Psychology as a Bio-Social Science

Abstract

Psychology is so all-pervasive and so important that it enters into our every thought and action; by definition almost, the facts and theories of psychology are central to our mental and physical activities. Psychology, clearly, is about us if it is about anything: our behaviour, our minds, our emotions, our intelligence, our crimes and mental disorders, our problems. This means that ever since human beings came to the fore in the evolutionary struggle, they have concerned themselves with psychological questions. Some of these questions are philosophical in nature—Who are we? Why are we here? How did we come to be the way we are? Why do we differ so profoundly from each other? Other questions have a more practical turn—How can we make other people do what we want them to do? Who is best suited for this or that position? Will she be a good wife for me? Is he trustworthy? Psychology is still split into a pure and an applied section, although this differentiation tends to get more and more blurred. In any case, psychology has a long past; but it has a very short history. The history of psychology as a science is just about 100 years long; it was only in 1879 that Wilhelm Wundt founded the first formal psychological laboratory in Leipzig. Its growth has been very rapid since those early days, but it is still very young in comparison with long-established sciences like physics, or chemistry. Both past and history have been reviewed in great detail, and with many fascinating details about the many famous people who contributed to them, by Boring (1950); the History of Experimental Psychology presents an excellent account of how psychology grew to its present stature.