Psychology
In 387 BCE, Plato suggested that the brain is where mental processes take place. This idea stood in contrast to Aristotle's view from 335 BC, which claimed the heart was the center of thought. Ancient Egypt left behind the Ebers Papyrus, a document mentioning depression and thought disorders over three thousand years ago. Chinese philosophy emerged through the works of Laozi and Confucius, emphasizing purifying the mind to increase virtue. The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine identified the brain as the nexus of wisdom and sensation. Wang Qingren advanced theories of hemispheric lateralization during the Qing dynasty between 1768 and 1831. Indian philosophy explored distinctions in types of awareness through Hinduism and Buddhism. Yoga techniques were used in pursuit of higher awareness within these traditions.
Wilhelm Wundt established the first psychological laboratory at Leipzig University in the late nineteenth century. Gustav Fechner began conducting psychophysics research in Leipzig during the 1830s. His work articulated the principle that human perception varies logarithmically according to stimulus intensity. Hermann von Helmholtz trained physiologist Wilhelm Wundt before he moved to Leipzig. James McKeen Cattell became the first professor of psychology in the United States at Columbia University. Hermann Ebbinghaus pioneered the experimental study of memory at the University of Berlin. G. Stanley Hall founded a psychology lab at Johns Hopkins University that became internationally influential. Yujiro Motora brought experimental psychology to the Imperial University of Tokyo after studying with Hall. Edward Titchener created the psychology program at Cornell University and advanced structuralist psychology.
John B. Watson coined the term behaviorism for this school of thought in 1913. Ivan Pavlov induced dogs to salivate in the presence of a stimulus previously linked with food. The American Psychological Association shifted opinion away from mentalism towards behavioralism between 1910 and 1913. John B. Watson conducted the Little Albert experiment in 1920 to demonstrate conditioned emotional responses. B.F. Skinner popularized operant conditioning through his book The Behavior of Organism published in 1932. Noam Chomsky published an influential critique of radical behaviorism in 1959 regarding language acquisition. Sigmund Freud originated psychoanalysis in the 1890s using interpretive methods and clinical observation. Abraham Maslow formulated a hierarchy of human needs in 1943 within the humanistic movement. Carl Rogers developed client-centered therapy as part of the same humanistic approach.
Robert Yerkes administered Army Alpha and Army Beta tests to almost 1.8 million soldiers during World War I. Dorwin Cartwright reported that university researchers began large-scale propaganda research between 1939 and 1941. The Central Intelligence Agency collaborated with the Rockefeller Foundation and Ford Foundation to fund psychological warfare research in the 1950s. Project Camelot received a four-to-six-million-dollar contract over three years starting in 1965. Matthias Göring directed the Berlin Psychoanalytic Institute which was renamed the Göring Institute under Nazi Germany. Johannes Heinrich Schultz advocated sterilization and euthanasia of men considered genetically undesirable during the Third Reich. Eugenics became a standard topic in psychology classes during the 1910s and 1920s. Harvard, Columbia, Brown, Cornell, Wisconsin, and Northwestern were among institutions teaching eugenics in psychology courses.
Anna Freud built on her father's work using different defense mechanisms to psychoanalyze children starting in 1923. Leta Stetter Hollingworth recorded both women and men performances on tasks for three months to disprove menstrual impairment theories. Mary Whiton Calkins invented the paired associates technique of studying memory in the early twentieth century. Mamie Phipps Clark conducted doll tests throughout the 1940s showing black children preferred white dolls due to racial discrimination. Her research helped decide the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954. Naomi Weisstein published the paper Kirche Kuche Kinder as Scientific Law: Psychology Constructs the Female. Martha Bernal became the first Latina woman to get a Ph.D. in psychology in 1962. Marigold Linton was the first Native American woman to get a Ph.D. in psychology in 1969. The Network of Indian Psychologists was established by Carolyn Attneave in 1971.
Paul Broca traced production of speech to the left frontal gyrus in France during the 1870s. Carl Wernicke identified a related area necessary for understanding speech shortly after Broca's discovery. Charles Sherrington and Donald O. Hebb used experimental methods to link psychological phenomena to brain structure. Computer simulations are sometimes used to model phenomena of interest within cognitive science. The Stroop effect shows that naming the color of words is easier than reading the word itself. Baddeley developed a model of working memory involving multiple components. The Big Five personality dimensions emerged as an important trait theory from the 1980s onward. John Bargh advanced ideas of automaticity and unconscious processing in social behavior research. Cognitive psychologists use filter models where much information processing takes place below the threshold of consciousness.
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Common questions
When did Plato suggest that the brain is where mental processes take place?
Plato suggested that the brain is where mental processes take place in 387 BCE. This idea stood in contrast to Aristotle's view from 335 BC, which claimed the heart was the center of thought.
Who established the first psychological laboratory at Leipzig University?
Wilhelm Wundt established the first psychological laboratory at Leipzig University in the late nineteenth century. Hermann von Helmholtz trained physiologist Wilhelm Wundt before he moved to Leipzig.
What year did John B. Watson coin the term behaviorism for this school of thought?
John B. Watson coined the term behaviorism for this school of thought in 1913. The American Psychological Association shifted opinion away from mentalism towards behavioralism between 1910 and 1913.
Which institution taught eugenics as a standard topic in psychology courses during the 1910s and 1920s?
Harvard, Columbia, Brown, Cornell, Wisconsin, and Northwestern were among institutions teaching eugenics in psychology classes. Eugenics became a standard topic in psychology classes during the 1910s and 1920s.
When did Mamie Phipps Clark conduct doll tests showing black children preferred white dolls due to racial discrimination?
Mamie Phipps Clark conducted doll tests throughout the 1940s showing black children preferred white dolls due to racial discrimination. Her research helped decide the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954.