Unit 4: History Of Psychology

Improved Essays
Unit 4: History of Psychology
Centuries ago philosophers began trying to understand and explain how the human mind and body works; they raised many of the questions still asked by researchers today. Questions that ranged from: Do the two, mind and body, work together or tandem with each other? Do we objectively or subjectively study the mind and how it works? What is most important, the natural order of the mind and body or the nurturing of a person? All of these philosophical questions are related to psychology as they were the start of research, studies, theories and ideals. Early psychologists were philosophers first; nevertheless, they demanded answers to complicated questions and began to see the logic of using a scientific approach.
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He was born in France in 1596. Descartes was an ailing man who suffered greatly from the loss of his young daughter. All the while, his greatest work and possibly his most promising contribution to current psychology was his attempt to answer the mind-body problem. He worked toward answering the long-time dilemma: are the mind and body distinct from each other? How do they interact? Does one influence the other, and how can it be scientifically, without doubt, proven (Schultz, 2011, pg.31)? Descartes theory was that the mind did, indeed, influence the body; however, the body also influenced the mind. He suggested that the influence was much greater than previously suspected. The idea was that mutual interaction between the two; sensations, reactions, and functions that were previously thought to be only of the mind, were realized to be actual functions of the body. Mechanics, the zeitgeist of the era, became a major focus of Descartes’ work. He proposed that since the body was made of matter, just as every other physical object; is like a machine whose operation can be explained by the mechanical laws that govern the movement of all objects in space (Schultz, 2011, pg. 32). According to his observations, Descartes reasoned that some actions of the body were involuntary and were responses to stimulation outside the body. For this idea, he is known as the founder of the reflex action …show more content…
Consequently, from physiology we gain the knowledge of methodical testing systems and the use of scientific measurements. By using the studies of astronomy to the studies of sense and perception, once a system of testing was established and put into practice, consistent, reliable and provable data began to emerge. It was applied to psychology in the sense that it was a measureable and usable means of acquiring data. These early developments in physiology direct the kinds of techniques necessary for the support of a scientific approach to psychological development and research (Schultz, 2011, pg.54) Ernst Weber, born in 1795 in Germany was a physiologist interested in the study of sensory organs. He applied physiological methods of research to explore his theory of two-point threshold. Using the same methods he explored the just noticeable differences between stimuli. At the time, Weber had no idea that his research in the two areas of physiology opened pathways for psychological research between the mind and the

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