Historical Roots of Psychology Essay

Psychology is a comparatively new science, having emerged as a formal discipline entirely during the nineteenth century. It, however, came into existence due to the philosophic aim of understanding and explaining the spirit of the mentality and the soul. Physiology was later integrated into psychological science when the latter sought to disc all over the causes and the be cured _or_ healed for mental bedfastness. Historical Roots of Psychology Psychology is considered as atomic number 53 of the youngest sciences it emerged as a formal discipline only during the 19th century. Ironic whollyy, the historic roots of psychology can be traced back to the ancient world of philosophy.Throughout history, philosophers and religious scholars have sought to understand and explain the nature of the estimation and the soul. This objective, in turn, resulted in the institution of psychology as an semiofficial school of prospect (MSN Encarta, 2008). Ancient Philosophers and Philosophies Greek philosophers started venturing into psychological topics from most 600 to three hundred BC. They were said to be most interested in epistemology, a philosophical sub-discipline which studied the nature of knowledge and humanity existence.As a result, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle wrote extensively about topics such as knowledge, beauty, desire, light will and common sense experience (MSN Encarta, 2008). The immense interest of the Greek philosophers in epistemology led to the creation of cosmology, the vignette of the universe as a whole, including its distant past and future (MSN Encarta, 2008). They mustiness have realized that the nature of the universe determined the existence of its inhabitants, including human beings. ContentionsFrench philosopher and mathematician Rene Descartes, however, disagreed with the views of the ancient Greek thinkers he believed that the mind and the body were mugwump units. The body was a tangible entity while the mind was a spectra l one the pineal gland (a tiny organ found at the base of the brain) was their sole means of interaction. English philosophers Thomas Hobbes and John Locke, meanwhile, argued that all human experiences (images, sensations, feelings and thoughts) were actually physical processes that took place within the nervous establishment and the brain.This belief eventually became the basis for monism, a philosophical school of thought which argued that the mind and the body are one and the same (MSN Encarta, 2008). At present, however, psychologists no longer recognize monism due to the immense scientific evidence that pass the intertwined relationship between the physical and mental aspects of human experience (MSN Encarta, 2008). too soon Psychology It is widely believed that psychology became a science in 1879.In this year, physiologist Wilhelm Wundt established the first laboratory dedicated to the scientific study of the mind at the University of Leipzig in Leipzig, Germany. Since the late 18th and primaeval 19th centuries, physiology has already been integrated into psychology. Some experts believed that specific parts of the brain were responsible for reliable brain activities (MSN Encarta, 2008). This idea paved the way for the creation of psychological subfields whose theories and principles are being used in modern-day psychology.Functionalism Functionalism was one of the most well-known psychological schools of thought during the first decades of psychology. Its founder, William James, was a staunch advocate of Charles Darwins evolutionary theory that all characteristics of a species must serve many adaptive intend (MSN Encarta, 2008). Consequently, James created a psychological subfield which espoused the investigation of the purpose of consciousness instead of its structure.Functional psychologists later came up with the longitudinal research, a technique which was composed of interviewing, testing and observing one person over a long period of t ime. In using this system, the psychologist can cod and record observations on a patients development and his or her response to different situations (MSN Encarta, 2008). Sigmund Freud Viennese neurologist Sigmund Freud was one of the most fully grown figures in the field of psychology in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.He is best known for his personality theory of psychoanalysis. psychoanalysis operated on the premise that people are motivated largely by unconscious forces (such as) strong sexual and aggressive drives (MSN Encarta, 2008). Although humans have the force to suppress their unconscious motives, it is necessary for them to find a suitable mercantile establishment if they wish to maintain a healthy personality (MSN Encarta, 2008). Psychoanalysis eventually became a form of psychotherapy through the technique of free association.Freud certain free association as a means of probing the unconscious mind. In this technique, the patient is made to lie down and t alk about whatever thoughts, wishes and memories that come to his or her mind. The analyst, in turn, determines the psychological significance of these verbalizations by attempting to interpret them. For Freud, dreams were the royal road to the unconscious the disguised expressions of deep, hidden impulses (MSN Encarta, 2008). behavioristic psychology Behaviorism was formed in the 1990s mainly as a response to Freudian psychology.Psychologists who followed the former contested the reliability and usefulness of studying invisible mental processes such as consciousness and unconsciousness. For them, it was better to break down only behavior that could be directly observed rather than understand the vague manifestations of a given behavior. Because of its relatively more scientific methods, behaviouristic psychology dominated the field of psychology for almost 50 years (MSN Encarta, 2008). two of the most well-known experiments in behaviorism are those by American psychologist Edw ard Lee Thorndike (1898) and Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov (1906).Thorndikes tests on cats produced the law of effect, which argued that behaviors that are followed by a positive outcome are repeated, while those followed by a negative outcome or none at all are extinguished (MSN Encarta, 2008). Pavlovs research on dogs, on the other hand, resulted in the Pavlovian conditioning (also known as classical conditioning). According to the Pavlovian conditioning, it is possible for an organism to relate one stimulus to another (MSN Encarta, 2008). remainderIt is true that psychology emerged as a formal discipline only during the 19th century and is mostly a combination of philosophical and physiologic concepts. But these did not hinder psychology from being a really advanced school of thought today. One of the most important contributions of psychology is the proper treatment of mental illnesses. Prior to the advent of psychology, mentally ill people were believed to be possessed wit h evil spirits. As a result, they were subjected to physical torture in order to release the malevolent beings that were controlling them.Furthermore, advances in the field of psychology that were geared towards improving mental health on the button goes to show that medicine has already progressed so much as well. wellness is no longer defined as merely being free of disease but also having a vigorous mind. The body, after all, cannot kick the bucket without the mind and vice versa. References MSN Encarta. (2008). Cosmology. Retrieved April 3, 2009, from http//encarta. msn. com/encyclopedia_761564398/Cosmology. html MSN Encarta. (2008). Psychology. Retrieved April 3, 2009, from http//encarta. msn. com/encyclopedia_761576533/Psychology. html