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History of Psychology Timeline

Topics: Psychology, Cognition, Mind Pages: 4 (598 words) Published: July 4, 2011
History of Psychology Timeline

Psychology in a whole has evolved, from the days of the ancient Greek

philosophers who’s beliefs that the void in our knowledge needed to be addressed so that

we would understand the natural world in more rational manner. Many of the students

who became teachers moved on to accomplished many great things. Aristotle ground

breaking developing philosophical approach seems to foreshadow many of the critical

ideas for the future of psychology opening the doors for psychologist, such as William

James and Edward B. Titchner. Their beliefs would further the evolution to great lengths.

Based upon experimentation James believed that the mind and body are of one entity, he

sought to blur the line between the mind-body dichotomy, was considered functional due

to its many practical applications. Where on the other hand Titchner’s belief that by

understanding the fundamental structures of the mind we could understand the specific

aspect of human psychology.

In the early 19th century when psychology was viewed as a form of science a

medical doctor developed a form of psychotherapy called psychoanalysis, which consists

of techniques aimed at discovering certain unconscious elements of our psyche. In which

Sigmund Freud emphasizes on the role of using the past to create great things in the

future as a key concept to understanding psychoanalytic theory.

In the mid 1800s a Russian doctor by the name of Ivan Pavlov was credited as

first describing what is called “classical conditioning”. Though his studies where of his

pets they sparked a major movement in psychology known as behaviorism, Well into the

mid 1900s two doctors arose with a new level of Dr. Pavlov’s experiments, Psychologist John Watson and B. F. Skinner sought to explain behavior without resorting to such

concepts of an inner consciousness or other nonphysical explanations. They believed...
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