Psychology

Psychology

Introduction

Psychology (from Greek, literally "to talk about the soul", from ψυχή, "psyche", soul, and λόγος, "logos") is both an academic and applied discipline involving the scientific study of mental processes and behavior. Psychologists study such phenomena as perception, cognition, emotion, personality, behavior, and interpersonal relationships. Psychology also refers to the application of such knowledge to various spheres of human activity, including issues related to daily life—e.g. family, education, and work—and the treatment of mental health problems.

Psychology is one of the behavioral sciences—a broad field that spans the social and natural sciences. Psychology attempts to understand the role human behavior plays in social dynamics while incorporating physiological and neurological processes into its conceptions of mental functioning. Psychology includes many sub-fields of study and application concerned with such areas as human development, sports, health, industry, law, and spirituality.

History of Psychology

The 'history of psychology' as a scholarly study of the mind and behavior dates, in Europe, back to the Late Middle Ages. It was widely regarded to a branch of philosophy until the middle of the 19th-century when a scientific and eventually experimental form of the discipline emerged in Germany. Psychology borders on various other fields including physiology, neuroscience, artificial intelligence, sociology, and anthropology.

During the last quarter of the 19th century, psychology in the West began to be seriously pursued as a scientific enterprise. Psychology as an experimental field of study is commonly said to have begun in 1879, when Wilhelm Wundt founded the first laboratory dedicated exclusively to psychological research in Leipzig. Other important early contributors to the field include Hermann Ebbinghaus (a pioneer in studies on memory), William James, and Ivan Pavlov (who developed the procedures associated with classical conditioning). Sigmund Freud's psychoanalysis, though widely known, has had a contested relationship with the development of psychology.

Soon after the development of experimental psychology, various kinds of applied psychology began to appear as well. G. Stanley Hall (Johns Hopkins) brought scientific