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Mesmerism
In the mid-1700s, Mesmer developed his procedure for treating hysteria by supposedly fixing the disruption of magnetic forces in the body. He called this "mesmerism," and though it didn't actually work the use of the power of suggestion eventually led to hypnosis. -
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Positivism: Behaviors Antecedent
Positivism emerged in the 1850s and eventually contributed greatly to behaviorist thought. The mechanistic and materialistic thinking of this era would also go on to influence behaviorists. -
Two Schools of Hypnosis
In the mid 19th century, the Leibault and Berheim School of Nancy thought hypnotism was a natural occurence and Charcot in Paris thought suggestibility in hypnosis was a sign of hysterical neurosis. -
Use of Asylums
In the id 19th century the entally ill were held in asylums. At the turn of the century there would finally be reform through the mental hygeine movement. -
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Development of Freud's Clinical Practice
Freud developed his clinical practice for treating hysteria from the mid-1880s to the mid-1990s. This is when he coined the ideas of free association and resistance, still commonly discussed in psychology today, -
Freud Publishes "Studies in Hysteria"
Frued published "Studies in Hysteria" in 1895, a book based on the famous Anna O. case where Freud linked hysteric symptoms to Anna's repressed memories. This book is considering the event that founded Freud's concept of psychoanalysis. -
Freus Published "Interpretation of Dreams"
In the year 1900 "Interpretation of Dreams" was published. This book was an important part of Freud's contribution to psychology because this book brought forth the idea that our dreams can have latent content that we aren't aware of. -
Watson's Dissertation
The young John B Watson published his PhD dissertation in 1903, titled "Animal Education: An Experimental Study of the Physical Development of the White Rat, Correlated with the Growth of its Nervous System." This paper earned him his doctorate and an instructor position at Chicago. -
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Watson's Time at Chicago
Watson was a part of the Chicago faculty from 1903-1908. During this time he did his most important experiments, the Watson-Carr maze studies. These studies are important because they are an example of good use of the scientific method as well as an example of how even simple experiments that benefit science can be misunderstood and attacked in the public eye. -
Pavlov's Nobel Prize
In December 1904, Pavlov received a Nobel Prize for his conditioning research with dogs. His research became the foundation for the behavioral technique today known as classical conditioning. -
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Watson's Time at John's Hopkins
After leaving Chicago in 1908, Watson was employed from 12 years as head of the Psychology Department at John's Hopkins. During this time he became a leading researcher in animal psychology, proclaimed behaviorism and came up with a program of developmental psych focused on emotional development. -
Watson's Behaviorist Manifesto
When invited to speak at Columbia in 1913, Watson chose to proclaim the ideas he had known about for ten years. He talked about his paper " Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It," which came to be known as the Behaviorist Manifesto. -
Watson as APA President
In 1915, Watson was elected President of the APA due to his increasing status as a researcher and connections with other APA members. -
Publishing of the Little Albert Study
Watson and a student named Rosalie Rayner conducted his first behaviorist experiment on a human being. The Little Albert study is famous because of it's suggestion that humans can be conditioned just like animals, and also because of the questionable ethics of causing Little Albert to fear the rat and never extinguishing that fear. -
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Promotion of Behaviorism
In the 1920s, Watson spent a great deal of his time promoting Behaviorism out in the public through papers, books, talk shows, etc. This is one of the reasons why his theories are still so well known today. -
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Tolman and Students' Maze Studies
Tolman and his students conducted and published a number of studies regarding rat learning in mazes during the 20s and 30s. These were theory-related studies but they also helped to standardize maze procedures. -
Bridgman's "The Logic of Modern Physics"
Bridgman's book "The Logic of Modern Physics" brought the idea of operationism and operational definitions to psychology, which changed the way experiments were conducted from that point on. -
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Age of neobehaviorism
Neobehaviorism was very influential from 1930 to 1960. Neobehaviorists believed in a continuity among species and that conditioning was essential to understanding behavior. -
Release of Tolman's Purposive Behavior in Animals and Men
Tolman's book showed how research and theorizing are both big parts of logical positivism. He developed the idea of molar behavior, purposiveness and intervening variables. -
Skinner's First Book Published
In 1938 Skinner published "The Behavior of Organisms." In the book he made the distinction between Type S (Classical) and Type R (Operant) conditioning. -
Hull's Theory
The most important version of Hull's System appeared in 1943 with 16 different postulates.