History of Psychology

  • 500 BCE

    Greeks

    began to study human behavior and decided that people were controlled by their own minds and not Gods. Attempted to interpret the world of human perceptions
  • Period: 1473 to 1543

    Nicolaus Copernicus

    Published the idea that the sun was the center of the universe.
  • Period: 1564 to

    Galileo Galilei

    used telescope to confirm predictions about the star positions and movement.
  • Period: to

    Rene Descartes

    disagreed with dualism. he believed that there was a link between mind and body. he proposed that the mind control the body.
  • Period: to

    Dualism

    idea that mind and body are separate
  • Period: to

    discoveries

    the discovery of cells, building blocks of life. Periodic table of elements. the study of complex phenomena
  • Period: to

    Sir Francis Galton

    english mathematician and scientist, he wanted to understand how heredity or biological traits passed from parents to children, influences abilities, character and behavior
  • Period: to

    William James

    taught first class in psychology at Harvard University. "Father of Psychology" in the U.S
  • Period: to

    Ivan Pavlov

    charted new course for psycological investigation
  • Phrenology

    the practice of examining bumps on person skull to determine that person intellect and character trait became a practice. may have inspired the scientist to consider the brain, instead of the heart as responsible for human behavior.
  • Period: to

    Sigmund Freud

    a physician who practiced Vienna, was more interested in the unconscious mind. believed that our conscious experiences were only the top of the iceberg. according to Freud these unconscous motivations and conflicts are responsible for most human behavior.
  • Period: to

    John B. Watson

    psychology should concern itself only with the observable facts of behavior. he further maintained that all behavior, even apparently instinctive behavior, is the result of conditioning, or situational training, and occurs because the appropiate stimilus is present in the eviroment.
  • Period: to

    John B Watson

    thought psychology should only concern itself only with observable facts. All behavior even instinctive is the result of conditioning ot situational training
  • Period: to

    Structuralism and Behaviorism

    Mex Werthehimer, Wolfgang Kohler and Kurt Koffka argued with the principles of structuralism and behaviorism, they argued that perception is more than the sum of its parts-it involves a "whole pattern"
  • Inquiries into Human Faculty and its development

    Galton book was published The book considered the first study of individual differences
  • Period: to

    B.F Skinner

    one who popularized concept of changing behaviors through repeated rewards or punishments. he attempted to show how his lab techniques might be applied to a society as a whole
  • Walden Two

    book published by B.F Skinner. He showed his idea of Utopia through displaying desirabke rules every conceiveable facset of life
  • Period: to

    humanists

    Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers, and Rollo May described human nature as evolving and self-directed.