The Development of Psychology Essays -- Research Essays Term Papers

The Development of psychological sciencePsychology is defined as the scientific study of behavior and the mind. This definition implies three things. The first is that psychology is a science, a field that can be studied through accusing methods of observation and experimentation. The second is that it is the study of behavior, animal activity that can be observe and measured. And the third is that it is the study of the mind, the conscious and unconscious mental states that cannot be seen but inferred through observation. This modern-day definition of psychology sheds light on the history of psychology, for it further became a science in the late 19th century though psychological thought has been present since Antiquity. Previously, psychology had been studied indirectly in the palm of philosophy and physiology.The term psychology has been around for many centuries, coming from two Greek words psyche, which means soul, and logos, which means the study of. Before the psychology positive into a science, philosophers from as early as Ancient Greece were asking all sorts of psychological questions such as where do emotions come from, does the world we see make up in color, what is perception and what is reality? But philosophers debating these questions relied on the method of rationalism to explain these phenomena. Rationalism uses logic and reasoning to find truth. This technique is far from objective and cannot accurately determine scientific truth. Psychology also had roots in physiology, a branch of biology that studies living organisms and their parts. Physiologists would conduct studies of the brain and the nervous dust to explain mental illnesses, an important area of study in the field of psychology. Physiology however, is... ... of the most recognizable are behaviorism, which arose out of criticism of introspection as a valid research method and set out to study only behavior which could be observed directly. Edward Thorndike, Ivan Pavlov, John W atson, and B.F. Skinner influenced this new take on psychology. Other movements include humanistic psychology in the 50s and 60s, and cognitive psychology of present day.Sources Consultedhttp//www.dustbunny.fsnet.co.uk/Psy1.htm The Development of Psychology article on the history of psychology as a field of scientific studyhttp//www.alleydog.com/101notes/history.html The Field and History of Psychology university class lecture on the history of psychologyhttp//www.psy.pdx.edu/PsiCafe/History/EmergenceOfPsy.htmA Psychology Resource Guide with links to relevant sites regarding the emergence of psychology as a science