A History of Modern Psychology
There are four major individuals who are credited with the establishment of psychology into a scientific discipline. The first one was Ivan Pavlov. He is the man known for causing dogs to salivate. He is therefore referred to as the father of respondent conditioning. This concerns lending a neutral stimulus into an unconditioned stimulus that causes unconditioned response. He proved this by using dogs. He would ring a bell and then provide them with food immediately. After some time, the dogs would always salivate at the sound of a bell (Goodwin, 2004).
The second man was Edward Thorndike. This man established the law of effect. This is the law that says that the results of a behavior will control the occurrence of the behavior in future. Edward revealed the application of this law by using a cat. He kept the cat in a cage and food outside the cage. He then put a bar in the cage such that its door would open any time the cat hit the bar. After the door opened, the cat would have its food. The favorable outcome of hitting the bar made the cat to keep on hitting it all the time. This shown that the cat learned to behave like this is because of the consequences of the behavior. This behavioral process is referred to as operant behavior (Schultz and Schultz, 2003).
The third man was John Watson. This man argued that only apparent behavior could be studied. He is the man credited for founding behaviorism. This man was a professor at a prestigious university. After he lost his job, he went into advertising. Watson is the man who made it okay for women to smoke. He shaped the public. He did this by first showing in an advertisement, a park of cigarette near a woman. With time he brought the park closer to her. In due course everyone was accustomed to seeing ladies near and with parks of cigarette. This way it was no longer considered a taboo for them to smoke (Schultz and Schultz, 2003).
The last man was Fred Skinner. This man made a distinction between operant and respondent behavior. He is the man who revealed to people the use of psychology to enhance their lives and to control their children. He transformed the science until it became a subject that could be taught understood and established into profession (Goodwin, 2004).
Historians have pointed to the works of philosophers like Socrates, Plato and Aristotle as the pioneer important works to be rich in psychology-associated ideas. Some of the works considered are free will, how the mind operates and the interactions between human beings and society. From the ancient times, philosophers began struggling to find answers to these and other philosophical questions. Eventually, psychology grew from the roots of philosophy (Schultz and Schultz, 2003).
Rudolf Goclenius is a philosopher who inverted the terminology. The first part of the term, psyche is derived from soul. Soul is a Greek word. This is the reason why psychology was at times referred to as the investigation of the soul. As a medical discipline, it is evident in the Thomas Willis. This is in conditions of functioning of the brain (Sebastian, 2005).
Psychology was taken as a faction of philosophy until the 19th century. Wilhelm established a laboratory in Germany. The lab was in Leipzig University and it was meant for studying psychology. It was William James who put forward the basics of the queries that would be handled by psychologists for days to come. William James published his work in 1890, in a title called, Principles of Psychology. Herman Ebbinghaus was the initiator of the investigations on memory (Schultz and Schultz, 2003).
Sigmund Freud invented and employed psychoanalysis. This was a procedure of psychoanalysis. His comprehension of the mind was founded on interpretive ways and introspection. His procedure was concerned in solving mental stress and psychopathology. His ideas were very successful for their provided practical benefits to people. They also handled sexuality and oppression as major concepts of psychological growth. The aspects were forbidden in the society at the time, but he gave a motivation for them to be dealt with in the community. His application of psychology to medical situations has become significant in the modern day work (Sebastian, 2005).
During that time behaviorism started to be the popular psychological theory. The psychologists of that time dismissed the idea of investigating psychology as the state of mind. These behaviorists argued that it should be studied as behavioral science. The behaviorists dismissed the idea that mental states could be investigated scientifically. Noam Chomsky reviewed the work of Skinner. His work is thought to be the end of behaviorism. He showed that language could not only be acquired by conditioning. His argument was based on the fact that structure and understanding could not originate from experience of ordinary languages only. This revealed that there were inherent states of mind that were not taken into account by behaviorism (Goodwin, 2004).
In the 1950s, humanistic psychology came up. It stressed on human experience and comprehension people and how they behave through qualitative studies. These theories were supported by Abraham Maslow, Carl Rodgers and Fritz Perls. Maslow came up with hierarchy of human need. Rogers invented client-centered therapy. Perls assisted in inventing Gestalt therapy.
The connection between the brain and nervous system started to come up. This was in the efforts of people like Charles Sherrington. Another important contributor of this was Donald Hebb (Sebastian, 2005).
Conclusion
The invention of computer technology has brought new possibilities in the field of psychology. There are sophisticated ways of handling various aspects of psychology in the present day world. This trend seems to develop with establishment of more complex computer applications.
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