Psychology is a new science, with most advances happening over the past 150 years. However, its origins can be traced back to ancient Greece, 400 – 500 BC.
The emphasis was a philosophical one, with great thinkers such as Socrates (470 BC – 399 BC) influencing Plato (428/427 BC – 348/347 BC), who in turn influenced Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC).
Philosophers used to discuss many topics now studied by modern psychology, such as memory, free will vs. determinism, nature vs. nurture, attraction, etc.
Psychology is a vast and multifaceted field. Over time, as our understanding of the human mind and behavior has expanded, various specialized areas or branches of psychology have emerged, such as clinical psychology, social psychology, and developmental psychology.
The Beginnings of Psychology as a Discipline
In the early days of psychology, there were two dominant theoretical perspectives regarding how the brain worked, structuralism and functionalism.
Structuralism was the name given to the approach pioneered by Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920), which focused on breaking down mental processes intro the most basic components.
The term originated from Edward Titchener, an American psychologist who had been trained by Wundt. Wundt was important because he separated psychology from philosophy by analyzing the workings of the mind in a more structured way, with the emphasis being on objective measurement and control.
Structuralism relied on trained introspection, a research method whereby subjects related what was going on in their minds while performing a certain task.
However, introspection proved to be an unreliable method because there was too much individual variation in the experiences and reports of research subjects.
Despite the failure of introspection Wundt is an important figure in the history of psychology as he opened the first laboratory dedicated to psychology in 1879, and its opening is usually thought of as the beginning of modern experimental psychology.
