Pathways to Scientific Psychology:

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Pathways to Scientific Psychology Philosophy of
Mind Newtonian Physics Physiology Geographical
Roots English French German
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The Renaissance 1510 Leonardo Da Vinci begins
anatomical drawings The Protestant
Reformation 1517 Martin Luther publishes his
93 Theses criticizing papal authority The Age of
Reason 1605 Francis Bacon publishes The
Proficiency and Advancement of Learning 1632
Galileo Galilei claims heliocentric universe,
condemned by the Inquisition 1649 René
Descartes postulates the total separation of body
and soul 1687 Isaac Newton publishes
Principia Mathematica 1690 John Locke
publishes An Essay Concerning Human
Understanding 1709 George Berkeley publishes
a new theory of vision The Enlightenment
1748 David Hume publishes An Inquiry
Concerning Human Understanding Julien O-
La Mettrie publishes L'Homme Machine 1782
Immanuel Kant publishes The Critique of Pure
Reason
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• The Nineteenth Century
• Franz Gall and Johann Spurzheim leave Vienna
  under pressure from the Austrian government
• 1811 Charles Bell reports separation of sensory
  and motor nerves of spinal column
• 1855 Alexander Bain publishes The Senses and the
  Intellect
• 1856 Hermann von Helmholtz publishes Handbuch
  der physiologischen Optik
• 1859 Charles Darwin publishes The Origin of the
  Species
• 1860 Gustav Fechner publishes The Elements of
  Psychophysics
• Paul Broca shows that the loss of speech is due
  to a localized brain lesion
• 1868 F.C. Donders invents mental chronometry
• Francis Galton publishes Hereditary Genius and
  uses normal distribution for purposes of
  classification
• 1872 Jean Marie Charcot begins to teach in La
  Salpêtrière
• 1873 Wilhelm Wundt publishes Principles of
  Physiological Psychology
• 1876 David Ferrier publishes The Functions of
  the Brain
• 1879 Wundt establishes first psychological
  laboratory at University of Leipzig
• 1882 G. Stanley Hall establishes first
  psychological laboratory in America at
  Johns Hopkins University

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Pathways to Scientific Psychology
v Philosophy of Mind v Newtonian
Physics Physiology Geographical
Roots English French German
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http//pages.britishlibrary.net/phrenology/images.
html
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Highlights and Lowpoints in
the History of Psychology
Biggest Blunders Greatest Hits 1.
Phrenology? 1.
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Franz Joseph Gall (1758 1828)
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Phineas Gages brain injury from an iron railroad
tamping rod
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Pierre Paul Broca (1824 1880) and the brain
autopsied from "Tan, his aphasic patient, which
established the localization of language function
in the brain
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Marie Jean Pierre Flourens (1794
1867)
A pigeon which had its brain lesioned in an
experiment by Flourens
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Diagram of posterior (afferent) and anterior
(efferent) spinal roots
Identified by
Charles Bell and Francois Magendie
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Hermann von Helmholtz, teacher of Wilhelm
Wundt Measured speed of nervous transmission in
frogs and humans
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An early mental chronometer invented by F. C.
Donders to measure reaction time. The paper tape
below could be used to measure the time between a
stimulus sound and a reaction sound. The top
line shows the oscillations of a tuning fork the
bottom shows the time, in distance, between the
spoken stimulus and spoken response.
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By first measuring the time needed for simple
stimulus detection and response organization,
Donders used a subtraction method to infer how
much time was needed for intervening tasks, such
as recognition, comparison, or other higher-level
judgments.
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Monkey cortex with stimulation points by Sir
David Ferrier (1843 1928), who published The
Functions of the Brain in 1876.
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Illustration of the reflex arc one of
psychologys most persistent schemata
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The S-R, or Reflex Arc, Theory supplemented
with Associationism Stimulus ? Afferent
nerves ? Brain ? Efferent Nerves ? Response
Association Cortex in the Brain
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Highlights and Lowpoints in
the History of Psychology
Biggest Blunders Greatest Hits 1.
Phrenology 1. Neuronal basis of
perception, movement, and all of mental
life and personal identity
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English Roots Evolution, mental measures and
statistics
Charles Darwin
and his cousin Sir Francis Galton
(1809 -1882) (1822 1911)
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Who will have the most lasting impact on
psychology?
Charles Darwin and
his half cousin Sir Francis Galton
(1809 -1882) (1822
1911)
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Sir Francis Galton invented the concept of
correlation and use of the regression line.
Along with Johns Hopkins Charles Pierce he
pioneered use of the normal distribution for
statistical analysis.
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Title page from Galtons Hereditary Genius
(1869) and logo from the Second International
Congress of Eugenics (1921).
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French Roots Individual Pathology and the
Abnormal
Philippe Pinel, physician and reformer
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Dr. Benjamin Rush of Philadelphia,
Early advocate of humane treatment for the insane
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Jean Martin Charcot (1825 1893) Demonstrating
hypnosis at Salpêtrière Asylum
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German Roots Philosophy and the Research
University
Wissenschaft Body of knowledge organized
along clear principles, such as, but not only,
natural science Bildung Self actualization
through learning and moral training
Weltanschauung Unified world-view integrating
knowledge with ideals of the good, true, and
beautiful Seminar teaching method
Wilhelm von Humboldt
(1767 1835)
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German Roots Psychophysics
Weber and Fechner, creators of psychophysics and
the first psychological law
S k logR sensation
logarithmic function of the stimulus (reiz)
multiplied by a constant
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Logarithmic relationship between
increases in magnitude of stimulation (on x
axis) and noticeable increases in perception (on
y axis)
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Wilhelm Dilthey (1833- 1911)
Theory of two sciences Natural sciences
Naturwissenschaft Search for natural laws
Modeled on physics Explanation through cause
and effect Human sciences
Geisteswissenschaft Search for reasons, purposes
Modeled on history Explanation through showing
relation of part to whole
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Statue of Immanuel Kant in Prussia (now
Kaliningrad, Russia)
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Title page from Wundts 1873-1874 Principles of
Physiological Psychology
First Textbook in Scientific Psychology
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Wilhelm Wundt (1832- 1920)
Established psychology as an independent
scientific profession
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Physiological psychology will investigate those
life processes standing midway between internal
and external experience. emphasis
supplied This division of vital processes into
physical and psychical is useful and even
necessary for the solution of scientific
problems. We must, however, remember that the
life of an organism is really one complex, it is
true, but still unitary. Just as a tree that
I perceive falls as external object within the
scope of natural science, and as conscious
contents within that of psychology, so many
phenomena of the physical life are connected with
conscious processese.g.we refer certain
bodily movements directly to volitions, which we
can observe as such only in our consciousness.
External world ? Memory ?
sensation / physiology ? naïve
consciousness ? elements of consciousness
The Self ? unconscious
processes ? internal observer/ ?
association / apperception
volitional actor soul?
homunculus?
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Highlights and Lowpoints in
the History of Psychology

• Biggest Blunders Greatest Hits
• Phrenology 1. Neuronal basis of
• Failure to adequately perception, movement,
• incorporate and all of mental life
• a priori mental
• synthesis as alternative
• to mere associationism