timeline of psychology

 

This is a timeline of psychology.

See history of psychology for a description of the development of the subject, and psychology for a general description of the subject.

Also see timeline of psychotherapy.

Early history

• ca 1550 BC - the Ebers papyrus briefly mentioned clinical depression.
• ca 350 BC - Aristotle writes on the psuchê in De Anima.
• ca 100 BC - the Dead Sea Scrolls noted the division of human nature into two temperaments.
• 1590 - Scholastic philosopher Rudolph Goclenius used the term psychology. Though often regarded as the "origin" of the term, there is conclusive evidence that it was used at least six decades ealier by Marko Marulić.
• 1672 - in Thomas Willis' anatomical treatise "De Anima Brutorum", psychology was described in terms of brain function.

Nineteenth century

1840s

• 1844 - Søren Kierkegaard published The Concept of Anxiety, the first exposition on anxiety.
• 1849 - Søren Kierkegaard published The Sickness Unto Death

1860s

• 1860 - Gustav Theodor Fechner wrote Elements of Psychophysics, establishing the subject of psychophysics.
• 1861 - Paul Broca discovered an area in the left cerebral hemisphere that is important for speech production (now known as Broca's area), marking the start of neuropsychology.

1870s

• 1874 - Wilhelm Wundt published his Grundzüge der physiologischen Psychologie (Principles of Psychiological Psychology), the first textbook of experimental psychology.
• ca. 1875 - William James opened the first experimental psychology laboratory in the United States, though it was intended for classroom demonstration rather than original research.
• 1878 - G. Stanley Hall was awarded the first PhD on a psychological topic from Harvard (in philosophy).
• 1879 - Wilhelm Wundt opened the first experimental psychology laboratory at the University of Leipzig in Germany.

1880s

• 1883 - G. Stanley Hall opened the first American experimental psychology research laboratory at Johns Hopkins University.
• 1885 - Hermann Ebbinghaus published Über das Gedächtnis, a groundbreaking work where Ebbinghaus describes experiments on himself.
• 1886 - Sigmund Freud opened private practice in Vienna.
• 1887 - George Trumbull Ladd (Yale) published Elements of Physiological Psychology, the first American textbook to include a substantial amount of information on the new experimental form of the discipline.
• 1887 - James McKeen Cattell founded an experimental psychology laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania, only the 3rd in the United States (including William James' Harvard lab).
• 1887 - G. Stanley Hall founded the American Journal of Psychology with a $500 contribution supplied by Robert Pearsall Smith of the American Society for Psychical Research.
• 1888 - William Lowe Bryan founded the United States' 4th experimental psychology laboratory at Indiana University.
• 1888 - Joseph Jastrow founded the United States' 5th experimental psychology laboratory at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
• 1888 - G. Stanley Hall leaves Johns Hopkins for the presidency of the newly-founded Clark University.
• 1889 - James Mark Baldwin publishes the first volume of his Handbook of Psychology ("Sense and Intellect").
• 1889 - Edmund Clark Sanford, a former student of G. Stanley Hall, founded the United States' 6th experimental psychology laboratory at Clark University.
• 1889 - William Noyes founded the United States' 7th experimental psychology laboratory at the McLean Asylum in Waverley, Mass.
• 1889 - Harry Kirke Wolfe founded the United States' 8th experimental psychology laboratory at the University of Nebraska.

1890s

• 1890 - William James published Principles of Psychology.
• 1890 - James Hayden Tufts founded the United States' 9th experimental psychology laboratory at the University of Michigan.
• 1890 - G. T. W. Patrick founded the United States' 10th experimental psychology laboratory at the University of Iowa.
• 1890 - James McKeen Cattell left Pennsylvania for Columbia University where he founded the United States' 11th experimental psychology.
• 1890 - James Mark Baldwin founded the first permanent experimental psychology laboratory in the British Empire at the University of Toronto.
• 1891 - Frank Angell founded the United States' 12th experimental psychology laboratory at the Cornell University.
• 1891 - Mary Whiton Calkins founded the United States' 13th experimental psychology laboratory, the first by a woman, at Wellesley College.
• 1892 - G. Stanley Hall founded the American Psychological Association (APA).
• 1892 - Edward Bradford Titchener takes a professorship at Cornell University, replacing Frank Angell who has left for Stanford University.
• 1892 - Edward Wheeler Scripture founded the experimental psychology laboratory at Yale University, the 19th in United States.
• 1892-1893 - Charles A. Strong opened the experimental psychology laboratory at the University of Chicago, the 20th in the Uninted States, at which James Rowland Angell conducted the first experiments of functionalism in the 1896.
• 1894 - James McKeen Cattell and James Mark Baldwin found the Psychological Review to compete with Hall's American Journal of Psychology
• 1896 - The first psychological clinic was opened at the University of Pennsylvania by Lightner Witmer. Although often celebrated as marking the birth of clinical psychology, Witmer's clinic was focused primarily on educational matters.
• 1896 - Edward B. Titchener, student of Wilhelm Wundt and originator of the terms "structuralism" and "functionalism," published his An Outline of Psychology.
• 1898 - Edward Thorndike described the Law of effect.

Twentieth century

1900s

• 1900 - Sigmund Freud published 'Interpretation of Dreams' marking the beginning of Psychoanalytic Thought.
• 1903 - John B. Watson graduated from the University of Chicago. His dissertation on rat behavior has been described as a "classic of developmental psychobiology" by historian of psychology, Donald Dewsbury.
• 1904 - Charles Spearman published the article General Intelligence in the American Journal of Psychology, introducing the g factor theory of intelligence.
• 1905 - Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon created the Binet-Simon scale to identify students needing extra help, marking the start for standardized psychological testing.
• 1906 - The Journal of Abnormal Psychology was founded by Morton Prince.

1910s

• 1911 - Alfred Adler left Freud's Psychoanalytic Group to form his own school of thought, accusing Freud of overemphasizing sexuality and basing his theory on his own childhood.
• 1912 - Max Wertheimer published Experimental Studies of the Perception of Movement, considered the founding article of Gestalt psychology
• 1913 - Carl Jung departed from Freudian views and developed his own theories citing Freud's inability to acknowledge religion and spirituality. His new school of thought became known as Analytical Psychology.
• 1913 - Jacob L. Moreno applied Group Psychotherapy methods in Vienna. His new methods, which emphasised spontanaeity and interaction, later became known as Psychodrama and Sociometry.
• 1913 - John B. Watson published Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It, sometimes known as "The Behaviorist Manifesto".

1920s

• 1920 - John B. Watson and Rosalie Rayner conducted the Little Albert experiment, using classical conditioning to make a young boy afraid of white rats.
• 1921 - Jacob L. Moreno conducted the first large scale public Psychodrama session at the Komoedienhaus, Vienna. He moves to New York in 1925.
• 1928 - Jean Piaget's book Judgement and Reasoning in the Child is published.

1930s

• 1934 - Lev Vygotsky's Thought and Language (a.k.a. Thinking and Speech) is first published (in Russian)
• 1938 - B.F. Skinner published his first major work, The Behavior of Organisms: An Experimental Analysis, introducing behavior analysis.

1940s

• 1942 - Carl Rogers published 'Counseling and Psychotherapy' suggesting that respect and a non-judgmental approach to therapy is the foundation for effective treatment of mental health issues.
• 1943 - Abraham Maslow described his hierarchy of needs in the paper A Theory of Human Motivation, published in Psychological Review
• 1945 - The Journal of Clinical Psychology was founded.
• 1949 - Boulder Conference outlined scientist-practitioner model of clinical psychology, looking at the M.D. versus Ph.D. used by medical providers and researchers, respectively.

1950s

• 1950 - Rollo May published The Meaning of Anxiety.
• 1951 - Carl Rogers published his major work, Client-Centered Therapy.
• 1951 - In the Asch conformity experiments, Solomon Asch demonstrated the power of conformity in groups.
• 1951 - Lee Cronbach wrote about his measure of reliability, now known as Cronbach's alpha.
• 1952 - The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) was published by The American Psychiatric Association marking the beginning of modern mental illness classification.
• 1953 - B.F. Skinner outlined behavioral therapy, lending support for behavioral psychology via research in the literature.
• 1953 - Code of Ethics for Psychologists was developed by the American Psychological Association.
• 1954 - Abraham Maslow helped to found Humanistic psychology and later developed his famous Hierarchy of Needs.
• 1955 - Lee Cronbach published Construct Validity in Psychological Tests, popularizing the concept of Construct validity.
• 1956 - Rollo May published Existence, promoting Existential psychology.
• 1956 - Leon Festinger proposed his theory of Cognitive dissonance
• 1959 - Noam Chomsky published his review of B.F. Skinner's Verbal Behavior, an event seen as by many as the start of the Cognitive revolution.
• 1959 - Lawrence Kohlberg wrote his doctoral dissertation, outlining his stages of moral development.

1960s

• 1961 - In the Bobo doll experiment, Albert Bandura studied behavioral patterns of aggression.
• 1963 - Stanley Milgram described his study of obedience to authority, now known as the Milgram experiment.
• 1967 - Aaron Beck published a psychological model of depression suggesting that thoughts play a significant role in the development and maintenance of depression.
• 1968 - DSM-II was published by the American Psychiatric Association.
• 1968 - First Doctor of Psychology (Psy.D.) professional degree program in Clinical Psychology was established in the Department of Psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
• 1969 - California School of Professional Psychology was established as the first freestanding school of professional psychology.
• 1969 - The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology was initiated by Abraham Maslow, Stanislav Grof and Anthony Sutich
• 1969 - John Bowlby published his Attachment theory.
• 1969 - Harry Harlow published his experiment on affection development in rhesus monkeys.
• 1969 - Joseph Wolpe published The Practice of Behavior Therapy.

1970s

• 1971 - The Stanford prison experiment, conducted by Philip Zimbardo and others at Stanford University, studied the human response to captivity. The experiment quickly got out of hand and was ended early.
• 1971 - Martin Shubik demonstrated the Dollar auction experiment, illustrating irrational choices.
• 1973 - Vail Conference of Graduate Educators in Psychology endorsed the scholar-practitioner training model.
• 1978 - Mary Ainsworth published a book about her work on Attachment theory and the Strange Situation experiment.

1980s

• 1980 - DSM-III published by the American Psychiatric Association.
• 1983 - Howard Gardner published Frames of Mind, introducing his theory of multiple intelligences
• 1987 - Erik Erikson published The Life Cycle Completed, expanding on his stage theory of psychosocial development.

1990s

• 1994 - DSM-IV published by the American Psychiatric Association.

References

• AllPsyc Online

Donate to Wikimedia