History of psychology. Methods of the History of Psychology

The history of psychology deals with the study of the laws of development of views on the human psyche. The subject of the history of psychology differs significantly from the subject of this science. For this reason, they must be demarcated. The subject of psychology is the mechanisms, laws and facts of a person's mental activity. For a long time this science was one of the sections of philosophy. And even after its separation into a separate branch, it retained its connection with philosophy. In addition, it was influenced by the following disciplines: ethnography, science, medicine, cultural theory, sociology, mathematics, linguistics, logic, art history.

Methods of the History of Psychology

The main methods of psychology are testing, observation and experiment. In the history of psychology - it is historical-functional, historical-genetic, autobiographical and biographical, as well as methods of interviewing and analysis of psychological statements. Recently, the method of categorical analysis has become increasingly popular.

The main stages of the history of this science

The history of psychology has several stages of development.

1. Psychology is the science of the spirit and soul of man. This definition was given about 2 thousand years ago. It is the presence of a person's soul to explain all the incomprehensible phenomena. She had everything that exists in the world. The soul was understood as a special entity that was independent of the body and controlled all inanimate and living things. Prominent philosophers of the time: Socrates, Democritus, Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, Lucretius. They believed that the soul - this is a special kind of matter, which consisted of small spherical formations - atoms.

2. Psychology is the science of human consciousness. This definition appeared in the 17th century. The ability to feel, to want something, to think was called awareness. The main method began to consider the description of the facts and observation of the person behind him. The prominent philosopher of that time was Descartes. He divided the concept of the soul and body and laid the foundations of the causal (deterministic) concept of behavior. Again, the philosopher Spinoza tried to unite the soul and body. He believed that such an approach in psychology makes it possible to consider phenomena of the psyche with exactly the same objectivity and accuracy as the study of surfaces and lines in geometry. The history of psychology includes many great names: G. Leibniz (invented the concept of the psyche of the unconscious), Wolff, J. Locke.

3. Psychology is the science of human behavior. Appeared in the twentieth century. Its task was to experiment and observe what can be seen (behavior, reaction, actions). At the same time, the motives that caused these or those actions were not taken into account. There is a separation of psychology into a separate independent science. It is at this time that the psychology of consciousness ceases to exist, since the idea of decomposing the human psyche into separate elements turned out to be false. W. James develops a functional approach. He uses methods of introspection, introspection and fixing the time of solving any problems. American psychologist-scientist Watson has created a behaviourist approach, which uses methods of teaching experimental ways. Watson believed that the most objective can be studied only the behavior of a person, which occurs in any situation.

Development of psychology in Russia. Basic moments

The history of psychology has developed in Russia. In the pre-revolutionary and pre-war time, Chelpanov, Bekhterev, Pavlov, Sechenov, Chelpanov, Blonsky, Rubinshtein, Basov, Kornilov and Kostyuk contributed to the process. During the Second World War, the Department of Psychology was founded at the Moscow University, and a psychology department was established at the Institute of Philosophy. In the post-war period, a great influence on the history of psychology was provided by Halperin, Smirnov, Leontiev and Lomova.