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Plato
A student of Socrates in ancient Greece and he recorded his teachers advice: "Konw thyself". This phrase has remained a motto of pyschological study ever since.
(428 B.C.-348 B.C.) -
Aristotle
One of Plato's students that raised many questions about human behavior that are still discussed. He outlined the laws of associationism. He argued that human behavior is subject to certian rules and laws.
(384 - 322 B.C.) -
Hippocrates
He suggested that problems come from the abmoralities of the brain. This idea of bilogical factors can affect our thoughts, feelings, and behavior influenced thinking about psychology for more than 2,000 years.
(460 - 377 B.C.) -
Wilhelm Wundt
Wihelm and his students founded a field of experimental psychology that came to be known as structionalism. He broke down the the content of consciousness into two catergories: objective sensations and subjective feelings.
(1832-1920) -
William James
William was convinced that conscious experience cannot be broken down as structuralists believed. William maintained that experience is a continuous "stream of continuous". He created the book The Principles of Psychology and was one of the founders of the school of functionalism.
(1842-1910) -
John B. Watson
It seemed absurd to try to place yourself in the mind of a rat, when he was asked this question by examiners to consider this question as a requirment for his doctoral degree in psychology. As the founder of the school of behaviorism, Watson defined psychology as the scientific study of observable behavior.
(1878-1958) -
B.F. Skinner
He added to the behaviorist tradition by introducing the concept of reinforcment. He showed that when as animal is reinforced, or rewarded, for performing an action, it is more likely to perform that action again in the future. According to him people learn in the same way animals do.
(1904-1990) -
Sigmund Freud
He was one of the most famous of the early psychologists.The school of thought that he founded, called psychoanalysis, emphasises the importance of unconscious motives and internal conflicts in determining human behavior. His theory was sometimes called psychodynamic thinking.
(1856-1939) -
The Psychoanalytic Perspective
Stresses the influence of unconscious forces on human behavior. The psychonanalytic theory dominated the practice of psychotherapy and greatly influenced psychology and the arts.
(1940s-1950s)
