Despite the existence of a large number of professionals who have participated in the development of what we know today as the different specialties of psychology, there is only one who is considered the initial precursor of said science as we know it in the present.
At Psychology-Online we want you to get to know “our” father a little more, the one who gave us the opportunity to learn this science and the one who allowed us to spend every day telling you and explaining what psychology is about. Therefore, in this article you will find who is the father of psychology and why.
Who is considered the father of psychology?
Whilhem Wundt He is considered by all to be the father of psychology. He tried the race of physiologybut he didn’t get it, but then he went to philosophy. Thanks to these two pieces of knowledge created psychology.
Who was Wilhelm Wundt and what is experimental psychology?
At the age of 4 he moved with his family to Heidelsheim, always being a very shy and reserved person. After graduation he studied at the Heidelberg Universitywhere he became one of the first Medicine students of his class, obtaining the doctorate Summa Cum Laude, placing himself first in his medical promotion.
He then moved to Berlin where he studied with Muller. A year later he returned to the University of Heidelberg as Helmholtz’s assistant. At that time he wrote his first book “Contributions to the theory of sense perception” structuring in this the plan of psychology that he would follow until the end of his life. The following year he published “Lessons on Human and Animal Psychology.”
Wundt’s goal was understand consciousness as it is experienced and also understand the mental laws that govern its dynamics. The concept of will was something of utmost importance to Wundt. He claimed that will was the central concept in terms of which the most important problems of psychology were to be understood. Wundt believed that men can decide what they pay attention to and therefore perceive it clearly.
Wundt’s name for his approach to psychology was voluntarism, because of its emphasis on will, choice, and purpose. Voluntarism was the first psychological school (and not structuralism, which is a rival school started by one of his students).
I believed that the experimental psychology It could be used in an effort to understand immediate consciousness, but it was useless in trying to understand higher mental processes and their products. Only naturalistic observation or historical analysis could be used to study the products.
Wundt believed that all sciences were based on experience and that scientific psychology was no exception. But the type of experience it demanded was different. While others were based on mediate experience, psychology is based on immediate experience.
To study mental processes, Wundt used various methods such as introspection. He distinguished between pure introspection (one’s own relatively unstructured observation) and experimental introspection (which he believed was scientifically respectable).
Experimental introspection used laboratory instruments to vary the conditions and thereby make the results of internal perception more precise. The ideal was to carry out introspection in the form of internal perception in a way as precise as external perception.
Wundt used introspection more or less as philosophers and psychologists had used it, that is, as a technique for determining whether a person is experiencing a certain sensation or not. In fact, Wundt reproduced a lot of work that had been done by physiologists on hearing, vision, and a lot of work.
In 1875, Wundt wanted teach experimental psychology in Leipzig, so he stopped teaching anthropology, logic and language. In 1879, his laboratory was very productive, supervising the research of several students. It is on this date where the first laboratory dedicated to psychological research which was called the Experimental Institute of Psychology. In 1881 Wundt founded the journal Psychological Studies.
Representatives of the different types of psychology
In addition to the father of modern psychology, we also find different references for each of the types of areas or currents of psychology:
Who is considered the father of pre-scientific psychology
We cannot choose just one author as its father, since all those who contributed new concepts for what would later be known as scientific psychology were grouped within this pre-science. Therefore, it should be highlighted Hippocrates, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Locke and Hume.
Who is considered the father of modern psychology
Again we must give this title to Wundtsince he was the creator of the first psychological scientific system, which is based on the experimental method used today.
Who is considered the father of evolutionary psychology
Jean Piaget He is considered the father of this branch, since he was the first person to study in detail all human psychological development throughout life. Furthermore, he stood out for his studies on intelligence. In the following article you will find.
Who is considered the father of industrial psychology
This time it was a disciple of Wundt who developed and established the foundations of this type of psychology, he is the psychologist Hugo Münsterbergwho related the skills of employees to the work demands of the organization to, in this way, increase industrial efficiency.
Who is considered the father of legal psychology
Legal psychology is not born from the work of a single individual, as we are used to seeing. As a result of the expert opinions carried out by different psychologists on criminals in the 19th century, we began to talk about a type of judicial psychology. However, it was not until 1932 when Emilio Mira y López publishes the first Manual of Legal Psychology.
Who is considered the father of forensic psychology?
We cannot choose a founding author of this branch of psychology, since it has its origins within legal psychology. However, its objective is to assist the law as we know it through the application of psychological knowledge and practices to judicial claims. Here you will find more information about .
Who is considered the father of sports psychology
Coleman Griffith He is the father of sports psychology, as well as the first director of a sports research laboratory.
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Bibliography
- Blasi, C. (2015). Evolutionary Psychology. Jaume I University.
- Gonzalez. (2015). J. History of Psychology. Jaume I University.
- Sos, R. (2015). History of Psychology. Jaume I University.