psychology
Systematic study of human and animal behaviour. The first psychology laboratory was founded in 1879 by Wilhelm Wundt at Leipzig, Germany. The subject includes diverse areas of study and application, among them the roles of instinct, heredity, environment, and culture; the processes of sensation, perception, learning, and memory; the bases of motivation and emotion; and the functioning of thought, intelligence, and language. Significant psychologists have included Gustav Fechner, founder of psychophysics; Wolfgang Köhler, one of the Gestalt or ‘whole’ psychologists; Sigmund Freud and his associates Carl Jung and Alfred Adler; William James, Jean Piaget; Carl Rogers; Hans Eysenck; J B Watson; and B F Skinner.
Experimental psychology emphasizes the application of rigorous and objective scientific methods to the study of a wide range of mental processes and behaviour, whereas social psychology concerns the study of individuals within their social environment; for example, within groups and organizations. This has led to the development of related fields such as occupational psychology, which studies human behaviour at work, and educational psychology. Clinical psychology concerns the understanding and treatment of mental health disorders, such as anxiety, phobias, or depression; treatment may include behaviour therapy, cognitive therapy, counselling, psychoanalysis, or some combination of these.
Modern studies have been diverse; for example, the psychological causes of obesity; the nature of religious experience; and the underachievement of women seen as resulting from social pressures. Other related subjects are the nature of sleep and dreams, and the possible extensions of the senses, which leads to the more contentious ground of parapsychology.
psychology - events
| 1855 | England | The English social scientist Herbert Spencer publishes Principles of Psychology, in which, several years before Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species, he sets out a theory of evolution. |
| 1879 | Germany | German psychologist Wilhelm Max Wundt founds the first experimental psychology laboratory at Leipzig, Germany. |
| 1900 | Austria | The Austrian psychiatrist Sigmund Freud publishes Die Traumdeutung/The Interpretation of Dreams. |
| 1903 | Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov describes learning by conditioning. Whilst researching digestion Pavlov observes that a dog salivates when food is in its mouth – an example of an unconditional reflex. However, he notices that when accustomed to a feeding routine, dogs salivate at meal times even before food is given to them. If a bell always rings before food appears, the dog soon salivates at the sound of the bell even in the absence of food. The work establishes that reflexes can be conditioned (trained). | |
| 1905 | French psychologists Alfred Binet, Victor Henri, and Theodore Simon introduce the first intelligence test for children. | |
| 1921 | Swiss psychologist Carl Jung publishes Psychologische Typen/Psychological Types, in which he differentiates two personality types: extroverted and introverted. | |
| 1923 | Austrian psychiatrist Sigmund Freud publishes The Ego and the Id, in which he elaborates his division of the mind into the id, ego, and superego. | |
| 1933 | Swiss psychoanalyst Carl Gustav Jung publishes Modern Man in Search of a Soul. | |
| 1938 | Netherlands | The Dutch historian Johan Huizinga publishes Homo Ludens, which analyses the role of play in human culture. |
| 1953 | USA | US psychologist B F Skinner publishes Science and Human Behavior. |
| 1960 | Scotland | Scottish psychologist R D Laing publishes The Divided Self: A Study in Sanity and Madness. |
| 1961 | USA | US psychologist Carl Rogers publishes On Becoming a Person. |
| 1962 | USA | US psychologist A H Maslow publishes Towards a Theory of Being. |
| 1971 | England | German-born English psychologist Hans Eysenck publishes Race, Intelligence, and Education. |
| 1971 | USA | US psychologist B F Skinner publishes Beyond Freedom and Dignity, a controversial defence of behaviourism. |
| 1973 | England | English psychologist John Bowlby publishes Attachment and Loss. |
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