COURSE TITLE: HISTORY AND SYSTEMS OF PSYCHOLOGY

Paper: I Teaching Hr. 48

Course Code: PSY. 551 Theory: 60
Credit Hr.: 3 Practical:40
Course Description: Studying the history of psychology is important to understand how the study came
into practice, were the belief comes from, why psychology is important, what scientist and other noted
persons in history used to draw his or her conclusion from, and why the conclusion is relevant, and how
the psychology evolves with society as time moves forward and society changes. This course examines
major psychological theories and their historical development. Important psychological schools of
thought receive consideration. The course pays attention to the social, economic, and cultural contexts in
which knowledge developed, the wide variety of influences on psychology, and the individuals who
advanced the field.
Objectives: To provide an overview of psychological thinking from Ancient Greece to the present. To
emphasize critical stance toward the assumptions and implications of major psychological theories.
Unit I Introduction to History of Psychology (3)
1. Historical roots of modern psychology
 Philosophical Foundations of the Psychology: Positivism, Materialism, and Empiricism,
contribution of Descartes
2. Contributions from biological sciences
 The Beginnings of Experimental Psychology: Hermann von Helmholtz, Ernst Weber,
Gustav Theodor Fechner
Unit II: The Scientific Psychology: Structuralism, and Functionalism (10)
1. Structuralism
 Antecedent Influence
 Contributors: Wilhelm Wundt, Edward Bradford Titchener
 Contribution to Psychology
 Strengths and weaknesses
2. Developments in German Psychology: Hermann Ebbinghaus, Franz Brentano and others.
3. Functionalism
 Antecedent Influences: The Evolution Revolution, Individual Differences, Animal
Psychology.
 Major Contributors: William James, John Dewey, Hugo Munsterberg, G. Stanley Hall,
Robert Sessions Woodworth, Edward Lee Thorndike, James McKeen Cattell, and others.
 Contribution in Psychology
 Strength, weakness, current status
Unit III Behaviorism (10)
1. Antecedent Influences: Edward Lee Thorndike and Ivan Petrovitch Pavlov
2. Major contributors: John B. Watson, B.F. Skinner, Albert Bandura, Julian Rotter, Edward Chace
Tolman, Clark Leonard Hull, Edwin Ray Guthrie, William Mcdougall
3. Major themes of behaviorism
 4. Contribution in Psychology
5. Strengths, weaknesses and current status
Unit IV Gestalt Psychology (7)
1. Antecedent Influences: Immanuel Kant, Ernst Mach, Christian von Ehrenfels, William James
2. Major contributors: Max Wertheimer, Kurt Koffka, Wolfgang Köhler and Kurt Lewin
3. Major themes
4. Contribution in psychology
5. Strengths, weaknesses and current status
Unit V Psychoanalysis (10)
1. Antecedent Influences
2. Major contributors: Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Alfred Adler, Karen Horney, Anna Freud and
others.
3. Major themes
4. Contributions in Psychology
5. Strengths, weaknesses and current status
Unit VI Cognitive Psychology (5)
1. Antecedent Influences: Wilhelm Wundt, Gestalt Psychology, Human Factor Psychology, Jean
Piaget, Noam Chomsky
2. Major contributors: Ulric Neisser, Allen Newell and Herbert Simon.
3. Major themes
4. Contribution in psychology
5. Strengths, weaknesses and current status
 Unit 1
Introduction to History of Psychology

Course Contents
1. Historical roots of modern psychology
 Philosophical Foundations of the Psychology: Positivism, Materialism, and Empiricism,
contribution of Descartes
2. Contributions from biological sciences
 The Beginnings of Experimental Psychology: Hermann von Helmholtz, Ernst Weber,
Gustav Theodor Fechner
Historical roots of modern psychology
Philosophical Foundation of Psychology

A closer reading of the history and philosophy of science indicates that there is a contestation around the
meaning, methodology, and purpose of science. In a broad sense, science refers to a systematic
acquisition of knowledge. However, laypersons as well as many scholars hold a narrow view of science.
According to a narrow view of science, acquisition of only sense observations based knowledge is
considered valid and scientific. This perspective of science is termed empiricism. It is to be noted that the
empiricist view of science is just one of the perspectives of science and a group of philosophers of science
considers it as a limited and narrow perspective on science. Rationalism, another philosophical
perspective, advocates the use of human reason/intellect to generate new knowledge. Although
chronologically rationalism was advocated by the philosophers as the perspective of science much before
the adoption of empiricism, the empiricist perspective dominated the discipline of psychology for a long
time. However, some of the psychological theories have been influenced by the philosophy of rationalism
as well.
The controlled application of empiricism is the experimental method, which attained the status of being
the most popular and respected method in natural sciences. As natural sciences helped people to
overcome the uncertainties and difficulties of life and also made human life more predictable and
comfortable, the experimental method was viewed as the most sophisticated and useful method to
generate valid knowledge. Therefore, scholars in the field of social sciences too, thought that the
experimental method could be fruitfully applied in the social domain to generate valid knowledge.
Wilhelm Wundt developed a system of psychology that was based on the empiricist perspective of
science. He advocated the use of controlled introspection (a type of experiment in which the person
involved in introspection experiments on oneself) to unravel the structure of the mind. His basic training
was in the discipline of physiology wherein experimental method had occupied a prominent place among
the researchers. It is said that the (Wundtian) experimental psychology was an offspring of experimental
physiology and mental philosophy, the former supplied the method and the latter its subject matter. The
term ‘physiological’ in the book, “Physiological Psychology”, authored by Wundt signifies the use of the
method of physiology, that is, the experimental method in psychology; it does not explicate the
physiological basis of psychological processes as all the contemporary books on physiological
psychology do.
It may be noted that some systems of psychology, such as structuralism and behaviourism relied on
empiricism. John Watson, the founder of behaviourism, is known for his effort to make psychology a
fully scientific discipline and opposed the study of mental structure and its functions. To him, only
observable behaviour should be the subject matter of psychology whereas the Gestalt school drew on the
logic of rationalism. Although Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, was trained in the modern
discipline of neurology, his philosophical position is not very clear regarding the use of a particular
scientific perspective for his system of thought. The proponents of another school of psychological
thought, the humanisticexistential psychology, were critical of the use of the scientific method to study
human psychology and they were particularly opposed to applying an analytical approach to understand
human mental processes or behaviour. According to them, every person is born free and has the
capabilities to develop his/her potential, and the discipline of psychology should help the person in this
endeavor. This group of psychologists advocated the phenomenological approach to understand the
experiences of the person.
From all the above examples it is clear that if scientific psychology is defined in a particular way, it
specifies or defines the scope of the discipline in a limited sense. What constitutes the subject matter of
psychology – mental structure or mental functions or consciousness or observable behaviour or
unconscious motives or fully functioning person — depends on what the thinkers associated with a
particular school of thought consider important. However, most of the standard textbooks define
psychology as a scientific study of the brain, mind, and behaviour. Therefore, it can be argued that the
current standard definition of psychology reflects views of only a few thinkers associated with a particular
school of psychology or a combination of a few of them instead of representing the entire spectrum of
psychological thoughts.
Upon reading the history of psychology in an introductory textbook of psychology, the reader may get the
impression that Wilhelm Wundt was the founder of scientific psychology as he had established the first
laboratory of psychology at Leipzig University in 1879. At this point, it will be worthwhile to alert the
reader that this is not an objective fact. This image of Wundt has been constructed and propagated by a
group of psychologists who hold a particular image of science and scientific psychology. In fact, Wundt
had understood the limitations of the experimental method in understanding mental processes. By using
the experimental method, Wundt believed, the experimenter can study only the simple mental processes
such as attention, perception, and some forms of memory. However, for studying the higher mental
processes, according to him, anthropological and historical methods are more appropriate. Therefore, he
started a new area of psychology, known as Volkerpsychologies, and which can be translated as ‘cultural’
or ‘social’ psychology, to study the products of higher mental processes, such as religion, customs,
cultural artifacts, etc. He devoted more time to Volkerpsychologies than on experimental psychology.
These facts about Wundt clearly show that Wundt himself had thought psychology should be broader than
merely being an experimental discipline. Is it not puzzling to note that Volkerpsychologies advocated by
Wundt is hardly discussed in the introductory textbook of psychology?
Similarly, William James, one of the founders of psychology and originally trained as a physiologist like
Wundt, thought that psychology should focus on the study of consciousness. However, after realizing that
in the prevalent scientific psychology it is not possible to study the stream of consciousness, he quit the
discipline of psychology, accusing it of a ‘nasty little science’. Based on the above discussion of the
views of two eminent thinkers in psychology, one needs to appreciate the element of arbitrariness in
defining psychology as a scientific (read experimental) discipline and how such a way of defining the
discipline makes it narrow. Therefore, it is imperative to study the historical forces that shaped the
discipline in a particular direction. By historicizing the various psychological thoughts, as a student of
psychology, you will be able to understand how social, political, and ideological factors have played an
important role in the development and perpetuation of certain kinds of psychological thoughts.
Historical Perspectives

According to the traditional approach, history refers to an objective account of past happenings. However,
in examining the past, historians often make use of structures or models to analyze and explain past
events. For example, E.G. Boring, one of the eminent historians of psychology, has distinguished between
two models of examining the past events of psychology – the great man and the Zeitgeist models of
history. According to the great man model, historical changes occur due to the extraordinary talents and
efforts of great persons. On the other hand, the zeitgeist, or “the spirit of the times” model attributes
historical changes to momentum or historical forces. In this model the contributions of great men are not
discounted, rather they are viewed as the manifestations of the historical forces. One example of the
zeitgeist model of history is the contribution of Thomas S. Kuhn in the field of history of science. In his
seminal book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962), he has argued that cultural and social forces
are involved in the development of a paradigm or model of science and the development of a new
paradigm gives rise to change in the understanding and practice of science. The new paradigm develops
either as a by-product of social and cultural forces or due to the inability of the old paradigm to explain
new scientific findings.
Kuhn thinks that a paradigm that guides the thinking and practices of scientists is developed only in
mature sciences such as physics, chemistry, biology, and argues that psychology is not a mature science
and still it is in a pre-paradigmatic stage. Interestingly, Kuhn used the term ‘paradigm’ in various ways
and according to one scholar, he used this concept with 21 different meanings. In contemporary
scholarship, the term ‘paradigm’ is not necessarily used in a strict Kuhnian sense and it stands for any
‘framework’ or ‘system of thought about human nature’. Therefore, the various systems of psychological
thoughts such as structuralism, functionalism, behaviourism, psychoanalysis, gestalt school, etc. may be
viewed as examples of the paradigm of psychology. One important advantage of looking at different
systems of psychology in terms of Kuhn’s concept of paradigm will be to link psychological thought with
the prevailing historical, political, sociocultural, and ideological social forces.
The zeitgeist approach to the history of scientific thought allows us to view philosophical
systems/systems of thoughts in their historical context rather than existing as an autonomous and isolated
corpus of thoughts. Further, this approach to look at the history of psychological thoughts makes room to
look for the existence and development of psychological thoughts prevalent in non-Western cultural
contexts. By now, it is hoped, that the you will be able appreciate that science is not only an intellectual
pursuit but also a cultural and political enterprise.
The Western societies, due to the dominance of the philosophical perspective of empiricism and the
ideology of individualism, have popularised a narrow view of science and the same has been applied in
the field of psychology too. Further, historical events like the industrial revolution and colonization gave
rise to a situation in which western societies became important centers of scientific knowledge
production. Owing to the political power being exercised by the western societies over the rest of the
world, especially over the colonized countries, the former was successful in declaring scientific
knowledge as superior and universal and imposed the same on the nonwestern societies. After World War
II, psychological theories, developed in the United States, reflecting the ideology of individualism, were
exported to all the other countries due to its prominent position in world politics. As the modern (read
Western) psychology has been exported in the nonWestern societies in the guise of being universal
psychology, the prominent and influential scholars in the discipline of psychology in the non-Western
countries, mostly being trained in the Western countries such as the UK, USA, Australia, Canada, and
New Zealand, have adopted it uncritically and helped in propagating the Western psychology in their
respective countries through their teaching and research programmes. However, it is well-known that
some important civilizations grew in the non-Western world with their systems of elaborate and
sophisticated philosophical thoughts (including psychological thoughts). Therefore, we should make a
distinction between the “non-Western psychologies” and “psychology practiced by the scholars of non-
Western societies”. The former refers to the systems that originated in non-Western societies intending to
explain human nature and behaviour while the latter signifies the activities and practices of western
psychology adopted by the scholars of non-Western societies.

Contribution from biological sciences

Contribution to early modern psychology: - Herman von Helmholtz, Ernst Weber, Gustav Theodor
Fechner
Introduction

The scientific discoveries that took place in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries made it possible for
many of the longstanding philosophical questions to be explored and analyzed in a lot more precision.
These discoveries gave a lot of answers about the physical world, and it seemed to be the right time for
science to make a shift towards understanding the physiological mechanisms that help in understanding
the physical world. This led to the rise of empirical research in physiology. In the nineteenth century,
many significant investigations such as nervous system activity, sensations, and brain physiology took
place, indicating the advantages of systematic, empirical research. This benefited the discipline of
psychology to a great extent, as it allowed physiological explanations of mental operations.
Scholars, in that time, were majorly interested in understanding the ways in which external events are
represented in consciousness. Intensive investigations were made in many areas such as sense perception
and motor reactions, which eventually led to the emergence of experimental psychology. In 1879,
Wilhelm Wundt established the first experimental psychology laboratory at the University of Leipzig.
The laboratory consisted of four rooms. Four years later, in 1883, a four-room experimental psychology
laboratory opened at John Hopkins University, USA. Similar experimental laboratories began opening in
different parts of the world, within a short period of time. In 1886, an experimental psychology laboratory
opened in University of Kazan, Russia (1889), at the Sorbonne, France (1892), at the University of
Groningen, Netherlands, and in 1898, at University College London, England.
These different laboratories opening in different parts of the world, in a short period of time, gave an
indication that the first experimental psychology opening at Leipzig was not an unusual event. It actually
resulted due to the intellectual developments that were taking place in different parts of the world. It was
the spirit of times that was making psychology develop into a scientific, academic discipline. Surely, the
contribution in this development made by Wilhelm Wundt cannot be denied. But it was the contributions
of others such as Helmholtz and Fechner that gave Wundt that platform.
Contributors to early modern psychology: - Hermann Von Helmholtz, Fechner, Wundt, Weber and
James

A. Hermann Von Helmholtz

Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz is considered to be one of the greatest German
scientists of the nineteenth century. He made significant contributions in physics, physiology, and
psychology. He gave emphasis to a mechanistic and deterministic approach, suggesting that
human sense organs function just like a machine. Among physics, physiology, and psychology,
psychology was the least preferred discipline for Helmholtz. Despite that, his contributions in
psychology made it instrumental to make it a scientific discipline.

Hermann von Helmholtz

Hermann von Helmholtz was highly scientific in his nature. With great experimental rigor,
more than anyone else before him, he demonstrated the mechanisms by people interacted with
the physical world. He gave his explanations in terms of objective, physical laws. Helmholtz
emphasized on the applied or practical benefits of scientific research. He did not believe in
conducting experiments just to gather large numbers of data. He actually believed that
scientific research should be used to solve practical problems. Helmholtz did not consider
himself to be a psychologist. But his contributions in the study of human senses helped to
strengthen the experimental approach in understanding psychological issues. The work of
Helmholtz brought physics, chemistry, physiology, and psychology closer together. This,
eventually, led to the emergence of experimental psychology. In many ways, experimental
psychology is considered to be the inevitable step after the work of Helmholtz.

His contribution in psychology

a) Principle of Conservation of energy

In one of his earliest researches, Helmholtz studied the metabolic processes of frogs. He
demonstrated that the consumption of food and oxygen by the frog were able to account
for the total energy consumed by the organism. By doing so, Helmholtz applied the well-
known principle of conservation of energy to living organisms. The principle had been
earlier used to explain physical phenomena. The principle of conservation of energy
suggests that energy is never lost in a system, it only gets transformed from one form to
another. Helmholtz used the materialist philosophy by the applying the principle of
conservation of energy to living organisms. In doing so, he brought physics, chemistry,
and biology close to each other. In 1847, Helmholtz published a highly influential paper
called The Conservation of Force. Later, Sigmund Freud was highly influenced by
 Helmholtz in the usage of the principle of conservation of energy for living organisms.
Freud applied the principle in explaining his idea of psychic energy.
b) Rate of nerve Conduction
Earlier it was believed that nerve conduction was too fast to be measured. However,
Helmholtz did not agree with it and made pioneering efforts to measure the rate of nerve
conduction. In order to do this, Helmholtz electrically stimulated the motor nerve of the
leg of a frog. The frog was already dead, but there was life in its leg. The stimulation of
the nerve caused the contracting of the muscle. He attached a minute pen to the end of the
frog’s leg, which drew upon a moving drum. Using this arrangement, Helmholtz was able
to compare the time between the stimulation of the nerve and the time the pen first
moved. He was able to calculate the rate of the motor nerve transmission, as he knew the
length of the nerve. The rate of nerve transmission, according to Helmholtz, came out to
be 25 to 30 meters per second.

After measuring the nerve transmission in a frog, Helmholtz decided to measure the rate
of transmission of sensory nerves in humans. He tried to do this by using touch as a
stimulus. Helmholtz found that reaction time is longer when the foot is stimulated as
compared to the face. This means reaction time is determined by how further away the
stimulus is from the brain. By subtracting the reaction time of the short distance with that
of the long distance, Helmholtz was able to calculate the rate of sensory nerve
conduction, which came out be 50 to 100 meters per second.

Helmholtz’s research for measuring nerve conduction was highly significant because it
demonstrated that nerve impulses can actually be measured, and are also relatively slow
than it was initially believed to be. This also gave evidence that physical and chemical
processes are a part of interactions with the environment, and are entities that are not
beyond scientific evaluation.

Later on, Helmholtz found that reaction time, in order to measure nerve conduction
varied in different individuals. It even varied for the same individual at different times.
He concluded that reaction time is not a reliable and valid method of measuring nerve
conduction, and eventually abandoned it. This discovery, however, does not deny the
significance of the pioneering research done by Helmholtz.

c) Theory of Perception
According to Helmholtz, the past experiences of an observer play a role in converting
sensation to perception. Sensations, thus, can be considered to be the raw elements of
consciousness. When sensations are given some meaning with respect to past
experiences, then it is called perception. This transformation of sensation to perception,
that is, sensation given meaning, on the basis of past experiences was termed by
Helmholtz as unconscious
inference. Helmholtz suggested that the label given to any object involves applying past
experiences. This was further explained by Helmholtz by using the example of depth
perception. Depth perception takes place because the retinal image an object causes is
slightly different on the two retinas. An individual’s past experiences with such retinal
disparity causes the unconscious inference of depth.
 Helmholtz’s theory of perception can be supported by his observation of people who are
blind at birth and acquire sight later on. Such people need to learn how to perceive, even
though all the sensations furnished by the visual apparatus are available. Apart from these
observations, Helmholtz’s classic experiments with lenses that distort vision, provide
further evidence for his theory. In these experiments, Helmholtz had subjects wear lenses
that displaced the visual field several inches to the right or left. Initially, the subjects
made mistakes in reaching for the objects. After some time, the subjects were able to
interact accurately with the environment. When the subjects removed the glasses, they
again made mistakes initially, but then after a while recovered.

d) Young-Helmholtz theory of Color vision

Thomas young (1801) had proposed a theory of color vision, which was similar to what
Helmholtz had come up with, many years later. The theory of Young had not been very
widely accepted. Helmholtz made slight changes in the theory of Young and supported it
with experimental evidence.

The theory, then, came to be known as the Young-Helmholtz theory of colour vision. The
theory is also called the trichromatic theory. Helmholtz postulated that there are three
different types of color receptors on the retina, corresponding to the three primary colors,
which are red, green, and blue. He further suggested that if a red light is shown, then the
red receptors get stimulated, leading to a sensation of red. Similarly, if a green or blue
light is shown, then green or blue receptors, respectively, get stimulated, leading to a
sensation of green or blue. In addition to that, all these primary colors are shown at once,
then there is an experience of white.

If none of the primary colors are shown, then it will stimulate different combinations of
the three receptors, which will lead to an experience of a subjective color, corresponding
to the combination of wavelengths present.

The Young-Helmholtz theory of color vision has been found to be very useful in
explaining different forms of color blindness. If a person lacks one or more receptors
corresponding to any of the primary colors, that person will not be able to experience
certain colors subjectively, even when the physical world remains the same. however,
perceptual adaptation took place, and despite wearing the glasses,

e) Visual illusions
Helmholtz was one of the earlier researchers who investigated the phenomenon of visual
illusions. According to Helmholtz, illusions take place when visual conditions are not
normal. Due to this, Helmholtz felt that illusions can help in the understanding of the
normal functioning of the eye. This means that abnormality can help in studying the
normal.
Regarding this, Helmholtz made a significant contribution when it comes to analyzing the
optics of the eye. For this, he developed a wide range of optical instruments such as
optometers, ophthalmometers, and ophthalmoscopes. These instruments were used by
scientists to investigate the functioning of the eye.
f) Theory of auditory Perception
 Helmholtz found that the ear is not a single sense receptor. Instead, the ear is actually a
highly complicated system of many receptors. Compared to the visual system that has
three nerve fibres, the auditory system is known to have thousands of nerve fibres, each
nerve fibres having its own specific nerve energy. Helmholtz speculated that different
fibres along the basilar membrane are sensitive to differences in the frequency of sound
waves.
The short fibres respond to the higher frequencies, and the longer fibres respond to the
lower frequencies. A wave of a specific frequency causes the appropriate fibre of the
basilar membrane to vibrate, which leads to a sensation of sound that corresponds to that
frequency. This process is referred to as sympathetic vibration. Helmholtz believed that a
similar process takes place in the middle ear. Through various combinations of fibre
stimulation, the wide range of auditory experiences can be explained. This theory is
known as the Resonance Place Theory of Auditory Perception. There are some variations
of this theory in today’s time.

Chapter 2
The scientific Psychology: Structuralism and Functionalism

Course contents
1. Structuralism
 Antecedent Influence
 Contributors: Wilhelm Wundt, Edward Bradford Titchener
 Contribution to Psychology
 Strengths and weaknesses
2. Developments in German Psychology: Hermann Ebbinghaus, Franz Brentano and others.
3. Functionalism
 Antecedent Influences: The Evolution Revolution, Individual Differences, Animal
Psychology.
 Major Contributors: William James, John Dewey, Hugo Munsterberg, G. Stanley Hall,
Robert Sessions Woodworth, Edward Lee Thorndike, James McKeen Cattell, and others.
 Contribution in Psychology
 Strength, weakness, current status
 Chapter 3
Behaviorism

Course contents
1. Antecedent Influences: Edward Lee Thorndike and Ivan Petrovitch Pavlov
2. Major contributors: John B. Watson, B.F. Skinner, Albert Bandura, Julian Rotter, Edward Chace
Tolman, Clark Leonard Hull, Edwin Ray Guthrie, William Mcdougall
3. Major themes of behaviorism
4. Contribution in Psychology
5. Strengths, weaknesses and current status

Chapter 4
Gestalt Psychology

Course contents
1. Antecedent Influences: Immanuel Kant, Ernst Mach, Christian von Ehrenfels, William James
2. Major contributors: Max Wertheimer, Kurt Koffka, Wolfgang Köhler and Kurt Lewin
3. Major themes
4. Contribution in psychology
5. Strengths, weaknesses and current status
 Chapter 4
Psychoanalysis

Course contents
1. Antecedent Influences
2. Major contributors: Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Alfred Adler, Karen Horney, Anna Freud and
others.
3. Major themes
4. Contributions in Psychology
5. Strengths, weaknesses and current status

Chapter 5
Cognitive Psychology

Course contents
1. Antecedent Influences: Wilhelm Wundt, Gestalt Psychology, Human Factor Psychology, Jean
Piaget, Noam Chomsky
2. Major contributors: Ulric Neisser, Allen Newell and Herbert Simon.
3. Major themes
4. Contribution in psychology
5. Strengths, weaknesses and current status