Introduction and History of Psychology

Actually, it is too late for  posting this article, because this site has talked many fields in psychology, but it is ok! No problem reviewing again the basic and the first subject matter in psychology.

Generally psychology was defined  as the systematic, scientific study of behaviors and mental processes. Psychology has grown since ancient Greeks, it has been defined in numerous ways. As early as 400 B.C., the ancient Greeks philosophized about the relationship of personality characteristics to physiological traits.

Psychology has been independent science since it has a special method by the proof of  psychological laboratory was opened in Leipzig, Germany, by Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920), and soon afterwards the first experimental studies of memory were published. Wundt was instrumental in establishing psychology as the study of conscious experience, which he viewed as made up of elemental sensations. In addition to the type of psychology practiced by Wundt—which became known as structuralism. Other early schools of psychology were functionalism, which impacted  to the development of  behaviorism, and Gestalt psychology.

Other figure who had a important role in enhancing psychology and enriched was Sigmund Freud and his method of psychoanalysis early in the twentieth century, emphasis shifted from conscious

experience to unconscious processes investigated by means of free association and other techniques. According to Freud, behavior and mental processes were the result of mostly unconscious struggles within each person between the drive to satisfy basic instincts, such as sex or aggression, and the limits imposed by society. He also explained the structure of personality that were Id, Ego, Superego.  At the same time that Freud’s views were gaining popularity in Europe, an American psychology professor, John B. Watson, was pioneering the behavioral approach, which focuses on observing and measuring external behaviors rather than the internal workings of the mind. B.F. Skinner, who spent decades studying the effects of reward and punishment on behavior, helped maintain the predominance of behaviorism in the United States through the 1950s and 1960s. Since the 1970s, many psychologists have been influenced by the cognitive approach, which  is concerned with the relationship of mental processes to behavior.

 Cognitive psychology focuses on how people take in, perceive, and store information, and how they process and act on that information. Additional psychological perspectives include the

neurobiological approach, focusing on relating behavior to internal processes within the brain and nervous system, and the phenomenological approach, which is most concerned with the individual’s subjective experience of  the world rather than the application of psychological

theory to behavior. While all these approaches differ in their explanations of individual behavior, each contributes an important perspective to the psychological image of the total human being.

There are many aspects are discussed in psychology. The subfields are often overlapping areas of interest rather than isolated domains. Basic psychology encompasses the subfields concerned with the advancement of psychological theory and research. Experimental psychology employs

laboratory experiments to study basic behavioral processes shared by different species, including sensation, perception, learning, memory, communication, and motivation.

Physiological psychology is concerned with the ways in which biology shapes behavior and mental processes, and developmental psychology is concerned with behavioral development over the entire life span. Other subfields include social psychology, quantitative psychology, and the psychology of personality. Applied psychology is the area of psychology concerned

with applying psychological research and theory  to problems posed by everyday life. It includes clinical psychology, the largest single field in psychology. Clinical psychologists—accounting for 40 percent of all psychologists— are involved in psychotherapy and psychological testing. Like clinical psychologists, counseling psychologists apply psychological principles to diagnose

and treat individual emotional and behavioral problems. Other subfields of applied psychology include school psychology, which involves the evaluation and placement of students; educational psychology, which investigates the psychological aspects of the learning process;

and industrial psychology and organizational psychology, which study the relationship between people and their jobs. Community psychologists investigate environmental factors that contribute to mental and emotional disorders;  health psychologists deal with the psychological aspects

of physical illness, investigating the connections between the mind and a person’s physical condition; and consumer psychologist study the preferences and buying habits of consumers as well as their reactions to certain advertising.

            Many psychological book proof that psychology is more develop now than before. Thus Book also explained psychology with many approaches.
           And now, Moslem scholar has a strong intention to develop Islamic psychology. It is a new approach in psychology. Although in still development, toward Islamic psychology seems to get many attention for Moslem scholar by integrating a modern psychology with Qur’an and Hadith.