The History of
Modern
European
Psychology
By Veronica H.
EHAP
How did European
Psychologists
affect life in Europe
from the 19th
Century to the 20th
Century?
Origin of Psychology
• Psychology began in Europe
• Progressed through many
different thinkers with different
ideas and schools of thought
• This succession was affected by
Europe’s history as well as
Europe’s culture being affected
by psychology
Charles Darwin (1809-1892)
• British naturalist
• Co-originator of the
theory of evolution
• Extremely influential in
the development of
psychology
• Influenced much of
European culture and
mind-set  “Social
Darwinism”
• Wrote Origins of
Species in 1859
Darwin’s Research
and Discoveries
• Darwin took a five year journey to
investigate life on Islands, especially
the Galapagos Islands
– He collected organisms and fossils
– Came up with the theory of evolution
– Discovered that existing species were
all related through decedents with
modification  natural selection
Darwin’s Impact on European
Society
• Darwin’s idea of the Survival of the
fittest affected many European lives
– It changed the attitude of many people,
making them much more competitive
and ruthless
– This change in attitude is shown through
Realpolitique ruling, for example Queen
Elizabeth I of England
– The idea behind Manifest Destiny is also
inspired by Darwin
Quotes by Elizabeth I
A strength to harm is
perilous in the hand
of an ambitious head.
There is nothing
about which I am
more anxious
than my country, and
for its sake I am
willing to die ten
deaths, if that be
possible.
Paul Pierre Broca (1824-1880)
• Born in SainteFoy-La-Grande,
France
• Went to medical
school in Paris
• Was a professor
of surgical
pathology at the
University of
Paris
Broca’s Early Works
• Studied:
– The history of cartilage and
bone
– Cancer pathology
– Treatment of aneurysms
– Infant mortality
• Made important contributions
to the understanding of the
limbic system
Broca’s Research and Discovery
• Researched the location of the
production of speech  research of
the lateralization of brain functions
• Discovered the speech production
center of the brain, located in the
frontal lobes
• Region now known as Broca’s area
Location of Broca’s area
Method to Broca’s Research
• He studied many aphasic patient
– Most famous patient:
 Nicknamed “Tan”
 1861 through post-mortem autopsy
determined that he had a lesion in
the left cerebral hemisphere of his
brain
 The lesion covered the area which
controlled the speech production
Brain Studied by Broca
Brain of
patient with
motor
aphasia
Realization from Broca’s
Work
Speech production 
frontal lobes left
hemisphere of the
brain broca’s area
Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)
• Born in a small
German village called
Nekarau
• Known as the “Father
of Psychology”
• First man to be called
solely a psychologist,
without another name
given to him
Wundt’s Research
• 1879Wundt established the first
psychology laboratory at the
University of Leipzig
• He concentrated on psychological
research
– mostly studying human sensory
• Wundt used a systematic
methodological approach
• His research was a milestone in
establishing psychology as a science
Wundt’s Works
• Wrote Principles of Physiological
Psychology in 1874
• Created the structuralism which is
the structure of conscious
experiences
• His chief method of examination
was called introspection
– Which is just observation of
sensations
Edward B. Titchener (1867-1927)
• Titchener was a
student of Wilhelm
Wundt
• Put his own spin on
Wundt's psychology
of consciousness
• He attempted to
classify the
structures of the
mind like other
scientists would
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
• Born in Freiberg, Moravia
in the Czech Republic
• Moved to Vienna,
Austria when he was
four years old
• He graduated from the
medical school at the
University of Vienna in 1881
• Decided to specialize in neurology
Freud’s impact on European
Society
• Revolutionized ideas of how the
human mind works
• Established the theory that the
unconscious motives control
much of human behavior
• Advanced fields of psychiatry
and psychology
Freud’s Impact on European Art
Movement
• Freud’s theories influenced surrealism
– Freud preformed psychoanalysis
which was like the concept of many
paintings
 Exploring the inner depths of the
unconscious mind
 Freud’s ideas also were used by
many authors and artists as
subject matter
Freud’s Works
• Freud went to Paris in 1885 to study Jean
Martin Charcot, a famous neurologist
• Freud then returned to Vienna in 1886 and
started to work extensively on hysterical
patients
• Freud wrote many important and highly
influential pieces, some being:
– The interpretation of Dreams in 1900
– The Ego and the Id in 1923
– Civilization and Its Discontents in 1930
Freud’s Theories
• Freud observed many patients on
how they behaved according to
their unconscious drives and
experiences
• Concluded that the unconscious
plays a large role in shaping
someone’s behavior
• Thought that people used what he
called defense mechanisms
Freud’s Form of Therapy
• Psychoanalysis is a technique of
therapy
– An analysis to explain the connections
between the patients unconscious mind
and their mental processes
• Free association- basic method of
transference of information
• The patient, lays down and says
whatever comes to mind
• Catharsis- the sudden release of emotion
Couch used for Psychoanalysis
Freud’s
famous couch
in his London
clinic
Freud’s Division of the Brain
• Freud believed that the brain was
divided into three different parts
– The Id
– The Ego
– The Superego
• Thought everyone was born with
certain natural drives which he
called instincts
The Id
• The Id is located in the nervous system
• It is the part of the brain that controls the
instincts
– For example controls the desire for sexual
pleasure
• It translates the person’s needs into
motivational forces, instincts
• The transformation
– needwish called the primary process
• The Id works to satisfy the pleasure
principle
The Ego
• This part of the brain tries to resolve
the conflicts between someone's
instincts and their external reality
– An example is that it determines the
socially acceptable method to get what
someone wants
• The problem solving activity
performed is called the secondary
process
• It functions on the reality principle
The Superego
• This section of the brain is the
person’s conscience
• It controls the moral thoughts,
such as what is right and wrong
• Two parts of the Superego:
– Conscience: an internalization of
punishments and warnings
– Ego ideal: driven by rewards
Freud’s Sexual Stages of
Development
• Freud said that the sex drive is the most
important motivating force
• He created a psychosexual stage theory
with stages starting from infancy until
adulthood
• Stages:
–
–
–
–
–
Oral Stage
Anal stage
Phallic Stage
Latency Stage
Genital Stage
The Oral Stage
• Lasts from birth to about
eighteen months
• The focus is of pleasure from
the mouth
– An example is infants
sucking and biting
The Anal Stage
• Lasts from about eighteen
months to three or four years old
• The focus is now on the anus
– Children have a fixation with
going to the bathroom
– Same time as when children
are potty trained
The Phallic Stage
• Lasts from three or four
years old to around
seven years old
• The focus of pleasure is
now on the genitalia
The Latent Stage
• This period could last
from any age as young
as five years old to
puberty
• Sexual urges are
suppressed
The Genital Stage
• This stage begins at puberty and
lasts throughout an adults life
• It represents the resurgence of the
sex drive in adolescences
• Focuses mostly on pleasure from
sexual intercourse
Conclusions of Freud’s
Psychosexual Stages
• Freud believed that everyone goes
through these stages
• He believed if the normal pattern of
psychosexual development was
interrupted they would be stuck in an
earlier, more immature stage,
contribute to mental illnesses in
adulthood theory is known as Theory
of Psychosexual Development
Freud’s Defense Mechanisms
• Freud’s interpretations of how people cope
with stresses in their lives
• Eleven most common defense mechanisms:
– Denial: blocking external events from
awareness
– Repression: not being able to recall a
threatening situation, person, or event
– Isolation: involves stripping the emotion from a
difficult memory or threatening impulse
– Displacement: the redirection of an impulse
onto a substitute target
– Projection: see your own unacceptable
behaviors in other people
Defense Mechanisms (cont.)
– Reaction Formation: changing an unacceptable
impulse into its opposite
– Undoing: gestures or rituals which are meant to
cancel out unpleasant thoughts
– Introjections/ Identification: copying someone else
because you think it is better than yourself
– Regression: movement back in psychological time
when someone is faced with stress
– Rationalization: cognitively distorting the facts to
make an event or impulse less threatening to the
person
– Sublimation: transforming an unacceptable
impulse to a productive product
From The Interpretation of
Dreams, 1900
The interpretation of dreams is
the royal road to a knowledge of
the unconscious activities of the
mind.
-- Sigmund Freud
A letter by Freud
• A letter written from
Freud to Wilhelm Fliess,
a Berlin physician
• These letters make a
record of Freud's self
analysis
• They document the
process through which
he arrived at some of his
most persuasive and
controversial ideas
• In this particular letter,
that he wrote after his
father died, he describes
himself as being torn up
by the roots
Depictions from Interpretation of
Dreams
• An illustration
in The
Interpretation of
Dreams.
• It is depicting a
French nurses
dream, in order
to help her
Carl Gustav Jung (1875- 1961)
• He was born in
Kesswil, Switzerland
• Was the first
president of the
International
Psychoanalytic
Association
• Founder of
analytical
psychology
• Successor of
Sigmund Freud
Jung’s Works
• He broke with Freud in 1912, when he published
Psychology of the Unconscious
– It focused on the two dimensions of the
unconscious
 The personal part, encompasses the
repressed or forgotten content of an
individual's mental and material life
 The “collective unconscious”, which Jung
referred to as the acts and mental patterns
shared either by members of a culture or
universally by all human beings
• He also wrote In Psychological Types in 1921
Alfred Adler (1870-1937)
• He was born in Vienna,
Austria
• He grew up in Vienna
and became ill with
pneumonia as a child
• He followed through
with his decision and
received his M.D.
degree in1895 he at the
University of Vienna
• Founder of individual
psychology
• Rejected Freudian
theories
Adler’s Achievements
• In 1898, he wrote his first book which
his main beliefs of his school of
thought were based
– Focusing on the necessity of
looking at man as a whole, reacting
to his/her environment
• In 1912 Adler published, The Neurotic
Constitution
• His next book was Understanding
Human Nature in 1927
Adler’s Spread of Help
• His efforts were halted by World
War I
• He served as a doctor with the
Austrian Army
• Adler founded several child
guidance clinics in Vienna
• Adler’s help in Vienna stimulated
the development of similar clinics
in other countries throughout
Europe
Jean Piaget (1896-1980)
• Born in Neuchatel,
Switzerland
• He studied natural
sciences at the
University of
Neuchatel and
received his PhD
• He went to Zurich for
a semester and
became interested in
psychoanalysis
Piaget Theories
• He was interested in the
nature of thought itself
• He called his work: Genetic
Epistemology
– the study of the
development of
knowledge
Piaget’s Terms from his Studies
• Schema- certain skills learned to deal
with ones environment
• Assimilation- the act of copying a
behavior learned from an old schema
and repeating it on a new object
• Accommodation- accommodating an
old schema to a new object
• Adaptation- broad term for learning
how to do many things
Piaget’s Cognitive Stages
• Sensorimotor stage
– From birth to two years old
• Preoperational stage
– From two years old to seven years
old
• Concrete stage
– From seven years old to eleven
years old
• Formal stage
– Over eleven years old
Sensorimotor stage
• Infant uses senses and motor abilities to
understand the world
• Between one and four months the child
works on their primacy circular reactions:
– An action serves as a stimulus which makes the
infant repeat the same action
 Ex. Sucks their thumb, enjoys it so repeats
• Between four and twelve months uses
secondary circular reactions:
– Involves an action that has an outcome that
makes the infant want to repeat
 Ex. Squeeze a rubber ducky, it quacks, so squeezes
again because they want to hear the quack again
Preoperational Stage
• Now the child has mental
representations and is able to
pretend
• Now thinks in images and symbols
• Can not make logical sentences but
can use symbols and other things to
communicate
– Ex. Creative playuse the
checker pieces as cookies
Concrete stage
• Children understand logical principals
that apply to concrete external
objects
• Know that certain properties of an
object remain the same even when
the appearance may change
– Conservation: the quantity remains the
same despite changes in appearance
• Appreciate perspectives from another
point of view, not just their own
Concrete stage (cont.)
• Child learns classification and
seriation:
– Classification: refers to
whether a child can group
things under one category
– Seriation: is the process of
putting things in order
Formal Stage
• Involves logical operations in abstract way,
called hypothetical thinking
• Learn to group possibilities in four different
ways:
– Conjunction: two things together make a
difference
– Disjunction: one or the other thing affects
the outcome
– Implication: the formation of a hypothesis,
if something happens then that will cause
something else to happen
– Incompatibility: the elimination of a
hypothesis, if something happens then
something else will not happen as a result
The End