Introduction to Psychology 1/IPSY101/History/Overview

“	The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes.	”
—William James

In this learning pathway we will explore the origin of psychology as a scientific discipline and the subsequent emergence of several distinct approaches to studying psychology. As you make your way through this learning pathway, pay particular attention to how sociopolitical events and technological developments tend to influence psychological theory.

Welcome and orientation

Video signpost: History of Psychology

Objectives

By the end of this learning pathway you should be able to:

• Provide both the historical and modern scientific definitions of psychology
• Describe the merits of an education in psychology
• Describe how Wundt’s Structuralism and James’s Functionalism led to the birth of scientific psychology
• Describe major developments in the history of psychology including Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory, Gestalt Psychology, and Behaviourism
• Explain what view humanism rejected and what view it proposed instead
• Explain why the cognitive revolution shifted psychology’s focus back to the mind