1. Introduction to Psychology

“Psychology has a long past but a short history.” This brief statement by one of the pioneers of psychological research, Herman Ebbinghaus, captures the history of psychology as a discipline. Though it is relatively new as a formal academic subject, the questions it seeks to answer have been around since the beginning of man. In this module, we will review the history of psychology as a discipline, by learning about both its ancient philosophical (“prescientific”) roots and its more recent reincarnation as a “scientific” field of study.

Activity: General Psychology Knowledge Quiz

One of the nice things about studying psychology is that, unlike when you choose to study something like deep sea marine life (organisms that you may not have spontaneously encountered before), you already have years of your own human experience living, breathing, thinking, choosing, and behaving to fall back on (not to mention all the time you have spent observing others around you live, breathe, think, choose, and behave). But given the diversity of experience across students who might take this course, it will be useful for you to begin by taking the following general psychology knowledge quiz to see just how much your experience has translated into actual psychological knowledge.

Stop your reading and click here to complete a brief quiz. (Note: You will need to log in to Moodle to complete the quiz)

Source

  • Saylor Academy. PSYC101: Introduction to Psychology. Unit 1: The History and Methods of Psychology. Retrieved from: https://learn.saylor.org/course/view.php?id=12&sectionid=104

License

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Introduction to Psychology I Copyright © 2016 by Rajiv Jhangiani, Ph.D. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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