History of Psychology - The Birth of Psychology

Philosophical Roots (Classical Antiquity)

Psychology's core questions about knowledge, the soul, and morality originated in ancient philosophy.
• Plato: Promoted idealism (reality is fundamentally mental), dualism (separation of body and soul), and nativism (knowledge is innate).
• Aristotle: Advocated for monism (body and soul are interdependent) and emphasized observation and logic.

Scientific Revolution (Renaissance & Enlightenment)

A cultural shift from religious scholasticism to humanism and secular reason, giving rise to modern science.
• Galileo Galilei: Championed the use of instrumentation (the telescope), mathematics as the language of science, and using data to test theories.
• Francis Bacon: Helped establish the inductive method, a systematic approach of generalizing from accumulated data.

Rationalism vs. Empiricism

Two competing views on the nature of knowledge that shaped early science.
• Rationalism: Argues that reason is the main source of knowledge, which can be gained independently of sensory experience (e.g., René Descartes).
• Empiricism: Argues that sensory experience and evidence are the main sources of knowledge (e.g., John Locke, David Hume).

19th Century Influences

Key scientific movements that directly paved the way for psychology.
• Evolutionary Theory: Charles Darwin's work suggested that mental powers, like physical traits, evolved by gradation, providing a functional framework for psychology.
• Neuropsychology: Moved from the pseudoscience of phrenology (Gall) to the scientific localization of brain functions, exemplified by Paul Broca's work linking a specific frontal lobe area to speech production.
• Social Sciences: Adolphe Quetelet applied statistical methods to social data to find "social laws" (e.g., the age-crime curve), suggesting that psychological phenomena could be studied quantitatively.

The "Birth" of Scientific Psychology

The formal establishment of psychology as an independent scientific discipline.
• Wilhelm Wundt: Credited with founding the first experimental psychology laboratory in Leipzig in 1879, marking the institutional birth of psychology. He used a pluralistic methodology, including experiments, introspection, and historical analysis.
• Psychophysics: Ernst Weber and Gustav Fechner pioneered the measurement of the relationship between physical stimuli and subjective sensation, described by the Weber-Fechner Law.

First Schools of Thought

The initial competing approaches to the new science of psychology.
• Structuralism: Led by Edward Titchener (a student of Wundt), it aimed to identify the basic elements ("what") of consciousness through rigorous, controlled introspection.
• Functionalism: Led by William James, it focused on understanding the purpose and function ("how" and "why") of consciousness in helping an organism adapt to its environment, heavily influenced by Darwin.