A Short History of Psychology

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A Short History of Psychology
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What is Psychology?

• Without referring to your books or reading,
  define psychology?
• Why is psychology important?
• Its more than just common sense

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Psychology is . . .

• The scientific study of behavior and mental
  processes that emerged out of philosophy and
  natural science.
• Greek roots
• Psyche (mind/soul)
• Logos (study of)

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Where did Psychology Come From?

• Philosophy
• Empiricism
• Positivism/Post-Positivism
• Biology
• Evolution
• Physiology
• Physics
• Scientific principles

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Pre Scientific Psychology

• Ancient Egypt
• First psychological experiment.
• Showed that early man was thinking about how the
  mind works.
• All thought came from the gods---no free will

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Ancient India

• Buddha attributes human thought to sensations and
  perceptions
• Major themes have been around since 6th century
  BCE

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Ancient Greece

• Greeks developed a rudimentary understanding of
  human thought and behavior.

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Famous Greek Philospher/Psychologists

• Alcmaeon-- sense organs send info to brain for
  interpretation.
• Democratis-- vision
• Hippocrates-- biological basis for personality
  and mental illness
• Plato- soul divided into 3 parts
• Aristotle-- sensation, memory and imagination
  help to form perceptions of world

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Psychology in the Middle Ages

• St. Augustine
• Mind/body connection
• Three functions of the mind
• Nature of memory
• St. Thomas Aquinas
• Origin of ideas
• Emotions
• Religion and Psychology

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Psychology in the Age of Reason (17th 18th
Centuries)

• John Locke
• 1632-1704
• Knowledge acquired through observation
• No innate ideas
• Brain is tabula rasa

• Rene Descartes
• 1596-1650
• mind/body influence each other
• voluntary and involuntary behavior
• Two types of ideas
• Innate
• Derived

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19th Century Pre-Scientific Psychology

• Mental Healing
• Spiritualism

• Phrenology
• Physiogamy
• Mesmerism

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When did Psychology Start?

• In 1879 psychology becomes a separate discipline.
• Wundt James were the founding fathers

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Founders of Scientific Psychology

• William Wundt
• 1832-1920
• Structuralism
• used introspection
• founded first psych research lab
• studied behavior by looking at senses

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Early Milestones

• Edward B. Titchener
• Wundts student
• Studied experience from the point of view of the
  experiencing individual.
• Major questions
• Introspection (Demonstration)
• Reductionism

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Early Milestones

• William James
• Founded functionalism
• Critic of structuralism
• Published Principles of Psychology (1890)

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Early Milestones

• Sigmund Freud
• Psychoanalysis
• The Interpretation of Dreams (1900)
• Role of the Unconscious Mind

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Early Milestones

• John B. Watson
• Leader of Behaviorism
• Observable behavior
• Environmental determinism

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Recent Developments

• Cognitive Psychology
• Humanistic Psychology
• Biological Psychology

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Recent Developments

• American Psychological Association, 1892
• American Psychological Society, 1988

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Early Milestones

• Founded in 1988
• Focuses on scientific experimentation
• Competes with APA