History of Psychology

 Course title: Introduction to Psychology

 Course code: Psy-101
 Instructor: Ms. Fouzia Mobeen
Historical background of
Psychology
 The roots of Psychology can be traced back
to some half million years.
 Primitive people assumed that behavior was
caused by the presence of good and evil
souls .
 People have been interested in the behavior
of other people throughout history so that
roots of psychology may be found in
philosophy, religion, and science.
 We can divide history period into two
 Pre scientific period
 Scientific period
Pre scientific period
 Some of our modern ideas of mind came from
ancient Greece.
 Term Psychology was derived from the Greek
word ‘Psyche’ (soul) and ‘logos’ (knowledge).
It eventually came to mean the “study of the
mind”
 Pre scientific period can be divided into three
sub periods .
 i) Greek period
 ii) Middle ages
 iii) Islamic period
Greek period
 Some early Greek philosophers regarded Psyche as
a substance. This substance was thought to control
the body.
 Some Greek philosophers are:
 1: Hippocrates :
 Greek physician Hippocrates thought that personality
was made up of four temperaments and these
temperaments were influenced by the presence of
“humors or fluids” in the body.
 The problem of interest to the early Greek
philosophers was the relationship between “mind”
and body.
Hippocrates four humors and
Personality Type or temperaments:
Black Bile Yellow Bile Phlegm Blood (humors)

Melancholic Choleric Phlegmatic Sanguine

(temperaments / personality type)

Moody Touchy Passive Sociable

Anxious Restless Careful Outgoing
Rigid Aggressive Thoughtful Talkative
Sober Excitable Peaceful Responsive
Pessimistic Changeable Controlled Easygoing
Reserved Optimistic Calm Carefree
(Personality Characteristics)
Greek period
 2: Plato
 He stressed the controlling influence of soul
or mind.
 He postulated the theory of mind body
dualism and held the view that as long as the
soul remains in the body, the man is alive,
and when it leaves the body, the man dies.
 Mind-body dualism: mind and body are not
identical, both are function separately without
interchange
Greek period
 3: Aristotle
 Rejected the Plato’s theory and suggested that mind
is a function of the body itself just as vision is a
function of the eye.
 His concept of mind as a function of bodily processes
was an important step in the direction of making
Psychology a science.
 Attention turned, eventually, from pure speculation
about the mind to the study of organism.
Middle ages
 1: Plotinus:
 He was influenced by Plato and Aristotle’s thoughts.
 He tried to understand religious beliefs through
reasoning.
 2: St. Augustine:
 Being a Christian philosopher, he believed that
human being is interaction of soul and body.
 He was founder of introspective method (examination
of one’s own conscious thoughts and feelings).
 He thought that an individual can understand his own
inner feelings.
 Islamic Period
 If the ideas of modern Psychologists about
mental health are assessed, we come to know
that these are based on the views of Islamic
philosophers and thinkers.
 The Muslim philosophers described the
principles of life in the light of Quran and the
Sunnah.
Islamic Period
 Here a brief description of Muslim
philosophers may be added into the history of
psychology.
 1: Al-Kundi:
 He was a great Arab philosopher.
 He believed that our souls have originated
from God’s soul.
 According to him, our real happiness lies in
the reason and spiritual life.
Islamic Period
He tried to combine religion and philosophy
as both seek reality; philosophy focuses on
theoretical aspects whereas religion stresses
upon actions.
2: Al- Farabi
 He wrote more than 80 books on various
topics.
 He believed that a man is composed of body
and soul, which belong to God.
 God is immortal and above all human
thoughts.
 Farabi was influenced by the teachings of
Plato and Aristotle.
 Islamic Period
 3: Ibn-e-Sina
 He was physician, poet and psychologist all in
one. According to him, there are three kinds of
mind :Human mind, Animal mind, and vegetable
mind.
 Vegetable mind: the power of growth,
reproduction
 Animal mind: the power perception, or cognition
 Human mind: ability to reason, given to humanity
 Vegetable and animal mind connect to earth and human
mind connect to God
 Only the Human mind possess reason and
intelligence.
 He said that physical illness could be treated
with medicine but mental illness could be
treated psychologically with religion.
 He thought that body had no link with mind,
body perishes but mind remains alive.
 4: Imam Ghazali
 He wrote a number of books on religion.
According to him those obsessed with love of
God and treading the right path do not
contact mental disorders.
 Therefore, he also instructed people to follow
the right path.
 He said that this world is a place of actions
and hard work and no body was allowed to
remain idle in life.
 He viewed that man was recognized by his
actions.
 He stressed upon children’s education.
 He said children’s capabilities must be
assessed for proper education.
 He thought that mental diseases were caused
by negative emotional problems and one
should get rid of them.
 5: Allama Bin Khaldun
 He proposed the theories of social
psychology and explained human beliefs,
prejudices, attitudes and other subject
matters.
 According to him, religion influences human
mind and whole life.
 6: Shah Wali Ullah
 He wrote many books and made a deep study of
human mind and behavior. He discovered the causes
of mental disorders and treated them.
 According to him conflict goes on between positive
and negative forces within human mind and healthy
personality develops only by striking balance b/w the
two. If irrational ideas are in excess, mental health is
affected.
Scientific Period
 This period may be divided into two sub
periods:
 1: Renaissance Period
 2: Modern Period
1 : John Lock :
 He believed we were born with empty mind in
the world, like blank slates upon which all of
life’s experiences could be written.
 Memories are imprinted on our mind as a
result of experience.
 Other influences on early psychology came
from biology and physics.
2: Charles Darwin :
 In his book” The Origin of Species” in
1859,he outlined his theory of evolution.
 In his theory he suggested that animals and
people show behavior that is adaptive to the
environment and helpful to their survival.
3: Paul Broca
 A French physician identified a part of the
brain (still called “Broca Area”) working as
control centre for speech.
4: Weber:
 About the middle of 19th century the
discoveries made in physics gave rise to a
new field known as “psychophysics”.
 Psychophysics is the branch of psychology
that deals with the relationship between
physical stimuli and mental phenomena.
 Weber observed the relationship between
changes in the physical stimuli and human
ability to perceive changes.
5. Fechner
 He looked into mathematical connection
between the physical and psychological
changes.
 For the first time it had been demonstrated
that psychological phenomenon could be
quantified and investigated with scientific
method.