Psychology (from Greek: ψυχή,
psukhē, "spirit, soul"; and λόγος,
logos, "knowledge") is both an academic and applied discipline involving the scientific
study of
mental processes and
behavior. Psychologists study such phenomena as perception, cognition, emotion, personality, behavior, and interpersonal relationships. Psychology also refers to the application of such knowledge to various spheres of human activity, including issues related to daily life—e.g. family, education, and work—and the treatment of mental health problems. Psychology is one of the behavioral
sciences--a broad field that spans the social and natural sciences. Psychology attempts to understand the role human behavior plays in social dynamics while incorporating physiological and neurological processes into its conceptions of mental functioning. Psychology includes many sub-fields of study and application concerned with such areas as human development, sports, health, industry, law, and spirituality
Early development Rudolf Goclenius
Experimental psychology, as well as psychophysics, began with the development of the experimental scientific method by Ibn al-Haytham (Alhacen) in the 1010s. In his
Book of Optics, he made use of the experimental method in his pioneering work on the psychology of visual perception.<1> The first use of the
term "psychology" is attributed to the German scholastic philosopher Rudolf Goeckel (Latinized Rudolph Goclenius), published in 1590.<2> More than six decades earlier, the Croatian humanist Marko Marulić used the term in the title of a work which was subsequently lost.<3> The term did not fall into popular usage until the German idealist philosopher, Christian Wolff (1679-1754) used it in his
Psychologia empirica and Psychologia rationalis (1732-1734). This distinction between empirical and rational psychology was picked up in Diderot''s
Encyclopedie and was popularized in France by Maine de Biran. The root
psyche is very roughly equivalent to "soul" in Greek, and
ology equivalent to "study". Psychology came to be considered a study of the soul (in a religious sense of this term) much later, in Christian times. Psychology as a medical discipline can be seen in Thomas Willis'' reference to psychology (the "Doctrine of the Soul") in terms of brain function, as part of his 1672 anatomical treatise "De Anima Brutorum" ("Two Discourses on the Souls of Brutes"). Until about the end of the 19th century, psychology was regarded as a branch of philosophy.
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