University of Negros Occidental Recoletos

Recoletos de Bacolod Graduate School

Timeline of Psychology: From Ancient times to the Present

Jennibeth D. Baculna
Sharen M. Telarma, SRM.
October, 2013

TIMELINE OF PSYCHOLOGY
(From Ancient to the Present)
YEAR
Ancient Times
1550 BC

PROPONENTS

600 BC

460 BC 370 BC

Hippocrates

387 BC

Plato

350 BC

Aristotle

335 BC

Aristotle

123-43 BC

Themison

100 BC

MAIN CONTRIBUTION
The Ebers Papyrus briefly mentioned
clinical depression.
Many cities had temples to Asklepios
that provided cures for psychosomatic
illnesses.
Introduced principles of scientific
medicine based upon observation and
logic, and denied the influence of
spirits and demons in diseases.
Suggested that the brain is the
mechanism of mental processes. He
view of the soul (self) is that the
body exists to serve the soul.
Wrote on the psuche (soul) in De
Anima, first mentioning the Tabula
Rasa concept of the mind.
Suggested that the heart is the
mechanism of mental processes.
Founded a school of medical thought
known as Methodism.
The Dead Sea Scrolls noted the
division of human nature into two
temperaments.

First Century
ca. 50

Aulus Cornelius Celsus

ca. 100

Rufus of Ephesus

He died, leaving De Medicina, a

medical encyclopedia; Book 3 covers
mental diseases. The term insania,
insanity, was first used by him. The
methods of treatment included
bleeding, frightening the patient,
emetics, enemas, total darkness, and
decoctions of poppy or henbane, and
pleasant ones such as music therapy,
travel, sport, reading aloud, and
massage. He was aware of the
importance of the doctor-patient
relationship.
Believed that the nervous system was
instrumental in voluntary movement
and sensation. He discovered the
optic chiasma by anatomical studies
of the brain. He stressed taking a
history of both physical and mental
disorders. He gave a detailed account

93-138

Second Century
ca. 130-200

Soranus of Ephesus

Galen

of melancholia, and was quoted by

Galen.
Advised kind treatment in healthy
and comfortable conditions, including
light, warm rooms.

Schooled in all the psychological

systems of the day: Platonic,
Aristotelian, Stoic, and Epicurean

Third Century
205-270

Plotinus

Wrote Enneads a systematic account

of Neo-platonist philosophy, also
nature of visual perception and how
memory might work.

Fourth Century
ca. 323-403 - Oribasius

Oribasius

Compiled medical writings based on

the works of Aristotle, Asclepiades,
and Soranus of Ephesus, and wrote
on melancholia in Galenic terms
Published
Confessions,
which
anticipated Freud by near-discovery
of the subconscious. Augustine's most
complete account of the soul is in De
Quantitate Animae (The Greatness of
the Soul). The work assumes a
Platonic model of the soul.

397-398

St. Augustine of Hippo

Fifth Century
Caelius Aurelianus

ca. 423-529

Theodosius the Cenobiarch

ca. 451

Patriarch Nestorius of
Constantinople

Opposed harsh methods of handling

the insane, and advocated humane
treatment.
Founded a monastery at Kathismus,
near Bethlehem. Three hospitals were
built by the side of the monastery:
one for the sick, one for the aged, and
one for the insane
His followers dedicated themselves to
the sick and became physicians of
great repute. They brought the works
of Hippocrates, Aristotle, and Galen,
and influenced the approach to
physical and mental disorders in
Persia and Arabia

Seventh Century
Paul of Aegina
625-690

Suggested that hysteria should be

treated by ligature of the limbs, and
mania by tying the patient to a
mattress placed inside a wicker
basket and suspended from the
ceiling. He also recommended baths,

wine, special diets, and sedatives for

the mentally ill. He described the
following mental disorders: phrenitis,
delirium, lethargus, melancholia,
mania, incubus, lycanthropy, and
epilepsy
The first psychiatric hospital was
built by Muslims in Baghdad,
followed by Cairo in 800, and
Damascus in 1270.

705

Ninth Century
Ali ibn Sahl Rabban al-Tabari
ca. 850

Developed the idea of using clinical

psychiatry to treat mentally ill
patients.

Tenth Century
ca. 900

ca. 900

Eleventh Century
1021

al-Razi (Rhazes)

Ahmed ibn Sahl al-Balkhi

He introduced the The concept of

mental health (mental hygiene) . He
also recognized that illnesses can
have both psychological and/or
physiological causes.

Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen)

He began to carry out experiments in

areas related to body and the nafs. In
his Book of Optics, for example, he
examined visual perception and what
we now call sensation, including
variations in sensitivity, sensation of
touch,
perception
of
colors,
perception
of
darkness,
the
psychological explanation of the
moon illusion, and binocular vision
He described a number of conditions,
including hallucination, insomnia,
mania,
nightmare,
melancholia,
dementia, epilepsy, paralysis, stroke,
vertigo and tremor.
He
employed an experimental
method in examining the concept of
reaction time.

1025

Avicenna.

ca. 1030

Al-Biruni

Twelfth Century

He
recognized the concept of
"psychotherapy" and referred to it as
al-ilaj al-nafs.

ca. 1200

Thirteenth Century
1215 -1277

Maimonides

He wrote about neuropsychiatric

disorders, and described rabies and
belladonna intoxication.

Peter Juliani

He taught in the medical faculty of

the University of Siena, and wrote on
medical,
philosophical
and
psychological topics. He personal
physician to Pope Gregory X and
later became archbishop and cardinal.
He was elected pope under the name
John XXI in 1276

ca. 12141294

Roger Bacon

1221 1274

Bonaventure

1193 1280

Albertus Magnus

1225

Thomas Aquinas

1240

Bartholomeus Anglicus

He published De Proprietatibus
Rerum, which included a dissertation
on the brain, recognizing that mental
disorders can have a physical or
psychological cause.
Bethlehem Royal Hospital in
Bishopsgate outside the wall of
London, one of the most famous old
psychiatric hospitals was founded as
a priory of the Order of St. Mary of
Bethlem to collect alms for
Crusaders;
after
the
English
government secularized it, it started
admitting mental patients by 1377
(1403?), becoming known as Bedlam
Hospital; in 1547 it was acquired by
the City of London, operating until
1948; it is now part of the British
NHS Foundation Trust.

Witelo

He wrote Perspectiva, a work on

optics containing speculations on
psychology, nearly discovering the
subconscious.

1247

ca. 1270

He wrote Science of Cirurgie.

1295

Lanfranc

Fourteenth Century
1347-50

The Black Death devastated Europe.

ca. 1375

English authorities regarded mental

illness as demonic possession,
treating it with exorcism and torture.

Fifteenth Century
ca. 1400

1433-1499

Renaissance Humanism caused a

reawakening of ancient knowledge of
science and medicine.
Marsilio Ficino

ca. 1450

He was a renowned figure of the

Italian Renaissance, a Neoplatonist
humanist, a translator of Greek
philosophical writing, and the most
influential exponent of Platonism in
Italy.
The pendulum in Europe swings,
bringing Witch Mania, causing
thousands of women to be executed
for witchcraft until the late 17th
century.

Sixteenth Century
1590

Rudolph Goclenius

A Scholastic philosopher coined the

term "psychology"; though usually
regarded as the origin of the term,
there is evidence that it was used at
least six decades earlier by Marko
Maruli

1650

Ren Descartes

He died, leaving Treatise of the

World, containing his dualistic theory
of reality, mind vs. matter.

1672

Thomas Willis

He published the anatomical treatise

De Anima Brutorum, describing
psychology in terms of brain
function.

Seventeenth Century

1677

Baruch Spinoza

He
died,
leaving
Ethics,
Demonstrated in Geometrical Order,
Pt. 2 focusing on the human mind and
body, disputing Descartes and
arguing that they are one, and Pt. 3
attempting to show that moral
concepts such as good and evil,
virtue, and perfection have a basis in
human psychology.

1689

John Locke

He published An Essay Concerning

Human Understanding, which claims
that the human mind is a Tabula Rasa
at birth.

1701

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

He published the Law of Continuity,

which he applied to psychology,
becoming the first to postulate an
unconscious mind; he also introduced
the concept of threshold.

1710

George Berkeley

He published Treatise Concerning the

Principles of Human Knowledge,
which claims that the outside world is
composed solely of ideas.

1732

Christian Wolff

He
Christian Wolff published
Psychologia Empirica, followed in
1734 by Psychologia Rationalis,
popularizing the term "psychology".

1739

David Hume

1774

Franz Mesmer

He published A Treatise of Human

Nature, claiming that all contents of
mind are solely built from sense
experiences.
Detailed his cure for some mental
illness, originally called mesmerism
and now known as hypnosis.

1781

Immanuel Kant

Eighteenth Century

He published Critique of Pure

Reason, rejecting Hume's extreme
empiricism and proposing that there
is more to knowledge than bare sense
experience, distinguishing between "a
posteriori" and "a priori" knowledge,
the former being derived from

1793

Nineteenth Century
1800

Philippe Pinel

perception, hence occurring after

perception, and the latter being a
property of thought, independent of
experience and existing before
experience.
Released the first mental patients
from confinement in the first massive
movement
for
more
humane
treatment of the mentally ill.

Franz Joseph Gall

He developed Cranioscopy, the

measurement of the skull to
determine
psychological
characteristics, which was later
renamed Phrenology; it is now
discredited.

1807

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

1808

Franz Joseph Gall

He published Phenomenology of
Spirit (Mind), which describes his
Thesis-Antithesis-Synthesis
dialectical method, according to
which knowledge pushes forwards to
greater certainty, and ultimately
towards knowledge of the noumenal
world.
Wrote about phrenology (the idea that
a person's skull shape and placement
of bumps on the head can reveal
personality traits.

1808

Johann Christian Reil

1812

Benjamin Rush

He became one of the earliest

advocates of humane treatment for
the mentally ill with the publication
of
Medical
Inquiries
and
Observations Upon Diseases of the
Mind, the first American textbook on
psychiatry.

1829

John Stuart Mill

1834

Ernst Heinrich Weber

His father James Mill published

Analysis of the Phenomena of the
Human Mind (2 vols.).
Published his perception theory of
'Just Noticeable Difference,' now
known as Weber's Law

1840

Frederick Augustus Rauch

He coined the term "psychiatry".

He published Psychology, or a View

of the Human
Anthropology

Soul,

including

1843

Forbes Benignus Winslow

He published The Plea of Insanity in

Criminal Cases, helping establish the
plea of insanity in criminal cases in
Britain.

1844

Sren Kierkegaard

He published The Concept of Anxiety,

the first exposition on anxiety.

1848

Phineas Gage

Suffered brain damage when an iron

pole pierces his brain.
His
personality was changed but his
intellect remained intact suggesting
that an area of the brain plays a role
in personality.

1852

Hermann Lotze

He published Medical Psychology or

Physiology of the Soul.

1856

Hermann Lotze

1859

Charles Darwin

He began publishing his 3-volume

magnum opus Mikrokosmos (1856
64), arguing that natural laws of
inanimate objects apply to human
minds and bodies but have the
function of enabling us to aim for the
values set by the deity, thus making
room for aesthetics.
Published the On the Origin of
Species, detailing his view of
evolution and expanding on the
theory of 'Survival of the fittest.'

1859

Josef Breuer

He published Traite Clinique et

Therapeutique de L'Hysterie.

1860

Franciscus Donders

First used human reaction time to

infer differences in cognitive
processing.

1860

Gustav Theodor Fechner

1861

Paul Broca

He
published
Elements
of
Psychophysics, founding the subject
of Psychophysics.
French Physician who discovered an
area in the left frontal lobe that plays
a key role in language development.

1869

Sir Francis Galton

1872

Douglas Spalding

1874

Wilhelm Wundt

1874

Carl Wernicke

1875

William James

1878

G. Stanley Hall

1879

Wilhelm Wundt

1882

Publishes 'Hereditary Genius,' and

argues that intellectual abilities are
biological in nature.
He published his discovery of
psychological Imprinting.
He published Grundzge der
physiologischen
Psychologie
(Principles
of
Physiological
Psychology), the first textbook of
experimental psychology.
Published his work on the frontal
lobe, detailing that damage to a
specific area damages the ability to
understand or produce language.
He opened the first experimental
psychology laboratory in the United
States; it was intended for classroom
demonstration rather than original
research.
Received the first American Ph.D. in
psychology. He later founded the
American Psychological Association.
Founded the first formal laboratory of
Psychology at the University of
Leipzig,
marking
the
formal
beginning of the study of human
emotions, behaviors, and cognitions.
The Society for Psychical Research
was founded in England.

1883

G. Stanley Hall

He opened the first American

experimental psychology research
laboratory
at
Johns
Hopkins
University.

1883

Emil Kraepelin

He published Compendium der

Psychiatrie.
Establishment of the first laboratory
of psychology in America at Johns
Hopkins Hospital

Ivan Pavlov

He began studying the digestive

secretion of animals.

1883

1884

1884

Tourette's
described.

Syndrome

was

first

1885

Erman Ebbinghaus

Introduced the nonsense syllable as a

means to study memory processes.

1886

John Dewey

He published the first American

textbook on psychology, titled
Psychology.

1886

Vladimir Bekhterev

1886

Sigmund Freud

He established the first laboratory of

experimental psychology in Russia at
Kazan University.
Began his performing therapy in
Vienna, marking the beginning of
personality theory.

1887

Georg Elias Mller

1887

George Trumbull Ladd (Yale)

He
published
Elements
of
Physiological Psychology, the first
American textbook to include a
substantial amount of information on
the new experimental form of the
discipline.

1887

James McKeen Cattell

He
founded
an
experimental
psychology
laboratory
at
the
University of Pennsylvania, the 3rd in
the United States.

1887

G. Stanley Hall

He founded the American Journal of

Psychology with a $500 contribution
supplied by Robert Pearsall Smith of
the American Society for Psychical
Research.

1888

William Lowe Bryan.

He founded the United States' 4th

experimental psychology laboratory
at Indiana University.

1888

Joseph Jastrow

He founded the United States' 5th

experimental psychology laboratory
at the University of Wisconsin
Madison.

1888

G. Stanley Hall

He left Johns Hopkins for the

presidency of the newly-founded
Clark University in Worcester, Mass.

He opened the 2nd

experimental psychology
laboratory in Gttingen.

German
research

1889

James Mark Baldwin

He publisheed the first volume of his

Handbook of Psychology, titled
"Sense and Intellect".

1889

Edmund Sanford

A former student of G. Stanley Hall

founded the United States' 6th
experimental psychology laboratory
at Clark University.

1889

William Noyes

He founded the United States' 7th

experimental psychology laboratory
at the McLean Asylum in Waverley,
Mass.

1889

Harry Kirke Wolfe

He founded the United States' 8th

experimental psychology laboratory
at the University of Nebraska.

1890

Christian von Ehrenfels

He published On the Qualities of

Form, founding Gestalt Psychology.

1890

James Hayden Tufts

He founded the United States' 9th

experimental psychology laboratory
at the University of Michigan.

1890

G. T. W. Patrick

He founded the United States' 10th

experimental psychology laboratory
at the University of Iowa.

1890

James McKeen Catell

He founded the United States' 11th

experimental psychology laboratory.
Coined the term "Mental Tests" and
beginning the specialization in
psychology
now
known
as
psychological assessment.

1890

James Mark Baldwin

1890

William James

1890

Sir Francis Galton

He founded the first permanent

experimental psychology laboratory
in the British Empire at the
University of Toronto.
Published 'Principles of Psychology,'
that later became the foundation for
functionalism.
Developed the technique known as
the correlation to better understand
the
interrelationships
in
his
intelligence studies.
New York State passed the State Care

1890

Act, ordering indigent mentally ill

patients out of poor-houses and into
state hospitals for treatment and
developing the first institution in the
U.S. for psychiatric research.
1891

Frank Angell

Edvard Westermarck
1891

G. Stanley Hall
1892

He founded the United States' 12th

experimental psychology laboratory
at the Cornell University.
He described the Westermarck Effect,
where people raised early in life in
close domestic proximity later
become desensitized to close sexual
attraction, raising theories about the
incest taboo.
He founded American Psychological
Association (APA)

Edward Bradford Titchener

1892

He took a professorship at Cornell

University, replacing Frank Angell
who left for Stanford University.
Edward Wheeler Scripture

1892

He founded the experimental

psychology laboratory at Yale
University, the 19th in United States.
Charles A. Strong

18921893

He
opened
the
experimental
psychology
laboratory
at
the
University of Chicago, the 20th in the
United States, at which James
Rowland Angell conducted the first
experiments of functionalism in 1896.
Foundation
of
the
American
Psychological Association (APA)
headed by G. Stanley Hall, with an
initial membership of 42.

1892

1894

James McKeen Cattell and James

Mark Baldwin

They founded the Psychological

Review to compete with Hall's
American Journal of Psychology.

1895

Gustave Le Bon

1895

Alfred Binet

1896

John Dewey

He published The Crowd: A Study of

the Popular Mind.
Founded the first laboratory of
psychodiagnosis.
His writings began the school of
thought known as functionalism.
The first psychological clinic was
developed at the University of

1896

Pennsylvania marking the birth of

clinical psychology.
1896

Edward B. Titchener
He was the student of Wilhelm Wundt
and originator of the terms
"structuralism" and "functionalism"
published An Outline of Psychology.

1897

Havelock Ellis

1898

Edward Thorndike

1898

Boris Sidis

He published Sexual Inversion.

Developed the 'Law of Effect,'
arguing that "a stimulus-response
chain is strengthened if the outcome
of that chain is positive."
He published The Psychology of
Suggestion: A Research into the
Subconscious Nature of Man and
Society

Sigmund Freud
1899

He published The Interpretation of

Dreams
(Die
Traumdeutung),
marking
the
beginning
of
psychoanalysis, which attempts to
deal with the Oedipal complex.

1900s-Present
1900

Sigmund Freud

1901
1903

Published 'Interpretation of Dreams'

marking
the
beginning
of
Psychoanalytic Thought.
The British Psychological Society
was founded.

John B. Watson
He graduated from the University of
Chicago; his dissertation on rat
behavior has been described as a
"classic
of
developmental
psychobiology" by historian of
psychology Donald Dewsbury.

1903

Helen Thompson Woolley

Charles Spearman
1904

1905

Alfred Binet

1905

Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon

He published the first dissertation on

sex differences, The Mental Traits of
Sex.
He published the article General
Intelligence in the American Journal
of Psychology, introducing the g
factor theory of intelligence.
His Intelligence Test was published in
France.
They created the Binet-Simon Scale

to identify students needing extra

help, marking the beginning of
standardized psychological testing.
Edward Thorndike
1905
1906

Morton Prince

1906

Ivan Pavlov

He published the Law of Effect.

Founded the Journal of Abnormal
Psychology.
Published the first studies on
Classical Conditioning.

Sigmund Freud
1908

He published the paper On the Sex-al

Theories of Children, introducing the
concept of penis envy; he also
published the paper 'Civilized' Sex-al
Morality and Modern Nervous
Illness.
Wilfred Trotter

1908

He published the first

explaining the herd instinct.

paper

Sigmund Freud
1909

Lectured at Clark University, winning

over the U.S. establishment.
Sigmund Freud

1910

He
founded
the
International
Psychoanalytical Association (IPA),
with Carl Jung as the first president,
and Otto Rank as the first secretary.
Grace Helen Kent and J. Rosanoff

1910

They published the Kent-Rosanoff

Free Association Test
Boris Sidis

1910

1911

Alfred Adler

1911

opened
the
private
Sidis
Psychotherapeutic
Institute
at
Maplewood Farms in Portsmouth,
New Hampshire for the treatment of
nervous patients using the latest
scientific methods.
Left Freud's Psychoanalytic Group to
form his own school of thought,
accusing Freud of overemphasizing
sexuality and basing his theory on his
own childhood.
The
American
Psychoanalytic
Association (APsaA) was founded.

William McDougall,
1911

Founder of Hormic Psychology

published Body and Mind: A History

and Defence of Animism, claiming

that there is an animating principle in
Nature and that the mind guides
evolution.

1911

Edward Thorndike
He published first article on animal
intelligence leading to the theory of
Operant Conditioning.
Max Wertheimer

1912

William Stern
1912

He published Experimental Studies of

the Perception of Movement, helping
found Gestalt Psychology
He developed the original formula for
the Intelligence Quotient (IQ) after
studying the scores on Binet's
intelligence test. The formula is

Carl Jung
1913

He departed from Freudian views and

developed his own theories citing
Freud's inability to acknowledge
religion and spirituality. His new
school of thought became known as
Analytical Psychology.
Jacob L. Moreno

1913

Pioneered group Ppychotherapy

methods
in
Vienna,
which
emphasized
spontaneity
and
interaction; they later became known
as Psychodrama and Sociometry.
John B. Watson

1913

He published Psychology as the

Behaviorist Views It, sometimes
known
as
"The
Behaviorist
Manifesto".
Hugo Mnsterberg

1913

Boris Sidis
1914

He published Psychology and

Industrial Efficiency, considered
today as the first book on Industrial
and Organizational Psychology.
He published The Foundations of
Normal and Abnormal Psychology,

1916
Robert Yerkes
1917

Sigmund Freud
1917
1920

John B. Watson

1921

Sigmund Freud

1921

Jacob L. Moreno

1921

Hermann Rorschach

1922

Karen Horney

1923
1924

Sigmund Freud
Mary Cover Jones

1924

Lewis Terman

where he provided the scientific

foundation for the field of
psychology, and detailed his theory of
the moment consciousness.
Stanford-Binet intelligence test was
published in the United States.
He was the President of APA at the
time and developed the Army Alpha
and Beta Tests to measure
intelligence in a group format. The
tests were adopted for use with all
new recruits in the U.S. military a
year later.
He published Introduction to
Psychoanalysis.
Together with his assistant Rosalie
Rayner, they conducted the Little
Albert experiment using classical
conditioning to make a young boy
afraid of white rats.
Published Group Psychology and the
Analysis of the Ego
Conducted the first large scale public
psychodrama
session
at
the
Komedienhaus in Vienna.
Publishes the Rorschach Inkblot Test
designed to assess psychopathology.
He is elected Vice-President of the
Swiss Psychoanalytic Society in
1919. He dies at an early age in
1922, one year after publication of
his famous test.
Began publishing a series of 14
papers questioning Freud theories on
women,
founding
feminist
psychology.
Published The Ego and the Id
Publishes A laboratory study of fear:
The case of Peter, in which she
reconditions a fear reaction in a
child. Her technique is a forerunner
of
Wolpe's
systematic
desensitization. Parallels have been
made to what Watson might or ought
to have done with Little Albert.
PublishesGenetic Studies of Genius,
a longitudinal study of very bright
children. He uses the work of Alfred
Binet to standardize intelligence

1929

Wolfgang Kohler

1929

E.G. Boring

1932

Jean Piaget

1935

Henry Murray

1937

Gordon Allport

1938

B.F. Skinner

testing in the United States. 1929 The Great Depression Widespread

unemployment led to massive 1939
government programs, such as Social
Security. Psychologically, the
Depression was a blow to many
people's self-esteem.
Publishes Gestalt Psychology, which
is highly critical of the prevailing
behaviorism. As a colleague of
Wertheimer and Koffka he researches
Gestalt perceptual principles. He is
best known for his research on
learning and problem solving in apes.
Publishes the influential A History of
Experimental
Psychology.
He
becomes an institutional spokesman
on the history of psychology. His text
is revised in1950 and is still
considered a classic.
Publishes Moral Judgment of the
Child,
describing
cognitive
development in childhood. He
becomes a prominent developmental
psychologist as he describes the
stages of development in his own
grandchildren.
Along with Christiana Morgan, he
develops the Thematic Apperception
Test (T.A.T.) As a student he is
psychoanalyzed by Carl Jung.
Murray's theory of personality
focuses on basic needs such as the
need for achievement and affiliation.
Publishes
Personality:
A
Psychological Interpretation, which
makes him the preeminent trait
theorist. A professor at Harvard, he is
considered one of the fathers of
personality theory. He suggests the
development of self-esteem as one of
the important tasks of early
childhood.
Writes Behavior of Organisms, and
later becomes one of the most well
known psychologists in the 20th
century. His research with pigeons
and rats is legendary. He writes
extensively
about
behaviorism,

1939

David Wechsler

1945

Karen Horney

1947

Hans Eysenck

1948

Alfred Kinsey

1949

Raymond Cattell

1950

Erik Erikson

operant conditioning, reinforcement

and punishment. 1939 - 1945 World
War II Hitler's shadow across Europe
and his extermination of Jews
reinforced Freud's idea of thanatos
and Jung's notion of the shadow.
Develops the Wechsler-Bellevue
intelligence test, which is the
forerunner of modern day
intelligence tests. His Wechsler Adult
Intelligence Scale and Wechsler
Intelligence Scale for Children are
the standard in I.Q. testing today.
Publishes Our Inner Conflicts, which
is very critical of Freud's theories of
female sexual development. She is
most well known for her theory of
neurosis. Horney named ten patterns
of neurotic needs under the
categories of moving toward people,
moving away from people, and
moving against people.
Writes Dimensions of Personality, in
which he outlines his personality
factors. Neuroticism/psychotocism
and introversion/extroversion make
up the backbone of Eysenck's
dimensional
theory. He later
performs research suggesting
psychotherapy is of no value.
Publishes Sexual Behavior in the
Human Male. The research consists
of extensive survey data, the first of
its kind exploring human sexuality.
While much of Kinsey's data is
controversial, his work is still
applicable today.
Publishes the objective personality
test, The Sixteen Personality Factor
Questionnaire (16PF). His studies in
factor analysis solidify his trait
theory of personality. He believes
there are 16 core personality traits in
adults which can be measured on a
continuum.
Writes Childhood and Society, in
which he outlines his 8 stages of
psychosocial development. Trained
as a psychoanalyst and contemporary

1951

Carl Rogers

1954

Abraham Maslow

1954

Kenneth Clark

1955

Solomon Asch

1959

Harry Harlow

1961

Joseph Wolpe

of Freud's he disagrees with Freud's

focus on sexuality. Erikson is
credited with being one of the
founders of ego psychology.
Publishes Client Centered Therapy, a
treatise on how to do Humanistic
psychotherapy. Along with Abraham
Maslow, he promotes the
development of the self. He coins the
term "unconditional positive regard"
meaning love with no conditions of
worth.
Writes Motivation and Personality,
which outlines a hierarchy of needs
from basic physiological needs to
self-actualization. As a humanistic
psychologist, he is very interested in
the positive growth potential of
human beings. He theorizes about
neurotic needs but does not include
them in the hierarchy.
Research with his wife Mamie is
used in the U.S. Supreme Court
decision which outlaws segregated
schools. Children of different races
are asked about their attitudes toward
"black" or "white' dolls. Clark goes
on to become the first AfricanAmerican president of the APA.
Studies the effect of group pressure
on conformity. In his classic
experiment participants are asked to
make judgments about the similarity
of lines. All but one of the
participants are confederates.
Publishes The Nature of
Love, which outlines his
work on attachment in
monkeys. In his classic
experiment, monkeys are
housed with surrogate
mothers and exposed to
fearful stimuli. Monkeys
(and theoretically humans)
will choose contact comfort
over
satisfaction
of
biological needs.
Publishes The The Systematic
Desensitization
Treatment
of

1962

Stanley Schacter

1963

Lawrence Kohlberg

1963

Albert Bandura

1964

Roger Sperry

1965

Stanley Milgram

Neurosis, using behavioral methods

for the treatment of anxiety.
Systematic
Desensitization
Treatment of Neurosis describing the
use of behavioral methods for the
treatment of anxiety. As a professor
at Temple University Medical School
he trains patients in relaxation. When
relaxation is paired with a hierarchy
of fears, patients can learn to
overcome their fears.
Produces the two-factor theory of
emotion. As a social psychologist he
and Jerome Singer theorize people's
experience of emotion depends on
two factors: physiological arousal
and the cognitive interpretation of
that arousal. Schacter goes on to
research factors contributing to
obesity.
Develops a system for the
categorization of moral reasoning.
Based on research with the "Heinz"
dilemma, Kohlberg hypothesizes 6
stages of moral reasoning. His levels
of moral development include preconventional, conventional, and postconventional morality.
Writes
Social
Learning
and
Personality Development, which
describes observational learning.
Research with Bobo dolls suggests
the effect of television violence on
children's aggression.
Publishes split brain research for
which he later receives a Nobel
Prize. In the case of severe epilepsy
the corpus callosum is severed
leaving
two
separate
brain
hemispheres. Due to the operation
much is learned about the role of the
right and left hemispheres.
Conducts a highly controversial
study of obedience to authority. As a
professor at Yale University,
Milgram is interested in why people
blindly obey authority. This study,
which could not be conducted today
on ethical grounds, is probably the

1966

Robert Rosenthal

1967

Martin Seligman

1969

George Miller

1970

Mary Ainsworth

1971

Philip Zimbardo

1973
1980
1983

Howard Gardner

most
famous
experiment
in
psychology.
Performs a classic experiment on the
Pygmalion effect: the self-fulfilling
effect of teacher expectations on
students' performance. A random
group of students are described to
teachers as 'academic bloomers'
expected to make great gains; this
knowledge appears to affect students'
performance.
Performs classic research on learned
helplessness in dogs. Dogs who are
exposed to inescapable shock
experience learned helplessness,
which is comparable to human
depression. Seligman later is elected
president of the APA and promotes
positive psychology.
His presidential address to the APA
advocates "giving psychology away".
He is well known for his research on
memory. The magical number seven,
plus or minus two refers to the limits
of short-term memory.
Researches the importance of
attachment in early childhood social
development. She devises the
"Strange
Situation"
where
relationships between caregiver and
child are observed. Children are
classified as anxious-ambivalent,
avoidant, or securely attached to
parents.
Charismatic professor at Stanford
University, performs his classic
prison study. As a textbook author,
public
television
documentary
personality, and president of APA, he
promotes psychology in the real
world. Recent research activities
include studies on shyness.
APA endorsed the Psy.D. degree for
professional practice in Psychology
DSM III published by the American
Psychiatric Association
Introduced his theory of multiple
intelligence, arguing that intelligence
is something to be used to improve

1988
1990

1994
1995

1997

1998

1999

2002

2002

lives not to measure and quantify

human beings.
American Psychological Society
established
The emergence of managed care
prompts the APA to become more
political, leading to the idea of
Prescribing Psychologists and equity
in mental health coverage.
DSM IV published by the American
Psychiatric Association
First
Psychologists
prescribe
medication
through
the
U.S.
militarys
psychopharmacology
program.
Deep Blue, the supercomputer at the
time, beats the Worlds best chess
player,
Kasparov, marking
a
milestone in the development of
artificial intelligence.
Psychology
advances
to
the
technological
age
with
the
emergence of e-therapy.
Psychologists
in
Guam
gain
prescription
privileges
for
psychotropic medication.
New Mexico becomes the first state
to pass legislation allowing licensed
psychologists
to
prescribe
psychotropic medication.
The push for mental health parity
gets the attention of the White House
as President George W. Bush
promotes legislation that would
guarantee comprehensive mental
health coverage.