Origins of psychology

By taneta
  • 1500 BCE

    Ebers Papyrus

    The Ebers Papyrus was written in hieratic egyptian writing. Disorders such as depression and dementia are mentioned.
  • 387 BCE

    Plato

    Plato suggested that the brain was in fact the location of mental processes.
  • 335 BCE

    Aristotle

    Aristotle believed that the heart was the location of the mental processes. He also addressed the relationships between impulses and urges within the human mind.
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    Rene descartes

    Descartes was a philosopher that suggested his thesis that the mind and body are really distinct. This is now referred to as 'mind-body dualism'.
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    John Locke

    Locke was a political philosopher. He suggested that at birth the human mind is a "blank slate" without rules for processing data, and that data is added and rules for processing are formed solely by one's sensory experiences. This theory is called tabula rasa.

  • Franz Mesmer

    Franz Mesmer detailed his cure for certain mental illnesses. He named the cure mesmerism which is now known as hypnosis.

  • Charles Darwin

    Darwin published the ' On the origin of species', detailing his view of evolution and expanding on the theory of 'survival of the fittest'.

  • Wilhelm Wundt

    Wundt founded the first formal laboratory of psychology at the university of Leipzig, marking the formal beginning of the study of human emotions, behaviours and cognitions.

  • Phineas gaga

    Phineas Gage suffered brain damage when an iron pole pierced his brain. As a result his personality changed but his intellect remained in tact suggesting that an area of the brain plays a role in personality.

  • John B Watson

    Watson proposed the idea of an objective study of behaviour called 'behaviourism'. He saw psychology as the study of peoples actions with the ability to predict and control those actions.
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    Sigmund Freud

    Freud emphasized the importance of the unconscious mind and believed that particularly painful experiences was locked away in the unconscious mind. He called this the process of repression.
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    Abraham Maslow

    Maslow publishes 'Motivation and Personality', describing his theory of a hierarchy of needs. He also helps found humanistic psychology.
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    Carl Rogers

    Rogers viewed the child as having two basic needs: positive regard from other people and self-worth. He also published 'On becoming a person', marking a powerful change in how treatment for mental health issues is conducted.

  • Aaron Beck

    Aaron Beck published a psychological model of depression suggesting that thoughts play a significant role in the development and maintenance of depression.

  • Howard Gardner

    Howard Gardner (professor at Harvard University) introduced his theory of multiple intelligence is something to be used to improve lives, not to measure and quantify human beings.

  • Simon Baron-Cohen

    Simon Baron-Cohen coined the term mental blindness to reflect the inability of children with autism to properly represent the mental states of others.

  • Steven Pinker

    Steven Pinker published 'The blank slate' and 'The Modern Denial Of Human Nature', arguing against tabula rasa models of the social sciences.