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Development of Learner and Teaching Learning Process

Notes about the soul. The ancient famous philosophers like Aristotle and Plato considered Psychology a
subject that studies about the soul by keeping its literal meaning. The definition given by these ancient

thinkers and philosophers is now considered obsolete as historical defi nition.
The philosophers of the 17 and 18 century like Leibnitz, Hobbes, Locke, Kant, Hume etc. are
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worth mentioning. These philosophers said that the word ‘Psyche’ is mind and the object of study of
Psychology is ‘Mind’. Therefore, Psychology was accepted as the study of mental science in other words

study of mind. Till 1870 the definition given by these philosophers was accepted and psychology was
studied as a branch of Philosophy and the object of study was the mind.

There were primarily two defects found in the definition given by these Philosophers. First, ‘Soul’ and
‘Mind’. Mind is an abstract object that can neither be seen nor heard. Therefore, the study through

scientific techniques is not possible nor any kind of practical can be applied on it. Second, after accepting
psychology as study of mind or soul its object remains unclear as these words are used in different

meanings and it is difficult to say in which context it is used in Psychology.
As mentioned earlier psychology was a branch of philosophy. In 1879 Wilhelm Wundt set up a
first laboratory of philosophy in the Lipzing University (later the name changed to Karl Marx
University) in Germany. Gradually psychology came to be a different subject, different from
Philosophy. As a result the subject matter of psychology ceased to be not mind or the soul but
‘mental activities’ or the Conscious Experience. The Psychologists who advocated this theory of
psychology are called Structuralists. Wilhelm Wundt and Titchener are the standing pioneers of this
theory. According to them Psychology is the study of the Conscious Experience and the Immediate
Experience. Here the meaning of conscious experience or immediate experience is related to
sensation, imagination, image, feeling and other mental activities. According to Wundt sensation
was called as the objective element of conscious experience whereas feeling, the subjective element
of conscious experience. But there were many defects found in this definition of structuralists.
The major defect was described that, because the conscious experience cannot be studied through
objective method, hence this definition of psychology is not able to explain the practical nature
oof psychology. This definition only emphasizes on the study of conscious experience, however all
experiences of human are not conscious but they are mainly conscious. So this definition does give
a clear picture that psychology studies all the aspects of human mind or not.
Since there were many defects in the definition of structuralists so another definition of
psychology was introduced by behaviourists, J. B. Watson is important among the behaviourists.
They accepted psychology as positive science of behavior. This definition clarifies that conscious
experience was diversified from the object of psychology and behavior replaced it, which was
more objective because that can be seen and heard, Running, crying, smiling, thinking etc are the
few main examples of behavior. In this definition, Psychology was accepted as positive science,
because it studies all three aspects such as what, why, and how related to the behavior. In this
definition the main defect was described that the behavior alone is meaningless. The fact is that
the explanation of any kind of behavior is based on the basis of our own experiences then only we
get the real meaning.
The meaning of Psychology introduced by the Modern Psychologists is seems to be the juncture of

both the definitions mentioned above. Atkinson, Smith and Hilgard have said describing Psychology—
“Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental process.” This defi nition clarifi es that

Psychology is not only the study of behavior but also studies about those mental processes that cannot
be seen but only assumed on the basis of the behavior. Morgan, King, Weisz and Schopler have also
clarified that psychology is the science of study of human and animal behavior. They have further

clarified that while calling Psychology a science of behavior, mind or internal mental events are not

being differentiated but it is also included in the same. In the words of Morgan, King, Weisz and

Scoplar – “When we define psychology as a science of behavior we do not differentiate mind we only
say that whatever human does means his behavior is the avenue through which the study of internal
mental event is been done.”

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