A Brief History of Psychology

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    Rene Descartes believed the mind and body were connected

    Although seventeenth-century philosophers proposed the idea of dualism later one, which is that the mind and body are not connected, Rene Descartes believed they directly influenced each other. He believed the mind controlled the body.
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    Sir Francis Galton believed intelligence was determined by heredity

    His writings began the debate of whether behavior is determined by heredity or environment - a subject that is still controversial.
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    Wilhem Wundt experienced with the human mind

    He began to get trained participants to record their thoughts so he could study how the mind works. His results were historically important to psychology and what he was doing was an inspiration that kept the study of psychology continuing on.
    He was a structuralist and used introspection.
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    Sigmund Freud used a new method (free association) for studying the unconscious mind processes

    He was a psychoanalyst.
  • William James taught the first psychology class ever at Harvard University

    He was a functionalist and studied how mental processes help animals and people adapt to their environment.
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    A group of German psychologists disagreed with the principles of structuralism and behaviorism.

    They believed that perception is more than the sum of its parts-it involves a "whole pattern". The psychologists included Max Wertheimer, Wolfgang Kohler, and Kurt Koffka.
  • Cognitive psychology came, which believed that behavior is influenced by a variety of mental processes not just a stimulus

  • Humanist ideas came, which believed in self-growth and self-evolving where we can choose to shape our future not the environment