History and System of Psychology

History and System of Psychology

Introduction

The history of psychology dates back to fifth BC, an era when the subject was at the initial stages of discovery. It was the era when people started to consider human behavior and thought as an important aspect of personality and felt the need to explore the ideas which they had, in greater detail. However, what led the people of the seventh century to raise their thoughts about psychology, and the factors which influenced them to consider the idea remain debatable. In my opinion, differences in the way people interacted with each other including their behavior in daily lives, on special occasions, and among different people would have led those, who were keen on observing the attitudes held by various people, to think the underlying reasons for these differences. They must have had views that the reason why people behave differently depend upon the thoughts that they hold, and other factors which remained unexplored. Hence, in my opinion, 'psychology has emerged as an important field due to the difference in the way people interact with each other, and their preferences for various things'. However, this field has evolved over time and has transformed in scientific thought.

Development of Scientific Thought

Greek philosophers have played an immensely important role in the development of psychology. Alcmaeon of Croton was a famous Greek physician who contributed towards the development of psychology by application of scientific medicine, at the beginning of the fifth century B.C. he is known to be the first Greek person to dissect animal bodies, to study their organs, brains, skeletons, and muscles. He was also famous for being the first person to dissect human bodies. From his work, he concluded that sensations get in touch with the brain through channels arising from sensory organs, and believed perceiving and thinking to be detached processes. He also believed that the brain makes use of both thought and sensation, arranges and stores perceptions, and is also responsible for belief and memory. According to him, illness and health were a result of the imbalance or balance of the systems in a body. Another important name in the development of psychology is of Hippocrates, the asserted the finding made by Alcmaeon regarding the cause of diereses. He further observed the head injuries and concluded that the right side of the body is controlled by the left side of the brain and vice versa. He also believed that nature had the power to heal the disease, and was of the opinion that no interference should be made by the physician with this healing power. Hippocrates can be regarded as a psychologist due to his establishment of theories of motivation and temperament, the observations made by him regarding human brain, his effort to shape an appropriate frame of mind for doctors, and his explanations for behavior disorders (Daniels, 1997).

The work of Alcmaeon of Croton and Hippocrates, have found to be focusing largely upon the physiology, and its relation with the ...