History of Psychology - Self Help - Stress Management

The first thing that should be known is that what is psychology? Psychology is an empirical science dealing with the bio-social behavior with reference to its environment. The study of this field in philosophical context dates backs to the ancient civilizations of Egypt, Greece, China, India and Persia. This article describes the history of psychology starting from the first concept introduced to this world.

Firstly, Structuralism, this was introduced by a German Physician Wilhelm Wundt. The method of inspection used in this field was introspection also known as self observation. This field made use of the conscious mind and sensation of the person to find the answer to the question or any problem. This method is no longer in practice however, as it was not reliable. Wilhelm is also known as father of psychology as he started experimental psychology, set up the first experimental psychology lab and gave the first systematic psychology book to the world. The second step in history was Functionalism which was formed as the reaction to the theories of the structuralist school of thought. This field focused on the mind of the people and that how did it adapted to the environment and the people surrounding it. The main contributor to this school of thought was William James.

The third school of thought in the evolution of the psychology was named Psychoanalysis. The main contributor to this field was Sigmund Freud. It is a method of investigation of the mind and the way one thinks, a form of psychotherapy and a systemized set of theories related to the human behavior. The fourth school of thought was Behaviorism. It was founded by John B. Watson. It dealt with the theories that how people are affected by their environment and that they learn their behavior form the society they live in and later Skinner also introduced his theory in this school of thought named S-O-R or Stimulus organism response. The fourth school of thought is Humanistic. It was developed in reaction to behaviorism and psychoanalysis. This approach glimpse the human as the whole, it does not focuses on only one specific point of human life or personality. The fifth Step is Gestlat psychology. It is a science of perceiving a whole picture, not just the fragments of a picture. It helps in telling about the personality of a person. The major contributor to this science was Max Wertheimer but Kohler and Koffka also helped a lot.

The sixth school of thought to be developed was Cognitivism. It studies the mental processes and in addition to that it studied the way that how people think, remember and learn. The main contributors to this field were George Miller and Albert Ellis. The seventh School of thought was Biopsychosocial model. It is an integrated perspective. This science is the study and understanding on the consciousness, behavior and social relationships. This science assumes that the way one live, act and think is highly affected by the social culture he belongs to.