A Brief History of Psychology:
Roots of Psychology
Pre-scientific Psychology
To include a few notable names:
Plato
Aristotle
Rene Descartes
John Locke
George Berkeley
James and John Stuart Mill
Plato
In his Theory of
Forms, Plato attempted
to define the structure
of the mind
Used the term Psyche
to define the
soul/mind and study
human behavior
Many people attribute
the origin of
psychology to Plato
Aristotle
Wrote the book Para
Psyche (About the
Brain) in which he
theorized how to study
reason and thought
(Cognition)
Tried to define the
differences between
cognitive thought and
emotional impulses
Rene Descartes
Viewed the mind and
the body as two
separate entities
Ruled out organs other
than the brain as
location of mental
functioning
Human minds consist
of two kinds of ideas
(innate and derived)
John Locke
The mind is a blank
slate (Aristotle’s idea of
tabula rasa)
Opposed the notion of
innate ideas, life’s
experience makes the
man
Empiricist approachknowledge acquired by
careful observation
George Berkeley
Two early works that
exert an influence on
psychology (1700s)
An Essay Towards a
New Theory of Vision
(1709)
A Treatise Concerning
the Principles of
Human Knowledge
(1710)
James Mill
Applied the doctrine of
mechanism to the
human mind, the
mind is a machine
No Free Will (Skinner)
The mind has no
creative function;
association is an
automatic, passive
process
John Stuart Mill
James Mill’s son
Argued against his father
saying the mind plays an
active role in the
association of ideas
Suggested that there
could be a “science of
psychology” The mind
could be studied
scientifically
Founders of Scientific
Psychology
In Germany. . . Why?
Zeitgeist!!!!!
Intellectual spirit of the times
Not England
Not France
But, Germany
Wilhelm Wundt
First research laboratory in
psychology at University of
Leipzig (1879)
Research methods included:
introspection, psychophysical
measurements and reaction
time
Methods of scientific study
lasted
Hermann Ebbinghaus
Published classic
studies on memory
(1885)
Max Wertheimer
Gestalt Psychology
Argued that the mind’s
elements could not completely
explain consciousness
The whole is different than
the sum of its parts
Important work with
perception, learning, thinking
Antecedent to cognitive
psychology
Early Milestones Over the Pond
(in the US)
Clark University on Freud’s only trip to the US (G. Stanley Hall in
center)
G. Stanley Hall
Established the first
research psychology lab
in the US at Johns
Hopkins University
(1883)
First President of APA
First American
psychology
journal(1887)
William James
Wrote the influential
Principles of Psychology (1890)
Associated with functionalism,
a perspective emphasizing the
functions (purpose) of behavior
rather than the structures
Said first psychology lecture he
attended was the first one he
gave (Harvard man)
Established “first”
experimental laboratory
Edward B. Titchener
Student of Wundt who
spent career at Cornell
University
Founded structuralism,
based partially on
Wundtian concepts
Sought to explain
consciousness by
analyzing structural
elements
Mary Whiton Calkins
First woman president of
APA (1905)
Harvard would not allow
her graduate studies
under William James
James informally
administered her exams
Harvard would not give
her a Ph. D.
Radcliffe College offered
her a degree, she declined
Christine Ladd Franklin
First woman
psychologist
Vassar (1869)
Never accepted in the
field
No formal academic
post in psychology
Studies in vision
Margaret Floy Washburn
First woman to receive a
Ph. D in psychology
(1894) at Cornell
Wanted to go to
Columbia, but they
would not admit women
into the programs
Was Titchener’s student
Had a successful career in
psychology
Leta Stetter Hollingsworth
Pioneered work on adolescent
development, mental
retardation and giftedness
Examined scientific beliefs
regarding women’s “nature”
and social roles
In 1921 she was cited in
American Men of Science for
her research on the psychology
of women
What does this tell you?
Back to Austria and the study
of consciousness
Sigmund Freud
Published Interpretation
of Dreams (1900), his
major theoretical work on
psychoanalysis
Psychoanalytic theory was
the first theory of
personality