The Historical Development of Psychology

The Historical Development of Psychology

I am going to be looking at the history of psychology, and by using a

few examples try to explain some of the theories that leading

psychologists and scientist have concluded in their experiments and

scientific studies. Psychology is in fact the study of the mind, how

it works and what effect it has upon an individuals thoughts and

general functions, the processes of the mind will never be fully

understood but there has been a great breakthrough over many years,

although the mind has many parts in which we will never truly

understand.

The first example I am going to look at is behaviourism,

Wittgenstein(1889-1951) believes what is in the mind as “over and

above behaviour” He believes that if everyone were to have a box which

held a beetle and only they were allowed to look in their own box,

people will talk about their boxes and perceive them to stand for a

beetle as that is how they associate their boxes, he believes the

boxes are like the mind, everyone has one, they are alike but no one

actually knows what either persons looks like as you cannot compare

them just like the mind no one knows what exactly is in them.

The most famous experiment looking into behaviourism is by the Russian

scientist I.P Pavlov (1849-1946) in which he found that by ringing a

bell every time he fed the dogs in his lab, he realised that the dogs

learned to associate the bell with food so therefore salivated,

eventually the dogs would salivate without the need for food as the

simple ringing of the bell was enough for them to assume that the bell

meant food therefore salivation would occur. Not only does this fo...

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...will argue the final stage

because no one can ever really reach it, after all no matter what you

achieve in life there is always something else a person will strive

for as this is human instinct because no matter what you have they’ll

always be something bigger and better you will want as well. Maslow

said “that the needs must be satisfied in the given order”. This study

gave people a further understanding into the psychological needs of a

person and their minds in order to survive.

So as you can see from looking at a few examples of psychology and its

history it is a fascinating world of what really goes on in peoples

minds, in fact the mind is a mysterious place in which no one will

ever truly understand but will continue to study. The mind is the key

to our existence and without its functions we could not survive.