Prologue: The Story of Psychology

How did psychology continue to develop from the 1920's through today?

Having begun as a "science of mental life", psychology evolved in the 1920's into the "scientific study of observable behavior". After rediscovering the mind, psychology since the 1960's has been widely defined as the science of behavior and mental processes.

When and how did psychological science begin?

Psychological science had its modern beginning with the first psychological laboratory, founded in 1879 by German philosopher and physiologist Wilhelm Wundt, and from the later work of other scholars from several disciplines and many countries.

What is psychology's historic big issue?

Psychology's biggest and most enduring issue concerns the relative contributions and interplay between the influences of nature (genes) and nurture (all other influences, from conception to death). Today's science emphasizes the interaction of genes and experiences in specific environments.

What are psychology's main subfields?

Psychology's subfields encompass basic research (often done by biological, developmental, cognitive, personality, and social psychologists), applied research (sometimes conducted by industrial/organizational psychologists), and clinical science and applications (the work of counseling psychologists and clinical psychologists). Clinical psychologists study, assess, and treat (with psychotherapy) people with psychological disorders. Psychiatrists also study, assess, and treat people with disorders, but as medical doctors, they may prescribe drugs in addition to psychotherapy.

What are psychology's major levels of analysis?

Psychology's three major levels of analysis are the biological, psychological, and social-cultural, the biopsychosocial approach. The complementary insights of psychologists studying behavior and mental processes from the neuroscience, evolutionary, behavior genetics, psychodynamic, behavioral, cognitive, and social-cultural perspectives offer a richer understanding than could usually be gained from any one viewpoint alone.

What event defined the founding of scientific psychology?

The most outstanding event defining the founding of scientific psychology was Wilhelm Wundt's opening of the University of Leipzig psychology laboratory in 1879. The new science of psychology was soon organized into different schools of thought, including structuralism (founded by Edward Bradford Titchener, using introspection to explore the elemental structure of the human mind) and functionalism (founded by American William James, focusing on how mental and behavioral processes enable organisms to adapt, survive, and flourish). James also wrote an important psychology textbook, completed in 1890.