Psychology - Article 4

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9/15/2020 Psychology - Wikipedia

difference between conscious and unconscious awareness is only a matter of degree. Christian Wolff
identified psychology as its own science, writing Psychologia empirica in 1732 and Psychologia
rationalis in 1734. This notion advanced further under Immanuel Kant, who established the idea of
anthropology, with psychology as an important subdivision. However, Kant explicitly and notoriously
rejected the idea of experimental psychology, writing that "the empirical doctrine of the soul can also
never approach chemistry even as a systematic art of analysis or experimental doctrine, for in it the
manifold of inner observation can be separated only by mere division in thought, and cannot then be
held separate and recombined at will (but still less does another thinking subject suffer himself to be
experimented upon to suit our purpose), and even observation by itself already changes and displaces
the state of the observed object." In 1783, Ferdinand Ueberwasser (1752-1812) designated himself
Professor of Empirical Psychology and Logic and gave lectures on scientific psychology, though these
developments were soon overshadowed by the Napoleonic Wars, after which the Old University of
Münster was discontinued by Prussian authorities.[20] Having consulted philosophers Hegel and
Herbart, however, in 1825 the Prussian state established psychology as a mandatory discipline in its
rapidly expanding and highly influential educational system. However, this discipline did not yet
embrace experimentation.[21] In England, early psychology involved phrenology and the response to
social problems including alcoholism, violence, and the country's well-populated mental asylums.[22]

Beginning of experimental psychology

Gustav Fechner began conducting psychophysics research


in Leipzig in the 1830s, articulating the principle (Weber–
Fechner law) that human perception of a stimulus varies
logarithmically according to its intensity.[23] Fechner's
1860 Elements of Psychophysics challenged Kant's
stricture against quantitative study of the mind.[24][21] In
Heidelberg, Hermann von Helmholtz conducted parallel
research on sensory perception, and trained physiologist
Wilhelm Wundt. Wundt, in turn, came to Leipzig
University, establishing the psychological laboratory which
brought experimental psychology to the world. Wundt
focused on breaking down mental processes into the most Wilhelm Wundt (seated) with colleagues in his
basic components, motivated in part by an analogy to psychological laboratory, the first of its kind.
recent advances in chemistry, and its successful
investigation of the elements and structure of material.[25]
Paul Flechsig and Emil Kraepelin soon created another influential psychology laboratory at Leipzig, this
one focused on more on experimental psychiatry.[21]

Psychologists in Germany, Denmark, Austria, England, and the United States soon followed Wundt in
setting up laboratories.[26] G. Stanley Hall who studied with Wundt, formed a psychology lab at Johns
Hopkins University in Maryland, which became internationally influential. Hall, in turn, trained Yujiro
Motora, who brought experimental psychology, emphasizing psychophysics, to the Imperial University
of Tokyo.[27] Wundt's assistant, Hugo Münsterberg, taught psychology at Harvard to students such as
Narendra Nath Sen Gupta—who, in 1905, founded a psychology department and laboratory at the
University of Calcutta.[19] Wundt students Walter Dill Scott, Lightner Witmer, and James McKeen
Cattell worked on developing tests for mental ability. Catell, who also studied with eugenicist Francis
Galton, went on to found the Psychological Corporation. Wittmer focused on mental testing of children;
Scott, on selection of employees.[28]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychology 4/47

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