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Edward Thorndike
Edward Lee Thorndike was an American psychologist who spent nearly his entire career at Teachers College, Columbia University. His work on comparative psychology and the learning process led to the theory of connectionism and helped lay the scientific foundation for educational psychology. -
Wilhelm Wundt
Wilhelm Wundt was a German psychologist who established the very first psychology laboratory in Leipzig, Germany in 1879. This event is widely recognized as the formal establishment of psychology as a science distinct from biology and philosophy. -
William James
In 1890, William James attempted to explain how consciousness functions with his book The Principles of Psychology. Because James's theories attempted to explain the function of consciousness rather than the structure, his approach was appropriately named functionalism. -
Sigmund Freud
The idea of psychoanalysis (German: psychoanalyse) first began to receive serious attention under Sigmund Freud, who formulated his own theory of psychoanalysis in Vienna in the 1890s. Freud was a neurologist trying to find an effective treatment for patients with neurotic or hysterical symptoms. -
Edward B. Titchener
Edward Bradford Titchener was an English 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. -
Max Wertheimer
Max Wertheimer was an Austro-Hungarian psychologist and philosopher. He created the Phi phenomenon which forms the basis of Gestalt psychology. His work created a foundation of psychological theory, and his findings are presented in his book Productive Thinking -
John B. Watson
John B. Watson created the school of behaviorist methodology within psychology and he published his views on this psychological theory in 1913. The article was entitled "Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It," and it is commonly considered a manifesto on behaviorism.
