Perhaps almost all branches of knowledge as we know them today have a strong link with ancient civilizations. The ancient Greek civilization is one of them. Not that the contribution of other ancient civilizations such as the Mayan or Egyptian are of less importance, it’s just that the ancient Greeks can be accredited for being the promoters of the natural sciences. Psychology as we know today is the study of mental functions and behaviors, however it is believed that psychology stemmed out of philosophy. The word psychology in Greek translates as psuche which means the vital breath or the human soul. Philosophers such as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle have had great influence on the ideas of modern day psychology. There interpretations of the mind, soul, and behavior have a strong association with the thoughts and theories of psychologists such as Freud, Skinner, Pavlov, and others. Socrates is considered the founding figure of western philosophy. There are no writings by Socrates himself, much of what we know comes from Plato’s Dialogues. That being said Socrates asks Crito, “Do we believe, that the part of our make-up, whatever it is, which right and wrong concern is of less importance than the body?” (Robinson 337). This here indicates that Socrates had already brought up the concept of the mind and the human body. It seems as if with this question he is trying to test his friend Crito’s knowledge, when Socrates knows that the mind and body are of equal
psychoanalysis may not make sense to those who are unfamiliar with topics in psychology, but
All sciences originally descended from philosophy and over the centuries the special sciences gradually became independent of this discipline, with Psychology being one of the last of the special sciences to separate from the parent during the 19th century (Banyard, Davies, Normal & Winder, 2010). The questions and ideas in Psychology have been of interest since the time of the ancient Greeks, where philosophers inquired into how human beings know the world. Plato asked questions about human motivation (“Why do we act as we do?”) and Aristotle attempted to structure the human soul according to the five senses, imagination, common sense and memory (Leahey, 2004), which loosely reflect the study of perception and cognition in present day psychology. Although the conceptual foundations of psychology are to be found in philosophy, the inspiration for the creation of an independent science of psychology came from biology. The founders of psychology took a path to the mind through physiology, while a bigger influence came from a younger branch of biology- evolution- which through a shift in focus from the contents of the mind to the function of the mind, eventually gave rise to the different fields existing in psychology today such as psychobiology, cognitive psychology, developmental psychology and more recently evolutionary psychology.
The history of psychology is in infancy at the present time. Many philosophers can be credited to the development of this science. Starting in the early 18th and 19th centuries philosophers such as Rene’ Descartes and John Locke opened the world of what we know as psychology today. The British empiricists also contributed to psychology. Some of these men include David Hume and David Hartley.
The term psychology derives from the Greek word ''psyche'' that it means ''soul'' or ''mind'' and ''logos'' which it means ''word''. Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Most psychologists would not aknowledge ''the study of the mind'' an issue of psychology today (Meg Barker, 2003). They accept the
The concept of Psychology originated from philosophy and biology which are two factors used in psychology today (Eysenck 2009). Psychology represents ‘study of the mind’ (Gross 2005). Psychology is a type of science which studies the behaviour of humans and animals, psychology tries to understand why people behave in certain ways taking into consideration their thoughts and feelings (Eysenck 2009). The term psychology was founded from the Greek word, psyche which means mind, soul or spirit combined with the Latin word logos which means’ the study of’ (Gross 2005). Psychology dates back to ancient civilizations who were interested in workings of the the mind and behaviours (Payne and Walker 2003). Wilhelm Wundt opened the first psychological laboratory in 1879 (Glassman 2008). Wundt and his co workers studied the structures that make up the mind, he was the first theorist to use psychology as a self conscious experiment studying perceptions and conscious awareness (Gross 2005).
The Greek word Psychology, is a word consisted of the words ψυχή-soul and λόγος-utterance, talk. So, generally, psychology is the science that examines the soul. But , since the psychologists work on the problems of the personal, family, school, professional and social life, we could say, more
Defined as the study of the mind and behaviour, psychology has gained considerable momentum throughout recent years (Gross, 2010). Although referred to as a modern science, psychology has dated back to ancient Greece whereby emphasis was placed within philosophy. Two Greek words “psyche” (the soul) and “logos” (the study of a subject) were used to coin the term psychology (Weiten, 2007). With the soul as the primary focus of ancient philosophy, Plato proposed the soul as a spiritual substance that is pre-existent and immortal, and that immoral behaviour was evidence of disharmony among components of a person’s soul (Bennett, 2007). Aristotle, Plato’s student, contended that three souls exist (nutritive, sensitive and rational)
The field of psychology is steadily expanding due to the progression in technology, which is being driven by the advancement of civilization. More and more time is spent on the internet, which has gradually altered the method in which primary communication takes place. Previously face-to-face interaction was touted as the primary method of interfacing with one another, now communication via the internet is almost mandatory to establish and maintain healthy relationships (Greenfield and Yan, 2006). This is especially true amongst children, adolescents and teenagers. The need for psychologists have never been greater in order to assess how individuals are able to acclimate to this societal change. Traditionally, there are two methods in which children, adolescents and teenagers communicate via the internet, through social media and video games. Each primary method presents their own unique social challenge. In response to the issues in of teenagers over use of the internet, psychologists are providing assistance for internet addictions at a greater rate. The first method utilized by mental health professionals is traditionally counseling and if those efforts fail, then the potential exists for adolescents to be placed on medications.
Psychology is as ancient as mankind. The concept of psychology has been dated back to 600 B.C. Early Greek philosophers examined, theorized human traits and their actions; their studies are now to be considered and known as psychology. Mankind has molded psychology throughout decades into what it is today - the study of the human mind and the way it affects one's behavior. Psychotherapy and ESP, extrasensory perception, are techniques that are used to improve human health and well-being and their efficacy is widely debated.
The author published this article with hopes to motivate current and future psychologists to become more active is seeking strategies encouraging sustainable behavior. Psychology is a diverse field that uniquely integrates with other disciplines, making it paramount that it helps resolve the wicked problem of climate change. Wicked problems are complex, extensive, abstract, and have cascading effects. Additionally, they are not quickly or easily fixed, requiring continuous creative attention to elude. Numerous solutions have been proposed to resolve some of these wicked problems; however, psychologists are needed to discover ways of fostering the behaviors required for the implementation of these solutions. Changing human behavior is unfortunately
Psychology viewed as an old discipline. Psychology can trace its roots to the 5 century BC to the Greek philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle and Socrates, because we grapple with the same questions they attempted to answer. On the other hand, we could view psychology as emerging when philosophy and physiology merged to include experimentation and empirical methods to answer those questions about 200 years ago. Thus, it also viewed as a new discipline in 1879, which the approach taken to study make psychology became a science and distinguish from the older discipline philosophy and form modem
As Hermann Ebbinghaus, a German psychologist, explains, “psychology has a long past but only a short history.” Despite the interest shown in early Egyptians and Greek philosophers, the formal history of psychology dates back to 1879 when Wundt made the first psychology lab in Leipzig, Germany (Cite what is psychology). Wundt is responsible for creating structuralism, a focus on the structure of the mind and the belief that there is a connection between sensation, emotion, and behavior (cite hslibguides.islipufsd.org). This played a significant role in psychology’s history, creating debate and theories leading to several schools of
Chapter one of Experience Psychology has shown me theoretical and historical perspectives of psychology and has given me basic knowledge of research methods. In learning this I have come to notice these elements of psychology in the Netflix original show Bates Motel.
"Why psychology isn't unified, and probably never will be" written by C.D. Green (2015) examines the history of psychology and opinions on how to reach unification. Overall, his arguments were satisfactory and provided many different opinions. He discussed plenty of different psychologists in history and how their ideas and models were either valid or irrelevant to unifying psychology. This was important in order to see how far this subject has come, and to understand that the problems with unifying this discipline are not new and have been a subject of debate for years. Green (2015) did a good job on describing what "unifying" meant to him and what psychology needed to achieve in order to become unified. He was able to back this up with past
Authored by Keith E. Stanovich, How to Think Straight About Psychology is a known work of the psychology world which was published in 1986. Beginning courses in psychology use his text frequently. Stanovich primary purpose for writing the text is to bring attention to his observation that the public’s understanding of psychology is different from psychology as a modern science. Psychology as a modern science explains the underlying functions that shape human attitudes and behavior. To the people who misunderstand this, the field of psychology is not a real science, but a pseudo-science instead. How to Think Straight About Psychology describes people’s several false impressions of psychology and it gives its readers a factual understanding of the field as a modern and scientific psychology while explaining how this science works.