Psychology is the study of behavior, experiences and mental processes. But its definition was not always this clear. Psychology as a modern science, which is influenced to a large extent by western developments, has a short history.
It grew out of ancient philosophy concerned with questions of psychological significance. Philosophical interest in the mind and behavior dates back to the ancient civilization of Egypt, Greece, China and India.
Greek philosophers like Aristotle, Socrates and Thales dealt with questions of nature and nurture. They debated on nature's pleasure, and pain, motivation, desire, free will, memory and our perception of the world. In the 8th century, Islamic physicians in Fex, Morocco used practices that resembled psychotherapy to mental patients. That was 1000 years before Sigmund Freud established his practice. The Greek philosopher Plato, proposed the idea of Innate ideas which suggested that the brain is the seat of all mental processes. He did not give much importance to the sensory perception and experiences which are acquired after we are born. Plato argued that if we know certain concepts to be true but did not learn from experience, then it must be because we have an innate knowledge of it and this knowledge must have been gained before birth. This was the nature view, which holds that human beings enter the world with an inborn store of knowledge. Rene Descartes supported the nature view by arguing that some ideas are innate. He also proposed the concept of mind-body dualism which states that mind and body are two separate entities. The mind can survive without the body. The body can survive without the mind, but cannot think. Descartes/ Cartesian dualism argues that there is a two-way interaction between the mental and physical substances. According to him, mind and body were separate entities, which were connected by the Pineal Gland. Nativists believed in the innate truth and gave more importance to soul/mind than the body. According to them, soul was the primary source of human activity, body was just a medium, it was secondary to soul. The nativists were initially inspired by the Pythagoreans. The empiricists (Aristotle, John Locke) held the nurture view. They denied the innate truth. According to John Locke, at birth the human mind is Tabula Rasa, a blank slate on which experience writes knowledge and understanding as an individual matures. A more biological view was provided by physicians like Hippocrates and Franz Joseph Gall. Hippocrates believed that mental illness is caused by the four major bodily liquids (blood, yellow bile, phlegm and black bile). Gall introduced the theory of Phrenology. Phrenology is based on the idea that the brain is the organ of the mind and the physical regions in the brain can contribute to a person’s character. Every part of the brain is dedicated to a single function. All the theories mentioned above did not have any scientific proof. They were either too inclined towards the mind/soul (idealists) or body (materialists). Although philosophers continued to be interested in the functioning of both the mind and the body, scientific psychology begin in the 19th century when Wilhelm Wundt established the first experimental laboratory for psychology in 1879. According to him, mind and behaviour could be studied with a scientific approach, just like other planets and chemicals and human organs. He introduced voluntarism and introspection. He highly relied on introspection to study mental processes. Introspection refers to observing and recording one’s own perception, thought and feeling. His student, E.B Titchener was the founder of structuralism. He also relied on introspection. He defined psychology as the study of consciousness. His definition was rejected because he did not give importance to conscious and unconscious and the highly subjective approach which Introspection takes towards psychology makes it unscientific. Some psychologists opposed the purely analytic nature of structuralism. According to William James, instead of focusing on the structure of mind, psychology should instead study what mind does and how behaviour functions in making people adapt to their environment.
Even though structuralism and functionalism played an important role in the scientific development of psychology, they did not have a very scientific approach to them. Science is something which is open to public, something which is factual. Science is highly objective. And if psychology was studied in terms of consciousness, then it cannot be objective. Thus, three schools of psychology came in response to structuralism and functionalism- BEHAVIOURISM, PSYCHOANALYSIS AND GESTALT.
Behaviorism focuses on the stimulus and response relationship. A conditioned stimulus leads to a conditioned response. Thus, conditioned response is the structural unit of human activity and our experiences are a collection of conditioned responses. John Watson founded this school of thought and it was highly influential in the USA, partly because psychologists were growing impatient with the subjective approach of introspection.
Gestalt psychology, at the same time of behaviourism, was gaining popularity in Germany. Founded by Wertheimer, Koffka and kohler- they focused on seeing things as a whole rather than isolated parts.
Psychoanalysis- founded by Sigmund freud, focused on unconscious as a reservoir of unfulfilled desires.
Later developments in the 20th century showed more focus in towards cognitive reasoning.( psycholinguistic, neuro science, information processing model)
At present time, different schools of thought have several application. Now focus is more towards application ( biological perspective- focus on how neurons, neuro transmitter and other brain activities influence behaviour, behaviouristic, psychoanalytic, humanistic, subjectivist-understanding behavior and mental processes in terms of the subjective reality people actively construct)
Thus, it can be seen that initially, psychology had a more philosophical approach in its study. Then after the estabilishment of the first lab of psychology, it was studied with a more scientific approach, but introspection was to subjective. In later stages, it can be seen that psychology is now studied in terms of both subjectivity and objectivity, as psychology studies humans, and thus cannot be completely devoid of subjectivity.
-Sulagna Datta Hi, I'm Sulagna, your pretty ordinary girl next door. I'm here to give a creative twist 🖊️ to the life experiences of an young adult.
Comments