A Brief Overview

It’s essential to understand the origins and basic history of psychology in order to understand the current landscape and the various schools of thought out there.

I thought it may be a good idea to briefly elaborate on the history of how psychology began as a single entity of study, as it is important to understand the beliefs we already have and how they were formed before we advance, and create new beliefs and opinions that break new ground. Many schools of thought dominated at one point in history and have been well-studied and documented. I’ll mention some, but I’d like to cover those separately.

Origins and History

Wilhelm Wundt has been credited with taking psychology solo, starting his own psychology lab in 1879 at the University of Leipzig. He began by studying reaction times during the 1800’s and published ‘Principles of Physiological Psychology’ in 1874. The book examined the connections between the study of human thought and physiology. He is considered to be one of the ‘fathers’ of modern psychology and his fondness for experimental psychology paved the way for ‘Behaviourism’ as a school of thought. But it was the first fully-focused psychology lab that gained him unrivaled credit for laying the foundations for modern psychology.

Wundt was very popular as a lecturer, thousands of students attended his lectures and hundreds studied for degrees in psychology and took residency in his psychology lab. Most of his work examined human thought and studied internal mental processes. His work laid the foundation for further experimentation in his field, and his influence on modern psychology was tremendous.

The Split from Physiology and Philosophy

Since psychology became a separate science, and split from philosophy and physiology, certain schools of thought have dominated the landscape. The difference between philosophy and psychology you ask? Early philosophers used observation and logic as methods, while psychologists use scientific methodologies to draw conclusions about human behavior and thought. Physiology also greatly contributed to the advent of psychology, as further research and examination of the human brain allowed for more insight and knowledge in creating the scientific methodologies used by modern psychologists to study human thought.

One of the earliest schools of thought was Functionalism, initially established by Edward B. Titchener and one of Wundt’s first pupils. Then came Gestalt Psychology, Psychoanalysis and Sigmund Freud, Behaviourism andHumanism. I’ll be going into these in a little more depth over the next couple of articles, creating a basic archive and timeline of modern psychology.