12/28/2021
William James established this approach on the point that it denied the structuralism approach and the validity of introspection. This theoretical perspective on psychology sought causal relationships between internal states (such as being happy) and external behaviors (such as laughter).
James was preoccupied with the evolutionary value, or function, of specific behaviors and mindsets due to which the Darwin's evolutionary theory (survival of the fittest) heavily influenced Functionalism.
His classic text, The Principles of Psychology (James, 1890) used the phrase “evolutionary psychology” to argue that certain behaviors operate in the same way as instincts (inherited predispositions to respond to certain stimuli in adaptive ways).