Development of Psychology Timeline

By kelseys1
  • 340 BCE

    Innate Knowledge vs Acquired Knowledge (Plato vs Aristotle)

    Innate Knowledge vs Acquired Knowledge (Plato vs Aristotle)
    Plato believed that all knowledge is innate, meaning that everything that can be known is already internally present and will be revealed by internal reflections. Aristotle challenged Plato's ideology and presented Acquired knowledge. Acquired knowledge is the idea that all knowledge comes from external observations. This debate is one of the earliest versions of the nature vs nurture controversy.

  • Psychology Becomes an Independent Science

    Psychology Becomes an Independent Science
    Psychology was born in 1879 when Wilhelm Wundt started the first formal laboratory for psychological research in Leipzig, Germany.

  • Structuralism vs Functionalism

    Structuralism vs Functionalism
    Structuralism focuses on the contents if the mental processes rather than their functions, it also sought to break down consciousness into its basic components. Functionalism was created to oppose structuralism. Functionalism is based on Charles Darwins theory of evolution by natural selection. And it focuses on how mental activities help an organism fit into its environment. By the early 1900s other schools challenged these ideas which further developed psychology as we know it.

  • The First American Psychology Laboratory

    The First American Psychology Laboratory
    A student of Wilhelm Wundt named G.Stanley Hall established the first US psychology laboratory at Johns Hopkins University.

  • The American Psychological Association was Founded

    The American Psychological Association was Founded
    G.Stanley Halls founded the APA and served as their first president. He later established two of the most important journals in the field of psychology: American Journal of Psychology(1887) and Journal of Applied Psychology(1917)