MOZAMBIQUE GENERAL COMMAND AND STAFF COLLEGE

“LIEUTENANT GENERAL ARMANDO EMÍLIO GUEBUZA”

COURSE: SOCIAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY
1stYEAR | AFTER WORK | CLASS B

History of Psycology;
Psycology in the modern societies; Major psycologists

Work included in the English Language Subject

Teacher: Students:
Msc. Anastácio Azarias Cheila Marisa Carlos Ndava
Chelsia Beatriz Fernando
Elton Lívio Adriano Comé
Fátima Martinho Saíde
Hermínia Luís Penicela
Luís Alberto da Conceição Bila

Machava, May 2024

TABLE OF CONTENT

I. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................... 3
II. HISTORY OF PSYCHOLOGY ................................................................................. 4
2.1. The Main Precursors of Psychology ......................................................................... 4
III. PSYCHOLOGY AS A SCIENCE .............................................................................. 6
IV. PSYCHOLOGY METHODS ..................................................................................... 7
4.1. Traditional methods ................................................................................................... 7
4.2. Modern/contemporary methods ................................................................................ 7
V. THE MAIN SCHOOLS OF PSYCHOLOGY .............................................................. 8
5.1. Structuralism ............................................................................................................. 8
5.1. Functionalism ............................................................................................................ 9
5.2. Behaviorism .............................................................................................................. 9
5.3. Gestalt........................................................................................................................ 9
5.4. Psychoanalysis .......................................................................................................... 9
VI. BRANCHES OF PSYCHOLOGY ........................................................................... 10
6.1. Developmental Psychology ..................................................................................... 10
6.2. Educational Psychology .......................................................................................... 10
6.3. Learning Psychology ............................................................................................... 10
6.4. Experimental Psychology ........................................................................................ 10
6.5. Organizational Psychology ......................................................................................11
6.6. Social Psychology ....................................................................................................11
6.7. Clinical Psychology..................................................................................................11
VII. PSYCOLOGY IN THE MODERN SOCIETIES .................................................... 11
7.1. The four current views of Psychology .....................................................................11
7.1.1. Psychoanalytics ............................................................................................... 12
7.1.2. Neobehaviorist (Methodological Behaviorism / Radical Behaviorism) ......... 12
7.1.3. Cognitive ......................................................................................................... 12
7.1.4. Humanist ......................................................................................................... 12
VIII. CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................ 13
XI. BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................... 14
 I. INTRODUCTION

Etymologically, the word psychology means: psyché = mind; logos = study, treatise; therefore,
“study of the mind or soul”. When Psychology separated from Philosophy in 1879, with the
first scientific psychology laboratory at the German University of Leipzig.

This work, inserted in the English Language discipline, aims to present a History of Psycology,
Psycology nn the modern societies, major psycologists.

The methodology, the bibliographic consultation method was used, where the sources are listed
throughout the texts and appear in the bibliographic references and the work presents the
following organizational structure: cover, back cover, index, introduction, development,
conclusion and bibliographic references.

.
 II. HISTORY OF PSYCHOLOGY

Thousands of years ago, since Man perceived himself as a thinking being, inserted in a complex
he called Nature, he has been searching for answers to his doubts and facts that prove and
explain the origin, causes and transformations of the world. However, human behavior and
conduct are subjects that have always fascinated us and have been historically recorded over
the years. This makes Psychology one of the oldest and one of the newest academic disciplines,
thus creating this paradox.

For a long time, explanations for natural and human issues were sought through mythological
characters. For the Greeks, Myths were sacred narratives about the origin of everything; they
were everything they believed to be true. The seer-poets, who narrated the Myths, had a
mystical authority over the others, as they were "chosen by the gods" who showed past events
through revelations and dreams, so that they could be transmitted to the listeners. As time went
by, Mythology seemed to no longer satisfy, as it was perceived to be insufficiently effective for
the ever-increasing number of questions, and at the beginning of the 6th century BC,
Philosophy was born, which means "Friendship through Knowledge" and defines a
characteristic way of thinking (rational thinking). With her, several philosophers stood out,
each with their own particular way of thinking and seeking wisdom.

Through Greek Philosophy, which was established in the West, it was possible for us to know
the bases and fundamental principles of concepts that we know as reason, rationality, ethics,
politics, technique, art, physics, pedagogy, surgery, chronology and, mainly, the science
concept.

2.1.The Main Precursors of Psychology

All Psychology began to be called Philosophical Psychology. The first philosophers who dealt
with psychology were Hippocrates and Aristotle.

Among the various Greek philosophers who contributed their ideas, we have:
- Pythagoras (5th century BC) – for him, complete wisdom belonged only to the gods, but it
was possible to appreciate it, love it and, therefore, obtain it. He said that nature is formed by
a system of relationships or mathematical proportions, in such a way that these combinations
appear to our sense organs in the form of dualistic qualities.
- Parmenides (+/- 544 - 450 BC) – according to him, to reach the truth we cannot trust empirical
data, we have to resort to reason. Nothing can change, there is only immutable, eternal and
unique being, as opposed to non-being. We have to ignore the senses and examine things with
the power of thought. What is outside being is not being, it is nothing, being is one.

- Heraclitus (+/- 540 - 470 BC) – his ideas are contrary to those of Parmenides and he is
considered the most important of the pre-Socratics. His phrases are: Everything flows. LOGOS
is the cosmic principle. We don't enter the same river twice. The truth is found in BECOMING
and not in being. The Soul has no limits, as its logos is deep and gradually increases. Human
thought participates and is part of universal thought. God manifests himself in nature and is
full of opposites. The earth creates everything and everything returns to it.

These and many other philosophers, who are called pre-Socratics, contributed to ending a
mythical and religious view of nature that was previously held and from then on a scientific
and rational way of thinking was adopted. Socrates is considered a "watershed" in Philosophy.

Socrates (470 - 399 BC), his biography is told by Plato in several of his works, as Socrates, as
they say, was illiterate. Using his own method, called «maieutics» (Bringing to Light - giving
birth), which started from questions asked to people, he made them "give birth to their own
ideas" about things. He compared his philosophical technique, which he believed helped
human existence to perfect its spirit, with the activity of his mother, who was a midwife. For
Socrates, the stages of knowledge are four: Ignoring your own ignorance; know your
Ignorance, Ignore your knowledge and know your knowledge. He had several followers,
caused much irritation for his "perverted ideas" and by a jury of fifty people he was sentenced
to death by poisoning. He could have escaped from prison, asked for clemency or even left
Athens, but he simply didn't want to, thus becoming the first martyr of Philosophy.

After Socrates, we have some philosophers whose ideas are extremely important for
Psychology to stand out. For example, Plato, Aristotle and other Greek philosophers were
concerned with many of the problems that today it is up to Psychologists to try to explain:
memory, learning, perception, motivation, dreams and especially abnormal behavior.
Aristotle (384 - 322 BC) - argues that it is reason that controls our actions and in it there is
reasoning based on the data of the senses; however, for him the subject-object relationship was
direct. The world is divided between organic and inorganic, with the organic being the one that
contains the capacity for transformation. Thus, he agrees with Plato who placed the essence of
man in the soul. The function of man is the activity of his soul, which follows or implies a
rational principle, hence his famous statement: "Man is a rational being".

The fatherhood of philosophical Psychology is attributed to Aristotle (384-322 BC), as

questions considered psychological such as: Who am I? What is the meaning of life? But it was
only with Gustav Fechner (1801 - 1887), philosopher and physicist, that interest in the study
of mental processes began to demand the application of scientific methods, especially with
regard to physical stimulation and sensation. Fechner is the author of Elements of
Psychophysics, an important book in the history of scientific Psychology.

Three other historian philosophers who contributed to the history of Psychology were David
Hume (1711-1776), with his work Treatise on Human Nature (1739), David Hartley (1705-
1757) with his work: Observations on Man, His Constitution , His Duty and Expectations
(1749) and James Mill (1773-1836) with his work: Analysis of the Phenomena of the Human
Mind (1829).

III. PSYCHOLOGY AS A SCIENCE

Etymologically, the word psychology means: psyché = mind; logos = study, treatise; therefore,
“study of the mind or soul”. When Psychology separated from Philosophy in 1879, with the
first scientific psychology laboratory at the German University of Leipzig, set up by W. Wundt,
as a historical landmark of this separation, it was realized that it was necessary to better delimit
its object of study. Thus, we have the current definition of psychology: “the science that studies
behavior and mental processes” (DAVIDOFF, 1983).

There are two basic characteristics of the scientific approach:

a) Objectivity: the researcher needs to maintain a certain distance between his
subjectivity (his personal feelings and inclinations) and the problem investigated.
b) Explicit operations: the researcher needs to describe the concepts, terms, procedures
used in the study, so that other researchers can replicate them (duplicate them; repeat
them).
Psychology, as a science, seeks to have the characteristics of objectivity and explicit operations,
having three broad objectives:
a) Describe: explanation of the conditions under which the phenomenon occurs in all its
details, without any references to the meaning of the phenomenon.
b) Predict: proof of hypotheses and establishment of cause-effect relationships, thus
indicating the probability of occurrence of a certain behavior.
c) Control: manipulation of the subject's behavior, so that behavior can be predicted,
determined and modified through the handling of certain techniques.

Thus, Psychology is considered a science because it uses scientific methods, objectives,

procedures and principles. A psychologist is, therefore, a behavioral scientist, not necessarily
human behavior, as this professional can also study animals.

IV. PSYCHOLOGY METHODS

Psychology methods allow us to establish the concepts and laws of Psychology to facilitate the
prediction and control of human behavior. They are divided into two types (traditional and
modern).

4.1.Traditional methods
Traditional methods consist of day-to-day practice in which the individual understands their
daily lives in an attempt to give essence to things. This method is divided into introspection
and extrospection.

4.2.Modern/contemporary methods
§ Test methods:
§ There are two types of this method (Personality Tests and Aptitude Tests).
This method is most used in Psychology, as it is the best way to research and determine human
reactions and aptitudes.

It seeks to measure human psychic realities or their quantitatively unattainable reactions.

§ Personality tests – reveal basic personality traits;
§ Aptitude tests – serve to measure and quantify human capabilities.
 a) Experimental Method – in this method the observer forms distinct groups: 1
experimental and 1 control; This makes it possible to prove and disprove the
phenomenon. Both the experimental and control must be equal in all respects.
b) Psychoanalytic Method, also called analytical and totally descriptive, the individual
describes their repressions, conflicts and complexes. To achieve this, the analyst can
resort to the classic method of free association of ideas, where the patient expresses
everything that comes to his consciousness in a coherent or disconnected way, enabling
the causes of the problem to be traced through these fragments.
c) Statistical method – serves to provide information about mass phenomena.
d) Case historical method – studies a single representative case of a given phenomenon.
It is necessary to take into account the family, social and religious background of the
case.
e) Interview – is a technique for directly obtaining information or data, it has 2 levels or
2 types: Direct interview and indirect interview.

V. THE MAIN SCHOOLS OF PSYCHOLOGY

Psychology in its history has gone through many phases of development, with several schools
of psychology contributing to this effect. Each of these schools had its own study focus, which
makes them different in some or several parameters. A school usually appears in opposition to
or complements a previous one.

5.1.Structuralism
Wilhelm Wundt (1879) is considered the founder of scientific psychology, as he was the one
who set up the first psychology laboratory, as we have already said. He is also the father of
STRUCTURALISM, a psychological school (current of thought) that had as its object of study
the elementary processes of consciousness, their combinations and relationships with the
structures of the nervous system. Wundt's great ambition was to establish its own identity for
Psychology and its main objective, knowledge. The research method used was analytical
introspection (a detailed description of the self-analysis of an individual's sensations) and the
population studied was the group of trained observers, that is, the psychologists who carried
out the study themselves.
 5.1.Functionalism
FUNCTIONALISM did not quite become a psychological school, in the formal sense of the
term, but it brought together psychologists who were against Wundt's Structuralism. It was led
by the American psychologist William James (1842-1910). The object of study of this
movement was the functioning of mental processes, especially as they help people survive and
adapt. The objective was to understand how these processes worked and apply them to people's
lives. The research methods were, in addition to informal introspection (unlike analytical
introspection, defended by Wundt), objective methods. The studied population was mainly
made up of adult human beings; occasionally children and less complex animals.

5.2.Behaviorism
With John Watson (1878-1958), an American psychologist as its founder, we find the
movement called BEHAVIORISM (classic), whose very name already explains its object,
namely: observable stimuli and responses with an emphasis on learning. Knowledge and
application were the main objectives of this movement. The methods used were objective and
the population studied consisted of people and animals.

5.3.Gestalt
Max Wertheimer (1842-1910), a German psychologist, is considered one of the founders of
GESTALT, whose object of study was the global human subjective experience with an
emphasis on perception, thinking and problem solving. Its main objective was knowledge; the
research methods were informal introspection and objective methods. People and, occasionally,
other primates such as chimpanzees were studied.

5.4.Psychoanalysis
The Viennese doctor Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) was the father of PSYCHOANALYSIS,
whose object was the normal and abnormal personality with an emphasis on the unconscious
and the treatment of abnormal behavior. Its main objectives were services and knowledge. The
research methods, for patients, were informal introspection that would reveal conscious
experiences (free association), while, for therapists, it was logical analysis and observation
(floating attention) to discover unconscious material. The population studied were patients,
mainly adults.
 VI. BRANCHES OF PSYCHOLOGY
Psychology, contrary to what most people think, is not just theory, it also has a practical variant.
It is possible to find several professionals in this area, in the most varied organizations. This is
possible because Psychology has several branches in which psychologists can practice their
profession.
Therefore, we highlight the following branches of Psychology:

6.1.Developmental Psychology
Developmental Psychology studies the different stages of a person's development, seeks to
know what needs, weaknesses and aspects must be taken into account so that the person goes
through a certain stage and develops in a positive way so that in the next stage the that was
missed in the previous one does not cause any problems in the present one.

6.2.Educational Psychology
According to Davis and Oliveira (1994:22), the task of teaching is not solely in the hands of
teachers. Students not only learn at school, but also through family, friends, people they
consider significant, the media and everyday experience. However, the school is the social
institution that presents itself as responsible for the systematic education of children, young
people and even adults.

6.3.Learning Psychology
Learning Psychology studies the complex process in which the ways of thinking and
knowledge existing in a society are propagated by the child. In order to understand this process,
it is necessary to recognize the social nature of learning.

6.4.Experimental Psychology
It is considered by many psychologists as the core of Psychology, it is one of the central areas
of psychological research as it focuses on higher level mental activities such as perception,
learning, memory, use of language, reasoning and problem solving. Experimental Psychology
carries out research in specific areas, as well as experimenting with certain events and facts.
 6.5.Organizational Psychology
Organizational Psychology is the branch of psychology most suited to work in companies and
institutions, public or private. Professionals in this area are generally dedicated to intervening
and studying groups and individuals within them.

6.6.Social Psychology
Social Psychology studies how individual behavior is affected in the context of interactions
with other people and groups. Most human behavior takes place in a social context and our
personality is influenced at different levels by the people around us.

6.7.Clinical Psychology
The clinical psychologist dedicates his activity to the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of all
types of conduct disorders that people may present. He is also dedicated to counseling and
helping people with problems of an experimental and behavioral nature.

VII. PSYCOLOGY IN THE MODERN SOCIETIES

In today’s world, psychology has taken a more visible position in society. Psychologists have
stronger ideas and more hypotheses of why people and animals behave the way they do. They
are also using this knowledge to help people improve their decision-making, stress
management, and understanding individuals’ past behavior to guide future behaviors toward
living a successful life.

Psychologists work in a wide variety of industries; some of the fields they work in include
education, criminal justice, marketing, and politics. Almost any industry that works with
humans utilizes psychologists for future development.

The most common issues people need help with are depression, relationships, anger, mental
health, stress, and anxiety.

7.1.The four current views of Psychology

Below we have the four current philosophical perspectives of psychology according to
Davidoff (1983, p. 24).
 7.1.1. Psychoanalytics
Object: Normal and abnormal personality
Main purposes: knowledge, services
Preferred research methods: For patients: informal introspection to reveal conscious
experiences (free association). For therapists: logical analysis and observation (floating
attention) to discover unconscious material.
Study population: patients (mainly adults)

7.1.2. Neobehaviorist (Methodological Behaviorism / Radical Behaviorism)

Object: Any well-defined question that deals with simple or complex behavior, human or
animal - including functions that cannot be observed.
Main purposes: knowledge, applications
Preferred research methods: Objective methods
Population studied: People and lower animals

7.1.3. Cognitive
Object: The functioning of mental activities
Main purposes: knowledge
Preferred research methods: Objective methods, informal introspection
Population studied: People (occasionally lower animals)

7.1.4. Humanist
Object: Questions regarding the whole person, subjective human experience and significant
human problems; the extraordinary and the individual, as well as the common and the
universal.
Main purposes: Primarily, services and life enrichment; secondarily, knowledge
Preferred research methods: Intuitive awareness of the observer is considered important. All
procedures are acceptable - objective methods, informal introspection, case study, literary
analysis, etc.
Population studied: People
 VIII. CONCLUSION

From this work we verified that Psychology is considered a science because it uses scientific
methods, objectives, procedures and principles. A psychologist is, therefore, a behavioral
scientist, not necessarily human behavior, as this professional can also study animals.

We also we observed that after Socrates, we have some philosophers whose ideas are extremely
important for Psychology to stand out. For example, Plato, Aristotle and other Greek
philosophers were concerned with many of the problems that today it is up to Psychologists to
try to explain: memory, learning, perception, motivation, dreams and especially abnormal
behavior.

Additional, Psychology in its history has gone through many phases of development, with
several schools of psychology contributing to this effect. Each of these schools had its own
study focus, which makes them different in some or several parameters. A school usually
appears in opposition to or complements a previous one. Of the main schools we can highlight:
Psychoanalysis, Gestalt, Behaviorism, Functionalism and Structuralism

So, we conclude that In today’s world, psychology has taken a more visible position in society.
Psychologists have stronger ideas and more hypotheses of why people and animals behave the
way they do. They are also using this knowledge to help people improve their decision-making,
stress management, and understanding individuals’ past behavior to guide future behaviors
toward living a successful life.
 XI. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Duane P. Schultz & Sydney E. Shultz, História da Psicologia Moderna, Cutrix, 10ª. Edição, sd.

Linda L. Davidoff, Introdução à Psicologia, SP, McGraw-Hill do Brasil, 1983.

DAVIS, Cláudia; OLIVEIRA, Zilma. Psicologia na Educação. São Paulo: Cortez, 1994.