Timeline

First in recorded history to offer answers to questions about the natural world that will form the foundation of Western philosophy (epistemology and metaphysics) and science. Later Western philosophical positions (monism, pluralism, dualism, materialism, and rationalism) begin here.

First recorded observation that the brain is involved with sensory processes and that perception is mediated by pneuma (breath) contained within an animal or human body.

Later philosophical positions of idealism, rationalism, and dualism can be seen in his thought (theory of forms). Ascribed mental properties to psyche/soul, and believed its physical location in the body was the brain.

Aristotle. Treatise that defines the nature and activities (biological and psychological) of the psyche/soul.

Concerns with happiness, maximizing personal gain, escape from the ills of the world (Skepticism, Epicureanism), but also moral behavior and self-restraint, moderation (Stoicism). Emphasis on the conduct of man in the here and now (rather than viewing conduct as linked to consequences in an afterlife).

Caesar Augustus becomes first emperor of Rome.

Claudius Ptolemy. Geocentric model of the apparent motions of the stars and planetary paths. Profoundly influential scientific text, it was accepted for more than 1,200 years through the early Renaissance.

Develops the humor theory of temperament (first typology of personality). The theory of the four humors did not originate with Galen, however; it is an iteration of Hippocrates's adapation of Empedocles's elemental theory of the cosmos.

Galen incorporated the ancient concept of pneuma into his physiological theories: pneuma (breath, air) mediated between the soul/psyche and bodily action. Pneuma theory was revised as the animal spirits doctrine, a physiological theory of functions such as volition, muscle contraction, cognition, and sensation. The animal spirits doctrine was entrenched in classical medical thought until the late 1700s when Luigi Galvani's experiments in 1791 displaced it.

Roman Empire officially adopts Christianity as its state religion.

Roman Emperor Romulus Augustulus is replaced by Germanic King Odoacer. Invasions of the Roman Empire have hindered European education.

The rule of the Frankish king Charlemagne unites Western Europe under Christendom (literally a "realm of Christians") and a period of intellectual activity ensues. In monasteries and cathedrals, schools operate and commentaries and summaries of ancient texts appear.

Charlemagne's empire distintegrates: Magyars, Muslims, and Vikings attack Western Europe. New political entities form (kingdoms in England, automous domains in West Francia [France], a Holy Roman Empire in East Francia [Gemany], and strong cities in the Italian peninsula) that are the basis of the European nation-states with which we are familiar today.

Beginning around 1100 CE, Western Europe enjoys a period of improved conditions: fewer invasions, strong rulers, and even better weather are said to account for economic stability and intellectual growth.

Pope Urban II summons Christian warriors to reconquer the Holy Land (drive Muslims from Jerusalem).

Intellectual activity begins to peak. It takes many forms: original scientific works produced by Islamic authors, the collection and dissemination of original texts of the ancient Greeks, commentaries on the ancient Greek texts written by Islamic authors (translated from Greek to Arabic), and the translation of these works from Arabic into Latin.

Universities emerge as guilds (not buildings) of male students who train in the liberal arts and a few specialized disciplines: medicine, law, philosophy, theology.

First university; oldest in the world. Specialities: canon and civil law.

Known as the Sorbonne; second-oldest unversity. Specialities: philosophy and theology.

Teaching of Aristotle's works forbidden at the University of Paris; seen as a threat to Christian doctrine.

English barons force King John of England to sign a document that guarantees, among other things, tax collection only by legal means and no imprisonment without trial. It is a foundation of modern democracy and a source of later legal systems.

Italian philosopher and theologian whose works influenced Roman Catholic theology and Western philosophy. His professional life epitomized that of philosophers in a medieval university: their goal was to reconcile questions concerning faith (scripture) with reason so that Christian church teachings had a logical foundation. Scholasticism is both a learning method and philosophical system that peaked with Aquinas's work. It is a method of reasoning applied to the problem of reconciling the philosophy of ancient Greece with Christian theology (e.g., the nature of human beings, the existence and attributes of God).

English university

English university

Cultural events occurring on a large, widespread scale in Europe, beginning in Italy and spreading to the rest of the continent. Among its defining intellectual features: rediscovery of Greek classics, new interest in mathematics, expanding geographic knowledge, wider epistemology.

Italian ships bring rats carrying fleas infected with the Black Plague, which will kill 25 million people in Europe (one-third of the European population).

Defined by some historians as the fall of the Byzantine Empire; defined by others as the perfection of movable type by Johannes Gutenberg.

London hospital that transitions to caring for people with mental illnesses. Informally known as "Bedlam".

Historical scholarship suggests that the first scholar to use the term "psychology" may have been Marko Marulić, a Croatian humanist. The term appears in the title Psichiologia de ratione animae humanae, in a list of his works (the actual work has not been found).

Constantinople is conquered by Ottoman Muslims.

Written by Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger, "The Hammer of Witches" is a famous medieval treatise that instructs magistrates on how to identify, interrogate, and convict witches.

Christopher Columbus makes first voyage to the Americas.

Martin Luther distributes his Disputation on the Power of Indulgences (also known as the Ninety-five Theses), which he wrote as a criticism of the Catholic Church's abuse of the practice of distributing indulgences (clergy receiving payment for granting indulgences).

Profound transformation of thought, circa 1550 through 1700, about the physical world as ancient beliefs were replaced by modern science. Replaces the thinking of Aristotle, Ptolemy, and Galen of the Middle Ages. First occurs in mathematics, physics and astronomy, anatomy, and chemistry.

Nicolas Copernicus. Often viewed as the start to the Scientific Revolution, it is a model of planetary motion based on the assumption that the Earth and other planets move around the Sun.

Andreas Vesalius. A major advance in the history of anatomy, this collection of books was based on his dissections of corpses and features illustrations whose quality was far better than previous illustrations.

University established in Scotland that will earn Edinburgh a reputation as a major intellectual center during the Age of Enlightenment. One of the earliest universities founded without a Papal bull (charter issued from a Pope of the Roman Catholic Church).

English establish a colony at Jamestown, Virginia.

Dutch scientist Hans Lippershey first to hold up two lenses placed some distance apart in order to bring an object's image closer. (Sadly, his patent request was denied.)

Merchant ship named the Mayflower sets sail from Plymouth, England and lands in November on the tip of Cape Cod.

William Harvey demonstrates in frogs that the brain plays a role in movement.

William Harvey describes the circulation of the blood.

The Roman Catholic Inquisition forces Galileo to rescind his Copernican view that the Earth moves around the Sun.

Jan Swimmerdam observes red blood cells under a microscope.

Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge is chartered as a learned society of physicians and natural philosophers. It is the oldest existing such society today. The Royal Society and others like it are a very important part of the growth of science: such societies emerged in the 1600s to provide a forum for individuals to disseminate information about the natural sciences.

René Descartes' works are placed on the Roman Catholic Church's Index of Prohibited Books.

Jan Swimmerdam uses electrical nerve stimulation to cause a frog's muscle to contract.

Thomas Willis. Most comprehensive and accurate description of the brain and nervous system to date.

René Descartes' mechanistic model of humans.

England conducts its last witch execution.

Isaac Newton. Perhaps the greatest of all scientific works, it is the culmination of theory regarding the universe and physics from Aristotle through Copernicus. It states Newton's laws of motion and law of universal gravitation. Is significant, too, for its underlying message: the language of mathematics helps us decipher the material world, not scripture. Authority lies with the scientific method, not the spiritual or divine.

Humphrey Ridley. First English-language treatise of neuroanatomy.

George Berkeley's empirical theory of vision that contrasted with standard accounts of the day (based on geometric calculations). Berkeley's account is that we cannot actually "see" the distance of objects; instead, the association of ideas of sight and touch explains how we perceive distance.

George Berkeley's empiricist argument that knowledge derives from the experience of one's own mind (ideas), rather than physical objects. The text supports two metaphysical positions: idealism (all that exists is a mind or depends on mind for its existence) and immaterialism (matter does not exist).

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. A metaphysics of substance (psychophysical parallelism).

David Hume. Addresses the problem of human knowledge, the passions, and morals.

David Hume. Ideas and impressions as a source of experience, the laws of association, and an influential analysis of the concept of causation as a product of association.

David Hartley's work is the first attempt to adopt association as the fundamental operation of all ideas and behaviors. Explains how mental associations are formed and identifies neurophysiological activity as their origin.

First volume of what is more generally known as the Encyclopedia, published by Jean le Rond d'Alembert and Denis Diderot.

Étienne Bonnot de Condillac. Knowledge reaches humans only through the senses.

Albrecht von Haller. Surveys physiological knowledge of the time and describes Haller's studies on muscles and human blood circulation.

Claude Adrien Helvetius. Mind develops as a result of sensations it perceives, not as a product of innate tendencies.

Robert Whytt. One of the first important textbooks on neurology.

Albrecht von Haller shows that nerves stimulate muscle contraction and all nerves lead to spinal cord and brain.

Expresses the ideals on which the United States was founded and its reasons for separation from Great Britain.

A citizen mob storms the Bastille prison in Paris on July 14.

Thomas Young suggests that the ability to perceive color depends on the presence of three types of nerves in the retina.

Franz Joseph Gall incorrectly argues that the brain can be studied by examining the contours of a person's skull—phrenology. (His underlying assumption that different parts of the brain generally do have different functions was accurate.)

Jean-Baptiste Lamarck. Describes a theory of inheritance of acquired characteristics (first complete theory of evolution) that was eventually discredited.

Charles Bell. Describes the difference between sensory and motor nerves. Bell's Law: the anterior spinal roots are motor and the posterior roots are sensory (also Bell-Magendie Law).

Johann Herbart.

The Roman Catholic Church lifts its ban on teaching Copernican physics.

Johann Herbart. Mathematical expression of laws by which mental representations (ideas) interact. Describes ideas in terms of equilibrium and mechanics ("force", "inhibition").

James Mill's mechanistic/associationist account of mental processes.

Six-volume work by Auguste Comte establishes positivism as philosophical school.

Lambert Adophe Jacques Quetelet studies how variables such as gender, age, education, climate and season affect the crime rate in France.

Ernst Weber. The change in stimulus intensity that can just be discriminated is a constant ratio of the initial intensity of the physical stimulus. In other words, the more intense the stimulus, the greater the change that must be made in it to be noticed.

See works of George Romanes, Conwy Lloyd Morgan.

Charles Darwin

Gustav Fechner. One of the most important books in the history of psychology. Describes conceptual issues in measuring physical and psychological worlds, Fechner's own experimental work, and psychophysical methods.

Pierre Paul Broca demonstrates that loss of speech is related to a lesion in the left frontal lobe.

Confederate States of America formed by South Carolina and ten other Southern states. First battle at Bull Run is a Confederate victory.

Jean-Martin Charcot begins his clinical studies of nervous system disorders, including hysteria.

I. M. Sechenov attempts to analyze higher-order functions in terms of the reflex action. Reflects the Russian objective psychology that later influences American behaviorism.

Group of scientists based largely in Cambridge, Massachusetts solicited the Massachusetts senator to draft a bill of incorporation.

Gregor Mendel publishes his theories of genetics.

Gustave T. Fritsch and Julius Eduard Hitzig discover that the cerebral cortex has different compartments for different functions and introduce electrical stimulation as a means to study the brain.

David Ferrier. Collections of experiments on brain localization, regarded as among the most important advances in physiology at the time of its publication.

Jean-Martin Charcot

Wilhelm Wundt founds the first psychological laboratory at the University of Leipzig, Germany.

First journal devoted to psychological research. Created by Alexander Bain.

Outlet for research from Wundt's laboratory. First academic journal for psychological research.

Francis Galton describes the interdependence of two sets of variables.

Chistian von Ehrenfels. First proposal of Gestalt concept.

G. Stanley Hall instrumental in creating this professional society.

12 million European immigrants arrive at this New York City inspection station during this period. This event can be viewed as a factor in the emergence of the mental testing movement.

Psychology is recognized as an official exhibit at this celebration of American culture. Visitors can view a collection of psychological instruments and pay a fee to access a testing room to have their mental and sense powers assessed.

Sigmund Freud and Josef Breuer. Technical procedures (Breuer's cathartic method) and clinical findings addressed in the book will influence Freud to adopt psychoanalysis as a treatment for hysteria.

Pullman railroad car plant in Chicago is the site of a violent workers' strike. Symbolic of labor unrest throughout the nation in the late 1800s. American functionalists see the potential for psychological science to help alleviate such real-world problems.

John Dewey. Establishes key tenet of American functionalism: an emphasis on the role of adaptation in an organism's behavior.

E. B. Titchener. Establishes structuralism as a psychological school of thought.

E. B. Titchener begins a small, elite scientific society to promote psychology as an experimental science. Membership closed to female or non-experimental psychologists.

First woman president of the American Psychological Association.

James Rowland Angell's description of the psychology practiced by several prominent psychologists at various American universities. Contrasts with Titchener's structuralism.

Lightner Witmer establishes the only clinical psychology journal of the time and it becomes instrumental in shaping this subfield.

Clifford Beers's autobiographical account of his experiences as a patient in an asylum. The book inspired the mental hygiene movement in the United States.

G. Stanley Hall organizes the Clark University Conference at which Freud is an invited speaker.

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People established in the United States.

William Stern labels the mental age divided by the chronological age the 'intelligence quotient'. (Lewis Terman will later abbreviate to IQ.)

Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria is assassinated.

American enters WW I.

Robert Yerkes introduces Army Alpha and Army Beta tests. Tests are used to screen potential military recruits for fitness to serve.

Peace treaty that ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied powers.

Voting rights legally guaranteed for American women.

Study by J. Watson and R. Rayner that demonstrated that an emotional reaction could be learned via classical conditioning. Consistent with behaviorism.

Frances Cecil Sumner at Clark University

Otto Loewi

Hermann Rorschach develops personality test based on interpretation of inkblots.

Margaret Sanger reponsible for establishing the organization which would eventually become the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

Managers at the Hawthorne works of Western Electric Company (Illinois) collaborate with Elton Mayo and Fritz Roethlisberger at the Harvard Business School to conduct experiments on variables such as worker productivity and job satisfaction. Studies reflect the growing belief that scientific methods could be applied to real-world settings. The research uncovered the "Hawthorne effect": humans will alter their behavior in response to knowledge that they are under observation.

State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes. Nationally publicized trial which pits evolutionary theory against biblical scripture when a high school teacher agrees to be tried for violating state law that prohibited teaching evolution in public schools. Scopes was found guilty and fined and the verdict was later overturned.

Charles Frederick Menninger and sons open clinic emphasizing psychiatry and psychology in treatment of mental illness.

Percy W. Bridgman argues that all physical concepts must be defined in precise terms and that concepts lacking physical references must be discarded.

New York stock market crashes and begins Great Depression.

Psychiatrist Hans Berger invents instrument to graph electrical activity of the brain.

Will remain Chancellor through the end of World War II.

Bill Wilson and Dr. Robert Smith establish treatment model for addiction that features social support groups.

Egan Moniz

Alan M. Turing publishes a paper which introduces the concept of a Turing Machine.

Ugo Cerletti and Lucino Bini

Germany invades Poland.

United States declares war on Axis powers following bombing of Pearl Harbor by Japanese.

President Harry S. Truman signs law that funds psychiatric education and research for first time in United States history.

Margaret Mead's claim that many aspects of Western culture are a product of Western child-rearing practices.

Egas Moniz awarded Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the therapeutic procedure he developed for psychosis.

Claude Shannon publishes his mathematical theory of information.

Boulder Conference on Graduate Education in Clinical Psychology

Erik Erikson. Publication reflects psychoanalytic theory among psychoanalytic theorists following Freud.

Carl Rogers. Exemplifies tenets of humanistic psychology.

American Psychiatric Association

James Dewey Watson and Francis H. Crick develop the double-helix model for deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). Explains how the molecule can transmit heredity in living organisms.

Concern over Communist Party presence in America culminates in Army-McCarthy hearings before the US Senate.

United States Supreme Court declares that laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students are unconstitutional.

George Miller reviews research findings and concludes that they can be explained by information theory.

Linguist Noam Chomsky writes a powerful critique of B. F. Skinner's book (behavioral principles cannot explain language acquisition). Supports growing sentiment that a purely behavioral explanation of human functioning is not valid.

John L. Fuller and W. Robert Thompson. Text inspired interest in modern genetic theory as it applies to inherited behavior.

Culture becomes a topic of research programs across a critical mass of scholars. For seminal studies, see, for instance, individual and collaborative works by D. C. McClelland, J. W. Berry, R. Benedict, M. H. Segall, and M. J. Herskovits.

Thomas Szasz writes a powerful critique of his psychiatric profession.

Journal is a forum for psychologists who advocate a perspective on psychology that is an alternative ("third force") to the dominant schools of thought (behaviorism and psychoanalysis).

Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes first man in space.

Martin Luther King, Jr. delivers his historic "I Have a Dream" speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial to call for an end to racism.

President John F. Kennedy signs act that funds construction of community-based centers for psychiatric treatment. Program ends in 1981.

Aaron T. Beck's 1963 article "Thinking and depression: Idiosyncratic content and cognitive distortions" is central to theory and research on cognitive techniques for treating mental illness.

Betty Friedan's book greatly influenced a mid-century interest in feminism.

President Lyndon B. Johnson signs bill that outlaws discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.

Neal E. Miller for studies of motivation and learning.

General American reaction is one of protest.

Harry Harlow's experimental research demonstrates that monkeys reared in isolation exhibit great emotional impairment later in their development.

Feminist organization established to ensure legal enforcement of national anti-discrimination laws already in place.

Ulric Neisser's perspective on psychology that focuses on the operation of mental processes.

Michael S. Gazzinga reports that studies of people whose brain halves have been severed show that the two halves can function independently

Established as a forum through which African American psychologists could address professional needs neglected by existing organizations.

Apollo 11 successfully places a manned vehicle on the moon.

Professional conceptualization of people who are homosexual or bisexual is no longer one of illness.

Karl von Frisch, Konrad Lorenz, and Nikolass Tinbergen jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their ethological studies.

E. O. Wilson's controversial book introduces "sociobiology" as the study of the biological basis of social behavior. Influential in development of evolutionary psychology.

Richard Dawkins's book shifts focus from evolutionary change at the level of either the species or organism to evolutionary change at the level of the gene. Popularizes evolutionary psychology.

Division 38 of the American Psychological Association established.

Herbert Simon awarded the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel for research in decision-making within economic organizations.

U. S. District Court decision that finds that IQ tests discriminate against African American students.

Book represents the culmination of the theory and research by J. J. Gibson who advocates that cognitive processes are not necessary for an organism to perceive—information from an observer's environment is the critical component in perception. Significant work in visual perception and ecological psychology.

John W. Hinckley shoots four individuals in an attempt to assassinate President Reagan. Event is a factor in the Insanity Defense Reform Act of 1984 which makes it difficult to obtain a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity in the United States.

Roger W. Sperry shares the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discoveries concerning functional specialization in cerebral hemispheres.

David H. Hubel and Torsten N. Wiesel share the Nobel Prize (with R. W. Sperry) in Physiology or Medicine for discoveries concerning information processing in the visual system.

Stephen Jay Gould's critique of biological determinism.

The IBM personal computer (and the industry-standard disk operating system [DOS]) is introduced.

Theory of multiple intelligences by Howard Gardner.

University of California scientists Allan Wilson and Russell Higuchi successfully clone DNA from an extinct animal.

Division 44 of the American Psychological Association established.

Division 45 of the American Psychological Association established.

Division 47 of the American Psychological Association established.

Fluoxetine prescribed for depression.

Professional association for the advancement of psychology as a science. Known now as Association for Psychological Science.

Martin Seligman. Establishes positive psychology movement.

Division 52 of the American Psychological Association established.

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly awarded to Arvid Carlsson and Paul Greengard (dopamine actions) and Eric R. Kandel (synapses and memory).

World's largest collaborative biological project completes a draft of the genome.

Islamic terrorist group coordinates two attacks (hijacked air carriers) on the United States (New York City, the Pentagon, and a thwarted attempt in Washington, DC).

Psychologist Daniel Kahneman jointly receives Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel.

Final publication of Psychological Abstracts, bibliographic index to the world's literature in psychology. The print product is continued as the electronic database, PsycINFO.

American Psychiatric Association revises its classification system for mental disorders and includes diagnostic guidelines based on impairments in functioning and unhealthy (extreme) personality traits.