Psycholog\'s roots including the people who made psychology possible & the dates.

1. Psychology’s Roots
To be curious about yourself and the world around you is only human. Greek naturalist and
philosopher Aristotle speculated about learning and memory, perception and personality, & emotion
and motivation before 300 B.C. Today people snicker about some of his theories, such as his theory that
eating a meal makes us sleepy by causing gas and heat to collect around our heart (which he thought
was the source of our personalities).
The birth of psychology as we know it began on a cold December day in 1879 in a cramped room
on the third floor of a ragged building. This building is known as Germany’s University of Leipzig, and
William Wundt (a middle age professor) created an experimental setup. “Their machine measured the
time lag between people’s hearing a ball hit a platform and their pressing a telegraph key.” (Hunt, 1993)
The researchers compared this to the time that was required for somewhat more complex tasks, in
which they were seeking to explore the fastest and simplest mental process (atoms of the mind). This is
what began as psychology’s first analysis. This experiment led to the first psychological institute, which
was taught by Wundt and the first graduates of psychology.
Timeline of Psychology
1875-William Wundt established the first psychology experiment
1883-Stanley Hall (Wundt’s student) established the first psychology laboratory at John Hopkins University
1885-Herman Ebbinghaus performs first experiment on memory
1890-William James published Principles of Psychology in the United States
1892-(APA)American Psychological Association was founded
1898-Edward L. Thorndike first experiments on animals and the way they learn
1900-Sigmund Freud introduces The Interpretation of Dreams in Austria
1905-Mary Whiton Calkins became president of American Psychological Association
1905-Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon publish first intelligence test (France)
1906-Ivan Pavlov published his studies of animal learning (Russia)
1908-Margaret Floy Washburn was the first woman to receive a Ph.D in Psychology
1913-John B. Watson classifies psychology as the science of behavior.
(Myers, 2001)
Bibliography
Hunt, M. M. (1993). The Story of Psychology. New York Reed Business Information, Inc
Myers, D. G. (2001). Psychology sixth edition. Holland, Michigan: Worth Publishers.