A S L 3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Psychologies, Paul Broca, Psychophysics
Document Summary
Psychology and society" in: historical and conceptual issues in psychology (second edition, chapter 13, pp. Initial strong links between psychological thinking & religion. Psychology as a separate branch of knowledge grew out of rising role of scientific thinking in western society (scientific revolution and increasing status of natural sciences). Psychology would have stayed a subdiscipline of philosophy without it. X education was long controlled by church who did not like people examining the soul. X nevertheless many early psychologists had strong connection with religion and stayed close to it. Rapidly, however, the experimental psychologists distanced themselves from religion, because it jeopardised their scientific credentials. They sought to align themselves with the rapidly growing natural sciences, by denouncing weaker fields that might contaminate them, such as religion, philosophy and sociology. If they had been perceived as weak by society they would have never grown to become a real science. Fewer people felt comfortable discussing their mental health problems with religious authorities.
