What is Psychology: Definition and History of Psychology

                                    What Is Psychology

After hearing the word psychology, it sounds like something interesting. Yes, psychology is a interesting subject to read. So if you are interested to know more about psychology, then this post is going to help you.

Definition of Psychology

The definition of psychology has always been changed. At various times in history, psychology has been defined as the study of psyche or the mind, of the spirit, of consciousness and more recently as the study of behavior.

Now a day, psychology is mainly called the scientific study of human behavior and mental processes. It includes the study of conscious and unconscious, feeling, thought and behavior also.

This subject explores mental processes like perception, cognition, intelligence, motivation, emotion, attention, personality and brain functioning. It also works with family resilience, interpersonal relationship also.

Now we will try to look at the history of psychology. Without knowing history, we can’t understand the significance of this subject. So let’s talk about it.

The History of Psychology

Greek Philosophers

Psychology is really a new science. But its origin can be found in ancient Greece. Although the emphasis was a philosophical one, it started with Thales, Pythagoras, and Democritus. It also influenced many great thinkers such as Socrates (470 BC- 399 BC) influencing Plato (427BC-347BC), who in turn influenced Aristotle (384BC-322BC).

These philosophers were very intelligent and they used to discuss many topics like emotion, sensation, memory, sleep, dream and learning. And now these topics are mainly used in psychology.

Islamic Influencers in Medieval Times

The famous Muslim doctor Avicenna, who was born in 980AD regarded as the father of early modern medicine. He used to treat epilepsy, nightmares and poor memory. The first hospitals were said to have been set up by Islamic doctors in medieval time’s treating psychiatric patients.

In 1774, Franz Mesmer proposed about hypnosis or also called mesmerism. He said that hypnosis or mesmerism might help cure some types of mental illness.

Experimental Psychology

Helmholtz, Weber and Fechner were pioneers in the rise of experimental psychology. Helmholtz gave theory of perception and theory of color vision and he made a significant contribution to physics, chemistry and psychology.

Weber gave the Weber’s law which states that just noticeable differences correspond to a constant proportion of a standard stimulus.

Fechner created psychophysics one area of psychology. He employed psychophysical methods like methods of limit, method of constant stimuli and method of adjustment to explore the mind-body relationship.

Voluntarism

This was the 1^st school of psychology. In 1879, Wilhelm Wundt founded the 1^st laboratory of psychology, and his laboratory was called Institute for Experimental Psychology. To study the basic mental processes, Wundt used Introspection method. He also wrote his research in 10 volume Volkerpsychologie “ group or cultural” psychology.

Structuralism

Edward B Titchener was the founder of structuralism. For him, experimental psychology was psychology and everything that preceded his version of psychology was not psychology at all. He also opposed applied value of psychology.

In 1904, Titchener founded his own organization the Experimentalists. It was the structure of mind that he wanted to describe and that’s why he named his version of psychology Structuralism.

Functionalism

U.S brand of psychology was called functionalism. During this stage, psychology concern for practicality, emphasis on the individual differences.. The publication of William James The Principles of Psychology in 1890 is mainly marked as the formal beginning of Functionalism.

Hugo Munsterberg, Granville Stanley Hall, John Dewey, James McKeen Cattell and Edward Lee Thorndike were part of functionalism also.

In July 1892, the American Psychological Association (APA) was founded, under the leadership of G. Stanley Hall.

 

Behaviorism

Ivan Pavlov, who was a physiologist, carried out the famous experiment of classical conditioning. It was found that dog salivated when they expected food.

John B. Watson was the most pioneer of this school. 1913 is usually taken as the formal founding of behaviorism. Watson made overt behavior the almost exclusive goal of psychology.

Gestalt Psychology

 The formal beginning of the school of gestalt psychology is taken as the year 1912. There are five principles. These are principle of continuity, principle of proximity, principle of inclusiveness, principle of similarity and principle of closure.

Psychoanalysis

Sigmund Freud is the founder of this school. There are many terms that Freud used like transference, counter-transference, free association, self-analysis and dream analysis. He also gave the theory of psychosexual stages of development.

Humanistic Psychology

 Many people consider Abraham Maslow as the founder of humanistic psychology. He gave the hierarchy of needs theory and Carl Rogers gave his most important work Client-Centered Therapy: Its Current Practice, Implication and Theory.

Cognitive Psychology

This is introduced in 1970s and it is the most recent school of thought in psychology. Cognitive theory is applied to mental disorders, memory, dreams, language and perceptual systems.

So this was the mainly history of psychology. It is a science which changes its subject matter after conducting researches. Today, psychologists consider all the approaches and try to find out which approach should be used for the situation. So, tell us how you find any interest in the topic.