Further information: Outline of psychology and Index of
psychology articles
Psychology is an academic and applied discipline that involves
the scientific study of mental functions and behaviors . [1][2]
Psychology has the immediate goal of understanding
individuals and groups by both establishing general principles
and researching specific cases, [3][4] and by many accounts it
ultimately aims to benefit society. [5][6] In this field, a
professional practitioner or researcher is called a psychologist
and can be classified as a social , behavioral, or cognitive
scientist . Psychologists attempt to understand the role of
mental functions in individual and social behavior, while also
exploring the physiological and neurobiological processes that
underlie certain cognitive functions and behaviors.
Psychologists explore concepts such as perception , cognition ,
attention , emotion , phenomenology , motivation , brain
functioning, personality , behavior, and interpersonal
relationships. Psychologists of diverse stripes also consider the
unconscious mind .[7] Psychologists employ empirical methods
to infer causal and correlational relationships between
psychosocial variables . In addition , or in opposition, to
employing empirical and deductive methods, some—especially
clinical and counseling psychologists—at times rely upon
symbolic interpretation and other inductive techniques.
Psychology has been described as a "hub science", [8] with
psychological findings linking to research and perspectives
from the social sciences, natural sciences , medicine , and the
humanities , such as philosophy .
While psychological knowledge is often applied to the
assessment and treatment of mental health problems , it is also
directed towards understanding and solving problems in many
different spheres of human activity . The majority of
psychologists are involved in some kind of therapeutic role,
practicing in clinical, counseling , or school settings. Many do
scientific research on a wide range of topics related to mental
processes and behavior, and typically work in university
psychology departments or teach in other academic settings
(e.g., medical schools, hospitals). Some are employed in
industrial and organizational settings, or in other areas[9] such
as human development and aging , sports , health , and the
media , as well as in forensic investigation and other aspects of
law .
Etymology
The word psychology literally means, "study of the soul " (???? ,
psukhe, meaning "breath", "spirit", or "soul"; and -????? -
logos, translated as "study of" or "research" [10] ). [11] The Latin
word psychologia was first used by the Croatian humanist and
Latinist Marko Marulic in his book, Psichiologia de ratione
animae humanae in the late 15th century or early 16th century.
[12] The earliest known reference to the word psychology in
English was by Steven Blankaart in 1694 in The Physical
Dictionary which refers to "Anatomy, which treats of the Body,
and Psychology, which treats of the Soul." [13]
?Jump back a section
History
Main article: History of psychology
Wilhelm Wundt (seated) with
colleagues in his psychological
laboratory, the first of its kind.
Wundt is credited with setting up
psychology as a field of scientific
inquiry independent of the
disciplines philosophy and
biology.
The study of psychology in a philosophical context dates back
to the ancient civilizations of Egypt , Greece, China , India , and
Persia. Historians point to the writings of ancient Greek
philosophers, such as Thales , Plato, and Aristotle (especially in
his De Anima treatise), [14] as the first significant body of work
in the West to be rich in psychological thought. [15] As early as
the 4th century BC, Greek physician Hippocrates theorized that
mental disorders were of a physical, rather than divine, nature.
[16]
Structuralism
Main article: Structuralism (psychology)
German physician Wilhelm Wundt is credited with introducing
psychological discovery into a laboratory setting. Known as the
"father of experimental psychology ", [17] he founded the first
psychological laboratory, at Leipzig University , in 1879. [17]
Wundt focused on breaking down mental processes into the
most basic components, motivated in part by an analogy to
recent advances in chemistry, and its successful investigation
of the elements and structure of material. Although Wundt,
himself, was not a structuralist, his student Edward Titchener , a
major figure in early American psychology, was a structuralist
thinker opposed to functionalist approaches.
Functionalism
Main article: Functional psychology
Functionalism formed as a reaction to the theories of the
structuralist school of thought and was heavily influenced by
the work of the American philosopher, scientist, and
psychologist William James . James felt that psychology should
have practical value, and that psychologists should find out
how the mind can function to a person's benefit. In his book,
Principles of Psychology, [18] published in 1890, he laid the
foundations for many of the questions that psychologists would
explore for years to come. Other major functionalist thinkers
included John Dewey and Harvey Carr .
Other 19th-century contributors to the field include the German
psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus , a pioneer in the
experimental study of memory , who developed quantitative
models of learning and forgetting at the University of Berlin,[19]
and the Russian-Soviet physiologist Ivan Pavlov, who
discovered in dogs a learning process that was later termed
" classical conditioning" and applied to human beings. [20]
Starting in the 1950s, the experimental techniques set forth by
Wundt, James, Ebbinghaus, and others would be reiterated as
experimental psychology became increasingly cognitivist —
concerned with information and its processing —and,
eventually, constituted a part of the wider cognitive science .
[21] In its early years, this development was seen as a
"revolution" ,[21] as it both responded to and reacted against
strains of thought, including psychodynamics and behaviorism,
that had developed in the meantime.
Psychoanalysis
Main article: Psychoanalysis
From the 1890s until his death in 1939, the Austrian physician
Sigmund Freud developed psychoanalysis, which comprised a
method of investigating the mind and interpreting experience; a
systematized set of theories about human behavior; and a form
of psychotherapy to treat psychological or emotional distress,
especially unconscious conflict. [22] Freud's psychoanalytic
theory was largely based on interpretive methods, introspection
and clinical observations. It became very well known, largely
because it tackled subjects such as sexuality , repression , and
the unconscious mind as general aspects of psychological
development. These were largely considered taboo subjects at
the time, and Freud provided a catalyst for them to be openly
discussed in polite society. Clinically, Freud helped to pioneer
the method of free association and a therapeutic interest in
dream interpretation . [23][24]
Group photo 1909 in front of
Clark University . Front row:
Sigmund Freud, G. Stanley Hall ,
Carl Jung ; back row: Abraham A.
Brill , Ernest Jones , Sndor
Ferenczi .
Freud had a significant influence on Swiss psychiatrist Carl
Jung , whose analytical psychology became an alternative form
of depth psychology . Other well-known psychoanalytic scholars
of the mid-20th century included psychoanalysts,
psychologists, psychiatrists, and philosophers. Among these
thinkers were Erik Erikson , Melanie Klein , D.W. Winnicott, Karen
Horney, Erich Fromm, John Bowlby, and Sigmund Freud's
daughter, Anna Freud . Throughout the 20th century,
psychoanalysis evolved into diverse schools of thought, most
of which may be classed as Neo-Freudian . [25]
Psychoanalytic theory and therapy were criticized by
psychologists such as Hans Eysenck , and by philosophers
including Karl Popper . Popper, a philosopher of science,
argued that psychoanalysis had been misrepresented as a
scientific discipline, [26] whereas Eysenck said that
psychoanalytic tenets had been contradicted by experimental
data. By the end of 20th century, psychology departments in
American universities had become scientifically oriented ,
marginalizing Freudian theory and dismissing it as a
"desiccated and dead" historical artifact. [27] Meanwhile,
however, researchers in the emerging field of neuro-
psychoanalysis defended some of Freud's ideas on scientific
grounds, [28] while scholars of the humanities maintained that
Freud was not a "scientist at all, but ... an interpreter ." [27]
Behaviorism
Main article: Behaviorism
Skinner's teaching machine, a
mechanical invention to automate
the task of programmed
instruction .
In the United States, behaviorism became the dominant school
of thought during the 1950s. Behaviorism is a discipline that
was established in the early 20th century by John B. Watson ,
and embraced and extended by Edward Thorndike , Clark L.
Hull , Edward C. Tolman, and later B.F. Skinner. Theories of
learning emphasized the ways in which people might be
predisposed, or conditioned, by their environments to behave in
certain ways.
Classical conditioning was an early behaviorist model. It
posited that behavioral tendencies are determined by
immediate associations between various environmental stimuli
and the degree of pleasure or pain that follows. Behavioral
patterns, then, were understood to consist of organisms'
conditioned responses to the stimuli in their environment. The
stimuli were held to exert influence in proportion to their prior
repetition or to the previous intensity of their associated pain or
pleasure . Much research consisted of laboratory-based animal
experimentation, which was increasing in popularity as
physiology grew more sophisticated.
Skinner's behaviorism shared with its predecessors a
philosophical inclination toward positivism and determinism . [29]
He believed that the contents of the mind were not open to
scientific scrutiny and that scientific psychology should
emphasize the study of observable behavior. He focused on
behavior–environment relations and analyzed overt and covert
(i.e., private) behavior as a function of the organism interacting
with its environment. [30] Behaviorists usually rejected or
deemphasized dualistic explanations such as "mind" or
" consciousness "; and, in lieu of probing an "unconscious mind"
that underlies unawareness, they spoke of the "contingency-
shaped behaviors" in which unawareness becomes outwardly
manifest. [29]
Notable incidents in the history of behaviorism are John B.
Watson's Little Albert experiment which applied classical
conditioning to the developing human child, and the
clarification of the difference between classical conditioning
and operant (or instrumental) conditioning, first by Miller and
Kanorski and then by Skinner. [31][32] Skinner's version of
behaviorism emphasized operant conditioning, through which
behaviors are strengthened or weakened by their
consequences.
Linguist Noam Chomsky 's critique of the behaviorist model of
language acquisition is widely regarded as a key factor in the
decline of behaviorism's prominence. [33] Martin Seligman and
colleagues discovered that the conditioning of dogs led to
outcomes ("learned helplessness ") that opposed the predictions
of behaviorism. [34][35] But Skinner's behaviorism did not die,
perhaps in part because it generated successful practical
applications. [33] The fall of behaviorism as an overarching
model in psychology, however, gave way to a new dominant
paradigm: cognitive approaches. [36]
Humanism
Main article: Humanistic psychology
Psychologist Abraham Maslow in 1943
posited that humans have a hierarchy
of needs, and it makes sense to fulfill
the basic needs first (food, water etc.)
before higher-order needs can be met.
[37]
Humanistic psychology was developed in the 1950s in reaction
to both behaviorism and psychoanalysis. [38] By using
phenomenology, intersubjectivity , and first-person categories,
the humanistic approach sought to glimpse the whole person—
not just the fragmented parts of the personality or cognitive
functioning. [39] Humanism focused on fundamentally and
uniquely human issues, such as individual free will, personal
growth, self-actualization , self-identity , death, aloneness,
freedom , and meaning . The humanistic approach was
distinguished by its emphasis on subjective meaning, rejection
of determinism, and concern for positive growth rather than
pathology. [ citation needed ] Some of the founders of the
humanistic school of thought were American psychologists
Abraham Maslow, who formulated a hierarchy of human needs ,
and Carl Rogers , who created and developed client-centered
therapy. Later, positive psychology opened up humanistic
themes to scientific modes of exploration.
Gestalt
Main article: Gestalt psychology
Wolfgang Kohler , Max Wertheimer and Kurt Koffka co-founded
the school of Gestalt psychology . This approach is based upon
the idea that individuals experience things as unified wholes.
This approach to psychology began in Germany and Austria
during the late 19th century in response to the molecular
approach of structuralism. Rather than breaking down thoughts
and behavior to their smallest element, the Gestalt position
maintains that the whole of experience is important, and the
whole is different than the sum of its parts.
Gestalt psychology should not be confused with the Gestalt
therapy of Fritz Perls , which is only peripherally linked to
Gestalt psychology.
Existentialism
Main articles: Existentialism and Existential therapy
In the 1950s and 1960s, largely influenced by the work of
German philosopher Martin Heidegger and Danish philosopher
Sren Kierkegaard , psychoanalytically trained American
psychologist Rollo May pioneered an existential branch of
psychology, which included existential psychotherapy , a
method of therapy that operates on the belief that inner conflict
within a person is due to that individual's confrontation with the
givens of existence.
Existential psychologists differed from others often classified as
humanistic in their comparatively neutral view of human nature
and in their relatively positive assessment of anxiety .[40]
Existential psychologists emphasized the humanistic themes of
death, free will, and meaning, suggesting that meaning can be
shaped by myths, or narrative patterns, [41] and that it can be
encouraged by an acceptance of the free will requisite to an
authentic, albeit often anxious, regard for death and other future
prospects.
Austrian existential psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor Viktor
Frankl drew evidence of meaning's therapeutic power from
reflections garnered from his own internment , [42] and he
created a variation of existential psychotherapy called
logotherapy , a type of existentialist analysis that focuses on a
will to meaning (in one's life), as opposed to Adler's
Nietzschean doctrine of will to power or Freud's will to
pleasure . [43]
In addition to May and Frankl, Swiss psychoanalyst Ludwig
Binswanger and American psychologist George Kelly may be
said to belong to the existential school. [44]
Cognitivism
Main articles: Cognitivism (psychology) and Cognitive
psychology
Baddeley's model of working memory
Cognitive psychology is the branch of psychology that studies
mental processes including problem solving , perception ,
memory , and learning . As part of the larger field of cognitive
science, this branch of psychology is related to other
disciplines including neuroscience, philosophy, and linguistics.
Noam Chomsky helped to launch a " cognitive revolution " in
psychology when he criticized the behaviorists' notions of
"stimulus", "response", and "reinforcement". Chomsky argued
that such ideas—which Skinner had borrowed from animal
experiments in the laboratory—could be applied to complex
human behavior, most notably language acquisition, in only a
superficial and vague manner. The postulation that humans are
born with the instinct or " innate facility" for acquiring language
posed a challenge to the behaviorist position that all behavior,
including language, is contingent upon learning and
reinforcement.[45] Social learning theorists, such as Albert
Bandura, argued that the child's environment could make
contributions of its own to the behaviors of an observant
subject. [46]
