Page 627 - Understanding Psychology

Figure 21.5 Some Significant Dates in the History of Psychology
The history of psychology reflects the origins of many contemporary psychological issues and questions. In 1649 René Descartes sug- gested that the body and soul are separate. How might contem- porary psychologists label the “body” and “soul” today?
B.C.
170 170 B.C. • Claudius Galeno describes the anatomy of the human brain.
0 A.D.
1600 1800
1649 • René Descartes proposes that the body and soul are totally separate.
1651 • Thomas Hobbes argues in Leviathan that all human behavior is the result of physical
processes.
1848 • Jean-Baptiste Bouillard offers 500 francs to anyone who can show him the brain of a
human who suffered from speech disturbance and did not have damage to the left
frontal lobe.
1859 • Karl Marx proposes the idea that social being determines consciousness in
A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy.
1860 • Paul Broca claims that a specific area (left frontal lobe) of the human brain is responsible for speech.
1879 • Wilhelm Wundt establishes the first psychological laboratory at Leipzig University. 1884 • William James argues that human behavior can be understood in terms of its
purposes or functions.
1890 • James McKeen Cattell develops the first psychological tests for individual differences. 1891 • American Psychological Association formed at Clark University
1900 1901 • Ivan Pavlov discovers the conditioned reflex.
1905 • Binet-Simon scale, the first intelligence scale, formulated 1912 • William Stern develops the intelligence quotient (IQ). 1913 • John B. Watson advocates behaviorism.
1920 • Hermann Rorschach develops the inkblot test.
1930 • Karl Lashley concludes that complex behavior is the result
of neural programs in the brain.
1933 • Lev Vygotsky argues that the human mind is a product of history and culture.
1950 1951 • Simone de Beauvoir publishes a landmark book on the rights of women (The Second Sex). 1954 • The U.S. Supreme Court rules that racially segregated education is inherently illegal in
Brown v. Board of Education, resulting in many psychological studies of social issues. 1955 • A federal commission reports that more than 50 percent of the 1,500,000 hospital beds in
the U.S. are devoted to patients with mental illness, making mental illness the greatest
single U.S. health problem.
1966 • The first federal act to protect animal research subjects is enacted in the United States. 1971 • B.F. Skinner argues that human behavior is a product of environmental stimuli.
1980 • It is estimated that 1 of 10 doctorates granted in the United States is in psychology.
1990 1990s • Various psychologists argue that behavior is determined by social and cultural influences. 1995 • First issue of Psychology, Public Policy, and Law appears.
psychologists use a variety of scientific methods to study human and animal behavior. Applied psychologists put knowledge of psychology to work solving human problems. Yet this distinction is not always sharp. Both experimental and the applied psychologists gather the available evidence and offer the best explanation they find. Both study behavior, and both use similar processes in similar situations. A major difference is that applied psychlogists search for immediate solutions, experimental psychologists for long-range answers.
Chapter 21 / Psychology: Present and Future 613