The 7 Major Schools of Thought in Psychology

Gestalt psychology is a school of psychology based upon the idea that we experience things as unified wholes.

Instead of breaking down thoughts and behavior to their smallest elements, the gestalt psychologists believed that you must look at the whole of experience. According to the Gestalt thinkers, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Behaviorism suggests that all behavior can be explained by environmental causes rather than by internal forces. Behaviorism is focused on observable behavior. Theories of learning including classical conditioning and operant conditioning were the focus of a great deal of research.

The behavioral school of psychology had a significant influence on the course of psychology, and many of the ideas and techniques that emerged from this school of thought are still widely used today.

Freud's school of thought was enormously influential, but also generated considerable debate. This controversy existed not only in his time but also in modern discussions of Freud's theories.

This school of thought emphasized the influence of the unconscious mind on behavior.

While early schools of thought were primarily centered on abnormal human behavior, humanistic psychology differed considerably in its emphasis on helping people achieve and fulfill their potential.

Humanistic psychology remains quite popular today and has had a significant influence on other areas of psychology including positive psychology. 

Cognitive psychology is the school of psychology that studies mental processes including how people think, perceive, remember and learn.

Cognitive psychology emerged during the partly as a response to behaviorism. Critics of behaviorism noted that it failed to account for how internal processes impacted behavior.