History of Psychology
Scholarly medical psychology is heavily intertwined and relates deeply to other scientific studies. Psychology, just like all other fields of education, began as an idea, a concept. The furthest we can date back psychology as a simple study in terms of behaviorism and how the mind works is to the age of ancient Greeks. However, contemporary scholarly psychology is believed to have evolved in the 19th century. This paper will focus on the history of psychology, revolving around five schools of thought, their scholarly evolution, and pivotal role in modern psychology.
As an experienced psychologist, a nostalgic throwback into the journey of a very demanding career, and looking for ways to revolutionize contemporary Psychology will always be a part of me. Looking back into the significant events that shaped psychology, the debates, the research, the devotion and passion for laying the foundation that everyone dearly enjoys today and will in the later years, compels me to work hard to leave a mark in the scholarly study of the human mind.
To unravel the mystery of what the future hold, we need to go back in time. In the late 1800s, a fresh idea of studying philosophy as a separate independent discipline was conceived (Woody & Viney, 2017). The idea was that the mind and body were two separate entities whose interactions form the basis of human experiences. Thus the theory of dualism was developed. This was the works of a French philosopher Rene Descartes.
To distinguish psychology from the already established Philosophy, he explained that while philosophy revolved around observation and logic, psychology would study human thoughts and behaviors. Psychology’s eventual adoption as a scholarly study of the mind borrowed heavily from philosophical principles, theories, and traditions (Brennan & Houde, 2017). Today, psychologies incorporate medical techniques to study, learn, interpret, and handle mental issues (Krampen, 2016)
In the mid-1800s, Wilhelm Wundt used scientific methods available at the time to investigate how quick people reacted to various stimuli from the environment. In an attempt to prove that physiological conditioning is closely related to psychology, he published “Principles of Physiological Psychology” in 1874 (Woody & Viney, 2017). Later in 1879, Wilhelm Wundt set up the world’s first laboratory dedicated to psychology. This move is considered the beginning of contemporary psychology as an independent scientific discipline.
Structuralism was the first school of thought to be found. One of the 17,000 students that attended Wundt’s psychology lectures was the famous Edward B Titchener (Brennan & Houde, 2017). He adopted and magnified Wundt’s structuralism school of thought to a new level. His works aimed at suggesting that human consciousness was involved, a structure that could be broken down into multiple simple essential components. A process called introspection was used for the study. Several trained subjects would be exposed to sensations and perceptions, after which they broke down their responses and reactions (Brennan & Houde, 2017).
By modifying Wundt’s concepts, he introduced structuralism to America. Today, Edward B. Titchener’s works are no longer in practice. However, his approach in the use of scientific research and analysis was instrumental in merging the theoretical foundation of psychology into practical, observable, and better yet, predictable aspects of psychology. His works were set back by the fact that though scientific, they were considered unreliable, limiting, and somewhat subjective. The end of structuralism corresponds to the death of its campaigner, Edward B Titchener, in 1927 (Brennan & Houde, 2017).
Functionalism was adopted before the fading off of structuralism in America. Championing the school of thought was William James, who is regarded as the father of American Psychology (Brennan & Houde, 2017). A classic textbook he published “The Principles of Psychology” was adopted by many psychologists as the standard text, which further cemented the concept of functionalism as a school of thought.
Functionalism focused on how human behavior was critical in determining how one would live in his environment. Functionalism also differed from structuralism in terms of conception. Structuralism suggested that human consciousness could be broken down into smaller distinct components; functionalism expressed the thought that human consciousness was a process that was unified and continuous (Brennan & Houde, 2017). With time, functionalism too faded, but its influence is still evident in contemporary theories (Krampen, G. 2016).
The adoption of psychoanalysis as a school of thought was a significant step in the evolution of psychology. The milestone was achieved by Sigmund Freud, an Austrian physician, who proposed the theory of personality, which focused on the significant role of the unconscious mind (Brennan & Houde, 2017). As a physician, Freud realized that the early life of a person instilled unseen personality traits and behaviors that would determine their development into adults.
It is his work as a physician and his study of psychology that inspired him to write and publish “The Psychopathology of Everyday Life.” The book gives insight about slips of tongues, dreams, and physiological disorders that, though, are primarily involuntary, they do interact with the conscious mind. Though many scholars and psychologists today view his work with lots of skepticism, Freud’s work given his time is most plausible, and considerable incorporation of his theories and proposals shaped, are still evident in contemporary psychology (Krampen, 2016).
Behaviorism came into light in the early 1900s. A Russian physiologist, Ivan Pavlov, inspired it. His works were as a conclusion he drew from studying dog’s digestives system, he noticed adaptability, which was involuntary (Brennan & Houde, 2017). The adaptation was due to response to environmental stimuli, thus initiating an internal leaning process. John B Watson adopted behaviorism. In his works, he suggested that behaviorism focused on studying and understanding human behavior. As a school of thought, behaviorism dismissed the theoretical approach of prior perspectives, such as the conscious and unconscious mind (Schultz & Schultz, 2016). Behaviorism focused purely on observation as a scientific tool.
To come up with a theory, I analyzed the perspective of the five primary schools of thought but focused on three schools, namely, psychoanalysis, structuralism, and functionalism. Despite modern skepticism surrounding all these three schools of view, they have a practical approach in tackling contemporary challenges. Though limited to early research, structuralism’s approach towards stimuli, and factionalism approach in adaptability, and psychoanalysis majors on the conscious mind (Brennan & Houde, 2017). My school of thought would revolve around applying contemporary medical technology into earlier works to study what could have been left out in the founding years due to insufficient technology, which limited psychologists to observations only.
I a case study I formulated, Ingrid approaches my firm unusually early in the morning. She finds me since I am the only one at that time, still up doing research. Ingrid has come to seek help after reading about my firm online. She tells me about a suicide she witnessed a year ago, that of her best friend’s boyfriend after they had argued. Then tells me of how picked her up late at night, only to see the boyfriend pick up a shotgun, and all recalls are pink vapor floating around. She has been having nightmares, she narrates, and a year later still can’t get over the issue. She sought to cancel a few times, which momentarily worked, but then the nightmares recursively appeared to her. She has had a hard time with her fiancée, who is getting weary of her constant sleeplessness, sleepwalks, and sleep-talks.
I quickly apply my theoretical approach and school of thought I developed. By observing her non-verbal cues, I notice that she is holding back some information. She blames herself for what happened that night, something she reluctantly confirms. After a long conversation, I reveal to her about a modified version of the EMDR therapy I developed in partnership with multiple psychiatric organizations. I manage to convince her to take the treatment program, which, in my ten-year career, has proved very useful with all my patients who experienced post-traumatic stress. A year later, I meet Ingrid with her fiancée and a child. I hardly remember her. Her quality of life has significantly changed for the better. My theoretical approach to using classical observation techniques, combined with modern therapeutic solutions, has helped improve the quality of life of one more patent.
Today, psychology has evolved into machine learning. Robots are learning how to mimic various psychological traits of humans, such as vision, response to stimuli, and education. Emotions are being fed into robots to make them more hospitable during human-robot interactions. Such trends are widening the scope of psychological research on humans, animals, and machines. This opens up more opportunities in development and discoveries in the discipline of psychology.
References
Brennan, J. F., & Houde, K. A. (2017). History and systems of psychology. Cambridge University Press.
Krampen, G. (2016). Scientometric trend analyses of publications on the history of psychology: Is psychology becoming an unhistorical science?. Scientometrics, 106(3), 1217-1238.
Schultz, D.E. & Schultz, S.E. (2016). A history of modern psychology (11th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.
Woody, W. D., & Viney, W. (2017). A history of psychology: The emergence of science and applications. Taylor & Francis.