You love psychology field? Surely, you should understand about its history. Here are basic information of history of psychology.

Rudolph Goclenius, a German scholastic philosopher, is credited with conceiving the term “psychology” in the 1590s. The word psychology comes from the Greek word psyche, which means “soul” or “spirit.” Earlier, psychology was also considered a study of the soul. Until the end of the 19th century, psychology was considered to be a part of philosophy.

In 1879, Wilhelm Wundt established a laboratory at the University of Leipzig in Germany mainly to pay attention to the study of psychology. Later on, William James published his book in 1890 entitled Principles of Psychology, which established a number of practicalities for the sort of questions that psychologists would focus on for years to come. Other important early contributors to the field included Hermann Ebbinghaus, who led the way in studies on memory, and the Russian Ivan Pavlov, who revealed the learning process of classical conditioning. In the meantime, Sigmund Freud, who was qualified as a neurologist and had no recognized training in experimental psychology, established a functional method of psychotherapy known as psychoanalysis.

Freud’s understanding of the mind was largely based on interpretive methods and introspection, but he was predominantly focused on determining mental distress and psychopathology. Freud’s theories proved to be extremely successful. Edward Thorndike and B.F. Skinner were the pioneers who championed the concept of behaviorism. Behaviorism was the leading model in psychology for much of the early 20th century, mainly due to the formation and thriving application of conditioning theories as scientific models of human behavior.

However, over a period of time it became evident that, although behaviorism had made some significant discoveries, it was wanting as a guiding theory of human behavior. Humanistic psychology surfaced in the 1950s and has continued as a retort to positive and scientific approaches to the mind. It lays emphasis on a phenomenological view of human experience and seeks to understand human beings and their behavior by conducting qualitative research.

The history of psychology has evolved and developed considerably over the ages. Its study, research, and findings have greatly helped in understanding both human behavior and the human mindset. They are very valuable and useful for our life to treat and solve psychology problems of human.