Javier, Charles Nathaniel

4th Year College

BIRTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY

Psychology is commonly defined as the pursuit of knowledge about the

mind and its processes.1 The history of psychology is embedded in the history of
philosophy until the late-eighteenth century declaration when it became a true
scientific study of the mind through experimental methods. In the philosophical
context, the word ‘psychology’ was first introduced by a man named Christian
Wolff (1679 – 1754) to designate the study of mind. 2 He divided the discipline
between rational and empirical psychology. The former resulted from the data
of the mind by observing oneself while the latter referred to the interpretation of
the psychological data through the use of reason and logic. It was Immanuel
Kant who denied the validity of rational psychology because the discipline must
only involve itself with experience.3 According to him, psychology must
become an empirical science by adopting the methods of anthropology in
observing human activities.4 The rapid development of psychology began in
Germany when psychologists Alfred Benit and Henri Simon worked on a
psychological test for measuring intelligence.5 From this point, psychology
became a discipline separate from the philosophical field as it attained an
empirical process through scientific intervention. At present, the International
Union of Scientific Psychology leads the discipline of psychology in bringing
psychological resources that will sustain human development.6

1
Alfred H. Fuchs and Katharine S. Milar, "Origin of Scientific Psychology," in Volume 1: History of
Psychology: Handbook of Psychology, ed. Irving B. Weiner (New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.,
2003), 1.
2
Fuchs and Milar, “Psychology,” 3.
3
Fuchs and Milar, “Psychology,” 5.
4
Fuchs and Milar, “Psychology,” 5.
5
Ludy T. Benjamin, Jr. and David B. Baker, “The Internalization of Psychology,” in The Oxford
Handbook of the History of Psychology, ed. David B. Baker (New York: Oxford University Press, Inc.,
2013) 8.
6
Benjamin Jr. and Baker, “Psychology,” 9.