History of Psychology

Philosophical and Scientific Foundations

Explorations into psychology have been ongoing since ancient times, although the concept of 'psychology' as we know it was not used. Prior to the establishment of modern psychology, its boundaries were vague, and it was considered a domain of philosophy. Early philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle tackled issues related to epistemology, and debates on these topics continued with thinkers like Descartes and Spinoza during the Renaissance. Descartes, in particular, asserted dualism in the famous mind-body problem, arguing that the mind and body are separate entities. This perspective differs significantly from modern psychology, which emphasizes empirical scientific exploration of the mind.

 

The pioneering scientist Ibn al-Haytham of the Fatimid Caliphate used experimental methods to explain vision as a psychological concept in his work Book of Optics, published in 1010. The German scholastic philosopher Rudolph Goclenius (Latin name: Rudolf Goclenius) discussed conditioned psychological experiments for the first time in his book published in 1590. Sixty years earlier, the Croatian humanist Marko Marulić listed his work on conditions, although the contents were lost.

 

The German metaphysical philosopher Christian Wolff's publication of Psychologia Empirica and Psychologia Rationalis (1732–1734) helped establish experiments using conditions as a general method in psychological research. Diderot described the differences between these psychological experiments and psychological reasoning in his Encyclopedia, and these distinctions became widely known in France through the work of Biran.

 

 

Establishment of Psychology

 

In the late 19th century, psychology, which had previously been treated as a branch of philosophy, began to separate from philosophy and establish itself as a scientific field. This transition began in 1879 when Wilhelm Wundt, often called the "father of psychology," opened the first psychological laboratory, the Psychophysical Laboratory, at the University of Leipzig. Wundt called himself a 'psychologist' and played a crucial role in positioning psychology as an independent discipline. He also defined psychology as a science of direct experience and advocated for introspection as a research methodology.

 

Around the same time, scientific research and experiments in psychology were advancing. In Germany, Hermann Ebbinghaus conducted pioneering experiments on memory and forgetting at the University of Berlin, presenting the forgetting curve hypothesis and the spacing effect in 1885. In 1890, American philosopher William James published The Principles of Psychology, focusing on major issues in psychology at the time. In Russia, Ivan Pavlov conducted his famous classical conditioning experiments, studying learning processes.

 

Before modern times, the mind was considered completely separate from the body. It was seen as an expression of the soul, not a physical entity, and thus not considered a part of the body that could be scientifically analyzed. Therefore, psychology was regarded as a branch of philosophy. This perspective persisted until the late 19th century when significant results from various experiments and studies demonstrated that psychology could be systematically and scientifically researched as an academic discipline.

 

 

Gestalt Psychology

 

Gestalt psychology, also known as Gestalt psychology, is said to have begun between 1910 and 1912, during which time German psychologist Max Wertheimer conducted experimental studies on the perception of movement, presenting a new perspective on everyday perceptual phenomena. Physicist Ernst Mach, along with psychologists Christian von Ehrenfels and Carl Stumpf, greatly influenced the development of Gestalt psychology. Mach argued that specific spatial forms are more than the sum of their parts, and Ehrenfels asserted the existence of "Gestalt qualities," which exceed individual sensory elements. Stumpf, in his debates with Wundt, advocated for a more musically-oriented observational approach. Subsequent Gestalt psychologists grew under their influence.

 

Wertheimer focused on apparent motion, coining the term 'phi phenomenon' for perceived movement that isn’t actually present. This led him to conclude that "part-processes are determined by the unique properties of the whole." This research is considered a pioneering study in Gestalt psychology. Wertheimer’s subjects, Kurt Koffka and Wolfgang Köhler, were also Gestalt psychologists who earned their doctorates under Stumpf. Koffka played a key role in spreading Gestalt psychology to the United States, while Köhler later focused on popularizing Gestalt theory. They were particularly interested in how Gestalt phenomena are organized according to specific principles, which they termed Gestalt organizing principles. These principles include proximity, similarity, and good continuation.

 

Kurt Lewin was an eclectic psychologist known for his contributions across multiple fields, including social psychology and developmental psychology. He is considered a founder of social psychology. His field theory centered on the concept of the life space, which suggests that behavior is influenced by both the environment and the person, expressed as B=f(P,E). He used topological geometry to visually represent his concepts and contributed to leadership research, case studies, and more.