Psychology

Psychology is the investigation of the mind and how it processes and directs our thoughts, actions and conceptions. However, in 1879 Wilhelm Wundt opened the first psychology laboratory at the University of Leipzig in Germany. Nevertheless, the origins of psychology go all the way back thousands of years starting with the early Greeks. This foundation is closely connected to biology and philosophy; and especially the subfields of physiology which is the study of the roles of living things and epistemology, which is the study of comprehension and how we understand what we have learned. The connection to physiology and epistemology is often viewed as psychology, which is the hybrid offspring of those two fields of investigation.

It was not until the later part of the 19th century that psychology would emerge as a science. Rene Descartes, a famous French philosopher, contributed a major work to the development of psychology. Descartes presented his theory of dualism as a response to the body and mind conflict between scholars (Schultz & Schultz, 2008). According to Descartes, humans are made up of two dimensions: body and mind. Before the body mind concept, it was believed that humans thought with their souls (Wozniak, 1995). Descartes also believed that humans had tendencies of a mechanism but are different from animals because of the ability to think and reason. His perception of humans led to the theory of dualism. The dualism theory contended that the humans mind is a separate function form the body. However, the mind and soul work in unison in the brain, through the pineal gland to create human behavior. The mind was considered to develop and use innate ideas and derived ideas. Essentially, Descartes came to the conclusion tha...

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...nd getting the information when necessary. A significant thought is information processing, which takes place in a sequence of steps. The information processing theorist’s method of learning is primarily by way of the study of memory.

Presently, because of the hybrid heritage, psychology is not thought over as one of the social sciences such as sociology, economic science, government science, and cultural anthropology. Psychology is viewed as an ally to the natural sciences such as biology, chemistry, laws of nature, and mathematics (Thornton, 2009). Psychology is also seen as humanities, which are philosophy, human speeches, music and art. Most psychologists join forces on research and other conceptions with intellectuals and scientists in distinctive fields. This adds to the diversity of interests, which can be seen in the modern psychology department.