From Plato to now. Click to view an interactive timeline of psychology’s history from the Online Psychology Laboratory:
The first Psychology lab was created in 1879, in a University in Germany. The experimenter? William Wundt: known now as the father of Psychology. There, he and other colleagues helped create an new experimental device. His goal was to find measure atoms of the mind.
Eventually, psychology became split into two different sections: structuralism and functionalism. Structuralism was endorsed by Wundt and Edward Bradford Titchener. This view used introspection, or the observation of ones own mental/emotional processes, to examine the structure of the human mind. Functionalism was promoted by William James. It was also influenced by Darwin. This view was focused on how mental and behavioral processes work or function. Specifically, how an individual is able to survive, adapt, and thrive.
Later, Psychology developed many different subfields or perspectives which include:
- Behavioralism
- Freudian/Psychodynamic
- Humanistic
- Cognitive
- Behavior Genetics
- Cognitive
- Gender and Cross-Cultural
- Evolutionary
- Positive
- and more!
Here are some other links for more information and citations:
- Myers, D. G., & Dewall, C. N. (2015). Psychology. New York, NY: Worth Publishers.
- http://www.psychologicalscience.org/publications/observer/2013/november-13/what-we-know-now-how-psychological-science-has-changed-over-a-quarter-century.html
- http://www.psychologycareerzone.com/psychology-career-history.html
- https://www.theguardian.com/science/head-quarters/2014/jan/24/the-changing-face-of-psychology