Introduction to Psychology

• Psychology is the science that studies the biological, social, and cultural aspects of human behavior, as well as the functioning and development of the human mind
• The term "Psychology" was first used in 1590
• Etymologically, the word "psychology" comes from the Greek words "psyche" (soul) and "logos" (science)
• Psychology was initially considered the "science of the soul" and was part of philosophy
• This period is considered the pre-scientific psychology era
• Psychology was established as a scientific discipline in the late 19th century

Early Psychological Thought

• Ancient Greeks were interested in understanding the human mind and questioned psychological concepts
• Empedocles of Agrigento (495-435 BC) believed that the psyche was composed of four elements: fire, earth, water, and air, which could recombine to construct different psyches in different generations
• Ancient cultures, like Egyptian and Babylonian cultures, attempted to understand human knowledge in terms of "spirits" or immaterial "souls"
• Pythagoras identified the brain as the physical organ of thought and developed a physical and psychological explanation of health based on the harmonious combination of bodily elements

Socrates

• Socrates (470-399 BC) defined the first concepts of wisdom and the existence of the soul in the human body

Hippocrates

• Hippocrates (460-370 BC) contributed the "Theory of Personality" which divides humans into four types based on humors: sanguine, choleric, melancholic, and phlegmatic

Plato and Aristotle

• Plato and Aristotle proposed that the psyche (mind) is the origin of all reality and allows us to feel and perceive
• Each individual perceives reality differently according to their experiences, asking "To love or not to love?"

History of Psychology

• Historically Psychology was intertwined with Philosophy and developed as a distinct science later
• Up until the 19th century, psychology was considered a branch of philosophy that dealt with the study of the soul
• This period is known as pre-scientific psychology up until 1879

Origins of Scientific Psychology

• Scientific psychology began in the era of European structuralism in the mid-19th century
• Wilhelm Wundt defined the object of study in psychology as the study of the mind and conscious experience
• The first experimental psychology laboratory was created in 1879 at the University of Leipzig in Germany
• Introspection was a major process, involving thoughts, sensations, and emotions.

Structuralism

• This school of psychology emphasized the building blocks of experience and the combinations that occur in consciousness, sensations, images, and feelings

Functionalism

• Functionalism emerged later in the British Isles and the USA during the 19th century
• William James proposed the Theory of Functionalism
• Tt focuses on the purpose of psychological processes of behavior
• It considers mental life and behavior in terms of active adaptation

Psychoanalysis

• Sigmund Freud approached the study of the unconscious and processes that occur at this level in France in the late 19th century
• This developed into psychoanalysis
• It defines the Ego (awareness of existence, the Super-Ego (rules of behavior), and the Id (instincts of love and hate).)

Reflexology

• Subsequent to Freud, Ivan Pavlov experimented with conditioning in the same 19th century
• He laid the foundations of behaviorism with the stimulus-response

Behaviorism

• In the early 20th century in the United States, John Watson proposed that human actions should be understood through the study of behavior
• Considered the human person as a sum of knowledge
• It maintains that human behavior is conditioned by the environment, experiences, and previous learning
• Mental processes are not something observed but only the result of actions namely behavior

Gestalt Psychology

• Emerged in Germany in the early 20th century and known as Psychology of Form
• Max Wertheimer and Wolfgang Kohler were the main names, proposing laws of perceptual organization
• The brain functions as a whole, the perception and the thinking is shaped by experience
• "The whole is more than the sum of its parts"

Cognitivism

• Arising in the 20th century, Jean Piaget contributed the theory of cognitive development in which the mind receives, organizes, remembers, and uses information.
• His studies are focused on the thinking of children and their perception of the world

Humanistic Psychology

• Emerging in the second half of the 20th century, subjectivity and uniqueness are emphasized
• Carl Rogers focused on therapy centered on the patient for resolving any and all problems
• Abraham Maslow developed the theory of personality, originating from the pyramid

Historical Psychology

• Lev Vygotsky suggests personal development is a consequence of cultural construction
• Influenced by interaction by people living with one another

Existentialist Psychology

• In the late 20th century, Viktor Frankl proposed the theory that life must have meaning
• At the same time Erick Berne stressed special attention in personal development
• He highlighted interpersonal relationships

Neuro-linguistic Programming

• Developed in the late 20th century by John Grinder
• States that there is a connection between both neurological processes, and behavior

Transpersonal or Integral Psychology

• Ken Wilber states that through Transpersonal Psychology the human being on the inside is only a building of experiences, processes, and events