Schools of psychology

Functionalism
Functionalism has the most influence of any theory in contemporary
psychology. Psychological functionalism attempts to describe thoughts and
what they do without asking how they do it. For functionalists, the mind
resembles a computer, and to understand its processes, you need to look at the
software -- what it does -- without having to understand the hardware -- the
why and how underlying it.
Gestalt Psychology
According to Gestalt psychologists, the human mind works by interpreting
data through various laws, rules or organizing principles, turning partial
information into a whole. For example, your mind might interpret a series of
lines as a square, even though it has no complete lines; your mind fills in the
gaps. Gestalt psychotherapists apply this logic to problem-solving to help
patients.
Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalytic theory, which originated with Sigmund Freud, explains human
behavior by looking at the subconscious mind. Freud suggested that the instinct
to pursue pleasure, which he described as sexual in nature, lies at the root of
human development. To Freud, even the development of children hinged on key
stages in discovering this pleasure, through acts such as feeding at the mother's
breast and defecating, and he treated abnormal behavior in adults by
addressing these stages.
Behaviorism
In the 1950s, B.F. Skinner carried out experiments with animals, such as rats
and pigeons, demonstrating that they repeated certain behaviors if they
associated them with rewards in the form of food. Behaviorists believe that
observing behavior, rather than attempting to analyze the inner workings of the
mind itself, provides the key to psychology. This makes psychology open to
experimental methods with results that can be replicated in the same way as
any scientific experiment.
Humanistic Psychology
Humanist psychologists teach that to understand psychology, we must look at
individuals and their motivations. Abraham Maslow's "hierarchy of needs"
exemplifies this approach: a system of needs, such as food, love and
self-esteem, determines a person's behavior to various extents. Meeting these
needs leads to a sense of self-satisfaction and solves psychological problems.
Cognitivism
Cognitive psychology follows behaviorism by understanding the mind through
scientific experimentation, but it differs from it by accepting that psychologists
can study and understand the internal workings of the mind and mental
processes. It rejects psychoanalysis, as it regards psychoanalytic theories about
the subconscious mind as subjective and not open to scientific analysis.