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According to the American Psychological Association, psychology is the scientific study of the mind and behaviour. Human development, sports, health, clinical, social behaviour, and cognitive processes are just a few of the many sub-fields of study in psychology. Psychology is a relatively new subject, with the majority of advancements occurring in the last 150 years or so.
Its origins, however, may be dated back to 400–500 BC in ancient Greece. Great minds like Socrates (470 BC – 399 BC) influenced Plato (428/427 BC – 348/347 BC), who in turn impacted Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC). Many themes now researched by modern psychology were discussed by philosophers, including memory, free will vs. determinism, nature vs. nurture, attraction, and so on.
There were two prominent theoretical approaches on how the brain operated in the early days of psychology: structuralism and functionalism. Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) pioneered the structuralist approach, which focused on breaking down mental processes into their most fundamental components. Edward Titchener, an American psychologist who was schooled by Wundt, coined the name.
Wundt was significant because he distinguished psychology from philosophy by examining the inner workings of the mind in a more systematic manner, with a focus on objective measurement and control. Structuralism was based on trained introspection, a study approach in which participants described what was going on in their heads while doing a task. Introspection, on the other hand, proved to be an unreliable strategy due to the large amount of individual variance in research subjects' experiences and reports.
Despite the failure of introspection, Wundt is a significant person in the history of psychology since he founded the first psychology laboratory in 1879, which is often regarded as the start of contemporary experimental psychology. William James (1842-1910), an American psychologist, coined the term "functionalism" to describe an approach that differed from Structuralism's focus.
James maintained that because the mind is continually changing, looking for the structure of conscious experience is futile. Rather, he suggested that the focus be on how and why an organism performs something, i.e. the brain's activities or purpose. Psychologists, according to James, should look for the underlying reason of conduct as well as the mental processes involved. This emphasis on behavior's causes and consequences has affected modern psychology.
