History
“Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior” (Apa, 2014). Contemporary psychology studies a wide range of topics that focus on human behavior and mental process on different levels such as cultural and neural. The discipline of psychology emerges in the late 1800s, however, it can be traced all the way back to the Greeks. It was during the 17th century that Rene Descartes, a French philosopher introduced the idea of dualism. This idea stated that the mind and the human body are two separate entities and by working together they form the human experience (About Psychology, 2014).
Psychology starts to emerge as a separate discipline around the mid-1800s, during this time Wilhelm Wundt starts analyzing reaction times by utilizing the scientific research as his method to obtain his results. He was the founder of the first psychology lab in 1879 at the University of Leipzig. This event is considered by many as the official start of psychology as its own discipline. Around this time, William James publishes his book “The Principles of Psychology, and with this publication he is established as the father of American psychology. Furthermore, his books sets the foundations for a new school of thought; this new school focuses on how behavior helps people to adapt to their environment. This new school is functionalism; students of this school used the method of direct observation.
One of Wundt’s students, Edward Titchener, went on to found Structuralism, this was psychology’s first school of thought. Its main idea focuses on the principle that human consciousness can be separated into small sections or parts. Utilizing introspection, students focused on breaking down responses and reactions to sensations and perceptions. Behaviorism was studied by Pavlov and Watson; this type of school compares animal’s responses to those of a man, its main goal is to