Psychology a New yet an Old Science

“ We can trace psychology's roots back to the ancient Greeks, who considered the mind to be a suitable topic for scholarly contemplation. Later philosophers argued for hundreds of years about some of the questions psychologists grapple with today” (Feldman 14) “However, the formal beginning of psychology as a scientific discipline is generally considered to be in the late 19th century”(Feldman 14) . As the study of psychology progresses many questions are answered and some questions are still a topic of debate. As society evolves new issues that can only be understood or contemplated through psychological science arise, for example the growing popularity of social media, increasing terrorism attacks, rising rates of obesity, and many more. “Today, in the field of psychology includes five major perspectives. Theses broad perspectives emphasize different aspects of behavior and mental process, and each takes our understanding of behavior in a some what different direction. When considered jointly, the different perspectives provide the means to explain behavior in its amazing variety.” (Feldman16) The five major perspectives are neuroscience , Cognitive, Behavioral, Humanistic, and Psychodynamic. There is no definite way to determine the future although, evolution of society and the new issues that will arise with it are inevitable. There are some trends that seem likely in the course of scientific development such as, “As its knowledge grows, psychology will become more increasingly specialized and new perspectives will evolve. The evolving sophistication of neuroscientific approaches is likely to have an increasing influence over the other branches of psychology. Psychology's influence on issues of public interest will also grow. Finally, as the population becomes more diverse, issues of diversity- embodied in the study of racial, ethnic,linguistic, and cultural factors- will become more important to psychologists providing services and doing research.”