Timeline of psychology
Encyclopedia
This article is a compiled timeline of psychology. A more general description of the development of the subject of psychology
can be found in the history of psychology
article. A more specific review of important events in the development of talk therapy
can be found in the timeline of psychotherapy
article.
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
can be found in the history of psychology
History of psychology
The history of psychology as a scholarly study of the mind and behavior dates back to the Ancient Greeks. There is also evidence of psychological thought in ancient Egypt. Psychology was a branch of philosophy until the 1870s, when psychology developed as an independent scientific discipline in...
article. A more specific review of important events in the development of talk therapy
Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy is a general term referring to any form of therapeutic interaction or treatment contracted between a trained professional and a client or patient; family, couple or group...
can be found in the timeline of psychotherapy
Timeline of psychotherapy
This article is a compiled timeline of psychotherapy. A more general description of the development of the subject of psychology can be found in the history of psychology article. Likewise, a more general review of important events in the development of psychology can be found in the timeline of...
article.
Early history
- ca 1550 BC – the Ebers papyrusEbers papyrusThe Ebers Papyrus, also known as Papyrus Ebers, is an Egyptian medical papyrus dating to circa 1550 BC. Among the oldest and most important medical papyri of ancient Egypt, it was purchased at Luxor, in the winter of 1873–74 by Georg Ebers...
briefly mentioned clinical depressionClinical depressionMajor depressive disorder is a mental disorder characterized by an all-encompassing low mood accompanied by low self-esteem, and by loss of interest or pleasure in normally enjoyable activities...
. - ca 350 BC – AristotleAristotleAristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...
writes on the psuchê in De Anima. - ca 100 BC – the Dead Sea ScrollsDead Sea scrollsThe Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of 972 texts from the Hebrew Bible and extra-biblical documents found between 1947 and 1956 on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea, from which they derive their name...
noted the division of human nature into two temperaments. - 398 – Psychological analysis of Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, anticipates Freud by discovery of the 'sub-conscious'.
- ca 850 – Al-KindiAl-Kindi' , known as "the Philosopher of the Arabs", was a Muslim Arab philosopher, mathematician, physician, and musician. Al-Kindi was the first of the Muslim peripatetic philosophers, and is unanimously hailed as the "father of Islamic or Arabic philosophy" for his synthesis, adaptation and promotion...
(Alkindus) developed the use of psychotherapyPsychotherapyPsychotherapy is a general term referring to any form of therapeutic interaction or treatment contracted between a trained professional and a client or patient; family, couple or group...
and music therapyMusic therapyMusic therapy is an allied health profession and one of the expressive therapies, consisting of an interpersonal process in which a trained music therapist uses music and all of its facets—physical, emotional, mental, social, aesthetic, and spiritual—to help clients to improve or maintain their...
in treating mentally ill patients. - ca 850 – Ali ibn Sahl Rabban al-TabariAli ibn Sahl Rabban al-TabariAbu al-Hasan Ali ibn Sahl Rabban al-Tabari also given as 810-855 and 783-858 was a Persian Muslim hakim, Islamic scholar, physician and psychologist of Zoroastrian descent, who produced one of the first encyclopedia of medicine. He was a pioneer of pediatrics and the field of child development...
developed the idea of using clinical psychiatry to treat mentally ill patients. - ca 900 – The concepts of mental healthMental healthMental health describes either a level of cognitive or emotional well-being or an absence of a mental disorder. From perspectives of the discipline of positive psychology or holism mental health may include an individual's ability to enjoy life and procure a balance between life activities and...
or "mental hygiene" were introduced by Ahmed ibn Sahl al-BalkhiAhmed ibn Sahl al-BalkhiAbu Zayd Ahmed ibn Sahl Balkhi was a Persian Muslim polymath: a geographer, mathematician, physician, psychologist and scientist. Born in 850 CE in Shamistiyan, in the Persian province of Balkh, Khorasan , he was a disciple of al-Kindi...
. He also recognized that illnesses can have both psychological and/or physiological causes. - ca 900 – al-RaziAl-RaziMuhammad ibn Zakariyā Rāzī , known as Rhazes or Rasis after medieval Latinists, was a Persian polymath,a prominent figure in Islamic Golden Age, physician, alchemist and chemist, philosopher, and scholar....
(Rhazes) recognized the concept of "psychotherapy" and referred to it as al-‘ilaj al-nafsNafsNafs is an Arabic word which occurs in the Qur'an and means self, psyche, ego or soul. In its unrefined state, "the ego is the lowest dimension of man's inward existence, his animal and satanic nature." Nafs is an important concept in the Islamic tradition, especially within Sufism and the...
. - 1021 – Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) began to carry out experimentExperimentAn experiment is a methodical procedure carried out with the goal of verifying, falsifying, or establishing the validity of a hypothesis. Experiments vary greatly in their goal and scale, but always rely on repeatable procedure and logical analysis of the results...
s in areas related to body and the nafsNafsNafs is an Arabic word which occurs in the Qur'an and means self, psyche, ego or soul. In its unrefined state, "the ego is the lowest dimension of man's inward existence, his animal and satanic nature." Nafs is an important concept in the Islamic tradition, especially within Sufism and the...
. In his Book of OpticsBook of OpticsThe Book of Optics ; ; Latin: De Aspectibus or Opticae Thesaurus: Alhazeni Arabis; Italian: Deli Aspecti) is a seven-volume treatise on optics and other fields of study composed by the medieval Muslim scholar Alhazen .-See also:* Science in medieval Islam...
, for example, he examined visual perceptionVisual perceptionVisual perception is the ability to interpret information and surroundings from the effects of visible light reaching the eye. The resulting perception is also known as eyesight, sight, or vision...
and what we now call sensation, including variations in sensitivityStimulus (physiology)In physiology, a stimulus is a detectable change in the internal or external environment. The ability of an organism or organ to respond to external stimuli is called sensitivity....
, sensation of touch, perceptionPerceptionPerception is the process of attaining awareness or understanding of the environment by organizing and interpreting sensory information. All perception involves signals in the nervous system, which in turn result from physical stimulation of the sense organs...
of colors, perception of darknessDarknessDarkness, in contrast with brightness, is a relative absence of visible light. It is the appearance of black in a color space. When light is not present, rod and cone cells within the eye are not stimulated. This lack of stimulation means photoreceptor cells are unable to distinguish color...
, the psychological explanation of the moon illusionMoon illusionThe Moon illusion is an optical illusion in which the Moon appears larger near the horizon than it does while higher up in the sky. This optical illusion also occurs with the sun and star constellations. It has been known since ancient times, and recorded by numerous different cultures...
, and binocular visionBinocular visionBinocular vision is vision in which both eyes are used together. The word binocular comes from two Latin roots, bini for double, and oculus for eye. Having two eyes confers at least four advantages over having one. First, it gives a creature a spare eye in case one is damaged. Second, it gives a...
. - 1025 – In The Canon of MedicineThe Canon of MedicineThe Canon of Medicine is an encyclopedia of Galenic medicine in five books compiled by Ibn Sīnā and completed in 1025. It presents a clear and organized summary of all the medical knowledge of the time...
, AvicennaAvicennaAbū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Sīnā , commonly known as Ibn Sīnā or by his Latinized name Avicenna, was a Persian polymath, who wrote almost 450 treatises on a wide range of subjects, of which around 240 have survived...
described a number of conditions, including hallucinationHallucinationA hallucination, in the broadest sense of the word, is a perception in the absence of a stimulus. In a stricter sense, hallucinations are defined as perceptions in a conscious and awake state in the absence of external stimuli which have qualities of real perception, in that they are vivid,...
, insomniaInsomniaInsomnia is most often defined by an individual's report of sleeping difficulties. While the term is sometimes used in sleep literature to describe a disorder demonstrated by polysomnographic evidence of disturbed sleep, insomnia is often defined as a positive response to either of two questions:...
, maniaManiaMania, the presence of which is a criterion for certain psychiatric diagnoses, is a state of abnormally elevated or irritable mood, arousal, and/ or energy levels. In a sense, it is the opposite of depression...
, nightmareNightmareA nightmare is an unpleasant dream that can cause a strong negative emotional response from the mind, typically fear or horror, but also despair, anxiety and great sadness. The dream may contain situations of danger, discomfort, psychological or physical terror...
, melancholiaMelancholiaMelancholia , also lugubriousness, from the Latin lugere, to mourn; moroseness, from the Latin morosus, self-willed, fastidious habit; wistfulness, from old English wist: intent, or saturnine, , in contemporary usage, is a mood disorder of non-specific depression,...
, dementiaDementiaDementia is a serious loss of cognitive ability in a previously unimpaired person, beyond what might be expected from normal aging...
, epilepsyEpilepsyEpilepsy is a common chronic neurological disorder characterized by seizures. These seizures are transient signs and/or symptoms of abnormal, excessive or hypersynchronous neuronal activity in the brain.About 50 million people worldwide have epilepsy, and nearly two out of every three new cases...
, paralysisParalysisParalysis is loss of muscle function for one or more muscles. Paralysis can be accompanied by a loss of feeling in the affected area if there is sensory damage as well as motor. A study conducted by the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation, suggests that about 1 in 50 people have been diagnosed...
, strokeStrokeA stroke, previously known medically as a cerebrovascular accident , is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia caused by blockage , or a hemorrhage...
, vertigoVertigo (medical)Vertigo is a type of dizziness, where there is a feeling of motion when one is stationary. The symptoms are due to a dysfunction of the vestibular system in the inner ear...
and tremorTremorA tremor is an involuntary, somewhat rhythmic, muscle contraction and relaxation involving to-and-fro movements of one or more body parts. It is the most common of all involuntary movements and can affect the hands, arms, eyes, face, head, vocal folds, trunk, and legs. Most tremors occur in the...
. - ca 1030 – Al-BiruniAl-BiruniAbū al-Rayḥān Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-BīrūnīArabic spelling. . The intermediate form Abū Rayḥān al-Bīrūnī is often used in academic literature...
employed an experimentExperimentAn experiment is a methodical procedure carried out with the goal of verifying, falsifying, or establishing the validity of a hypothesis. Experiments vary greatly in their goal and scale, but always rely on repeatable procedure and logical analysis of the results...
al method in examining the concept of reaction time. - ca 1150 – Ibn ZuhrIbn ZuhrAbū Merwān ’Abdal-Malik ibn Zuhr was a Muslim physician, surgeon and teacher in Al-Andalus.He was born at Seville...
(Avenzoar) gave the first accurate descriptions on certain neurological disorders such as meningitisMeningitisMeningitis is inflammation of the protective membranes covering the brain and spinal cord, known collectively as the meninges. The inflammation may be caused by infection with viruses, bacteria, or other microorganisms, and less commonly by certain drugs...
, intracranial thrombophlebitisThrombophlebitisThrombophlebitis is phlebitis related to a thrombus . When it occurs repeatedly in different locations, it is known as "Thrombophlebitis migrans" or "migrating thrombophlebitis".-Signs and symptoms:...
, and mediastinal germ cell tumorMediastinal germ cell tumorMalignant mediastinal germ cell tumors of various histologies were first described as a clinical entity approximately 50 years ago. Mediastinal and other extragonadal germ cell tumors were initially thought to represent isolated metastases from an inapparent gonadal primary site.-Etiology:Some...
s. - ca 1150 – AverroesAverroes' , better known just as Ibn Rushd , and in European literature as Averroes , was a Muslim polymath; a master of Aristotelian philosophy, Islamic philosophy, Islamic theology, Maliki law and jurisprudence, logic, psychology, politics, Arabic music theory, and the sciences of medicine, astronomy,...
suggested the existence of Parkinson's diseaseParkinson's diseaseParkinson's disease is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system...
. - ca. 1200 – MaimonidesMaimonidesMoses ben-Maimon, called Maimonides and also known as Mūsā ibn Maymūn in Arabic, or Rambam , was a preeminent medieval Jewish philosopher and one of the greatest Torah scholars and physicians of the Middle Ages...
wrote about neuropsychiatric disorders and described rabiesRabiesRabies is a viral disease that causes acute encephalitis in warm-blooded animals. It is zoonotic , most commonly by a bite from an infected animal. For a human, rabies is almost invariably fatal if post-exposure prophylaxis is not administered prior to the onset of severe symptoms...
and belladonnaDeadly nightshadeAtropa belladonna or Atropa bella-donna, commonly known as Belladonna, Devil's Berries, Death Cherries or Deadly Nightshade, is a perennial herbaceous plant in the family Solanaceae, native to Europe, North Africa, and Western Asia. The foliage and berries are extremely toxic, containing tropane...
intoxication. - 1590 – Scholastic philosopher Rudolph GocleniusRudolph GocleniusRudolph Göckel or Rudolf Goclenius [the Older] was a German scholastic philosopher, credited with inventing the term psychology .-Life:He was born in Korbach, Waldeck...
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 earlier by Marko MarulićMarko MarulicMarko Marulić |Split]], 18 August 1450 – Split, 5 January 1524) was a Croatian national poet and Christian humanist, known as the Crown of the Croatian Medieval Age and the father of the Croatian Renaissance. He signed his works as Marko Marulić Splićanin , Marko Pečenić, Marcus Marulus ...
. - 1672 – in Thomas WillisThomas WillisThomas Willis was an English doctor who played an important part in the history of anatomy, neurology and psychiatry. He was a founding member of the Royal Society.-Life:...
' anatomical treatise "De Anima Brutorum", psychology was described in terms of brain function.
1840s
- 1840 - Frederick Augustus RauchFrederick Augustus RauchFrederick Augustus Rauch [in Germany Friedrich August Rauch] was an educator. He was the founding president of Marshall College.-Biography:...
(1806–1841) published Psychology, or a view of the human soul, including anthropology - 1844 – Søren KierkegaardSøren KierkegaardSøren Aabye Kierkegaard was a Danish Christian philosopher, theologian and religious author. He was a critic of idealist intellectuals and philosophers of his time, such as Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling and Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel...
published The Concept of Anxiety, the first exposition on anxietyAnxietyAnxiety is a psychological and physiological state characterized by somatic, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral components. The root meaning of the word anxiety is 'to vex or trouble'; in either presence or absence of psychological stress, anxiety can create feelings of fear, worry, uneasiness,...
. - 1849 – Søren Kierkegaard published The Sickness Unto DeathThe Sickness Unto DeathThe Sickness Unto Death is a book written by Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard in 1849 under the pseudonym Anti-Climacus...
.
1850s
- 1852 Hermann Lotze published Medical Psychology or Physiology of the Soul.
- 1855 Herbert SpencerHerbert SpencerHerbert Spencer was an English philosopher, biologist, sociologist, and prominent classical liberal political theorist of the Victorian era....
published "Principles of Psychology" under one volume.
1860s
- 1860 – Gustav Theodor Fechner wrote Elements of Psychophysics, establishing the subject of psychophysicsPsychophysicsPsychophysics quantitatively investigates the relationship between physical stimuli and the sensations and perceptions they effect. Psychophysics has been described as "the scientific study of the relation between stimulus and sensation" or, more completely, as "the analysis of perceptual...
. - 1861 – Paul BrocaPaul BrocaPierre Paul Broca was a French physician, surgeon, anatomist, and anthropologist. He was born in Sainte-Foy-la-Grande, Gironde. He is best known for his research on Broca's area, a region of the frontal lobe that has been named after him. Broca’s Area is responsible for articulated language...
discovered an area in the left cerebral hemisphereCerebral hemisphereA cerebral hemisphere is one of the two regions of the eutherian brain that are delineated by the median plane, . The brain can thus be described as being divided into left and right cerebral hemispheres. Each of these hemispheres has an outer layer of grey matter called the cerebral cortex that is...
that is important for speech production (now known as Broca's areaBroca's areaBroca's area is a region of the hominid brain with functions linked to speech production.The production of language has been linked to the Broca’s area since Pierre Paul Broca reported impairments in two patients. They had lost the ability to speak after injury to the posterior inferior frontal...
), marking the start of neuropsychologyNeuropsychologyNeuropsychology studies the structure and function of the brain related to specific psychological processes and behaviors. The term neuropsychology has been applied to lesion studies in humans and animals. It has also been applied to efforts to record electrical activity from individual cells in...
.
1870s
- 1870 - Herbert SpencerHerbert SpencerHerbert Spencer was an English philosopher, biologist, sociologist, and prominent classical liberal political theorist of the Victorian era....
published the two volume version of "Principles of Psychology" - 1874 – Wilhelm WundtWilhelm WundtWilhelm Maximilian Wundt was a German physician, psychologist, physiologist, philosopher, and professor, known today as one of the founding figures of modern psychology. He is widely regarded as the "father of experimental psychology"...
published his Grundzüge der physiologischen Psychologie (Principles of Physiological Psychology), the first textbook of experimental psychology. - ca. 1875 – William JamesWilliam JamesWilliam James was a pioneering American psychologist and philosopher who was trained as a physician. He wrote influential books on the young science of psychology, educational psychology, psychology of religious experience and mysticism, and on the philosophy of pragmatism...
opened the first experimental psychology laboratory in the United States, though it was intended for classroom demonstration rather than original research. - 1878 – G. Stanley HallG. Stanley HallGranville Stanley Hall was a pioneering American psychologist and educator. His interests focused on childhood development and evolutionary theory...
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 LeipzigUniversity of LeipzigThe University of Leipzig , located in Leipzig in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, is one of the oldest universities in the world and the second-oldest university in Germany...
in Germany.
1880s
- 1883 – G. Stanley HallG. Stanley HallGranville Stanley Hall was a pioneering American psychologist and educator. His interests focused on childhood development and evolutionary theory...
opened the first American experimental psychology research laboratory at Johns Hopkins University. - 1885 – Hermann EbbinghausHermann EbbinghausHermann Ebbinghaus was a German psychologist who pioneered the experimental study of memory, and is known for his discovery of the forgetting curve and the spacing effect. He was also the first person to describe the learning curve...
published Über das Gedächtnis, a groundbreaking work where Ebbinghaus describes experiments on himself. - 1886 – John Dewy published the first textbook on psychology titled "Psychology"
- 1886 - Vladimir BekhterevVladimir BekhterevVladimir Mikhailovich Bekhterev was a Russian Neurologist and the Father of Objective Psychology. He is best known for noting the role of the hippocampus in memory, his study of reflexes, and Bekhterev’s Disease...
established the first laboratory of experimental psychology in Russia at Kazan University. - 1886 – Sigmund FreudSigmund FreudSigmund Freud , born Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian neurologist who founded the discipline of psychoanalysis...
opened private practice in ViennaViennaVienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
. - 1887 – Georg Elias MüllerGeorg Elias MüllerGeorg Elias Müller was a significant early German experimental psychologist.-Biography:Born in Grimma, Saxony, he completed his doctorate in 1873 under the supervision of Hermann Lotze in Göttingen. He was also educated at the universities of Leipzig and Berlin...
opened the second German experimental psychology research laboratory in GöttingenGöttingenGöttingen is a university town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Göttingen. The Leine river runs through the town. In 2006 the population was 129,686.-General information:...
. - 1887 – George Trumbull LaddGeorge Trumbull LaddGeorge Trumbull Ladd was an American philosopher, educator and psychologist.-Early life and ancestors:...
(YaleYALERapidMiner, formerly YALE , is an environment for machine learning, data mining, text mining, predictive analytics, and business analytics. It is used for research, education, training, rapid prototyping, application development, and industrial applications...
) 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 CattellJames McKeen CattellJames McKeen Cattell , American psychologist, was the first professor of psychology in the United States at the University of Pennsylvania and long-time editor and publisher of scientific journals and publications, most notably the journal Science...
founded an experimental psychology laboratory at the University of PennsylvaniaUniversity of PennsylvaniaThe University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
, only the 3rd in the United States (including William JamesWilliam JamesWilliam James was a pioneering American psychologist and philosopher who was trained as a physician. He wrote influential books on the young science of psychology, educational psychology, psychology of religious experience and mysticism, and on the philosophy of pragmatism...
' Harvard lab). - 1887 – G. Stanley HallG. Stanley HallGranville Stanley Hall was a pioneering American psychologist and educator. His interests focused on childhood development and evolutionary theory...
founded the American Journal of PsychologyAmerican Journal of PsychologyThe American Journal of Psychology was the first English-language journal devoted primarily to experimental psychology . AJP was founded by the Johns Hopkins University psychologist Granville Stanley Hall in 1887...
with a $500 contribution supplied by Robert Pearsall SmithRobert Pearsall SmithRobert Pearsall Smith was a lay leader in the Holiness movement in the United States and the Higher Life movement in Great Britain. His book Holiness Through Faith is one of the foundational works of the Holiness movement...
of the American Society for Psychical ResearchAmerican Society for Psychical ResearchThe American Society for Psychical Research is an organisation dedicated to parapsychology based in New York, where it maintains offices and a library. It is open to interested members of the public to join, and has a website...
. - 1888 – William Lowe BryanWilliam Lowe BryanWilliam Lowe Bryan was the 10th president of Indiana University, serving from 1902 to 1937. Having been born near Bloomington, Bryan graduated from IU with degrees in ancient classics and philosophy. His interests shifted toward psychology and Bryan went on to earn his Ph.D. in psychology from...
founded the United States' 4th experimental psychology laboratory at Indiana UniversityIndiana University BloomingtonIndiana University Bloomington is a public research university located in Bloomington, Indiana, in the United States. IU Bloomington is the flagship campus of the Indiana University system. Being the flagship campus, IU Bloomington is often referred to simply as IU or Indiana...
. - 1888 – Joseph JastrowJoseph JastrowJoseph Jastrow was an American psychologist, noted for inventions in experimental psychology, design of experiments, and psycho-physics. Jastrow was one of the first scientists to study the evolution of language, publishing an article on the topic in 1886...
founded the United States' 5th experimental psychology laboratory at the University of Wisconsin–MadisonUniversity of Wisconsin–MadisonThe University of Wisconsin–Madison is a public research university located in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1848, UW–Madison is the flagship campus of the University of Wisconsin System. It became a land-grant institution in 1866...
. - 1888 – G. Stanley HallG. Stanley HallGranville Stanley Hall was a pioneering American psychologist and educator. His interests focused on childhood development and evolutionary theory...
leaves Johns HopkinsJohns Hopkins UniversityThe Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...
for the presidency of the newly-founded Clark UniversityClark UniversityClark University is a private research university and liberal arts college in Worcester, Massachusetts.Founded in 1887, it is the oldest educational institution founded as an all-graduate university. Clark now also educates undergraduates...
. - 1889 – James Mark BaldwinJames Mark BaldwinJames Mark Baldwin was an American philosopher and psychologist who was educated at Princeton under the supervision of Scottish philosopher James McCosh and who was one of the founders of the Department of Psychology at the university...
publishes the first volume of his Handbook of Psychology ("Sense and Intellect"). - 1889 – Edmund Sanford, a former student of G. Stanley HallG. Stanley HallGranville Stanley Hall was a pioneering American psychologist and educator. His interests focused on childhood development and evolutionary theory...
, 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 WolfeHarry Kirke WolfeHarry Kirke Wolfe was a prominent early American psychologist.-Education:Wolfe earned undergraduate degree from the University of Nebraska in 1880, and his PhD under the supervision of Hermann Ebbinghaus and Wilhelm Wundt at the University of Leipzig in 1886...
founded the United States' 8th experimental psychology laboratory at the University of Nebraska.
1890s
- 1890 – William JamesWilliam JamesWilliam James was a pioneering American psychologist and philosopher who was trained as a physician. He wrote influential books on the young science of psychology, educational psychology, psychology of religious experience and mysticism, and on the philosophy of pragmatism...
published Principles of PsychologyPrinciples of PsychologyThe Principles of Psychology is a monumental text in the history of psychology, written by William James and published in 1890.There were four methods in James' psychology: analysis , introspection , experiment The Principles of Psychology is a monumental text in the history of psychology, written...
. - 1890 – James Hayden TuftsJames Hayden TuftsJames Hayden Tufts , an influential American philosopher, was a professor of the then newly founded Chicago University. Tufts was also a member of the Board of Arbitration, and the chairman of a committee of the social agencies of Chicago. The work Ethics in 1908 was a collaboration of Tufts and...
founded the United States' 9th experimental psychology laboratory at the University of MichiganUniversity of MichiganThe University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
. - 1890 – G. T. W. Patrick founded the United States' 10th experimental psychology laboratory at the University of IowaUniversity of IowaThe University of Iowa is a public state-supported research university located in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. It is the oldest public university in the state. The university is organized into eleven colleges granting undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees...
. - 1890 – James McKeen CattellJames McKeen CattellJames McKeen Cattell , American psychologist, was the first professor of psychology in the United States at the University of Pennsylvania and long-time editor and publisher of scientific journals and publications, most notably the journal Science...
left Pennsylvania for Columbia UniversityColumbia UniversityColumbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
where he founded the United States' 11th experimental psychology. - 1890 – James Mark BaldwinJames Mark BaldwinJames Mark Baldwin was an American philosopher and psychologist who was educated at Princeton under the supervision of Scottish philosopher James McCosh and who was one of the founders of the Department of Psychology at the university...
founded the first permanent experimental psychology laboratory in the British Empire at the University of TorontoUniversity of TorontoThe University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
. - 1891 – Frank AngellFrank AngellFrank Angell was an early American psychologist. The nephew of University of Vermont and University of Michigan president, James Burrill Angell and cousin of University of Chicago psychologist and Yale University president James Rowland Angell, Frank Angell earn his PhD in the Leipzig laboratory of...
founded the United States' 12th experimental psychology laboratory at the Cornell UniversityCornell UniversityCornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
. - 1891 – Mary Whiton CalkinsMary Whiton Calkins-Early life:Mary Whiton Calkins was born on March 30, 1863 in Hartford, Connecticut; she was the eldest of five children. She moved to Massachusetts in 1880 with her family to live for the rest of her life; this is also where she began her education. In 1882, Calkins entered into Smith College as...
founded the United States' 13th experimental psychology laboratory, the first by a woman, at Wellesley College. - 1892 – G. Stanley HallG. Stanley HallGranville Stanley Hall was a pioneering American psychologist and educator. His interests focused on childhood development and evolutionary theory...
founded the American Psychological AssociationAmerican Psychological AssociationThe American Psychological Association is the largest scientific and professional organization of psychologists in the United States. It is the world's largest association of psychologists with around 154,000 members including scientists, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. The APA...
(APA). - 1892 – Edward Bradford Titchener takes a professorship at Cornell UniversityCornell UniversityCornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
, replacing Frank AngellFrank AngellFrank Angell was an early American psychologist. The nephew of University of Vermont and University of Michigan president, James Burrill Angell and cousin of University of Chicago psychologist and Yale University president James Rowland Angell, Frank Angell earn his PhD in the Leipzig laboratory of...
who has left for Stanford UniversityStanford UniversityThe Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
. - 1892 – Edward Wheeler Scripture founded the experimental psychology laboratory at Yale UniversityYale UniversityYale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
, the 19th in United States. - 1892–1893 – Charles A. StrongCharles A. StrongCharles Augustus Strong , philosopher and psychologist, was the eldest son of the Augustus Hopkins Strong. In 1865 the Rev. Strong moved the family to Cleveland, Ohio. Here the Strong family became acquainted with the family of John D...
opened the experimental psychology laboratory at the University of ChicagoUniversity of ChicagoThe University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
, the 20th in the United States, at which James Rowland AngellJames Rowland AngellJames Rowland Angell was an American psychologist and educator. He served as the president of Yale University between 1921 and 1937...
conducted the first experiments of functionalismFunctional psychologyFunctional psychology or functionalism refers to a general psychological philosophy that considers mental life and behavior in terms of active adaptation to the person's environment. As such, it provides the general basis for developing psychological theories not readily testable by controlled...
in the 1896. - 1894 – James McKeen CattellJames McKeen CattellJames McKeen Cattell , American psychologist, was the first professor of psychology in the United States at the University of Pennsylvania and long-time editor and publisher of scientific journals and publications, most notably the journal Science...
and James Mark BaldwinJames Mark BaldwinJames Mark Baldwin was an American philosopher and psychologist who was educated at Princeton under the supervision of Scottish philosopher James McCosh and who was one of the founders of the Department of Psychology at the university...
found the Psychological ReviewPsychological ReviewPsychological Review is a scientific journal that publishes articles on psychological theory. It was founded by Princeton psychologist James Mark Baldwin and Columbia psychologist James McKeen Cattell in 1894 as a publication vehicle for psychologists not connected with the Clark laboratory of G....
to compete with Hall's American Journal of PsychologyAmerican Journal of PsychologyThe American Journal of Psychology was the first English-language journal devoted primarily to experimental psychology . AJP was founded by the Johns Hopkins University psychologist Granville Stanley Hall in 1887... - 1896 – The first psychological clinic was opened at the University of PennsylvaniaUniversity of PennsylvaniaThe University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
by Lightner WitmerLightner WitmerLightner Witmer Lightner Witmer is an American psychologist who is credited with the introduction of the term "Clinical Psychology." Witmer also founded the world's first "Psychological Clinic" in the United States at the University of Pennsylvania in 1896.Witmer contributed greatly to numerous...
. Although often celebrated as marking the birth of clinical psychologyClinical psychologyClinical psychology is an integration of science, theory and clinical knowledge for the purpose of understanding, preventing, and relieving psychologically-based distress or dysfunction and to promote subjective well-being and personal development...
, Witmer's clinic was focused primarily on educational matters. - 1896 – Edward B. TitchenerEdward B. TitchenerEdward Bradford Titchener, D.Sc., Ph.D., LL.D., Litt.D. was a British psychologist who studied under Wilhelm Wundt for several years. Titchener is best known for creating his version of psychology that described the structure of the mind; structuralism...
, student of Wilhelm WundtWilhelm WundtWilhelm Maximilian Wundt was a German physician, psychologist, physiologist, philosopher, and professor, known today as one of the founding figures of modern psychology. He is widely regarded as the "father of experimental psychology"...
and originator of the terms "structuralismStructuralismStructuralism originated in the structural linguistics of Ferdinand de Saussure and the subsequent Prague and Moscow schools of linguistics. Just as structural linguistics was facing serious challenges from the likes of Noam Chomsky and thus fading in importance in linguistics, structuralism...
" and "functionalismFunctional psychologyFunctional psychology or functionalism refers to a general psychological philosophy that considers mental life and behavior in terms of active adaptation to the person's environment. As such, it provides the general basis for developing psychological theories not readily testable by controlled...
," published his An Outline of Psychology. - 1898 – Edward ThorndikeEdward ThorndikeEdward Lee "Ted" Thorndike was an American psychologist who spent nearly his entire career at Teachers College, Columbia University. His work on animal behavior and the learning process led to the theory of connectionism and helped lay the scientific foundation for modern educational psychology...
described the Law of effectLaw of effectThe law of effect basically states that “responses that produce a satisfying effect in a particular situation become more likely to occur again inthat situation, and responses that produce a discomforting effect become less likely to occur again in that...
. - 1898 – Boris SidisBoris SidisBoris Sidis, Ph.D., M.D. was a Ukrainian Jewish psychologist, physician, psychiatrist, and philosopher of education. Sidis founded the New York State Psychopathic Institute and the Journal of Abnormal Psychology. He was the father of the child prodigy William James Sidis...
publishes The Psychology of Suggestion: A Research into the Subconscious Nature of Man and Society.
1900s
- 1900 – Sigmund FreudSigmund FreudSigmund Freud , born Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian neurologist who founded the discipline of psychoanalysis...
published 'Interpretation of Dreams' marking the beginning of Psychoanalytic Thought. - 1903 – John B. WatsonJohn B. WatsonJohn Broadus Watson was an American psychologist who established the psychological school of behaviorism. Watson promoted a change in psychology through his address Psychology as the Behaviorist Views it which was given at Columbia University in 1913...
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 SpearmanCharles SpearmanCharles Edward Spearman, FRS was an English psychologist known for work in statistics, as a pioneer of factor analysis, and for Spearman's rank correlation coefficient...
published the article General Intelligence in the American Journal of PsychologyAmerican Journal of PsychologyThe American Journal of Psychology was the first English-language journal devoted primarily to experimental psychology . AJP was founded by the Johns Hopkins University psychologist Granville Stanley Hall in 1887...
, introducing the g factorGeneral intelligence factorThe g factor, where g stands for general intelligence, is a statistic used in psychometrics to model the mental ability underlying results of various tests of cognitive ability...
theory of intelligence. - 1905 – Alfred BinetAlfred BinetAlfred Binet was a French psychologist who was the inventor of the first usable intelligence test, known at that time as the Binet test and today referred to as the IQ test. His principal goal was to identify students who needed special help in coping with the school curriculum...
and Theodore SimonTheodore SimonThéodore Simon was a French psychologist and psychometrician. He co-created the Binet-Simon Intelligence Scale tests with Alfred Binet.- Biography :...
created the Binet-Simon scale to identify students needing extra help, marking the start for standardized psychological testingPsychological testingPsychological testing is a field characterized by the use of samples of behavior in order to assess psychological construct, such as cognitive and emotional functioning, about a given individual. The technical term for the science behind psychological testing is psychometrics...
. - 1906 – The Journal of Abnormal PsychologyJournal of Abnormal PsychologyThe Journal of Abnormal Psychology is a scientific journal published by the American Psychological Association.It was previously titled Journal of Abnormal & Social Psychology. It publishes basic research as well as theoretical articles in the general field of abnormal behavior, its determinants,...
founded by Morton PrinceMorton PrinceMorton Henry Prince was an American physician who specialized in neurology and abnormal psychology, and was a leading force in establishing psychology as a clinical and academic discipline. He was part of a handful of men who disseminated European ideas about psychopathology, especially in...
for which Boris SidisBoris SidisBoris Sidis, Ph.D., M.D. was a Ukrainian Jewish psychologist, physician, psychiatrist, and philosopher of education. Sidis founded the New York State Psychopathic Institute and the Journal of Abnormal Psychology. He was the father of the child prodigy William James Sidis...
was an associate editor and significant contributor. - 1909 – Sigmund FreudSigmund FreudSigmund Freud , born Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian neurologist who founded the discipline of psychoanalysis...
lectured at Clark UniversityClark UniversityClark University is a private research university and liberal arts college in Worcester, Massachusetts.Founded in 1887, it is the oldest educational institution founded as an all-graduate university. Clark now also educates undergraduates...
.
1910s
- 1910 – Boris SidisBoris SidisBoris Sidis, Ph.D., M.D. was a Ukrainian Jewish psychologist, physician, psychiatrist, and philosopher of education. Sidis founded the New York State Psychopathic Institute and the Journal of Abnormal Psychology. He was the father of the child prodigy William James Sidis...
opens the Sidis Psychotherapeutic Institute (a private hospital) at Maplewood Farms in Portsmouth, NH for the treatment of nervous patients using the latest scientific methods. - 1911 – Alfred AdlerAlfred AdlerAlfred Adler was an Austrian medical doctor, psychotherapist, and founder of the school of individual psychology. In collaboration with Sigmund Freud and a small group of Freud's colleagues, Adler was among the co-founders of the psychoanalytic movement as a core member of the Vienna...
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 WertheimerMax Wertheimer- External links :* * * * *...
published Experimental Studies of the Perception of Movement, considered the founding article of Gestalt psychologyGestalt psychologyGestalt psychology or gestaltism is a theory of mind and brain of the Berlin School; the operational principle of gestalt psychology is that the brain is holistic, parallel, and analog, with self-organizing tendencies... - 1913 – Carl JungCarl JungCarl Gustav Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist and the founder of Analytical Psychology. Jung is considered the first modern psychiatrist to view the human psyche as "by nature religious" and make it the focus of exploration. Jung is one of the best known researchers in the field of dream analysis and...
departed from Freudian views and developed his own theories citing Freud's inability to acknowledge religionReligionReligion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
and spiritualitySpiritualitySpirituality can refer to an ultimate or an alleged immaterial reality; an inner path enabling a person to discover the essence of his/her being; or the “deepest values and meanings by which people live.” Spiritual practices, including meditation, prayer and contemplation, are intended to develop...
. His new school of thought became known as Analytical PsychologyAnalytical psychologyAnalytical psychology is the school of psychology originating from the ideas of Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung. His theoretical orientation has been advanced by his students and other thinkers who followed in his tradition. Though they share similarities, analytical psychology is distinct from...
. - 1913 – Jacob L. MorenoJacob L. MorenoJacob Levy Moreno was a Jewish Romanian-born Austrian-American leading psychiatrist and psychosociologist, thinker and educator, the founder of psychodrama, and the foremost pioneer of group psychotherapy...
applied Group PsychotherapyGroup therapyGroup psychotherapy or group therapy is a form of psychotherapy in which one or more therapists treat a small group of clients together as a group...
methods in Vienna. His new methods, which emphasised spontaneity and interaction, later became known as PsychodramaPsychodramaPsychodrama is a method of psychotherapy in which clients utilize spontaneous dramatization, role playing and dramatic self-presentation to investigate and gain insight into their lives. Developed by Jacob L. Moreno, M.D. psychodrama includes elements of theater, often conducted on a stage where...
and SociometrySociometrySociometry is a quantitative method for measuring social relationships. It was developed by psychotherapist Jacob L. Moreno in his studies of the relationship between social structures and psychological well-being....
. - 1913 – John B. WatsonJohn B. WatsonJohn Broadus Watson was an American psychologist who established the psychological school of behaviorism. Watson promoted a change in psychology through his address Psychology as the Behaviorist Views it which was given at Columbia University in 1913...
published Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It, sometimes known as "The Behaviorist Manifesto". - 1914 – Boris SidisBoris SidisBoris Sidis, Ph.D., M.D. was a Ukrainian Jewish psychologist, physician, psychiatrist, and philosopher of education. Sidis founded the New York State Psychopathic Institute and the Journal of Abnormal Psychology. He was the father of the child prodigy William James Sidis...
publishes The Foundations of Normal and Abnormal Psychology where he provides the scientific foundation for the field of psychology, and details his theory of the moment-consciousness.
1920s
- 1920 – John B. WatsonJohn B. WatsonJohn Broadus Watson was an American psychologist who established the psychological school of behaviorism. Watson promoted a change in psychology through his address Psychology as the Behaviorist Views it which was given at Columbia University in 1913...
and Rosalie Rayner conducted the Little Albert experimentLittle Albert experimentThe Little Albert experiment was a case study showing empirical evidence of classical conditioning in humans. This study was also an example of stimulus generalization. It was conducted in 1920 by John B. Watson along with his assistant Rosalie Rayner. The study was done at Johns Hopkins...
, using classical conditioningClassical conditioningClassical conditioning is a form of conditioning that was first demonstrated by Ivan Pavlov...
to make a young boy afraid of white rats. - 1921 – Jacob L. MorenoJacob L. MorenoJacob Levy Moreno was a Jewish Romanian-born Austrian-American leading psychiatrist and psychosociologist, thinker and educator, the founder of psychodrama, and the foremost pioneer of group psychotherapy...
conducted the first large scale public PsychodramaPsychodramaPsychodrama is a method of psychotherapy in which clients utilize spontaneous dramatization, role playing and dramatic self-presentation to investigate and gain insight into their lives. Developed by Jacob L. Moreno, M.D. psychodrama includes elements of theater, often conducted on a stage where...
session at the Komoedienhaus, Vienna. He moves to New York in 1925. - 1922 – Boris SidisBoris SidisBoris Sidis, Ph.D., M.D. was a Ukrainian Jewish psychologist, physician, psychiatrist, and philosopher of education. Sidis founded the New York State Psychopathic Institute and the Journal of Abnormal Psychology. He was the father of the child prodigy William James Sidis...
publishes Nervous Ills: Their Cause and a Cure, a popularization of his work concerning the subconscious and the treatment of psychopathic disease. - 1927 – Ivan PavlovIvan PavlovIvan Petrovich Pavlov was a famous Russian physiologist. Although he made significant contributions to psychology, he was not in fact a psychologist himself but was a mathematician and actually had strong distaste for the field....
publishes book on Classical Conditioning. - 1928 – Jean PiagetJean PiagetJean Piaget was a French-speaking Swiss developmental psychologist and philosopher known for his epistemological studies with children. His theory of cognitive development and epistemological view are together called "genetic epistemology"....
's book Judgement and Reasoning in the Child is published. - 1929 – Drake BellDrake BellJared Drake Bell , better known as Drake Bell, is an American actor, comedian, guitarist, singer/songwriter, producer, and occasional television director. After beginning his career as a child star in the late 1990s and early 2000s, he appeared on The Amanda Show and became well-known among young...
publishes The life and times of Tim Blake before he is shot.
1930s
- 1934 – Lev VygotskyLev VygotskyLev Semyonovich Vygotsky was a Soviet psychologist, the founder of cultural-historical psychology, and the leader of the Vygotsky Circle.-Biography:...
's Thought and Language (a.k.a. Thinking and Speech) is first published (in Russian) - 1935 – John Ridley StroopJohn Ridley StroopJohn Ridley Stroop was an American psychologist.Stroop was born in Rutherford County, Tennessee, USA. He developed a color-word task in 1935, named after him , to demonstrate interference in attention....
developed a color-word task to demonstrate the interference of attention, the Stroop effectStroop effectPurple Blue Purple----Blue Purple RedGreen Purple Green----the Stroop effect refers to the fact that naming the color of the first set of words is easier and quicker than the second.... - 1938 – B.F. Skinner published his first major work, The Behavior of Organisms: An Experimental Analysis, introducing behavior analysis.
- 1939 – Alan Hodgkin and Andrew HuxleyAndrew HuxleySir Andrew Fielding Huxley, OM, FRS is an English physiologist and biophysicist, who won the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his experimental and mathematical work with Sir Alan Lloyd Hodgkin on the basis of nerve action potentials, the electrical impulses that enable the activity...
published a classic report in the journal NatureNature (journal)Nature, first published on 4 November 1869, is ranked the world's most cited interdisciplinary scientific journal by the Science Edition of the 2010 Journal Citation Reports...
of the first recording of an action potentialAction potentialIn physiology, an action potential is a short-lasting event in which the electrical membrane potential of a cell rapidly rises and falls, following a consistent trajectory. Action potentials occur in several types of animal cells, called excitable cells, which include neurons, muscle cells, and...
.
1940s
- 1942 – Carl RogersCarl RogersCarl Ransom Rogers was an influential American psychologist and among the founders of the humanistic approach to psychology...
published 'Counseling and Psychotherapy' suggesting that respect and a non-judgmental approach to therapy is the foundation for effective treatment of mental healthMental healthMental health describes either a level of cognitive or emotional well-being or an absence of a mental disorder. From perspectives of the discipline of positive psychology or holism mental health may include an individual's ability to enjoy life and procure a balance between life activities and...
issues. - 1943 – Leo KannerLeo KannerLeo Kanner was a Jewish American psychiatrist and physician known for his work related to autism. Kanner's work formed the foundation of child and adolescent psychiatry in the U.S. and worldwide....
published Autistic Disturbances of Affective Contact. The first systematic description of autistic children. - 1943 – Abraham MaslowAbraham MaslowAbraham Harold Maslow was an American professor of psychology at Brandeis University, Brooklyn College, New School for Social Research and Columbia University who created Maslow's hierarchy of needs...
described his hierarchy of needsMaslow's hierarchy of needsMaslow's hierarchy of needs is a theory in psychology, proposed by Abraham Maslow in his 1943 paper A Theory of Human Motivation. Maslow subsequently extended the idea to include his observations of humans' innate curiosity...
in the paper A Theory of Human Motivation, published in Psychological ReviewPsychological ReviewPsychological Review is a scientific journal that publishes articles on psychological theory. It was founded by Princeton psychologist James Mark Baldwin and Columbia psychologist James McKeen Cattell in 1894 as a publication vehicle for psychologists not connected with the Clark laboratory of G.... - 1945 – The Journal of Clinical PsychologyJournal of Clinical PsychologyThe Journal of Clinical Psychology is a peer-reviewed medical journal published eight times a year covering psychological research, assessment, and practice. It was established in 1945...
was founded. - 1949 – Donald Hebb published The Organization of Behavior: A Neuropsychological Theory in which he provided a detailed, testable theory of how the brain could support cognitive processes.
- 1949 – Boulder Conference outlined scientist-practitioner model of clinical psychology, looking at the M.D.Master's degreeA master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
versus Ph.D.DoctorateA doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder to teach in a specific field, A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder...
used by medical providers and researchers, respectively. - 1949 – David WechslerDavid WechslerDavid "Wex" Wechsler was a leading American psychologist. He developed well-known intelligence scales, such as the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale and the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children .-Biography:...
presented Wechsler Intelligence Scale for ChildrenWechsler Intelligence Scale for ChildrenThe Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children , developed by Dr. David Wechsler, is an individually administered intelligence test for children between the ages of 6 and 16 inclusive that can be completed without reading or writing...
(WISC), the first edition of the Wechsler-test for children.
1950s
- 1950 – Rollo MayRollo MayRollo May was an American existential psychologist. He authored the influential book Love and Will during 1969. He is often associated with both humanistic psychology and existentialist philosophy. May was a close friend of the theologian Paul Tillich...
published The Meaning of Anxiety. - 1951 – Carl RogersCarl RogersCarl Ransom Rogers was an influential American psychologist and among the founders of the humanistic approach to psychology...
published his major work, Client-Centered Therapy. - 1951 – Lee CronbachLee CronbachLee Joseph Cronbach was an American educational psychologist who made significant contributions to psychological testing and measurement. Born in Fresno, California, Cronbach was selected as a child to participate in Lewis Terman's long-term study of talented children...
wrote about his measure of reliabilityReliability (statistics)In statistics, reliability is the consistency of a set of measurements or of a measuring instrument, often used to describe a test. Reliability is inversely related to random error.-Types:There are several general classes of reliability estimates:...
, now known as Cronbach's alphaCronbach's alphaCronbach's \alpha is a coefficient of reliability. It is commonly used as a measure of the internal consistency or reliability of a psychometric test score for a sample of examinees. It was first named alpha by Lee Cronbach in 1951, as he had intended to continue with further coefficients...
. - 1952 – The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental DisordersDiagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental DisordersThe Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is published by the American Psychiatric Association and provides a common language and standard criteria for the classification of mental disorders...
(DSM) was published by The American Psychiatric Association marking the beginning of modern mental illness classification. - 1952 – Hans EysenckHans EysenckHans Jürgen Eysenck was a German-British psychologist who spent most of his career in Britain, best remembered for his work on intelligence and personality, though he worked in a wide range of areas...
started a debate on psychotherapyPsychotherapyPsychotherapy is a general term referring to any form of therapeutic interaction or treatment contracted between a trained professional and a client or patient; family, couple or group...
with his critical review, claiming that psychotherapy had no documented effect, and psychoanalysisPsychoanalysisPsychoanalysis is a psychological theory developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud. Psychoanalysis has expanded, been criticized and developed in different directions, mostly by some of Freud's former students, such as Alfred Adler and Carl Gustav...
had negative effects. - 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.
- 1953 – Harry Stack SullivanHarry Stack SullivanHarry Stack Sullivan was a U.S. psychiatrist whose work in psychoanalysis was based on direct and verifiable observation .-Life and works:Sullivan was a child of Irish immigrants and allegedly grew up in an...
published The Interpersonal Theory of Psychiatry which holds that an individual's personality is formed by relationships. - 1954 – Abraham MaslowAbraham MaslowAbraham Harold Maslow was an American professor of psychology at Brandeis University, Brooklyn College, New School for Social Research and Columbia University who created Maslow's hierarchy of needs...
helped to found Humanistic psychologyHumanistic psychologyHumanistic psychology is a psychological perspective which rose to prominence in the mid-20th century, drawing on the work of early pioneers like Carl Rogers and the philosophies of existentialism and phenomenology...
and later developed his famous Hierarchy of NeedsMaslow's hierarchy of needsMaslow's hierarchy of needs is a theory in psychology, proposed by Abraham Maslow in his 1943 paper A Theory of Human Motivation. Maslow subsequently extended the idea to include his observations of humans' innate curiosity...
. - 1955 – Lee CronbachLee CronbachLee Joseph Cronbach was an American educational psychologist who made significant contributions to psychological testing and measurement. Born in Fresno, California, Cronbach was selected as a child to participate in Lewis Terman's long-term study of talented children...
published Construct Validity in Psychological Tests, popularizing the concept of Construct validityConstruct validityIn science , construct validity refers to whether a scale measures or correlates with the theorized psychological scientific construct that it purports to measure. In other words, it is the extent to which what was to be measured was actually measured...
. - 1955 – In the Asch conformity experimentsAsch conformity experimentsThe Asch conformity experiments were a series of studies published in the 1950s that demonstrated the power of conformity in groups. These are also known as the Asch Paradigm.-Introduction:...
, Solomon AschSolomon AschSolomon Eliot Asch , also known as Shlaym, was an American Gestalt psychologist and pioneer in social psychology.-Early life and education:...
demonstrated the power of conformityConformityConformity is the process by which an individual's attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors are influenced by other people.Conformity may also refer to:*Conformity: A Tale, a novel by Charlotte Elizabeth Tonna...
in groups. - 1956 – George Armitage Miller wrote his classic paper The Magical Number Seven, Plus-or-Minus Two, in which he showed that there is a limit on the amount of information that can be apprehended in a brief period of time.
- 1956 – Rollo MayRollo MayRollo May was an American existential psychologist. He authored the influential book Love and Will during 1969. He is often associated with both humanistic psychology and existentialist philosophy. May was a close friend of the theologian Paul Tillich...
published Existence, promoting Existential psychology. - 1956 – Leon Festinger proposed his theory of Cognitive dissonanceCognitive dissonanceCognitive dissonance is a discomfort caused by holding conflicting ideas simultaneously. The theory of cognitive dissonance proposes that people have a motivational drive to reduce dissonance. They do this by changing their attitudes, beliefs, and actions. Dissonance is also reduced by justifying,...
- 1958 – Harry HarlowHarry HarlowHarry Frederick Harlow was an American psychologist best known for his maternal-separation and social isolation experiments on rhesus monkeys, which demonstrated the importance of care-giving and companionship in social and cognitive development...
published The Nature of Love which summarized studies on monkeys and rejected behavioranalytic and psychoanalytic theories of attachment. - 1959 – Noam ChomskyNoam ChomskyAvram Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, and activist. He is an Institute Professor and Professor in the Department of Linguistics & Philosophy at MIT, where he has worked for over 50 years. Chomsky has been described as the "father of modern linguistics" and...
published his review of B.F. Skinner's Verbal Behavior, an event seen as by many as the start of the Cognitive revolutionCognitive revolutionThe cognitive revolution is the name for an intellectual movement in the 1950s that began what are known collectively as the cognitive sciences. It began in the modern context of greater interdisciplinary communication and research...
. - 1959 - George MandlerGeorge MandlerGeorge Mandler is Distinguished Professor of Psychology Emeritus at the University of California, San Diego.Mandler was born in Vienna on 11 June 1924. He received his B.S. from New York University and his Ph. D. degree from Yale University in 1953. He served in the U.S. Army Military Intelligence...
and William KessenWilliam KessenWilliam Kessen was an American psychologist, educator, and historian of science.-References:* Obituary William Kessen 1925–1999. American Psychologist, 55, 758–759....
publish The Language of Psychology - 1959 – Lawrence KohlbergLawrence KohlbergLawrence Kohlberg was a Jewish American psychologist born in Bronxville, New York, who served as a professor at the University of Chicago, as well as Harvard University. Having specialized in research on moral education and reasoning, he is best known for his theory of stages of moral development...
wrote his doctoral dissertation, outlining his stages of moral developmentKohlberg's stages of moral developmentLawrence Kohlberg's stages of moral development constitute an adaptation of a psychological theory originally conceived of by the Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget...
.
1960s
- 1960 – John L. Fuller and W. Robert Thompson published the field-defining text Behavior Genetics.
- 1961 – In the Bobo doll experimentBobo doll experimentThe Bobo doll experiment was the name of two experiments conducted by Albert Bandura in 1961 and 1963 studying patterns of behavior associated with aggression....
, Albert BanduraAlbert BanduraAlbert Bandura is a psychologist and the David Starr Jordan Professor Emeritus of Social Science in Psychology at Stanford University...
studied behavioral patterns of aggressionAggressionIn psychology, as well as other social and behavioral sciences, aggression refers to behavior between members of the same species that is intended to cause humiliation, pain, or harm. Ferguson and Beaver defined aggressive behavior as "Behavior which is intended to increase the social dominance of...
. - 1962 – George Armitage Miller released the classic book Psychology, the Science of Mental Life signaling a rejection of the idea that psychology should study just behavior.
- 1962 – Silvan TomkinsSilvan TomkinsSilvan Solomon Tomkins is best known as a psychologist and personality theorist and as the developer of Affect theory and Script theory...
published the first volume of two of Affect Imagery Consciousness, were he presented his Affect theoryAffect theoryIn psychology, affect is an emotion or subjectively experienced feeling. Affect theory is a branch of psychoanalysis that attempts to organize affects into discrete categories and connect each one with its typical response. So, for example, the affect of joy is observed through the reaction of... - 1962 – American psychologist Albert Ellis released his classic book "Reason and Emotion In Psychotherapy" describing the theoretical foundations of his therapeutic system Rational Therapy, now known as Rational Emotive Behavior TherapyRational emotive behavior therapyRational emotive behavior therapy , previously called rational therapy and rational emotive therapy, is a comprehensive, active-directive, philosophically and empirically based psychotherapy which focuses on resolving emotional and behavioral problems and disturbances and enabling people to lead...
- 1962 – Wilfred BionWilfred BionWilfred Ruprecht Bion DSO was an influential British psychoanalyst, who became president of the British Psychoanalytical Society from 1962 to 1965....
presented his theory of thinking - 1963 – Stanley MilgramStanley MilgramStanley Milgram was an American social psychologist most notable for his controversial study known as the Milgram Experiment. The study was conducted in the 1960s during Milgram's professorship at Yale...
described his study of obedience to authority, now known as the Milgram experimentMilgram experimentThe Milgram experiment on obedience to authority figures was a series of notable social psychology experiments conducted by Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram, which measured the willingness of study participants to obey an authority figure who instructed them to perform acts that...
. - 1963 – Alexander LuriaAlexander LuriaAlexander Romanovich Luria was a famous Soviet neuropsychologist and developmental psychologist. He was one of the founders of neuropsychology and the jointly led the Vygotsky Circle.- Biography :...
published The Working Brain. A detailed description of the brain with great importance for the habilitation of damage to the brain. - 1964 - Jean M. Mandler and George MandlerGeorge MandlerGeorge Mandler is Distinguished Professor of Psychology Emeritus at the University of California, San Diego.Mandler was born in Vienna on 11 June 1924. He received his B.S. from New York University and his Ph. D. degree from Yale University in 1953. He served in the U.S. Army Military Intelligence...
Publish Thinking: From Association to Gestalt - 1965 – Anna FreudAnna FreudAnna Freud was the sixth and last child of Sigmund and Martha Freud. Born in Vienna, she followed the path of her father and contributed to the newly born field of psychoanalysis...
published Normality and pathology in childhood: Assessments of development, and presented the concept of developmental linesDevelopmental linesDevelopmental lines is a metaphor of Anna Freud from her developmental theory to stress the continuous and cumulative character of childhood development. It emphasises the interactions and interdependencies between maturational and environmental determinants in developmental steps...
. - 1965 – Donald WinnicottDonald WinnicottDonald Woods Winnicott was an English paediatrician and psychoanalyst who was especially influential in the field of object relations theory. He was a leading member of the British Independent Group of the British Psychoanalytic Society, and a close associate of Marion Milner...
published The Maturational Process and the Facilitating Environment. A main text in clinical psychodynamic developmental psychology. - 1967 – Aaron Beck published a psychological model of depressionClinical depressionMajor depressive disorder is a mental disorder characterized by an all-encompassing low mood accompanied by low self-esteem, and by loss of interest or pleasure in normally enjoyable activities...
suggesting that thoughts play a significant role in the development and maintenance of depression. - 1968 – DSM-II was published by the American Psychiatric AssociationAmerican Psychiatric AssociationThe American Psychiatric Association is the main professional organization of psychiatrists and trainee psychiatrists in the United States, and the most influential worldwide. Its some 38,000 members are mainly American but some are international...
. - 1968 – First Doctor of PsychologyDoctor of PsychologyThe Doctor of Psychology degree is a professional doctorate earned through one of two established training models for clinical psychology...
(Psy. D.) professional degree program in Clinical Psychology was established in the Department of Psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignThe University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign is a large public research-intensive university in the state of Illinois, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system...
. - 1969 – California School of Professional PsychologyCalifornia School of Professional PsychologyThe California School of Professional Psychology , was founded by the California Psychological Association in 1969. It is part of Alliant International University.The school has trained approximately half of the licensed psychologists in California...
was established as the first freestanding school of professional psychology. - 1969 – The Journal of Transpersonal PsychologyTranspersonal psychologyTranspersonal psychology is a form of psychology that studies the transpersonal, self-transcendent or spiritual aspects of the human experience....
was initiated by Abraham MaslowAbraham MaslowAbraham Harold Maslow was an American professor of psychology at Brandeis University, Brooklyn College, New School for Social Research and Columbia University who created Maslow's hierarchy of needs...
, Stanislav GrofStanislav GrofStanislav Grof is a psychiatrist, one of the founders of the field of transpersonal psychology and a pioneering researcher into the use of non-ordinary states of consciousness for purposes of analyzing, healing, and obtaining growth and insight into the human psyche...
and Anthony Sutich - 1969 – John BowlbyJohn BowlbyEdward John Mostyn "John" Bowlby was a British psychologist, psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, notable for his interest in child development and for his pioneering work in attachment theory.- Family background :...
published his Attachment theoryAttachment theoryAttachment theory describes the dynamics of long-term relationships between humans. Its most important tenet is that an infant needs to develop a relationship with at least one primary caregiver for social and emotional development to occur normally. Attachment theory is an interdisciplinary study...
in the classic book Attachment and Loss, Volume 1. - 1969 – Harry HarlowHarry HarlowHarry Frederick Harlow was an American psychologist best known for his maternal-separation and social isolation experiments on rhesus monkeys, which demonstrated the importance of care-giving and companionship in social and cognitive development...
published his experiment on affectionAffectionAffection or fondness is a "disposition or rare state of mind or body" that is often associated with a feeling or type of love. It has given rise to a number of branches of philosophy and psychology concerning: emotion ; disease; influence; state of being ; and state of mind...
development in rhesus monkeys. - 1969 – Joseph WolpeJoseph WolpeJoseph Wolpe was born on April 20, 1915, in Johannesburg, South Africa, and died on December 4, 1997, from lung cancer. He is one of the most influential figures in behavior therapy....
published The Practice of Behavior Therapy.
1970s
- 1971 – The Stanford prison experimentStanford prison experimentThe Stanford prison experiment was a study of the psychological effects of becoming a prisoner or prison guard. The experiment was conducted from August 14th-20th, 1971, by a team of researchers led by psychology professor Philip Zimbardo at Stanford University...
, conducted by Philip ZimbardoPhilip ZimbardoPhilip George Zimbardo is an American psychologist and a professor emeritus at Stanford University. He is president of the Heroic Imagination Project...
and others at Stanford UniversityStanford UniversityThe Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
, studied the human response to captivity. The experiment quickly got out of hand and was ended early. - 1971 – Martin ShubikMartin ShubikMartin Shubik is an American economist, who is Professor Emeritus of Mathematical Institutional Economics at Yale University. He was educated at the University of Toronto and Princeton University...
demonstrated the Dollar auctionDollar auctionThe dollar auction is a non-zero sum sequential game designed by economist Martin Shubik to illustrate a paradox brought about by traditional rational choice theory in which players with perfect information in the game are compelled to make an ultimately irrational decision based completely on a...
experiment, illustrating irrational choices. - 1971 – O'Keefe and Dostrovsky discover "place cells" in the hippocampus
- 1972 – The Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development StudyDunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development StudyThe Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study is a long-running cohort study of 1037 people born over the course of a year in Dunedin, New Zealand....
started, a longitudinal study with 96% retention rate as of 2006. This is unprecedented for a longitudinal study, with many others worldwide experiencing 20–40% drop-out rates. - 1973 – Vail Conference of Graduate Educators in Psychology endorsed the scholar-practitioner training model.
- 1974 – Robert HindeRobert HindeRobert Aubrey Hinde CBE FRS FBA is the Emeritus Royal Society Research Professor of Zoology at the University of Cambridge. He was formerly the master of St. John's College, Cambridge. He is the chair of British Pugwash...
published Biological Bases of Human Social Behavior. Main text in etological oriented developmental psychology. - 1974 – Arnold Sameroff published Reproductive Risk and the Continuum of Caretaking Causality, and introduced the transactional model, an influential model in modern developmental psychology.
- 1974 – Alan BaddeleyAlan BaddeleyAlan David Baddeley FRS, CBE is a British psychologist. He is professor of psychology at the University of York. He is known for his work on working memory, in particular for his multiple components model.-Education:...
and Graham HitchGraham HitchProfessor Graham Hitch MA MSc PhD CPsychol is a Professor of psychology at the University of York, best known for his work with Alan Baddeley in developing a Working Memory Model....
proposed their model of working memory. It is often referred to as Baddeley's model of working memoryBaddeley's Model of Working MemoryAlan Baddeley and Graham Hitch proposed a model of working memory in 1974, in an attempt to describe a more accurate model of short-term memory....
. - 1975 - George MandlerGeorge MandlerGeorge Mandler is Distinguished Professor of Psychology Emeritus at the University of California, San Diego.Mandler was born in Vienna on 11 June 1924. He received his B.S. from New York University and his Ph. D. degree from Yale University in 1953. He served in the U.S. Army Military Intelligence...
Published Mind and Emotion - 1976 – Julian JaynesJulian JaynesJulian Jaynes was an American psychologist, best known for his book The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind , in which he argued that ancient peoples were not conscious....
publishes The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, an exploration of the dual hemisphere nature of the human brain and the origins of religion and science. - 1977 – Alexander Thomas published Temperament and Development, a longitudinal study on the importance of temperamentTemperamentIn psychology, temperament refers to those aspects of an individual's personality, such as introversion or extroversion, that are often regarded as innate rather than learned...
for the development of personality and behavioral problems. An important study for modern research on temperament. - 1977 – Albert BanduraAlbert BanduraAlbert Bandura is a psychologist and the David Starr Jordan Professor Emeritus of Social Science in Psychology at Stanford University...
published his book Social learning theorySocial learning theory-Theory:Social learning theory is derived from the work of Albert Bandura which proposed that social learning occurred through four main stages of imitation:* close contact* imitation of superiors* understanding of concepts* role model behavior...
, and expanded on the work of Julian RotterJulian RotterJulian Rotter is an American psychologist who is known for developing influential theories, including social learning theory and locus of control.-Background:...
who moved away from theories based on behaviorism and psychoanalysis. - 1977 – Albert BanduraAlbert BanduraAlbert Bandura is a psychologist and the David Starr Jordan Professor Emeritus of Social Science in Psychology at Stanford University...
published his article on the concept of self-efficacySelf-efficacySelf-efficacy is a term used in psychology, roughly corresponding to a person's belief in their own competence.It has been defined as the belief that one is capable of performing in a certain manner to attain certain set of goals. It is believed that our personalized ideas of self-efficacy affect...
, "a unifying theory of behavioral change". - 1977 – Robert PlominRobert PlominRobert Plomin is an American psychologist best known for his work in twin studies and behavior genetics. Plomin has made two of the most important discoveries in that field. First, he has shown the importance of non-shared environment, a term that he coined to refer to the environmental reasons...
and colleagues proposed three major ways in which genes and environments act together to shape human behavior. They coined the terms passive-, active-, and evocative gene-environment correlation. - 1978 – Mary AinsworthMary AinsworthMary Dinsmore Salter Ainsworth was a Canadian developmental psychologist known for her work in early emotional attachment with "The Strange Situation" as well as her work in the development of Attachment Theory.-Life:...
published her book Patterns of Attachment about her work on Attachment theoryAttachment theoryAttachment theory describes the dynamics of long-term relationships between humans. Its most important tenet is that an infant needs to develop a relationship with at least one primary caregiver for social and emotional development to occur normally. Attachment theory is an interdisciplinary study...
and the Strange Situation experiment. - 1978 – David PremackDavid PremackDavid Premack is currently emeritus professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. He was educated at the University of Minnesota when logical positivism was in full bloom. The departments of Psychology and Philosophy were closely allied...
published the book Does the Chimpanzee Have a Theory of Mind?, on his research on mental abilities in monkeys and introduced the term Theory of MindTheory of mindTheory of mind is the ability to attribute mental states—beliefs, intents, desires, pretending, knowledge, etc.—to oneself and others and to understand that others have beliefs, desires and intentions that are different from one's own...
. - 1978 – Cognitive NeuroscienceCognitive neuroscienceCognitive neuroscience is an academic field concerned with the scientific study of biological substrates underlying cognition, with a specific focus on the neural substrates of mental processes. It addresses the questions of how psychological/cognitive functions are produced by the brain...
received its name by Michael GazzanigaMichael GazzanigaMichael S. Gazzaniga is a professor of psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he heads the new SAGE Center for the Study of the Mind. He is one of the leading researchers in cognitive neuroscience, the study of the neural basis of mind...
and George Armitage Miller. Cognitive Neuroscience has been described as the effort to understand how the brain represents mental events. - 1978 – John O'Keefe and Lynn Nadel publish "The hippocampus as a cognitive map"
- 1978 – E.O. Wilson publishes "On Human NatureOn Human NatureOn Human Nature is a 1979 Pulitzer Prize-winning book by the Harvard biologist E. O. Wilson. The book tries to explain how different characteristics of humans and society can be explained from the point of view of evolution...
", arguably the first landmark text to deal with what would become Evolutionary PsychologyEvolutionary psychologyEvolutionary psychology is an approach in the social and natural sciences that examines psychological traits such as memory, perception, and language from a modern evolutionary perspective. It seeks to identify which human psychological traits are evolved adaptations, that is, the functional... - 1979 – Urie BronfenbrennerUrie BronfenbrennerUrie Bronfenbrenner was a Russian American psychologist, known for developing his Ecological Systems Theory, and as a co-founder of the Head Start program in the United States for disadvantaged pre-school children....
published The Ecology of Human Development, a seminal text in developmental and ecological psychology.
1980s
- 1980 – DSM-III published by the American Psychiatric AssociationAmerican Psychiatric AssociationThe American Psychiatric Association is the main professional organization of psychiatrists and trainee psychiatrists in the United States, and the most influential worldwide. Its some 38,000 members are mainly American but some are international...
. - 1980 - George MandlerGeorge MandlerGeorge Mandler is Distinguished Professor of Psychology Emeritus at the University of California, San Diego.Mandler was born in Vienna on 11 June 1924. He received his B.S. from New York University and his Ph. D. degree from Yale University in 1953. He served in the U.S. Army Military Intelligence...
published "Recognizing:" - the dual process basis of recognition - 1982 – Carol GilliganCarol GilliganCarol Gilligan is an American feminist, ethicist, and psychologist best known for her work with and against Lawrence Kohlberg on ethical community and ethical relationships, and certain subject-object problems in ethics. She is currently a Professor at New York University and a Visiting Professor...
published In a Different Voice, on feminist psychologyFeminist psychologyFeminist psychology, is a form of psychology centered on societal structures, and gender. Feminist psychology critiques the fact that historically psychological research has been done from a male perspective with the view that males are the norm. Feminist psychology is oriented on the values and... - 1983 – Howard GardnerHoward GardnerHoward Earl Gardner is an American developmental psychologist who is a professor of Cognition and Education at Harvard Graduate School of Education at Harvard University, Senior Director of Harvard Project Zero and author of over twenty books translated into thirty languages. Since 1995, he has...
published Frames of Mind, introducing his theory of multiple intelligencesTheory of multiple intelligencesThe theory of multiple intelligences was proposed by Howard Gardner in 1983 as a model of intelligence that differentiates intelligence into various specific modalities, rather than seeing it as dominated by a single general ability.... - 1984 – Jerome KaganJerome KaganJerome Kagan was born in 1929, and grew up in Rahway, New Jersey, USA. Kagan is currently retired after being a professor at Harvard University in the Developmental program . He is one of the key pioneers of developmental psychology. He is Daniel and Amy Starch Research Professor of Psychology,...
published The Nature of the Child, a biological and socially oriented description of the role of temperament in human development. - 1984 – Peter SavillePeter Saville (psychologist)Peter Saville is a British Chartered Occupational Psychologist involved in Talent Management who is well-known for his work in psychometrics.He earned his Ph.D...
published the OPQOPQThe Occupational Personality Questionnaires, OPQ or OPQ32, are widely-used occupational personality questionnaires. The authors were Saville et al., including Roger Holdsworth, Gill Nyfield, Lisa Cramp and Bill Mabey, and they were launched by Saville and Holdsworth Ltd. in 1984...
Pentagon questionnaire, a psychological personality inventory measuring the Five Factor Model - 1985 – Daniel SternDaniel Stern (psychologist)Daniel N. Stern is a prominent psychiatrist and psychoanalytic theorist, specializing in infant development, on which he has written a number of books - most notably The Interpersonal World of the Infant ....
published The Interpersonal World of the InfantThe Interpersonal World of the InfantThe Interpersonal World of the Infant is one of the most prominent works of psychoanalyst Daniel N. Stern, in which he describes the development of four interrelated senses of self. These senses of self develop over the lifespan, but make significant developmental strides during sensitive periods...
, proposing an extensive mental life in early infancy - 1985 – Robert SternbergRobert SternbergRobert Jeffrey Sternberg , is an American psychologist and psychometrician and Provost at Oklahoma State University. He was formerly the Dean of Arts and Sciences at Tufts University, IBM Professor of Psychology and Education at Yale University and the President of the American Psychological...
proposed his triarchic theory of intelligenceTriarchic theory of intelligenceThe triarchic theory of intelligence was formulated by Robert J. Sternberg, a prominent figure in the research of human intelligence. The theory by itself was groundbreaking in that it was among the first to go against the psychometric approach to intelligence and take a more cognitive... - 1985 – Reuben Baron and David A. Kenny published the article The Moderator-Mediator Variable Distinction in Social Psychological Research: Conceptual, Strategic, and Statistical Considerations in the Journal of Personality and Social PsychologyJournal of Personality and Social PsychologyThe Journal of Personality and Social Psychology is a monthly psychology journal of the American Psychological Association. It is considered one of the top journals in the fields of social and personality psychology. Its focus is on empirical research reports; however, specialized theoretical,...
proposing a distinction of moderating in mediating variables in psychological research. - 1985 – Simon Baron-CohenSimon Baron-CohenSimon Baron-Cohen FBA is professor of Developmental Psychopathology in the Departments of Psychiatry and Experimental Psychology at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. He is the Director of the University's Autism Research Centre, and a Fellow of Trinity College...
published Does the autistic child have a 'theory of mind'? with Uta FrithUta FrithUta Frith FRS FBA is a leading developmental psychologist working at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London. She has pioneered much of the current research in autism and dyslexia, and has written several books on these issues. Her book 'Autism: Explaining the Enigma'...
and Alan Leslie. They proposed that children with autism show social and communication difficulties as a result of a delay in the development of a Theory of mindTheory of mindTheory of mind is the ability to attribute mental states—beliefs, intents, desires, pretending, knowledge, etc.—to oneself and others and to understand that others have beliefs, desires and intentions that are different from one's own...
. - 1985 – Costa & McRae published the NEO PI-R five-factor personality inventory, a psychological personality inventory; a 240-question measure of the Five Factor Model
- 1986 – Albert BanduraAlbert BanduraAlbert Bandura is a psychologist and the David Starr Jordan Professor Emeritus of Social Science in Psychology at Stanford University...
published Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theorySocial Foundations of Thought and ActionSocial Foundations of Thought and Action: A Social Cognitive Theory is a landmark work in psychology published in 1986 by Albert Bandura. The book expands Bandura's initial social learning theory into a comprehensive theory of human motivation and action, analyzing the role of cognitive, vicarious,...
. - 1987 – Erik EriksonErik EriksonErik Erikson was a Danish-German-American developmental psychologist and psychoanalyst known for his theory on social development of human beings. He may be most famous for coining the phrase identity crisis. His son, Kai T...
published The Life Cycle Completed, expanding on his stage theory of psychosocial developmentErikson's stages of psychosocial developmentErikson's stages of psychosocial development as articulated by Erik Erikson explain eight stages through which a healthily developing human should pass from infancy to late adulthood. In each stage the person confronts, and hopefully masters, new challenges. Each stage builds on the successful...
. - 1988 – Michael M. Merzenich and colleagues showed that sensory and motor maps in the cortex can be modified with experience, a process called neural plasticity
1990s
- 1991 – Steven PinkerSteven PinkerSteven Arthur Pinker is a Canadian-American experimental psychologist, cognitive scientist, linguist and popular science author...
proposed his theory on how children acquire language in ScienceScience (journal)Science is the academic journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and is one of the world's top scientific journals....
, later popularized in the book The Language InstinctThe Language InstinctThe Language Instinct is a book by Steven Pinker for a general audience, published in 1994. In it, Pinker argues that humans are born with an innate capacity for language. In addition, he deals sympathetically with Noam Chomsky's claim that all human language shows evidence of a universal grammar...
. - 1992 – Jaak PankseppJaak PankseppJaak Panksepp is an Estonian-born American psychologist, a psychobiologist, a neuroscientist, the Baily Endowed Chair of Animal Well-Being Science for the Department of Veterinary and Comparative Anatomy, Pharmacology, and Physiology at Washington State University's College of Veterinary Medicine,...
coined the term Affective neuroscienceAffective neuroscienceAffective neuroscience is the study of the neural mechanisms of emotion. This interdisciplinary field combines neuroscience with the psychological study of personality, emotion, and mood.-Brain areas related to emotion:...
, the name of the field that studies neural mechanisms of emotion, and later presented the book Affective neuroscience – The foundations of human and animal emotions - 1992 – Sandra ScarrSandra Scarr- Biography :Born in Maryland, her family followed her father, who was stationed at the United States Army's largest chemical weapon facility through much of her childhood. Scarr earned her Ph.D...
published Developmental Theories of the 1990s proposing that genes control experiences, and that genes search and creates environments. - 1992 – Joseph LeDoux summarized and published his research on brain mechanisms of emotion and emotional learning.
- 1992 – American Psychological AssociationAmerican Psychological AssociationThe American Psychological Association is the largest scientific and professional organization of psychologists in the United States. It is the world's largest association of psychologists with around 154,000 members including scientists, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. The APA...
selected behavioral genetics as one of two themes that best represented the past, present, and future of psychology. - 1994 – DSM-IV published by the American Psychiatric AssociationAmerican Psychiatric AssociationThe American Psychiatric Association is the main professional organization of psychiatrists and trainee psychiatrists in the United States, and the most influential worldwide. Its some 38,000 members are mainly American but some are international...
. - 1994 – Antonio DamasioAntonio DamasioAntonio Damasio is David Dornsife Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Southern California, where he heads USC's Brain and Creativity Institute and Adjunct Professor at the Salk Institute. Prior to taking up his posts at USC, in 2005, Damasio was M.W...
proposed his somatic markers hypothesisSomatic markers hypothesisThe somatic-marker hypothesis proposes a mechanism by which emotional processes can guide behavior, particularly decision-making. This hypothesis has been formulated by Antonio Damasio.-Hypothesis:...
by which emotional processes can guide (or bias) behavior, particularly decision-making. - 1994 – Esther ThelenEsther ThelenEsther Thelen was an expert in the field of Developmental Psychology. Thelen's research was focused on human development, espeically infant development....
and Linda B. SmithLinda B. SmithLinda B. Smith is a Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Science at Indiana University. Smith earned her Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania....
published A Dynamic Systems Approach to the Development of Cognition and Action. A main text on the use of developmental models based on dynamic systems - 1995 – Simon Baron-CohenSimon Baron-CohenSimon Baron-Cohen FBA is professor of Developmental Psychopathology in the Departments of Psychiatry and Experimental Psychology at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. He is the Director of the University's Autism Research Centre, and a Fellow of Trinity College...
coined the term mind-blindnessMind-blindnessMind-blindness can be described as an inability to develop an awareness of what is in the mind of another human. It is not necessarily caused by an inability to imagine an answer, but is often due to not being able to gather enough information to work out which of the many possible answers is...
to reflect the inability of children with autism to properly represent the mental states of others - 1996 – Giacomo RizzolattiGiacomo RizzolattiGiacomo Rizzolatti is an Italian Neurophysiologist who works at the University of Parma. He is the Senior Scientist of the research team that discovered mirror neurons in the frontal and parietal cortex of the macaque monkey, and has written many scientific articles on the topic. He is a past...
and colleagues discovered so called mirror neurons
2000s
- 2000 – Alan BaddeleyAlan BaddeleyAlan David Baddeley FRS, CBE is a British psychologist. He is professor of psychology at the University of York. He is known for his work on working memory, in particular for his multiple components model.-Education:...
updated his model of working memory from 1974, often referred to as Baddeley's model of working memoryBaddeley's Model of Working MemoryAlan Baddeley and Graham Hitch proposed a model of working memory in 1974, in an attempt to describe a more accurate model of short-term memory....
, and included the episodic buffer as a third slave system alongside the phonological loop and the visuo-spatial sketchpad - 2002 – Avshalom Caspi and colleagues presented a study that was the first to provide epidemiological evidence that a specific genotypeGenotypeThe genotype is the genetic makeup of a cell, an organism, or an individual usually with reference to a specific character under consideration...
moderates children's sensitivity to environmental insults. - 2002 – Steven PinkerSteven PinkerSteven Arthur Pinker is a Canadian-American experimental psychologist, cognitive scientist, linguist and popular science author...
published The Blank SlateThe Blank SlateThe Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature is a best-selling 2002 book by Steven Pinker arguing against tabula rasa models of the social sciences. Pinker argues that human behavior is substantially shaped by evolutionary psychological adaptations...
- The modern denial of human nature, arguing against tabula rasa models of the social sciences - 2007 - George MandlerGeorge MandlerGeorge Mandler is Distinguished Professor of Psychology Emeritus at the University of California, San Diego.Mandler was born in Vienna on 11 June 1924. He received his B.S. from New York University and his Ph. D. degree from Yale University in 1953. He served in the U.S. Army Military Intelligence...
published A history of modern experimental psychology - 2010 -Draft of DSM-V by the American Psychiatric AssociationAmerican Psychiatric AssociationThe American Psychiatric Association is the main professional organization of psychiatrists and trainee psychiatrists in the United States, and the most influential worldwide. Its some 38,000 members are mainly American but some are international...
open for comment and critique.