History of Psychology Introduction

Plato

Advocated for rationalism; believed knowledge is innate and comes from reason rather than experience.

Tripartite Soul

Plato's concept of the soul consisting of reason, spirit, and appetite; influenced theories of personality and cognitive psychology.

Aristotle

Emphasized empiricism; argued that knowledge comes from experience and observation, laying the foundation for early psychological theories.

Tabula Rasa

John Locke's concept of the mind as a blank slate, arguing that all knowledge comes from experience.

David Hume

Believed in empiricism and associationism, suggesting mental life is built from simple sensory impressions linked through experience.

Immanuel Kant

Argued that experience is necessary for knowledge, but the mind has innate structures that shape perception.

Wilhelm Wundt

Established psychology as a distinct scientific discipline by founding the first psychology laboratory and promoting structuralism.

Functionalism

Developed by William James; emphasizes how mental processes help individuals adapt to their environment.

Rationalism

Philosophical belief that knowledge comes from reason, a view supported by Plato.

Empiricism

Philosophical belief that knowledge comes from experience and observation, emphasized by Aristotle and Hume.

Dualism

René Descartes' idea that the mind and body are separate entities that interact.

Structuralism

Psychological theory promoted by Wundt that focuses on the introspective study of consciousness.

Cognitive Psychology

Area of psychology influenced by Kant's ideas about innate structures that shape perception.

Behaviorism

Psychological perspective that emerged from Locke's ideas about learning through experience.

Mind-Body Problem

Philosophical question of how the mind and body interact, significantly influenced by Descartes.