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The Roots of Psychology

  • 335

    Aristotle

    Aristotle
    335 BC- A Greek philosopher, as well as a student of Plato, Aristotle stated that no knowledge is original. It comes from experiences stored in memories and the memories of ancestors. He also hypothesized that the heart was the major seat of all mental processes.
  • 470

    Socrates

    Socrates
    Socrates believed that philosophy should achieve practical results for the greater of society. He attempted to establish an ethical system based on human reason rather than theological doctrine. He pointed out that human choice was motivated by the want for happiness.
  • Francis Bacon

    Francis Bacon
    Francis Bacon is responsible for establishing the basis for what is today known as the Scientific Method, back then the Baconian method. He believed in building a framework for scientific experimentation. He also published The Proficiency and Advancement of Learning, a well-known philosophical work.
  • Rene Decartes

    Rene Decartes
    He was a French philoshopher of whom studied mathmatics and came up with the concepts of Geometry. Descartes was convinced that science and mathematics could be used to explain everything in nature, was the first to describe the physical universe in terms of matter and motion, seeing the world as a giant math equation. He published three important texts: Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting the Reason and Seeking Truth in the Sciences, Meditations on First.
  • John Locke

    John Locke
    Locke's writing influenced the founding fathers of the United States Constitution with the idea that the power to government was obtained from the permission of the people, or democracy. He thought that the purpose of government was to protect the natural rights of its citizens. He said that natural rights were life, liberty and property, and that all people automatically earned these simply by being born.
  • Charles Darwin

    Charles Darwin
    Charles Darwin is one of the most well known psychologists/biologists because of his theory of natural selection. This theory includes the aspect of organism evolution and coined the phrase "survival of the fittest", which means that nature is cruel and only the healthiest and most enviornmentally fit will survive generations. He published "On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection", and many of today's theories are based off of Darwin's work.
  • G. Stanley Hall

    G. Stanley Hall
    He took part in research with H. P. Bowditch at Harvard Medical School and in 1878 was awarded the first PhD in psychology in the United States. He is best known for his discoveries in child development and focuses on adolescence.Hall also wrote a powerful treatise on the economic, social, and intellectual isolation of older people. Hall published Adolescence: Its Psychology and Its Relation to Physiology, Anthropology, Sociology, Sex, Crime, Religion, and Education.
  • William James

    William James
    James published the two-volume Principles of Psychology in 1890 effectively redefined the field and established his international reputation as a contributor. He established the first psychological demonstration laboratory in the United States. Within the same year he founded the American branch of the Society for Psychical Research. James mainly studied the teachings of religion and ethics.
  • Mary Whiton Calkins

    Mary Whiton Calkins
    Mary Whiton Calkins was the first woman elected to be the president of the American Psychological Association (APA). Her main interests were in the areas of memory and "self". One of Calkins' main contributions is her system of "self-psychology". It explains that the self is in constant motion, and it does things both intentionally and knowingly. She is also known for her work with studying the relationship between dreams and real life.
  • Wilhelm Wundt

    Wilhelm Wundt
    Wundt is often referred to as the "Father of Experimental Psychology" and the "Founder of Modern Psychology". He designed one of the first experimental labortories for psychologists from America and Briatin and German students. He came up with the concept of stating mental events in relation to objectively knowable and measurable stimuli and reactions. He said the mind is seen as an activity not a substance. He published the 'tridimensional theory of feeling'.
  • E.B Titchner

    E.B Titchner
    After receiving his doctorate in 1892, Titchener accepted a position in the recently founded laboratory of psychology at Cornell University in New York. He became a professor and head of the department of psychology when psychology first became independent from philosophy. Due to lack of textsbooks he published his Outline of Psychology and his monumental four-volume Experimental Psychology. he was also an inspiring speaker.
  • Margaret Floy Washburn

    Margaret Floy Washburn
    She was the first graduate student recommended by Titchener to the Ph.D. program, and became the first woman to recive her Ph.D. in Psychology. Washburn's studied the consciousness and the examination of mental processes in both animals and humans. She published The Animal Mind, a compilation of experimental studies exploring the existence of conscious processes such as learning and attention in animals.
  • Rosalie Rayner

    Rosalie Rayner
    Rosalie Rayner was assistant to John Watson,of whom later became her husband, and they studied emotions and behavors within pshycology. There famous experiment was named "little Albert" who was an infant and they studied the fears and pshycoogical damages associated to the exposure of fear at a young age.This study was also an example of stimulus generalization.
  • Dorthea Dix

    Dorthea Dix
    Mrs. Dix's main studies were based upon the mental illnesses of jailmates within confines. She tried to push for a sepeate facility to be constucted specificaly for mental ill pacisents as she believed that mental illnesses could be cured. Her accomplishment in Massacuchetts led to the building of many additional institutions for the mentally ill. She was also instrumental in establishing libraries in prisons, mental hospitals and other institutions.
  • Plato

    Plato
    Plato began his philosophical career as a student of Socrates. Plato's work, The Republic, is a part of his middle dialogues or stage. It is a discussion of the virtues of justice, wisdom, courage, and moderation, of the individual and in society. It works with the main idea of how to live a good life, asking what an ideal State would be like, and what defines an individual.