Functionalism
Functionalism is the theory that says a person’s experiences should factor their behavior. Not to get mixed up with behaviorism, functionalism is about previous experience where as a behaviorist look is about how external factors influence the way that people behave. This is probably one of the most easily accepted theories to the general public although the content taught in classes is typically pretty vague. It helps us to explain what happened in the past that could be causing humans to change our behaviors. It has been said that one strength of functionalism is that for members of a society to adapt to changes, they must first experience the change so that they may alter their behavior. A weakness of functionalism is that it tends to lead to positive consequences being blown over the top. It never shows the accounts of different privileges or starts in life. Some people may have been through much worse things than others and are therefore more apt to have different behaviors. A functionalist outlook makes you not only look at the person themselves, but what may have been a contributing factor at turning them into the person they are now.
Behaviorism
Behaviorism is a theory that says external factors cause changes in behavior. This means that what happens to you in the outside world is what changes your behavior, not what you have experienced. A strength of this theory is that it helps psychologists who are studying behavior to be able to look at what factors are acting upon the patient and how they are effecting their behavior. Another strength of behaviorism is that it can be tested with the help of animals. Since all living things share the same drive for survival, they can run tests on animals to see how they would respond to different external stimuli. This theory can help with the study of many different scientific questions and also help psychologists solve their questions as well. The only downside is that it is limited to one or the other, you can’t test on animals to see how a human would react. Another downside is that it is too deterministic, there is little room for the subject to make their own calls. Behaviorism is seen as how scientists use different environmental stimuli to test how animals or different things react to said changes. This is very useful for science because to be able to test different reactions is what allowed science to come as far as it has in medical fields as well as just basic research.
Similarities
Both theories are very useful for psychologists to be able to study human behavior. With a functionalist outlook, one may discover that they must look at a person’s background history. If a person is to be studied with a functionalist perspective, they are also studied for the choices that they have made in the past. This effects the way that people will react to different situations. A person who has been abused is likely to cower when presented with a large figure. A person who has been in the military may prepare to fight the large figure instead of cowering away from it. This is also the same kind of way that a behaviorist outlook would present. A person who has been exposed to the different environments may act differently to different tests. A person who has been in the military may look for survival equipment first when put in a survival situation. Someone who has always been at home with family may spend their first moments trying to look for someone to help them. Different factors of a person’s life may cause their behavior to change when presented with a similar factor at a later time.
My Choice
If I had to choose one of the following theories to study, I would probably pick the functionalist outlook. To me, I feel as if the functionalist study may be more interesting because you will be able to see the different places people have been and what all they have been though that cause them to act in certain ways. Not only do you get to see the different actions of different people to a similar situation, but you get to look at their life story to gain insight as to what may be causing them to act the way that they do. A person does not just grow knowing how to react in a proper manner to all situations they could be faced with. To gain the ability to act a certain way, a person must first either go through the situation themselves or gain intel from someone who has. To me this is a very interesting topic to talk about. I see it as not just looking at the different ways people react, but what has caused them to become the person that they are today. No two people are the same in the way that they grow throughout their lives, everyone has been through something that another person hasn’t. This is what helps me find this interesting, all of the different stories and all of the different choices that can influence the way that a person will react to different situations. There is no person with the same thoughts as another so there is an innumerable amount of possibilities that may become present when conducting different tests on humans.
Conclusion
The different theories of psychology may become more enjoyable as time is spent studying all of them. At this point in time it is these two that stand out the most to me. Not only are both of them used to help us better understand ourselves, but they also help us to understand other people and grow together.