faculty psychology
any approach to psychological issues based on the idea that mental processes can be divided into separate specialized abilities or powers, which can be developed by mental exercises in the same way that muscles can be strengthened by physical exercises. Faculty psychology was formulated in the 18th century by Scottish philosophers Thomas Reid (1710–1796) and Dugald Stewart (1753–1828), who held that will, judgment, perception, conception, memory, and so forth could be explained simply by referring to their active powers; for example, individuals remember because they possess the faculty of memory.