The word psychology Greek drift psycho- ("soul" , "Mental activity" ) and -lodge ("study" ). It's about the science which studies mental processes through three dimensions: cognitive , affective and behavioral .
And while, on the other hand, the second word that shapes the term that concerns us, scientific, we can determine that it has its etymological origin in Latin and more specifically in the word scire which can be translated as "know."
The scientific psychology , stripped of speculation and metaphysics, born in the XIX century . With the psychophysics , which tries to measure the mental in a quantitative way and seeks to establish a link between the physical and the psychological, psychology becomes part of the objective sciences.
The first laboratory of scientific psychology was established by Wilhelm wundt in Leipzig (Germany ). Since then, psychology has continued to make progress in the empirical knowledge of mental processes and behavior.
That was a German psychologist and physiologist who marked a milestone with the launch of the aforementioned laboratory, but also acquired great fame for the whole of his work and work that have determined that he is currently recognized as the father of structuralism.
A laboratory in which he pioneered and in which he developed his multiple studies and theories. However, another series of illustrious characters that left their mark on scientific psychology also benefited from that space. This would be the case, for example, of the German psychiatrist Emil Kraepelin who founded scientific psychiatry or the English psychologist Charles Spearman, who is known primarily for his contributions to psychology and statistics through his bifactorial theory.
However, we cannot ignore the role that within the science we are addressing have played figures such as Pierre Janet, a member of the one known as the School of Paris, which, among other things, carried out the theory of psychological automatism with which managed to explain the amnesic behaviors that occurred in people suffering from personality unfolding.
And all this without forgetting the use and study he made of hypnosis to solve hysteria problems.
At twentieth century , American conductive psychology and Soviet psychology coincide in positivist experimental and epistemological approaches. In this way, the discipline is framed within the natural sciences and the conduct It replaces the mind as an object of study.
However, in the middle of the century, the cognitive psychology recovers the study of mental processes, but maintaining the experimental methods of behaviorism . The notion that science is constructed from the empirical and objective is never abandoned.
The combination of behavioral and cognitive theories and practices has enabled the emergence of techniques to solve individual and social problems, together with the development of scientifically proven therapies .
Out of scientific psychology were alternative psychologies or pseudopsychologies, which reject the scientific method . One of these cases would be the parapsychology , a discipline criticized by many specialists.
