Introduction to Psychology

 Course title: Introduction to Psychology

 Course code: Psy 101
 Instructor: Almas Ashraf
Objectives:
 On completion of this lecture the students will
be able to understand how Psychology has
gained the status of a social science going
through different periods of history.
 Definition of Psychology
 The word of psychology is derived from two
Greek words “Psyche and Logos”
 Psyche means “Soul/Spirit/Mind” and Logos
means “Knowledge”
 Psychology stands for the knowledge of
mind/soul
 Psychology is the science of mind and behavior
Subject Matter of Psychology
 Subject Matter of psychology is A-B-C

 A stands for Affect

 B stands for- Behavior (Overt and Covert
Behavior)
 C stands for- Cognition
Historical background of Psychology
 The roots of Psychology can be traced back
to some half million years. Primitive people
assumed that behavior was caused by the
presence of good and evil souls .
 People have been interested in the behavior
of other people throughout history so that
roots of psychology may be found in
philosophy, religion, and science.
 We can divide history period into two periods
 Pre scientific period
 Scientific period
Pre scientific period
 Some of our modern ideas of mind came from
ancient Greece. Term Psychology was
derived from the Greek word ‘Psyche’ (soul)
and ‘logos’ (knowledge). It eventually came to
mean the “study of the mind”
 Pre scientific period can be divided into three
sub periods .
 i) Greek period
 ii) Middle ages
 iii) Islamic period
Greek period
 Some early Greek philosophers regarded Psyche as
a substance. This substance was thought to control
the body. Some Greek philosophers are:
 Hippocrates (430 B.C): Greek physician
Hippocrates thought that personality was made up of
four temperaments and these temperaments were
influenced by the presence of “humors or fluids” in
the body. The problem of interest to the early Greek
philosophers was the relationship between “mind”
and body.
 Doctrine of the four humors
 Blood - generally optimistic, cheerful, even-
tempered, but can be daydream to the point of not
accomplishing anything and impulsive (mania)
 Phlegm – consistent, relaxed, and observant, but
can be apathetic and sluggish
 Yellow bile - a leader, but can be controlling,
easily angered or bad tempered
 Black bile – kind, considerate, can be highly
creative - - but also can be obsessed with tragedy
and cruelty (depression)
Greek period
 Plato(427-347 B.C)
 He stressed the controlling influence of soul
or mind.
 He postulated the theory of mind body
dualism and held the view that as long as the
soul remains in the body, the man is alive,
and when it leaves the body, the man dies.
Greek period
 Aristotle(384-322 B.C)
 Rejected the Plato’s theory and suggested that mind
is a function of the body itself just as vision is a
function of the eye.
 His concept of mind as a function of bodily processes
was an important step in the direction of making
Psychology a science.
 Attention turned, eventually, from pure speculation
about the mind to the study of organism.
Middle ages
 Plotinus(205-270):
 He was influenced by Plato and Aristotle’s thoughts.
 He tried to understand religious beliefs through
reasoning.
 St. Augustine(354-430):
 Being a Christian philosopher, he believed that
human being is interaction of soul and body.
Middle ages

 He was founder of introspective method.

 He thought that an individual can understand
his own inner feelings.
Islamic Period
 If the ideas of modern Psychologists about
mental health are assessed, we come to
know that these are based on the views of
Islamic philosophers and thinkers.
 The Muslim philosophers described the
principles of life in the light if Quran and the
Sunnah.
Islamic Period
 Here a brief description of Muslim
philosophers may be added into the history of
psychology.
 Alkundi(803-873):
 He was a great Arab philosopher. He believed
that our souls have originated from God’s
soul. According to him, our real happiness
lies in the reason and spiritual life.
Islamic Period
 He tried to combine religion and philosophy
as both seek reality; philosophy focuses on
theoretical aspects whereas religion stresses
upon actions.
 Al- Farabi (870-950)
 He wrote more than 80 books on various
topics. He believed that a man is composed
of body and soul, which belong to God.
 God is immortal and above all human
thoughts. Farabi was influenced by the
teachings of Plato and Aristotle.
 Ibn-e-Sina (980-1037)
 He was physician, poet and psychologist all
in one. According to him, there are three
kinds of mind :Human mind, Animal mind ,
and vegetable mind.
 Only the Human mind possess reason and
intelligence. He said that physical illness
could be treated with medicine but mental
illness could be treated psychologically with
religion.
 He thought that body had no link with mind;
body perishes but mind remains alive.
 Imam Ghazali (1058-1111)
 He wrote a number of books on religion.
According to him those obsessed with love of
God and treading the right path do not
contact mental disorders. Therefore , he also
instructed people to follow the right path.
 He said that , this world is a place of actions
and hard work and no body was allowed to
remain idle in life. He viewed that man was
recognized by his actions.
 He stressed upon children’s education. He
said children’s capabilities must be assessed
for proper education. He thought that mental
diseases were caused by negative emotional
problems and one should get rid of them.
 Allama Bin Khaldun (1332-1406)
 He proposed the theories of social
psychology and explained human beliefs ,
prejudices , attitudes and other subject
matters.
 According to him , religion influences human
mind and whole life.
 Shah Wali Ullah ( 1702-1763)
 He wrote many books and made a deep study of
human mind and behavior. He discovered the causes
of mental disorders and treated them .
 According to him conflict goes on between positive
and negative forces within human mind and healthy
personality develops only by striking balance b/w the
two. If irrational ideas are in excess, mental health is
affected.
Scientific Period
 This period may be divided into two sub
periods:
1. Renaissance Period:
Following are the important figures of this
period:
 Francis Bacon (1564-1642)
 He was founder of modern science. He
separated science from religion and
philosophy. He proposed several theories
upon education, habits and human
personality.
 He emphasized the importance of
observation instead of speculation.
Descartes (1596-1650):
 He thought organism as complicated
mechanism which could be activated by light,
sound and other stimuli.
 Although he had a very inadequate concept
of the structures and functions of the nervous
system, his study of the human organism
brought fresh insight to psychology.
John Lock (1632-1704):
 He believed we were born with empty mind in
the world, like blank slates upon which all of
life’s experiences could be written .
 Other influences on early psychology came
from biology and physics.
Charles Darwin (1809-1882):
 In his book” The Origin of Species” in 1859,he
outlined his theory of evolution. In his theory
he suggested that animals and people show
behavior that is adaptive to the environment
and helpful to their survival.
Hermann Von Helmholtz (1820-1894)
 He Measured the speed of nerve impulse and
set forth a theory of color vision for our
perception of musical tones.
Paul Broca (1860)
 A French physician identified a part of the
brain (still called “Broca Area”) working as
control centre for speech.
Weber (1795-1878) :
 About the middle of 19th century the
discoveries made in physics gave rise to a
new field known as “psychophysics”
 Weber observed the relationship between
changes in the physical stimuli and human
ability to perceive changes.
Fechner (1866):
 He looked into mathematical connection
between the physical and psychological
changes.
 For the first time it had been demonstrated
that psychological phenomenon could be
quantified and investigated with scientific
method.