- Ancient Greece 500 to 200 BC Ancient Greece philosophy began with the concepts created by such great figures as Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Pythagoras whose philosophies helped shape great fathers of philosophy such as the Sophist, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle.
- Ancient Rome 129 to 216 AD Claudius Galen was a prominent Roman physician and philosopher of Greek origins and the most famous doctor in the Roman Empire shared the beliefs of Hipocrates about the physiological basis for mental disorders.
- Middle Ages – about 446 – 1000 AD Also called the Dark Ages, this period characterized widespread illiteracy and neglection of science and culture.
- The Renaissance – 14th to 17 Century Rene Descartes, also known as as Renatus Cartesius, was a French philosopher, mathematician, scientist, and writer who highly influenced various bodies of knowledge, including psychology. Francis Bacon was a leading persona to explore the idea that knowledge, science expanded via observations and experiments.
- 1896 – Structuralism & Functionalism introduced Structuralism Edward B. Titchener, a leading proponent of structuralism, publishes his Outline of Psychology. Structuralism is the view that all mental experience can be understood as a combination of simple elements or events. This approach focuses on the contents of the mind, contrasting with functionalism. Functionalism Functionalism, an early school of psychology, focuses on the acts and functions of the mind rather than its internal contents. Its most prominent American advocates are William James and John Dewey, whose 1896 article “The Reflex Arc Concept in Psychology” promotes functionalism.
- 1913 Behaviorism Behaviorism was introduced in 1913 by John B. Watson, an American psychologist. The behaviorist movement was greatly influenced by the work of the Russian physiologist Ivan P. Pavlov.
- 1946 The Psychoanalytic Treatment of Children Anna Freud publishes The Psychoanalytic Treatment of Children, introducing basic concepts in the theory and practice of child psychoanalysis.
- 1954 Humanistic Psychology In the wake of psychoanalysis and behaviorism, humanistic psychology emerges as the “third force” in psychology. Led by Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow, who publishes Motivation and Personality in 1954, this approach centers on the conscious mind, free will, human dignity, and the capacity for self-actualization. Biopsychology In his studies of epilepsy, neuroscientist Wilder G. Penfield begins to uncover the relationship between chemical activity in the brain and psychological phenomena. His findings set the stage for widespread research on the biological role in psychological phenomena.
- 1956 Cognitive psychology Inspired by work in mathematics and other disciplines, psychologists begin to focus on cognitive states and processes. George A. Miller’s 1956 article “The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two” on information processing is an early application of the cognitive approach.
- 1986 Sociocultural Theory Current conceptualizations of sociocultural theory draw heavily on the work of Vygotsky.
- 1988 Sociocultural Perspectives According to Tharp and Gallimore (1988) “This view [the sociocultural perspective] has profound implications for teaching, schooling, and education. A key feature of this emergent view of human development is that higher order functions develop out of social interaction.
Refrences
- Psychology-issues. com. (2008-2009). History of psychology. Retrieved Oct ,2009. From psychology –issues. com Web site: http://www. psychology-issues. com/History-of-Psychology. html
- Scherba de Valenzuela, J Ph. D. ( 2002,July). Definitions of Sociocultural Theroy. Retrieved October 11, 2009,from http://www. unm. edu/~devalenz/handouts/sociocult. html
