2. Definition
2
Psychology – A scientific study of human behavior and
mental processes.
Etymologically, it came from the Greek words, Psyche
which means “soul” or “mind”, and Logos which means
“the study of.”
3. Behavior - Any response or activity of an organism. It
can either be simple or complex; overt or covert;
conscious or unconscious; voluntary or involuntary;
rational or irrational.
3
Definition
5. Important People in the
Dev’t. of Psychology
Aristotle (384 –322 BC) – He made assumptions out of
observation regarding human behavior. He
believed that all beings, humans included, have
souls, which animate them. Humans, however,
compared to other animal, have rational souls.
Thus, humans are not only, physical, but also
rational. He also theorized about learning,
memory, motivation, emotion, perception and
personality.
6. Important People in the
Dev’t. of Psychology
Rene Descartes
(1596 – 1650) -
supported the view that
humans enter the world
with an inborn store of
knowledge. He argued
that some ideas (such
as God, the self,
perfection and infinity)
are innate. He is also
notable for his
conception of the body
as a machine that can
be studied.
7. 7
Important People in the
Dev’t. of Psychology
John Locke
(1632–1704) - Believed that
at birth the human mind is a
“tabula rasa” or a blank slate,
on which experience “writes”
knowledge.
8. Important People in the
Dev’t. of Psychology
Charles Darwin
(1809 – 1882) - He is the author of the
Law of Natural Selection or Theory of
Evolution; inspired the Psychological
school of thought, Functionalism.
9. Important People in the
Dev’t. of Psychology
Francis Galton
(1822–1911) - He was concerned with the study
of individual differences. He was considered as
the “Father of Mental tests”
10. Important People in the
Dev’t. of Psychology
Ernst Weber (1795–1878); Gustav Fechner;
Herman von Helmholtz (1821–1894) German
Physicians who started experimenting with
behavior through scientific methodologies.
11. The First Microprocessor – 1971
Wilhelm Wundt – Considered as the “Father of Modern
Psychology.” He established the first experimental
laboratory for the study of Psychology, in Leipzig, Germany,
1879. He created a machine that measured the time lag
between people’s hearing a ball hit the platform and their
pressing a telegraph key. Wundt has seeking to measure
the “atoms of the mind” – the fastest and simplest mental
processes.
12. Important People in the
Dev’t. of Psychology
Wilhelm Wundt - in his laboratory in
Leipzig, Germany
13. G. Stanley Hall
A student of Wundt’s who
established what many
consider as the first American
psychology laboratory at Johns
Hopkins University in 1883.
Important People in the
Dev’t. of Psychology
14. Hermann
Ebbinghaus
- A German who
reported on the first
experiments on
memory, 1885.
Important People in the
Dev’t. of Psychology