At what time was psychology recognised as a valid 'science' or study?

Question

Or how long ago?

Answer 1

Never. It's not a valid science, it's based on opinion.

A true science depends on reproducible results by independent researchers -- psychology thrives on every researcher coming up with something different and arguing as to why they happen to be right.

At best some practitioners have reached the level of engineer: they describe some procedures that can work if applied the same way by anyone e.g. Dr Tanya Byron and her methods of changing kids' behaviour by changing the parents' behaviour.

But science? No, never.

As for a "study" well, anything can be a study and people have been "studying" human behaviour for as long as there have been people -- try the Ancient Greek philosophers as your first written examples of "study".

Answer 2

It depends upon the area. In some places, psychology is still not recognized as valid.

That said, when Freud was doing his work, there were only a handful of people who really thought he was onto something. As Jung came into the picture with perhaps more moderate views, psychology gained more followers, but it still was not wide spread.

Therapy has been seen as helpful since about the 1930's but it had such a stigma at that time. It wasn't until the mid-1960's that therapy started to be seen as more of a mainstream treatment.

Still, in some places people believe if you see a therapist you must be nuts or in a crisis. However, for the most part, people now recongize therapy as a tool that can be used to make their lives happier and more productive.

Answer 3

Functionalism psychology was the first time when psychology was regarded as a science instead of a branch of philosophy. However functionalism often involved introspection it lost credability as a consquence.