History Of Psychology

Ivan Pavlov

May 27, 1849

A russian physiologist that discovered an interesting fact in behavior. He used a tuning fork and meat powder to conduct an experiment on a dog which produced an interesting result. The dog would salivate when seeing the meat powder. So Pavlov would ring the tuning fork when he would give the dog the powder. After a while every time he rang the tuning fork the dog would salivate even without the powder being present. This is called a conditioned reflex or something the body does without thought.

Wilhelm Wundt

Nov 10, 1879

Wilhelm Wundt opens first experimental laboratory in Psychology at the University of Leipzig, Germany. Credited with establishing Psychology as an academic discipline, Wundt is considered the father of modern Psychology. Wundt brought about the terms struturalist and introspection.

Sir Francis Galton

Oct 29, 1883

Galton brought up the idea that heredity may influence a person's abilities, character, and behavior. Galton traced many families that did great things and found out that greatness runs in the family. He published a book on his works called "Inquiries into Human Faculty and Its Development" which was the first study on individual differences.

William James

Feb 16, 1896

James is known as the "Father of Psychology" in the United States. Coined the the term Funtionalism or the act of focusing on functions of the mind rather then the contents of it.

Psychoanalysis

Sep 8, 1896

Sigmund Freud becomes the founder of psychoanalysis and introduces it in one of his scholarly papers. His approach is that people are motivated by powerful, unconscious drives and conflicts. He develops an influential therapy based on this assertion, using free association and dream analysis.

Gestalt Psychology

Mar 8, 1912

German Psychologists Max Wertheimer, Wolfgang Kohler, and Kurt Koffka disagreed on the principles of structuralism and behaviorism. There argument was that perception was a better sum of the involvement of the mannerisms of people. They studied how sensations are assembled due to perception.

Biological Psychology

Jun 13, 1950

This idea of psychology focuses on the idea of biology effecting our behavior. It studies the brain, nervous system, hormones and genetics just to see what influences out behavior. Recent studies show that chemicals in the brain hav a great influence on out behavior.

Humanist Psychology

Aug 12, 1960

Humanistic psychology resulted from all the studies of behavioral psychology. Humanists like Abraham Malow, Carl Rogers, and Rollo May had described human nature as evolving and self-directed. It is different from behaviorism and psychoanalyisis because people are not being controlled by the environment or unconscious forces but themselves.

Sociocultural Psychology

Feb 21, 1971

This focuses on how ethnic and cultural backgrounds influence the behaviors of people and their functionality in society. It is also the study of how people will react when somone does something such as a sneeze. This study helps to improve relations with foreigners and US citizens today.