History of Psychology
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History of Psychology
Psychology is a branch of science that focuses on understanding the human mind and
behavior. It is a relatively young science that was only accepted as an academic science in the
late 1800s. Before then psychology was under philosophy as it also focused on assessing the
workings of the mind at the time. Therefore, I choose to focus on the history of psychology as it
helps a person understand the scholars who differentiated psychology from philosophy. Before
these scholars who came up with different psychology theories, anyone who wanted to study the
human mind had to do so under a philosophical context. Hence, the history of psychology is
helpful in understanding the paradigm shifts from the initial scholars behind psychology Wilhelm
Wundt and William James to the psychology we know today
Wilhelm Wundt, a German scientist can be termed to as the father of psychology as he
was the first scholar to be referred as a psychologist. He published a book titled the Principles of
Physiological Psychology in 1873. He defined psychology as the scientific study of a person's
conscious experience. Therefore he came up with the structuralism theory which aimed at
understanding the characteristics or structure of the mind. Despite the experiments conducted by
Wundt, the theory fell out of favor as it remained mainly subjective due to little agreement
between the individuals involved.
William James, an American psychologist then came up with a psychological perspective
In his perspective he brought about the Darwin's evolution theory as an explanation of a person's
characteristics. According to James, the aim of psychology was to understand the function of
behavior. Therefore, James came up with the functionalism theory which focused on how the
human mind helps them fit in to their environment. The functionalism theory focused on how the
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whole mind operates unlike the structuralism perspective focused on specific parts of human
mind.
Freud, an Austrian neurologist is one of the well-known and influential figures in the
history of psychology. He came up with the psychoanalytic theory which focused on the role of a
person's unconscious and childhood experiences. Freud came up with the psychoanalytic theory
after observing patients who were suffering from neurosis and hysteria. The patients were
experiencing emotional disturbances and physical symptoms which were not caused by physical
cause. Due to this he theorized that the symptoms were caused by the unconscious mind. The
psychoanalytic perspective became influential in the contemporary psychology field as they are
used by therapist to understand the impact of childhood experience to a person's adult life. This
perspective is used in psychotherapy to examine the role of the unconscious on a person and their
relationship with others.
John B. Watson, an American psychologist differed with Wundt and James on
consciousness as he believed that it was more effective to focus on observable behavior in order
to control it. Therefore, Watson came up with the behaviorism perspective which focused on
observing and