The emergence of psychology as a science

• 1879: Wundt opened first experimental psychology laboratory in Leipzig, Germany and introduced the introspective method

  • psychology begins its road towards becoming a distinct discipline
• 1900s: Freud developed psychodynamic theory and psychoanalysis with its emphasis on unconscious motives and drives
• 1913: Watson and Skinner proposed behaviourism as an antidote to Freud and Wundt

  • They argue that only behaviour which can be directly observed and measured can be classified as truly scientific
  • They argue that behaviour is learned via environmental conditioning
• 1950s: Rogers and Maslow developed humanistic psychology as a rebuff to behaviourism and psycho-dynamism

  • They emphasise the importance of free will and a holistic approach to studying the individual (known as phenomenology)
  • They focus on the positive aspects of individual experience and personal growth
• 1960s: Cognitive psychology is suggested, using computer models and information processing to explain behaviour

  • Mental processes are the focus of this strand of psychology
  • Inferences can be drawn by examining cognitive functions in lab experiments
• 1980s: The biological approach took precedence in psychology, made possible by technological advances e.g. brain scans such as MRI

  • Brain-scanning techniques allow researchers to look 'inside' the brain to track activity or study structural detail
• 2000s onwards: Cognitive neuroscience emerges as the means whereby to amalgamate biology and cognition

  • Increasingly sophisticated technology continues to highlight the relationship between brain and cognition/behaviour
  • Brain scanning can help to identify brain damage/illness and to localise specific functions (e.g. memory) linked to specific brain regions/structures
• 1879 -> 1900s -> 1913 -> 1950s -> 1960s -> 1980s -> 2000s onwards