Historical Roots of Psychology Essay

amiable science is a relatively new science, having emerged as a chunk discipline only during the 19th century. It, however, came into existence ascribable to the philosophical aim of understanding and explaining the disposition of the mind and the soul. Physiology was later integrated into psychology when the latter seek to discover the causes and the cure for mental paralyzedness. Historical Roots of Psychology Psychology is considered as one of the youngest sciences it emerged as a formal discipline only during the 19th century. Ironically, the historical roots of psychology can be traced back to the ancient field of philosophy.Throughout history, philosophers and religious scholars get under ones skin sought to understand and explain the nature of the mind and the soul. This objective, in turn, resulted in the institution of psychology as an official school of thought (MSN Encarta, 2008). quaint Philosophers and Philosophies Greek philosophers started venturing into ps ychological topics from nearly 600 to 300 BC. They were said to be closely interested in epistemology, a philosophical sub-discipline which studied the nature of know directge and human existence.As a result, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle wrote extensively about topics such(prenominal) as knowledge, beauty, desire, free will and common sense (MSN Encarta, 2008). The immense interest of the Greek philosophers in epistemology led to the creation of cosmology, the study of the universe as a whole, including its distant past and future (MSN Encarta, 2008). They must 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 independent units. The body was a physical entity while the mind was a ghostlike one the pineal gland (a tiny organ found at the base o f the brain) was their sole fashion 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 anxious system 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 long-run recognize monism due to the immense scientific evidence that validate the intertwined relationship between the physical and mental aspects of human experience (MSN Encarta, 2008). Early Psychology It is widely believed that psychology became a science in 1879.In this year, physiologist Wilhelm Wundt established the first laboratory dedicate to the scientific study of the mind at the University of Leipzig in Leipzig, Germany. Since the late 18th and early 19th centuries, physiology has already been integrated into psychology. Some experts believed that specific parts of the brain were responsible for certain brain activities (MSN Encarta, 2008). This idea surface 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 surmise that all characteristics of a species must serve some adaptive purpose (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 proficiency which was composed of interviewing, testing and observing one person over a long period of time. In using this system, the psychologist can make 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 prominent figures in the field of psychology in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.He is best known for his personality guess of psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis operated on the premise that people are motivated largely by unconscious forces (such as) inviolate sexual and aggressive drives (MSN Encarta, 2008). Although humans have the capability to suppress their unconscious motives, it is necessary for them to find a suitable outlet if they wish to maintain a healthy personality (MSN Encarta, 2008). Psychoanalysis eventually became a form of psych another(prenominal)apy through the technique of free association.Freud developed free association as a means of probing the unconscious mind. In this technique, the patient is made to lie down and talk 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 pass to the unconscious the disguised expressions of deep, hidden impulses (MSN Encarta, 2008). Behaviorism 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 analyze only behavior that could be directly observe rather than interpreting the vague manifestations of a given behavior. Because of its relatively more scientific methods, behaviorism dominate 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 Edward Lee Thorndike (1898) and Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov (1906).Thorndikes tests on cat s 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). ConclusionIt is true that psychology emerged as a formal discipline only during the 19th century and is mostly a combination of philosophical and physiological concepts. just these did not hinder psychology from being a very advanced school of thought today. whizz 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 with evil spirits. As a result, they were subjected to physical torture in commit to relea se the malevolent beings that were controlling them.Furthermore, advances in the field of psychology that were geared towards improving mental health just goes to show that medicine has already progressed so much as well. Health is no longer defined as merely being free of disease but also having a agile mind. The body, after all, cannot function 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