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Wilhelm Wundt founds the first experimental psychology lab in Leipzig, Germany, marking the moment psychology becomes its own field of study.
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Sigmund Freud, founder of psychoanalysis, begins treating patients in Vienna, Austria.
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Ivan Pavlov trains a dog to salivate on hearing the sound of a bell. Pavlov's dog becomes the first example of classical conditioning.
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Carl Jung publishes The Psychology of Dementia Praecox. Jung begins to break away from Freud's ideas to develop his own theories of analytical psychology.
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Max Wertheimer publishes his research on the phi phenomenon, which contributed to the development of the Gestalt school of psychology.
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John Watson becomes a founder of the school of behaviorism, believing that all thoughts, feelings and actions are developed through conditioning.
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Jean Piaget publishes The Moral Judgment of the Child.
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Electroconvulsive therapy is used for the first time on a person.
It becomes a popular method of treatment throughout the 40s and 50s (and remains in use today). -
Carl Rogers publishes Counselling and Psychotherapy, encouraging therapists to adopt a client-centered approach. This method becomes widely practiced.
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Abraham Maslow, one of the founders of humanistic psychology, publishes his theory of the hierarchy of needs.
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Albert Ellis publishes Reason and Emotion in Psychotherapy, leading to the development of rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT).
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Aaron Beck publishes a model of depression that suggests thoughts play a significant role. He is seen as the founder of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT).
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Carol Gilligan publishes the feminist tract In a Different Voice.
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Martin Seligman chooses positive psychology as the theme for his speech to the American Psychological Association, as its incoming president.
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Simon Baron-Cohen's 'The Essential Difference: Men, Women and the Extreme Male Brain' proposes that autism may be an "extreme form of maleness".
