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# Psychology

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Psychology is the experimental study of mental states and processes, and related behavioral patterns of humans and to an extent of animals as well (though the study of animal behavior, ethology, is more often regarded a branch of biology than of psychology). Psychologists also study the psychological influences on interactions between individuals and on interactions with the environment. Disciplines closely related to psychology are sociology, anthropology, biology, and philosophy. Though the root of the word psychology (psyche) means "soul" in Greek, and psychology was sometimes considered a study of matters of the soul (in a religious sense of this term) in earlier ages, [experimental psychology]? as introduced by [Wilhelm Wundt]? in 1879 at Leipzig University in Germany, eliminated religious implications from psychology entirely. Today, experimental psychology is focused on observable behavior and the evidence it provides about mental processes and therefore has little to say specifically about such notions as an immaterial, immortal soul.

Psychology was until about the beginning of the twentieth century regarded as a branch of philosophy. With the work of Wundt and of his contemporary experimental psychologist [William James]? (who, himself, questioned the veracity of materialistic psychology in his later work), the field of psychology was slowly but steadily established as a science independent of philosophy. Of course, like all sciences which have broken off from philosophy, purely philosophical questions about the mind are still studied by philosophers; the name of the philosophical subdiscipline which studies those questions is philosophy of mind. Most universities, journals, and researchers today treat psychology as among the experimental sciences and not as a branch of philosophy.

Both psychology and its sister study psychiatry are criticized by a vocal and well-credentialed (if small) minority in medical and academic circles as pseudo-sciences, the chief criticisms being that their theories, diagnoses and treatments do not hold up under the rigor of the scientific method and that they are not falsifiable. A related view is promulgated by a minority of philosophers under the label [eliminative materialism]?. These sorts of concerns seek to replace psychology, or some aspects of the study of psychology, with cognitive science, neuroscience, and other disciplines.

Famous Psychologists

- Sigmund Freud
- Carl Jung
- [Jennifer Melfi]?
- Alice Miller
- [Lloyd deMause]?

Divisions of Psychology (these might be overlapping, of course)

- [behavioral psychology]?
- [child psychology]?
- cognitive psychology
- [developmental psychology]?
- [educational psychology]?
- [evolutionary psychology]?
- [group psychology]?
- [medicinal psychology]?
- psychotherapy? a branch of psychiatry as well.
- social psychology
- psychohistory?

Some related disciplines:

- cognitive science
- computer science
- ethology
- linguistics and especially psycholinguistics?
- neuroscience
- philosophy of mind
- philosophy of psychology

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Last edited July 11, 2001 5:14 pm (diff)
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