Functionalism: The Founders And The Theory

History:

Let’s start with the beginning and understand what Functionalism truly is. Functionalism at its core is the consciousness evolving to the environment; It’s utilization of small components of the mind to create a whole. The history of functionalism begins as most things begin, from the origin of another. In the early stages of developing psychology, one of the first schools conceived was called structuralism. The basics of this thought is that the human though process can be broken down into individual elements to explain the way we understand the world and the relationships we have to it. Summarized by the philosopher Simon Blackburn, structuralism is “the belief that phenomena of human life are not intelligible except through their interrelations. The relations constitute a structure, and behind local variations in the surface phenomena there are constant laws of abstract structure.” Structuralism was based on mental contents, but functionalism had focused on mental operations. The main functionalism founder would be considered William James. Other proponents would be John Dewey, George Herbert Mead, Harvey A. Carr, and James Rowland Angell.

Founders:

William James, “the father of American psychology,”

Considered the leading expert on to topic of Functionalism; although he never associated himself as a functionalist. James was one of the first teachers of psychology in the United States. He taught such individuals as Theodore Roosevelt, Gertrude Stein, and George Santayana. James was born into a wealthy family and was the son of theologian Henry James Sr. James trained as a physician and would teach anatomy, but never practiced medicine. James also studied in physiology and biology and would also teach these subjects. James’ ideas were founded around functionalism and pragmatism, the assessment of truth of theory or belief in terms of the success of their practical application. Functionalism is considered a response to structuralism in the sense that James was focused on how the smallest elements that the abstract mental events could be broken down into had a practical effect on the world we live in and how they could adapt to fit a designated function. On his pragmatic side, James believed that “truth” of an idea could never be proven and that the focus should then be applied to its usefulness. He would call this the “cash value” of an idea. James would continue to focus more on a philosophical approach to his work and where we also get one of the most famous quotes about James’ work from Wundt, regarding his book Principles of Psychology. “It is literature. It is beautiful, but it is not psychology.” This was in response mainly to the fact that James had moved away from the scientific and research approaches.

John Dewey:

John Dewey, an American philosopher, was a high school teacher before entering the graduate program for philosophy at Johns Hopkins University. During 1894-1904, it was Dewey’s work at the University of Chicago with his colleague Rowland Angell that made the school the world-renowned center of the functionalist movement in psychology. Dewey penned a paper called ‘The Reflex Arc Concept in Psychology,” which would go on to be considered one of the fundamental pieces that established the school of functionalism. Dewey’s work was heavily influenced by Charles Darwin and William James and he believed that the work of Wilhelm Wundt and Edward Titchener was flawed because it ignored the continuity of human behavior and its significance in terms of adaptation. His view was that functionalism considered the organism as an active perceiver rather than just a receiver of stimuli. In his Reflex Arc paper, Dewey explains that the stimulus and response depends on the perception of the individual on how they view the situation. In 1899 Dewey would be elected president of the American Psychological Association.

Thepry:

The theory of functionalism sees social structure, or the organization of society as more important than the individual. To be simply put, individuals are born into society and become the sum of all the social influences around them, e.g., family, education, media, and religion. All these parts share a relationship and contribute to the maintenance of society. The greatest example would be shared norms; social consensus, order, and integration, are what allow us grow and evolve as human beings working towards a common goal. Another way of viewing this is to see that all individuals share a common goal and have a vested interest in conforming. Conforming reduces conflict and allows the society to progress forward. One of the most famous Functionalist, Talcott Parsons, states that any social system has 4 basic functional prerequisites: adaptation, goal attainment, integration, and pattern maintenance. All of these are problems that society must solve to survive. In turn, any social system can be analyzed in terms of the functional prerequisites he identified.

Applies To Nursing:

When we look at the medical field and understand how it’s made up, we see that it is not just an individual that makes up the care for the patient, but rather an entire healthcare team. From the moment a patient comes into any facility, all phases of care begin. The nurses start the assessment, social workers are finding information that will be useful to the patient after discharge, doctors are preparing to diagnose and treat the pathology of what the ailment is, etc. Just as in Functionalism, all of these components make up the entirety of the care for the individual which allows them a better chance of survival. If any of the individual components did not conform to the role it is designated to, chaos ensues and the care for the patient is compromised. Each action a different member of the healthcare team takes on can be closely related to the social consensus aspect of Functionalism. The nursing field is comparable also since it is ever evolving to fit the needs of society as approved by the masses. Simply put, nursing is one aspect of a society that makes up the whole. If one part of that system is compromised, it fails to fulfill its role.

Modern Application

Both Functionalism and Structuralism, are considered the two main foundations that modern psychology stand on today. Even though neither of these schools are still in use, their ideologies arguably shaped the modern psychological world based upon the break down of structure and the focusing of problem solving that Functionalism stressed as well as the implementation of Darwin’s evolutionary theory as humans’ have progressed over the ages and become more advanced in thought process. If the individual can understand what both Structuralism and Functionalism truly focused on, they can see the direct impact on many different schools that exist today such as behaviorism, psychoanalysis, humanism, and cognitive psychology.

References

1. Cherry, K. (2018). How Structuralism and Functionalism Influenced Early Psychology. Retrieved from https://www.verywellmind.com/structuralism-and-functionalism-2795248
2. Levin, Janet, “Functionalism”, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2018 Edition),
3. Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2018/entries/functionalism/
4. Gouinlock, J. S., John Dewey: American Philosopher and Educator. Retrieved from https://www.brtiannica.com/biography/John-Dewey
5. Mastin, L. (2009, January). Existence and Consciousness. Retrieved [March, 5, 2019], from https://www.philosophybasics.com/branch_metaphysics.html