What is psychology?
• To adequately understand what psychology is (and how to use it), we
first need to understand why it came to be studied in the first place
• That means we have to learn a bit about the history of psychology
• Psyche (soul) + logos (to study)
• Psychology as a science only really became popular during the 1800s
,The history of psychology
• People have been thinking about “the mind” since the dawn of
mankind.
• But what is the mind?
• What is the connection between the mind and the body?
,What is the mind?
• Before the 1800’s lots of people speculated about the mind, but one
person’s guess was as good as another’s
, The Birth of Psychology
• Wilhelm Wundt proposed that we should study the mind
independently of philosophy and physiology
• Wundt also proposed that this new field of study (psychology) should
be rooted in science
• This new science would concern itself with the study of conscious
and immediate experience
• To adequately understand what psychology is (and how to use it), we
first need to understand why it came to be studied in the first place
• That means we have to learn a bit about the history of psychology
• Psyche (soul) + logos (to study)
• Psychology as a science only really became popular during the 1800s
,The history of psychology
• People have been thinking about “the mind” since the dawn of
mankind.
• But what is the mind?
• What is the connection between the mind and the body?
,What is the mind?
• Before the 1800’s lots of people speculated about the mind, but one
person’s guess was as good as another’s
, The Birth of Psychology
• Wilhelm Wundt proposed that we should study the mind
independently of philosophy and physiology
• Wundt also proposed that this new field of study (psychology) should
be rooted in science
• This new science would concern itself with the study of conscious
and immediate experience
