This document is a detailed course summary titled "2.3 History and Methods of Psychology," designed to provide an in-depth overview of the foundational aspects of psychology. It is ideal for students, educators, and enthusiasts looking to gain a comprehensive understanding of the historical and met...
Goals of Psychology: → different goals from the philosophical approach to psychological
questions
1. Describe behavior
2. Understand or explain the behavior
3. Predict the behavior
4. Control and modify behavior
Psychology is an old discipline (psychological questions answered by philosophy) but
before 1870 it was not considered as a separate independent discipline → before
it was part of philosophy and medicine
,Modern academic Psychology started with Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)
In the US, the start of the discipline was established in 1892 with the foundation of
APA.
- very young discipline
Predecessors of Psychology
,Plato
- Knowledge (Truth)
- Knowledge is innate, in us from birth (nativism) and we can access this
knowledge by structured logical reasoning (rationalism)
- First to make a distinction between the mind and the body → not a
classical dualist → division in three parts: spirited, rational, desired.
Aristotle
- student of Plato
- Knowledge can also be observed, approached and measured → basis of
empirical science.
Knowledge is not something that is inside of us but outside and that we
can approach and measure.
➔ Empiricism, Rationalism
➔ NOT A DUALIST → not concerned with this question, we don’t really
know what was his view
, - He was already talking about Psychological questions: memory, motivation,
emotion, perception, personality…
Rene Descartes
- Focus on the discussion about the link between mind and body
➔ He was a Dualist → soul and the body are two distinct separate
entities → it doesn’t matter that I see my body for me to exist, my soul is
the only thing that matters. I can prove that my soul exists because I think
(Cogito, Ergo Sum)
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