History of Psychology

Inception:

At the root of philosophy, biology, psychology, physiology are hypothesis from about fundamental questions. From its inception, sometime between 428-347 BC Plato when the Psychologist, Plato, analyzed and questioned what defines and dictates our development? The conclusion he came and adamantly argued was that our psychological development is influenced by nature. As studies have now revealed, Plato's claim was that we are not born as empty slates. He insisted that were are born with some knowledge. Then between 384-322 BC, Aristotle, a Greek Philosopher, contemplated the same questions and concluded that it was by nurture that we obtain knowledge based on our experiences and teachings. Psychological development. Philosopher, Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679 shared the same interest and pondered what inspired our development. During his life, between 1596 -1650, a French philosopher by the name of René Descartes also deliberated the concept that the mind controls the body through the pineal gland in the brain. Descartes also favored the theory for humans having free will and the nature as opposed to nurture ideology. Philosophers, John Locke (1632-1704), and Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) raised the same questions. The various views on these rudimentary questions remained unanswered since psychology was still in its infancy stages. There were arguments and claims stated however no methodical technique to explore these questions accurately. (1801-1887)Gustav Fechner is considered to be the first empirical psychological measurement; he developed the concept of the just noticeable difference (Stangor, 2013).

Functionalist such as Charles Darwin's (1809-1882) believed that the characteristics of mammals evolved by physiological adaptation warranted for survival or reproduction.

The branch of Evolutionary Psychology in deep-rooted in Charles Darwin theory. A research psychologist, Wilhelm Wundt, is attributed for evolving psychology because he developed the first laboratory in the 1800's. Wundt purported that features of the mind could be analyzed study our consciousness. To obtain the research data, participants had to share their mental experiences during certain tasks. He established the psychology field, called Structuralism. Consequently, a school was instituted for the purpose of identifying the structures of psychological experiences using a procedure called introspection. The objective of William James and the member of the School of Functionalism contributed rational clarifications as to why we have psychological characteristics. Evolutionary Psychology concurs with the theory that the psychological organizations of mammals are adaptative. At Harvard University, William James, an American psychologist, established another psychology laboratory during the period of 1842-1910. During the period of 1849-1936 Ivan Pavlov, experimental results inspired the principles

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