Darwin's Theory And Functionalism

James’ theory involving functionalism is about how animals have a natural behavioral instinct that allows them to survive in certain, favorable environments. This coincides with Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection and evolution and how animals have physical traits that allow them to live in a well suited environment to reproduce and pass down traits. In terms of functionalism, there could be many reasons as to why the chicken would cross the road. The main motivation is continued existence; an incentive to cross the road could be fleeing a predator or there could be a food source on the other side. Another incentive could be to escape a harsh environment to reach a more favorable one. The goal of any animal species, in this instance, the chicken, is to live long enough to reproduce to pass on its favorable traits. Freudian psychoanalysis is about how behaviors dealing with repressed urges can be analyzed and changed; this lead to modern psychodynamics in which childhood experiences play a role in behavioral development. When physical treatment did not work for his patients, he discovered they must have a nervous disorder in which it can only be treated through the mind; his work lead to the discovery of the “unconscious” part of the mind. The chicken’s desire to live drives it to unconsciously

He studied Pavlov’s experiment and designed his own using “Little Albert” which focused on acquired irrational fears. In nature, offspring learn skills from their mother or from their own mistakes. In the example with the chicken, it either learned the behavior of crossing the road from its mother or from an induced stress mentioned earlier. Because of this conditioned behavior, it has learned that there is a beneficial outcome. Conditioned habits allow for greater survival rates so that behavioral actions can be passed on to future