an empty system can be
anything at that point and time only ( Themes ). Skinner`s significance to
psychology was that he helped people understand that he can get someone or
something to do anything by using types of conditioning. All three of these
people had a big impact on psychology. All of them had a desire to learn and a
passion for the science as a whole. This paper talk about how Wilhelm Wundt that
of things as Structurlism as he broke it down. It also talks about B.F. Skinner
who believed he could take anything with a completely empty system and make it
into anything he wanted to. This paper also talked about Ivan Pavlov and how he
came interested in dogs, and why they salivate. Pavlov used ⌠ Classical
Conditioning. All three of these people had a great influence in psychology and
help other people understand different behaviors.