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Poet Bullucks | February 10, 2023
A Short Explanation of Psychology's Early Evolution
For psychology's first years, people thought of psychology as many things: the study of the soul, the science of mental life, the study of conscious experience, and many other self-developed ideas. Many other processes and theories came before the modern definition of psychology: The scientific study of the mind and behavior.
Who started it all?
While many people contributed to the founding of psychology in their own way, there is a very well known person who kickstarted its origin. Before psychology, there was a similar substitute and term called philosophy. Philosophy is greek for "Love of Wisdom" and is the study of more complex questions like our existence, emotions, reasoning, thoughts, the brain, etc. A greek philosopher, Aristotle, was the founder of the study of philosophy. He created official psychological terms, systems, and behaviors that moved the evolution and understanding of both the mind and ourselves
Aristotle did have a interesting theory that the heart was the organ that held our emotions, reasoning, and intelligence, and while it was a good guess, we soon found out that it wasn't the case.
Credit: Wikipedia
Credit: Britannica
Who was the founding father?
The official founding father that created the birth to psychology was Wilhelm Wundt. Wilhelm Wundt was the main developer for the study of mental processes and nature, creating the foundation of structuralism. Soon after, many other names were drawn by this interest, creating theories and conducting research and experiments to further their understanding of the human mind.
He was also a physician that emerged scientific psychology in Germany, 1879 when he set up his first psychology laboratory at the University of Leipzig. At that university, Edward Titchener was a student of Wundt's. They wanted to break down the brain to parts that they could understand.
When it came to psychological writing, William James takes a huge toll of fame for his work on psysiological psychology. This was the first official psychology textbook that targets the science of mental life. When this was released to other scientists, philosophers, and the public, further understanding and interest in the human mind florished. James managed to release 20 more books in his lifetime, dieing at 83.
What did they need psychology for in its starting ages?
One of the reasons why psychology was considered so long ago up to now was not only the interest in our brains, but the quality of the time before ours. Most didnt know why they did the things that they did yet. They relied on inferences, guesses, and beliefs. But some wanted answers for why they felt certain ways abut something. Why am I alive? How can I sense and perceive things? Why am I more frightened around people than others? Why am I hearing voices in my head? What is my drive, and how do my morals relate to my childhood? Why are people evil?
These were the questions that possibly filled the heads of many, but how could you even begin to find the answer where you barely have any information of where it's coming from? Ah, so many questions!
Science is a intangible resource to answer these complex questions, which the researchers and experimenters above took advantage of. They were able to find out fantastic and life changing answers to questions that humans ones overlooked, wondered or assumed an answer for. But for every famous scientist, philosopher, physicist, or mathematician, it all started with a question.
References:
Green, John. "Intro to Psychology: Crash Course Psychology #1." Crash Course, 3 Febuary 2014, https://youtu.be/vo4pMVb0R6M?si=ra1T5XhiO-M4GWQW.
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