Timeline of Modern Psychology

Major Events in the History of Psychology

By Kendra Cherry, About.com Guide

Learn more about this history of modern psychology with this timeline of important dates and events. Image courtesy Ayhan Yildiz

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1878 - G. Stanley Hall becomes the first American to earn a Ph.D. in psychology. Hall eventually founds the American Psychological Association. 1879 Wilhelm Wundt founds the first experimental psychology lab in Leipzig, Germany. The event is considered the starting point of psychology as a separate science. 1881 --Wundt forms the professional journal Philosophische Studien (Philosophical Studies) 1883 - G. Stanley Hall opens the first experimental psychology lab in the United States at John Hopkins University. 1885 - Herman Ebbinghaus published his famous ber das Gedchtnis ("On Memory"), which was later translated to English as Memory. A Contribution to Experimental Psychology. In the work, he describes his learning and memory experiments that he conducted on himself. 1886 Sigmund Freud begins providing therapy to patients in Vienna, Austria. 1888 - James McKeen Cattell becomes the first professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. 1890 - James McKeen Cattell publishes Mental Tests and Measurements, marking the beginning of the practice of psychological assessment. -William James publishes Principles of Psychology. -Sir Francis Galton creates correlation technique to better understand relationships between variable in intelligence studies. 1892 --G. Stanley Hall forms the American Psychological Association (APA), which initially has just 42 members. - Wundts student Edward B. Titchener moves to America.

1894 - Margaret Floy Washburn completes her training under Tichener. 1895 - Alfred Binet forms the first psychology lab devoted to psychodiagnosis. 1898 - Edward Thorndike develops the Law of Effect. 1900 Sigmund Freud publishes Interpretation of Dreams. 1901 - The British Psychological Society is formed. 1905 - Mary Whiton Calkins is elected the first woman president of the American Psychological Association. - Alfred Binet publishes the intelligence test New Methods for the Diagnosis of the Intellectual Level of Subnormals. 1906 - Ivan Pavlov publishes his findings on classical conditioning. - Morton Prince founds the Journal of Abnormal Psychology. 1907 Carl Jung publishes The Psychology of Dementia Praecox. 1909 - Calkins publishes A First Book in Psychology. 1912 - Edward Thorndike publishes Animal Intelligence. The article leads to the development of the theory of operant conditioning. - Max Wertheimer publishes Experimental Studies of the Perception of Movement, leading to the development of Gestalt Psychology. 1913 Carl Jung begins to depart from Freudian views and develops his own theories, which are eventually known as analytical psychology. - John B. Watson publishes Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It. The work helped establish behaviorism, which viewed human behavior arising from conditioned responses. 1915 Sigmund Freud publishes work on repression. 1917 - Then president of the APA, Robert Yerkes writes the Alpha and Beta Tests for the Army to test intelligence. 1919 - John B. Watson publishes Psychology, From the Standpoint of a Behaviorist. 1920 - Watson and Rosalie Rayner publish research the classical conditioning of fear with their subject, Little Albert.

1925 - Gestal Psychology is brought to America with the publication of Wolfgang Kohlers Perception: An Introduction to the Gestalt Theory. 1932 - Jean Piaget becomes the foremost cognitive theorist with the publication of his work The Moral Judgment of Children. 1935 - Henry Murray publishes the Thematic Appreception Test (TAT). 1942 - Carl Rogers developed client-centered therapy and publishes Counseling and Psychotherapy. His approach encourages respect and positive regard for patients. 1952 - The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is published. 1954 - Abraham Maslow publishes Motivation and Personality, describing his theory of a hierarchy of needs. He also helps found humanistic psychology. 1958 - Harry Harlow publishes The Nature of Love, which describe his experiments with rhesus monkey's on the importance of attachment and love. 1961 - Albert Bandura conducts his now famous Bobo doll experiment. 1963 - Albert Bandura first describes the concept of observational learning to explain personality development. 1974 - Stanley Milgram publishes Obedience to Authority, which presented the findings of his famous obedience experiments. 1980 - The DSM-III is published. 1990 - Noam Chomsky publishes On Nature, Use and Acquisition of Language. 1991 - Steven Pinker publishes an article in Science introducing his theory of how children acquire language, which he later details further in his book The Language Instinct. 1994 - The DSM-IV is published. 2000 - Genetic researchers finish mapping human genes. Scientists hope to one day isolate the individual genes responsible for different diseases. 2002 - Steven Pinker publishes The Blank Slate, arguing against the concept of tabula rasa.