PSYCHOLOGY Leaving Imprints Everywhere
HISTORY, CURRENT STATUS AND RECENT
ADVANCES IN THE FIELD OF PSYCHOLOGY: A
LITERATURE REVIEW
Yashpal Azad
This chapter outlines the overview of psychology from its
historical origin, current status, and recent advances in the
disciplines. At present psychology, as a discipline is growing
rapidly, the use of psychological principles is not confined to the
scope of its discipline only rather other disciplines are also getting
benefitted from the theories and principles of psychology in
accomplishing day to day individual and organizational goals.
This document helps the readers to focus on the main approaches
and perspectives of psychology and its wide application in various
disciplines worldwide. It is also useful to everyone who strive to
develop a comprehensive and in-depth knowledge of psychology in
an effort to apply these ideas to the practical and professional
scenario.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
Contemporary Psychology has a very rich discipline today and studies a variety
of topics concerned with human behavior and mental processes from the neural
level to the cultural level and has included many sub-fields or branches of study
and has grown rapidly in the past few decades. Today, Psychology is considered
a scientific discipline using cause and effect relationships among study variables
using a variety of methods to explore the behavioral phenomenon. It is believed
that psychology has travelled across the long route having a debate among the
philosophical and biological ideas to study the mind and body. For the ease of
understanding the historical route can be divided into, Prescientific Psychology
and scientific Psychology.
PRESCIENTIFIC PSYCHOLOGY: THE PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT
The seeds of psychology as major philosophical debate or discipline can be
found in ancient Greece, 400-500 BC when the great thinkers such as Socrates
(470 B.C. - 399 B.C.), Plato (428 B.C- 348 B.C.), and Aristotle 384 BC -322
BC) influenced the field of psychology to a great extent having their emphasis on
issues such as mind, memory, knowledge, logic, attraction, and innate ideas, etc.
Earlier the nature of discipline has ambiguity about its definitions and origin
until the 1800s and it did not emerge as a separate discipline. Earlier psychology
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PSYCHOLOGY Leaving Imprints Everywhere
was regarded as the study of the soul and the term psychology was first coined in
the 16th century formed from two Greek words 'Psyche' (soul) and 'logos'
(doctrine) which means to study the principle underlying all the phenomena of
mental and spiritual life. (Webster & Richard, 2005).
The modern philosophical form of psychology was heavily influenced by the
contribution of Rene Descartes, a French philosopher in the 17 th century who
introduced the concept of dualism, and claim that mind and body were two
different entities that interact to form the human experience. Therefore, the
discipline is debating around philosophical and physiological viewpoints (Mehta,
2011).
SCIENTIFIC PSYCHOLOGY: THE BEGINNING OF PSYCHOLOGY AS
A DISCIPLINE
• The Structuralism Approach: As independent discipline psychology
begins to emerge with the work of German Psychologist Wilhelm Wundt,
who is experimenting on reaction time studies using scientific methods
revealed many of the major connections between the science of physiology
and human behavior. He published the book "Principles of Physiological
Psychology" in 1873 and opened the first psychological laboratory in 1879
at the University of Leipzig, Germany. Through his work, he paved the way
to the experimental method we are using today and the ideas of Wundt led
him to establish the first school of thought known as "Structuralism" which
was established and expanded by one of his student Edward B. Titchener.
The school has its emphasis on studying and analysing the human mind (the
total of experience from birth to the current time) in terms of the simplest
definable components and how these components led to the formation of
more complex experiences and behavioral outcomes. To study this, they
mainly focus on employing introspection, self-reports of sensations, views,
feelings, emotions, etc. Later Titchener broke away from many of Wundt's
ideas. (Blumenthal, 2001).
• The Functionalism Approach: Another major force that is dominating the
discipline during the mid and late 1800s came into existence when William
James an American Psychologist published his book "The Principles of
Psychology" his idea-oriented into a new school of thought called
"Functionalism". The idea was that it is important to note the functional unit
of mental states with the help of direct observation of the human mind and
behavior rather than its structure. They also emphasized the concept of
individual differences which later had a profound effect on education. This
school lays its influence on the development of behaviourism and applied
psychology. some other functionalist who contributed to this school was
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PSYCHOLOGY Leaving Imprints Everywhere
John Dewey, Harvey Carr, and John Angell (Fancher & Rutherford, 2012;
Schultz & Schultz, 2016).
• The Gestalt Approach: Gestalt psychology is believed to be originated
from the work of Max Wertheimer, as a response to the structuralism of
Wilhelm Wundt, by differentiating that where structuralism proposed
breaking down psychological matters into their smallest possible part, and
the Gestaltists believe in the totality of the mind and behavior. The main
emphasis of the Gestalt school was that the whole was greater than the sum
of its parts and we experience things as a unified whole (Steinman, Pizlo, &
Pizlo, 2000).
• The Behaviouristic Approach: Behaviourism emerged during the 1950s as
a dominating school and the pioneers of this school were John B. Watson,
Ivan Pavlov, and B. F. Skinner. They posit that all behavior can be
explained by environmental causes rather than by internal forces. Therefore,
psychology should focus on observable behavior only. The great
contribution of this school was theories of learning viz. classical
conditioning, operant conditioning and some techniques such as behavioral
training, token economies, aversion therapy, are regularly used in the avenue
of psychotherapy and behavior modification today. Behavioral perspective
is concerned to understand how behaviours are learned and reinforced even
today and behavioral principles are often applied in mental health settings,
where therapists and counsellors use these techniques to explain and treat a
variety of illnesses (Malone, 2014; Krapfl, 2016).
• Psychoanalytic Approach: Psychoanalysis, a combination of psychological
theories and therapeutic techniques that emerged during the late 19 th and
early 20th century by the clinical orientation of an Austrian physician,
Sigmund Freud, the emphasis of psychoanalysis was on the influence of the
unconscious mind on behavior. According to Freud early childhood
experiences and unconscious impulses have a huge contribution to the
development of personality and adolescent behavior. The complete detail
about his work can be found in his book "The Psychopathology of Everyday
Life". His work and writings are a great contribution to the understanding of
personality, clinical psychology, human development, and abnormal
psychology. Though the psychodynamic perspective is not as dominant
today, it continues to be a useful psychotherapeutic tool (Redmond &
Shulman, 2008; De Sousa A, 2011; Cieri & Esposito, 2019; Fonagy, 2015).
• Humanistic approach: The pioneers of this school were Abraham Maslow
who developed a hierarchical theory of human motivation and Carl Roger
founder of client-centered therapy. The ideology of this school was to focus
on the role of individual free will, personal growth, and the concept of self-
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PSYCHOLOGY Leaving Imprints Everywhere
actualization in human behavior. They emphasize on helping people to
achieve and fulfil their potential. Humanistic psychology at present has had
a significant influence on other areas of psychology including positive
psychology centered around helping people to live happier lives (Waterman,
2013).
RECENT DEVELOPMENTS AND EXPANSION IN THE FIELD OF
PSYCHOLOGY
Contemporary psychology is the result of contributions made by psychologists
and researchers from the past that have expended to the different fields and
subfields at present. Psychology has now emerged as an integrated,
interdisciplinary scientific discipline and one of the major advances in the field
of psychology has emerged as its applied nature. Every discipline involved
psychologists, researchers, and practitioners or all of them. The approach
followed by psychology at present is a scientific approach, which stimulates the
continual advancement of discipline by exploring cause and effect relationships
among variables under study (APA, 2011; Cacioppo, 2013).
• Cognitive Psychology: Cognitive psychology is considered to emerge
during the 1950s, partly as a response to behaviourism having its focus on
studying mental processes including how people think, perceive, remember,
and learn. Ulric (Dick) Neisser was the "father of cognitive psychology" and
published his book "Cognitive Psychology" in (1967), This period is
popularly known as the "cognitive revolution" because researches on topics
such as information processing, language, memory, and the perception begin
to emerge with the upsurge of this discipline. The main approach to study
the mind is an information-processing model (comparing the human mind to
a computer) to conceptualize how information is acquired, processed, stored,
and utilized (David. H, 2003; Glenberg, Witt & Metcalfe, 2013).
• The Biological Psychology: The biological perspective has an idea that all
thoughts, feelings & behavior eventually have a biological cause and
therefore, studies the brain, genetics, hormones, immune and nervous
systems to explain the causes of behavior. The perspective has grown
significantly in terms of advances in the fields of behavioral neuroscience,
cognitive neuroscience, and neuropsychology that are the recent trends in
biological psychology. (APA 2011; Kandel, 2012).
• The Cross-Cultural Psychology: It has emerged as a new perspective that
has grown significantly in the last twenty years with an emphasis on human
behavior across different cultures to analyse cultural influences on thinking
and behavior. (Lonner, 2015).
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PSYCHOLOGY Leaving Imprints Everywhere
• The Evolutionary Perspective: The evolutionary perspective states how
the theory of evolution can explain physiological processes and apply the
basic principles of evolution e.g. natural selection to explain psychological
phenomena. (Cosmides & Tooby, 2013).
• The use of Computer: In the past few decades, the use of computers in
analysing data and research has increased and has become an important tool
for studying the human mind and behavior. They are necessary to expand
psychological research and the field of cognitive psychology is highly
reliable on the role of computers in understanding different brain techniques.
PSYCHOLOGY AS AN INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH
As interdisciplinary approach psychology has crossed the traditional borders
between academic disciplines or schools of thought, due to numerous new
professions, methods, and approaches that have emerged throughout the years.
Today, Psychology is an integration of several disciplines and sub-disciplines
rather than the singular practice of general psychology. Earlier, APA (American
Psychological Association) has identified four major specialties viz. Clinical
Psychology (1947); Counselling Psychology (1947); Industrial and
Organizational Psychology (1948), and School Psychology (1968). (Bent,
Packard, & Goldberg, 1999). Today these fields have expanded immensely and
contributed as a whole to make psychology as an interdisciplinary science. At
present, the field of psychology not only expanded up to its discipline rather it
has benefited other areas such as arts and literature, architecture in building
designing, advertising and media agencies, organizational development,
education by assessing human motivation factors. It also gains a lot from
advances in the field of biology, physics, chemistry, and medical sciences to
understand the different phenomenon related to human behavior and brain
(Muchinsky PM, 2009; Nicola et al, 2012; APA, 2015; Hockenberry SE, &
Hockenberry DH, 2016).
METHODOLOGY
A systematic review of literature studies from 1980 to 2020 was implemented to
study history and new advances in the field of psychology was performed by
searching literature study with several databases like ERIC, PubMed, PsychInfo,
Goggle Scholar, Academia, Psyc ARTICLES, Scopus, Social Sciences Citation
Index, websites (Science direct, simply psychology, etc), and Dissertations and
Theses (includes abstracts) all research work was studied and analysed
thoroughly. Research work was compared and important key points were
identified to conclude the review.
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PSYCHOLOGY Leaving Imprints Everywhere
CONCLUSION
From the above-mentioned review, it is evident that psychology as an
independent discipline has emerged in the few years, from the route of historical
origin it has seen many ups and downs and has grown and changed in
innumerable ways. During development, many perspectives or schools of
thought emerged and proposed their ideology and method of studying the mind
and behavior of living organisms. Each school remains dominant for a specific
period no one perspective has explanatory powers over the rest. These different
schools sometimes contradict one another, overlap with each other, or build upon
one another.
However, each school of thought contributed an indelible spot on psychology
and led to the current state of distinct discipline at present. Its example is, many
psychologists, clinical practitioners, academicians, counsellors, and researchers
today adopt an eclectic or holistic approach for achieving their objective instead
of clinging to one particular ideology or school of thought carefully. It has been
witnessed through the historical account that psychology in its applied nature has
grown widely and principles of this discipline are used to improve and manage
an individual's life in their vicinity from simple stress, daily hassles to complex
psychological disorders.
The horizon of psychology has also enlarged during a pandemic and all kinds of
epidemics. It is evident that in both World Wars (WW-I and WW-II), the British
government has procured the help of thousands of psychologists to conduct
research, testing, and experimentation to determine the selection, placement, and
training of its soldiers and reduce the trauma of war. A recent example can be
cited from the outbreak of COVID-19, an ongoing global pandemic
of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory
syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), first identified in December 2019 in
Wuhan, China declared as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern
on 30, January 2020, and a pandemic on 11 March. (WHO, 2020).
In combating this situation, the field of Health Psychology is playing its major
supporting role with doctors, nurses, and other front-line health workers working
tirelessly to care for patients from worry, fear, and distress. During this tough
time, Psychologist is playing their major role in the online counseling of masses
and other health professionals to manage distress and trauma and to learn people
to cope with the threat of COVID-19. By counseling services people are able to
understand the physical symptoms of Coronavirus and the fact that it can
sometimes be asymptomatic and how to deal with the pandemic. Psychologists
are also able to manage the issues in behavioral change by focusing on the
biological, sociological, and psychological factors, especially in the
traumatic situation, and they play a major role to help policymakers to frame
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PSYCHOLOGY Leaving Imprints Everywhere
new policies regarding prevention of COVID-19 and implementation of the
interventions and communicate with masses effectively.
Therefore, it can be concluded that the discipline of Psychology has never been a
static field the advances in its field in the form of emerging new ideas, theories
and perspectives, and new methods and techniques to study the behavior of all
living organism is even now going endlessly, new topics are being studied every
day and new ideas yet to be explored from the curiosity of philosophy behind
this modern science and the revolution in computers have proved a useful tool
for investigating research problems and analysing data rapidly and accurately.
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