Question

Book: The Story of Psychology

Questions: We have reached the end of the semester! Congratulations! So let’s talk about where psychology stands today. We have a thriving multi-faceted science with some schisms and crises. I’d love to hear what you found most interesting in this chapter. Was it the replication crisis? The schism between scientists and practitioners? Or the political aspects of research funding? How do you see all of this playing out over the next generation and beyond? Where do you see psychology in 50 more years?

Answer 1

Earlier, religions played a major role in preventing science from intervening with the psychological illness by branding them as possessed by devils. Enlightenment movements and individual rights kept the religions away thus bringing more humanistic views on the psychological illness. Sigmund Freud is considered to be the father of psychology during the 19^th century. The initial stages tried to find the mind and the effect of unconscious. During the beginning of 20^th century the perspective shifted to the behaviors of people which was later dominated by the humanistic psychologists from the middle of the 20^th century. Cognitive perspective and neuroscience started evolving during the 60s and 70s respectively with the help of the scientific advancement. Today, it has become the combination of everything and it is applied in various fields such as education, crime, society, medical, corporate companies etc.

Psychology has brought almost all the dimensions of a human being such as personality, motivation, emotions, individuality etc. and other dimensions of society such as culture, norms, family etc. It has also introduced the impact of environment in one’s development along with one’s genetic predispositions. It has changed the way people thought about disorders and disability thus bringing in more humanistic way of approaching psychological problems.

Psychology is going to be the most important field after 50 years because there will be more technology, more stress and more interpersonal problems. So, the domain will become more diverse in 50 years and there would be more demand for psychologists, therapists, psychiatrists and counselors in almost all the fields.