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Origins of Psychology 1 What was the first psychological experiment and how did it shape psychology? Tori Marzullo Columbia College PSYC 381: History and Systems of Psychology Professor Estle December 17, 2023

Origins of Psychology 2 Abstract The earliest known psychologists are Plato and Aristotle. These philosophers' questions are similar to many of the ones that contemporary psychologists ask. Psychologists, physicists, and philosophers worked together until 1875 to investigate psychology. Bessel carried out the first experiment on response time in 1820 when he compared his observations of the transits of five stars with those of another astronomer. Gustav Fechner established psychology as an experimental field of study at Leipzig, Germany in 1854, with his first explanation of how decisions regarding sensory experiences are made and how to conduct experiments on them. He suggested that even though the mind and body appear to be separate things. In 1879, Wilhelm Wundt founded the first psychological laboratory in Leipzig; simultaneously, the United States and Germany launched their first two laboratories. Though there are numerous distinct types of firsts in psychology, such as Wundt's first laboratory and Bessel's first experiment, psychology's origins may be traced back to the Greek philosophers.

Origins of Psychology 3 Plato (428–347) and Aristotle (384–322), two Greek philosophers, are the first psychologists that we are aware of. Many of the concerns that modern psychologists ask are similar to those posed by these philosophers for example, they questioned the existence of free will and the line separating nature from nurture. Concerning the former, Aristotle was more on the nurture side, contending that knowledge is mainly acquired through learning and experience, while Plato argued on the nature side, holding that some types of knowledge are innate or inborn. Each child is born with an "empty slate," or tabula rasa in Latin. Until 1875, physiologists, physicists, and philosophers collaborated to study psychology. Although psychological studies had been conducted, science had not yet moved beyond experimentation (Harper, 1950). When Bessel compared his observations of five stars' transits with those of another astronomer in 1820, he conducted the first experiment on response time. This resulted in the astronomers determining their specific equations. By studying the sun and Maskelyne's stars, Bessel could pinpoint the location of the vernal equinox in 1820 to within .01 seconds of accuracy. Measurements taken in the 20th century can confirm this. The first explanation of how judgments about sensory experiences are made and how to experiment on them was developed by Gustav Fechner in Leipzig, Germany in 1854, marking the beginning of psychology as an experimental field of study. German philosopher and physicist Gustav Fechner had a significant role in the development of psychophysics, the study of the quantitative relationships between sensations and the stimuli that cause them. He proposed that although the body and mind seem to be distinct entities, they are essentially two aspects of the same reality. Additionally, he created experimental methods for gauging sensations in connection to the physical strength of stimuli, which are still helpful in experimental psychology. Above all, he created an equation to represent Ernst Heinrich Weber's thesis of the just-noticeable

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Origins of Psychology 4 difference. This idea focuses on the sensory capacity to distinguish between stimuli that are only marginally dissimilar. However, further studies have demonstrated that Fechner's equation only applies roughly in the midrange of stimulus intensity. Wilhelm Wundt established the first psychological laboratory in Leipzig in 1879, according to traditional wisdom. But that was four years after the earliest date. From what we can tell presently, the United States and Germany created their first two laboratories at the same time. Among them was the laboratory of Wundt in Leipzig. The other was the laboratory of William James at Harvard. On October 1, 1875, Wundt traveled to Leipzig. Upon his arrival, the Academic Senate of Leipzig directed the Royal Ministry to reserve a tiny lecture room in the refectory or commons building for him. This space was utilized by Wundt for both his own experimental work and the presentation of his seminar lectures (Harper, 1950). Functionalism is no longer a recognized school of psychology, but its fundamental ideas have permeated psychology and continue to have a significant impact on it. Evolutionary psychology is a subfield of psychology that extends the Darwinian theory of evolutionary selection to the behavior of humans and other animals. It originated with the work of the functionalists. The fundamental tenet of functionalist theory—that many psychological systems in humans, such as emotional regulation, memory, and personality, have important adaptive roles—is acknowledged by evolutionary psychology. Evolutionary psychologists employ evolutionary theory to explain a wide range of behaviors, including romantic attraction, prejudice and stereotypes, and even the underlying causes of many psychological diseases, as we will see in the upcoming chapters.

Origins of Psychology 5 References Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. (n.d.). Gustav Fechner . Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Gustav-Fechner Harper, R. S. (1950). The First Psychological Laboratory. Isis , 41 (2), 158–161. http://www.jstor.org/stable/227184 Stangor, C., & Walinga, J. (2014, October 17). 1.2 The Evolution of Psychology: History, approaches, and questions . Introduction to Psychology 1st Canadian Edition. https://opentextbc.ca/introductiontopsychology/chapter/1-2-the-evolution-of-psychology- history-approaches-and-questions/ Wikimedia Foundation. (2023, October 12). History of psychology . Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_psychology#:~:text=Psychology%20as%20a%2 0field%20of,how%20to%20experiment%20on%20them. Strube, M. J. (2005). What Did Triplett Really Find? A Contemporary Analysis of the First Experiment in Social Psychology. The American Journal of Psychology , 118 (2), 271–286. http://www.jstor.org/stable/30039059 Triplett, N. (1898). The Dynamogenic Factors in Pacemaking and Competition. The American Journal of Psychology , 9 (4), 507–533. https://doi.org/10.2307/1412188 Wikimedia Foundation. (2023a, January 16). Norman Triplett . Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Triplett

Origins of Psychology 6 Wikimedia Foundation. (2023c, November 16). Social Facilitation . Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_facilitation

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