Short answers, pulled from the story.
Wilhelm Wundt opened the first psychology laboratory in 1879. This event marked the birth of psychology as a distinct scientific discipline and took place in Leipzig, Germany. Before this date, the study of mental life was the domain of philosophers and theologians.
Behaviorism focuses solely on observable behavior and rejects the study of the unconscious mind, while psychoanalysis emphasizes the unconscious mind as the true driver of human behavior. John B. Watson declared in 1913 that psychology should abandon the study of the unconscious mind, whereas Sigmund Freud insisted that repressed desires and childhood traumas shape actions. This ideological battle created a schism that defined the field for decades.
Psychology was co-opted to support the Nazi regime's racial policies, leading to the persecution of Jewish psychoanalysts and the sterilization of those deemed genetically undesirable. In the United States, psychology courses became vehicles for propaganda promoting racial superiority and the control of reproduction. Institutions like the Eugenics Record Office funded research that justified discrimination and sterilization of marginalized groups.
Key women who contributed to psychology include Anna Freud, Leta Stetter Hollingworth, Mary Ainsworth, Mamie Phipps Clark, Mary Whiton Calkins, and Karen Horney. Anna Freud revolutionized child psychology, while Leta Stetter Hollingworth proved that women's performance was not affected by their menstrual cycles. Mary Ainsworth developed attachment theory, and Mamie Phipps Clark conducted the famous doll tests that influenced the Brown v. Board of Education decision.
The cognitive revolution occurred in the 1950s and rejected strict behaviorist dogma to embrace the study of mental processes like memory, perception, and problem-solving. This shift was driven by advances in computer science and the realization that human thought could be understood as an information processing system. Researchers like Noam Chomsky critiqued behaviorism for its inability to explain complex mental processes such as language acquisition.
Humanistic psychology is a movement that emerged in the 1950s and 1960s to address the limitations of behaviorism and psychoanalysis by focusing on human potential and the search for meaning. Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers championed this movement, emphasizing free will, self-actualization, and the importance of personal growth. Viktor Frankl developed logotherapy, a form of existential psychotherapy that focused on the will to meaning.