History of Psychology

The word Psychology was derived from two Greek word psyche, meaning soul or mind and logos mean study. Thus, during the early philosophical period, it was simply understood as the study of the soul. But the definition and scope have changed significantly over the time. In the early days psychological questions were studied mainly within philosophical. With the development of scientific methods, it gradually emerged as an independent scientific study Thus it is said that psychology has a short but long past history.

Ancient Period 

During the ancient period, Greek philosophers Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle made many contributions to psychology in ancient days. Their explanations were mainly philosophical and rational rather than systematic scientific investigation 

Socrates and Plato emphasized the importance of the soul in understanding human beings. They believe the soul was distinct from the physical body and continued to exist beyond physical death. Thus from their perspective the soul was an important subject for understanding human nature.

Aristotle on the other provided one the earliest systematic discussion of psychological issues in his work De Anima (On the soul) ). He discussed topics such as sensation, perception, memory and other. However, this ancient period faced Criticism which are mentioned below

1. It was primarily philosophical based and they are rationalist, proposed theory isn’t scientific, 
2. The existence and nature of  soul is doubtful, 
3. They didn’t mention important concepts i.e consciousness and behaviour in their explanation. 

Pre Modern Period 

William Wundt and William James are known as key contributors to pre pre-premodern period. They are empiricists as their proposed theory was scientifically studied. William Wundt established the first psychological lab dedicated to experiimental psychology at the University of Leipzig Germany, in 1879, After that psychology became an independent branch. He defined psychology as science that studies conscious experience. He proposed the idea of Structuralism,(basic unit). Structuralism was the first school of psychology and focused on breaking down mental processes into the most basic components for e.g your experience at the ocean by saying it is windy, salty, and cold.

Whereas William James an American psychologist and philosopher developed the school of functionalism. Functionalism focused on the function and purpose of mental process and behaviour. It examined how mental activities help individuals to  fit into its environment. The early scientific approaches also faced several criticisms.

1. Introspective was subjective and difficult to verify objectively. 
2. It only focuses on conscious experience, not mentioning unconsciousness.  
3. Didn’t mention overt behaviour. 

Modern Period (19 to 20 century)

The development of behaviorism brought another major change in psychology. BF Skinner, J.B Watson, Ivan Pavlov major contributor. They focused on observable behaviour. They said that psychology should study only overt behaviour meaning behaviour that can be directly observed and measured. Covert behaviour such as thoughts and subjective experience received much less attention. The main criticism they faced were they didn’t focus on non observable behaviour i.e covert behaviour.

Contemporay Psychology

The limitations of behaviourism contributed to the development of the cognitive revolution during the twentieth century. Psychologists increasingly began to study internal mental processes scientifically.

Today, psychology is understood as the scientific study of behaviour and mental processes. Contemporary psychology therefore includes both observable behaviour and internal psychological processes.

Thus, the history of psychology can be broadly understood as a gradual movement from the study of the soul, to the study of consciousness, then to the study of observable behaviour, and finally to the scientific study of both behaviour and mental processes.

Modern psychology studies areas such as:

• perception
• learning
• memory
• thinking
• emotion
• motivation
• personality
• social behaviour
• development
• biological processes
• mental health

Therefore, although psychology has a relatively short history as an independent scientific discipline, it has a long past rooted in philosophy and the study of human nature.