Psychology, the science of behaviour and mental processes.

Psychology was derived from Gree words psyche meaning soul or mind and logos meaning study of or nowledge of. Psychology is in the interest of discovering the causes and pre ventive measures of events that occur to people and the society. Psychology has evolved over time to become a formal scientific discipline as it uses scientific methods to describe, predict, control and explain its goals of study. The origins of psychology can be found in Philosophy and Science. The philosophical root of psychology reaches bac to the well nown ancient Gree ph ilosophers nown as Plato, Socrates and Aristotle. These Gree philosophers wher e interested in the origination of nowledge, what it is and its nature. Plato and Socrates (427-347 B.C) contributed much to psychology. They believed we are born with complete nowledge but nowledge is gained through thi n ing or reasoning and analysing in an effort to understand the world or nature and peoples relationship to it. A philosophical approach called rationalism. They believed the body and mind are two different entities but they interact with eac h other. They also believed reality did not lie in the concrete objects but are represented in our minds precis form. For example when we see an object, the obj ect exists in our mind. Other philosophers somehow opposed to these thoughts. Aristotle (384-322 B.C) another renowned Gree philosopher also contri buted to psychology. Aristotle centred his belief around sensory experience as a source of nowledge. He believed that we would learn throughout our lived and t his would have an effect on the way we are as time goes on. He believed that we would gather information though the senses, through the body and the environment and we would process this information and eventually it would have an impact on our lives as time goes on and the ind of choices to ma e due to our experience . The philosophical approach called empiricism. The thoughts of these ancient Gree s lived due to the efforts of theologians during the middle ages. Modern psychology began during the sixteenth century. A French philos opher and mathematician called Rene Descartes (1596-1650) too up the viewpoint that ta ing an insight (introspection) and reflection are investigatory ways to observation. He revived the thought of Plato and Socrates of the mind and body b eing two different entities but they interact with each other (dualism). He buil t on the ideas of Plato and Socrates and believed mental events can cause bodily events and that bodily events can also cause mental events. For example thin in g about a food you once ate in a restaurant can ma e you salivate. He believed t he mind and body interact in the brain to come out with behaviour. Frances Bacon (1561-1626) an English politician, philosopher and scien tist was also inspired by the thoughts of Aristotle. He also believed that nowl edge can only be acquired from our experience and that observation must be used. John Loc e (1632-1704) an English philosopher proposed that humans are born tota lly empty of nowledge and nowledge in acquired though experience and empirical observation. He formed the term tabula rasa meaning blan slate to define his pro posal. Life experiences we acquire through our sense are written on this blan s late. He argued that the mind depends on the body through the senses for its inf ormation while the body depends on the mind processes and eeps sensory experien ce for future use. Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) a German philosopher thought nowledge comes from a set of inborn mental powers, sense, understanding and reasoning. These m ental powers wor ing together control and provide a lin between mind body as a result of integrating the two. He believed that both rationalistic and empirical approaches must be used to understand the mental powers. The wor s of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Descartes and the other philo sophers dominated thin ing about psychological matters for about 2000 years but philosophy alone was not enough. Philosophy begins with a basic assumption that seems very logical, and then uses reason to arrive at a conclusion. But to achie ve a full understanding of behaviour, observation and the application of the sci entific methods are important. By the nineteenth century, scientists were ma ing progress in answer

ing questions about the nature of psychological processes that philosophers were having difficulties with. As a result they began to loo more into science for guidance in the study of psychological issues. They began to demonstrate that ps ychological process and behaviour could be studied objectively. Of a particular importance of the development of psychology was the wor s of a mystic, physicist , philosopher Gustave Fechner (1801-1887). Fechner used a technique called Psych ophysics founded by the German scientist, Ernst Weber (1795-1878) to study the t ranslation of physical stimulation into psychological experience. For example ho w much brighter should light get before it is considered to be bright. Psychology of the late nineteenth century was also influenced by Charl es Darwin (1809-1882) theory of evolution. He published the origin of species an d the descent man. The main idea of this is that living organism, including huma n evolve or change continuously over generation through a process of natural sel ection or evolution in which not all members of a species survive and reproduce. Those that do reproduce are more li ely to have the inherited characteristics t hat are best adopted in the environment. Darwins theory also had an immediate inf luence on psychology. Psychology got important insight into the effect of heredi tary on the development of behaviour and personality and how the process has had an impact on the survival of human race. The late nineteenth century saw the beginning and early development of psychology as a separate discipline. It came out of increasing need to apply sc ientific principles to the study of behaviour. The most significant of the major contributors to the history of psychology was Wilhelm Wundt. He was interested in the study of human consciousness and this study became the subject matter of the new discipline of psychology. Wundt applied the scientific methods of physic s to the study of consciousness, in this way, using the methods of science which are defining the problem, gathering information, forming a hypothesis, ma ing e xperiment and collection of data, analyzing the data , interpreting the data and drawing a conclusion to the functioning of the mind. He opened a laboratory for the study of psychological issues at the University of Leipzig, Germany in 1879 . He used self-observation in which the subject focuses on an individuals own sen sation, analyzing his consciousness and verbally reporting the result of the ana lysis. Thus psychology became a scientific discipline in 1879 by the father and founder Wilhelm Wundt.