The word “psychology” comes from the Greek word “which means study of the soul. “Its aim is to observe, describe, and explain how we think, feel, and act. ” (Myers, 2008, p. 2). The aim of this essay is: To provide a brief overview of the development of Psychology throughout the years. As well as, to provide sufficient reasoning as to why Psychology is vital nowadays, focusing on its impact on daily life. History of Psychology The history of Psychology dates back to the ancient Greece.
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People like Aristotle, Thales, and Plato tried to give explanations about learning, memory, emotions, perception and personality. Although their believes weren’t necessarily right they gave the green light to everybody else to start and wonder. After all, psychology is all about wondering and doubting. In 1879, Wilhelm Wundt–a German physician- founded the first psychological laboratory ever made. He was then called “father of experimental psychology”. After a few years, a student of Wundt, following the steps of his teacher, created the first psychology laboratory in America.
Therefore, we can say that from that day on, psychology was more a science, than a simple terminology, of how and why things work, the way they do. Moving on to the next century, a very famous author, William James believed that psychology must surely have a practical value and he wanted to learn about the functionalities of the brain. He was so curious of how the human mind can be used for a person’s benefit, that he wrote a whole book about it. It is not an exaggeration to say that he laid the foundations for subjects that would later on, spark the interest of some of the world’s most prominent psychologists. Wundt focused on inner sensations, images, and feelings. James, too, engaged in introspective examination of the stream of consciousness and of emotion” (Myers, 2008, p. 4). During the 19th century, psychology became really important to people due to facing a rapid development. Hermann Ebbinghaus was really interested in everything that had to do with human memory. He conducted many sets of memory experiments and was the first one to describe the so called “learning curve”. Another scientist of the 19th century was the Russian-Soviet physiologist Ivan Pavlov.
He was doing experiments on animals-mainly dogs- to see how the brain works. He resulted, into discovering a learning process that was later termed as “classical conditioning”. Not, many years had passed and Sigmund Freud developed the so called “psychoanalysis”. This term comes from the Greek word “?????????? ” which means investigation and examination of the human soul. It focuses on examining how the mind works. “Freud emphasized the ways emotional responses to childhood experiences and our unconscious through processes affect our behavior. ”(Myers, 2008, p. ). He was a passionate person who examined and observed closely whatever had to do with the human behavior. He had many theories and believed that psychological and emotional distress could be merely cured with psychotherapy. Freud’s psychoanalytic theory was largely based on interpretive methods, introspection and clinical observations. Freud deeply believed that people sometimes acted the way they did because of their unconsciousness. This is because, he believed, that there was where, instinctual desires, needs and psychic actions were stored.
Although back then, people doubted his sayings and criticized his beliefs, now he is considered to be a very important and significant psychologist. It wasn’t a long time after humanistic psychology was developed. Rather than focusing on a specific part of a person’s personality or for example his mind, humanistic psychology was interested on humans in general. It had a more humanistic approach as it was aiming to explain things that had to do with free will, aloneness, freedom, death, self-identity or even what affects someone’s personality. The importance of Psychology today
They say that everything happens for a reason. Psychology is the science that tries to find that reason and bring it to the surface. Many people find psychology as their sanctuary. Their place to hide. This is because, psychology can give explanation and answers even to their deepest problems and anxieties. Psychology develops our critical thinking, the way we understand and percept things around us and our self-knowledge. Therefore it is not an exaggeration to say that Psychology is now an indispensable part of our everyday lives. Psychology is really vital for the human beings.
It helps them to decide whether a claim is true, false, or even partly true. This is because, it makes people able to see, judge and decide for themselves what stands to be wrong or right. Having critical thinking means that skills like observation, interpretation, analysis, and evaluation are well-established in that person’s personality. Critical thinking does not only refer to what’s logical but also to the clarity and credibility of the information given. “It examines assumptions, discerns hidden values, evaluates evidence and assesses conclusions. (Myers, 2008, p. 13). In general, critical thinking calls for the ability to recognize problems and finding the means to solve them in an effective and efficient way. Theories and findings in psychology may help people to solve their important problems. This is because, psychology examines the way people think and behave. Concicountly, having years of examinations, psychology can give an answer to anyone’s problem. From the early times people were curious about themselves and their environment. They wanted to learn more and more about their bodies and way of thinking.
However, that was one difficult task as, we people, are really complicated creatures. Sometimes, we are not even able to understand our own actions and beliefs. Psychology is what made the difference. It is now considered to be the key to our souls. It can open every door, of any house. It helps people to perceive things positively and it assists them in determining the things that they enjoy doing. Moreover, psychology gives people the chance to learn a little bit more about themselves. This is because, it can explain some of our actions and beliefs.
It helps us to understand in a better way why and how we did the things that we did. Psychology in our everyday life Psychology is really vital for human beings and it is now an indispensable part of our everyday lives. We are living in the century of high developments and great improvements. People try really hard to achieve their personal goals and plans so that they forget to act humanly, and help those in need. They don’t care about everything but themselves. As a result, the human relationships and the society in general, start to get eroded.
Therefore, in a world like that people feel lonely, devastated and hopeless. Consequently, we can say that the only solution for the today’s people is psychology. It is well-known that nowadays people are suffering because they find their selves incompetent to cover even their basic needs. Therefore, they are miserable and they feel depressed. Psychology can help them to find the meaning in their lives and to achieve the impossible. That does not necessarily require psychotherapy but it surely can help.
People with stress, depression, anxieties, and problems or with any kind of trauma can take a hand of help and easily solve them. Psychology after countless years of research and analysis has concluded into finding some things that people have in common. As a result, it provides effective ways of doing certain things. This applies on factors such us memory, learning, making decisions and improving human relationships. Furthermore, research has shown that focusing on the information, rehearsing on what has been learned and eliminating any distractions has great results.
Therefore, we can understand now that getting motivated is one of the many examples that show us that psychology is involved in our everyday life. Whether our goal is to quit smoking, lose weight or learn a new language, some lessons from psychology offer tips and guidance for getting more and more motivated and inspired. For example in order to increase our motivational levels when approaching a task, we can utilize some of the following tips derived from researches and studies in cognitive and educational psychology: •Introduce new or novel elements to keep our interest high. Vary the sequence to help stave off boredom. •Learn new things that build on our existing knowledge. •Set clear goals that are directly related to the task. And at the same time reward ourselves for doing something really well. Improving our leadership skills and becoming a better communicator are also some facts that show that psychology plays a big part in our everyday lives. This is because it helps us to learn to understand others in a better way. As a result, with the ability to understand ours and others emotions we can develop our relationships and our professional lives.
This is more widely known as emotional intelligence. It refers to our ability to understand both our own emotions other people’s feelings and emotions. Our emotional intelligence quotient is a measure of this ability. According to psychologist Daniel Goleman, our EQ may actually be more important than our IQ (1995). Ones EQ development requires him to follow some strategies: •Carefully assess your own emotional reactions. •Record your experience and emotions in a journal. •Try to see situations from the perspective of another person.
What is psychology for me… Psychology is very important to people. This is because almost every action we take is related and explained by psychology. Therefore, for me it is something more than a science. It really is the way out of any problem. Learning psychology will provide anyone with skills and information that will help him not only to solve any of his problems but also enrich him with valuable knowledge about himself. Knowing what we are, why we are like that, why we act the way we do, will make us see how we can improve ourselves.
Through studying psychology people become able to understand and determine how the mind and body of an individual works. As a result, a lot of people would no longer make things complicated for themselves or for their health. This is because, they would avoid things that can cause them stress, organize their time easier, and they would also be more effective with their studies or chosen career. Psychology is significant due to the fact that can help strengthening a relationship and making everyday lives better through escalating a person’s self-knowledge and understanding towards another individual.
Thus, the more someone knows and discovers about himself, his existence, his personality and his weaknesses, the more he seeks for self-improvement and development. When that happens the self-confidence of that person is instantly increasing as he starts feeling better about himself. In my personal opinion we can gain a better understanding of who we are and the causes of our behavior by learning about and from psychology. It is very important that a person knows what psychology is all about and how essential is for him in person.
I believe that everyone should be able to make use of psychology in every aspect of his or her life, as well as in making decisions. All in all, theories and findings in psychology can help anyone to solve important and vital, for him, problems getting insight into new ways to solve them. Summary In this research paper I gave a brief summary on the history of psychology and its development throughout the years. Moreover, I also gave reasons on how important and vital Psychology is for our daily lives. Lastly, I stated information about its effect on every one of us. Reference List
