The Psychology Book Notes

PHILOSOPHICAL ROOTS: PSYCHOLOGY IN THE MAKING

Psychology is mysterious to the general public.
Its language and ideas have infiltrated culture, but people have a hazy idea of what the subject is:
- Staffing an institution for mental disorders.
- Running laboratory experiments on rats.
- Psychoanalyzing patients.
- Mind control.
Psychology entails many subjects beginning with the prefix "psych-".
Psychologists rarely agree on a single definition of the word.
"Psychology" comes from the ancient Greek psyche, meaning "soul" or mind," and logia, a "study" or "account."

Psychology can be seen as a bridge between physiology and philosophy.
physiology describes the physical make-up of the brain and nervous system,
psychology examines the mental processes within and how these are manifested.
philosophy is concerned with thoughts and ideas,
psychology studies how we come to have them and what they tell us about the workings of our minds.
All sciences evolved from philosophy.
The intangible nature of subjects such as consciousness, perception and memory meant psychology was slow to transition from philosophical speculation to scientific practice.
Many psychology departments started as branches of philosophy, while others were established in science faculties.
It was not until the late 19th century that psychology became established as a scientific discipline.
The founding of the world’s first laboratory of experimental psychology by Wilhelm Wundt at the University of Leipzig in 1879 marked the recognition of psychology as a scientific subject.
In the 20th centur