I am interested in finding out how the greek letter psi became associated with psychology. Any links and information would be greatly appreciated.

Will apologize for such a novice question Thanks

-- KM Seiser (thedr@mail2world.com), March 23, 2002

Answers

The Greek letter "psi" is the first letter of the Greek word "psyche," which is the one of the roots of the term "psychology." (The other, of course, is "logos" which is various translated as "word", "account", and "(scientific) study"). Back when students standardly took Greek, it was common to use the first Greek letter of a long Greek-derived word as an abbreviation. You'll find that both philosophy and physiology students sometimes use the letter Greek letter phi as an abbreviation as well.

-- Christopher Green (christo@yorku.ca), March 23, 2002.

how old is the science of psychology?

-- naomi last horse (naomi_lh@hotmail.com), September 15, 2004.