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Since the 1950s, psychology has expanded rapidly with the number

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of research articles published per year doubling between 1960 and 1990

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and tripling between 1990 and 2010.

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In addition to the growth in cognitive psychology, which emphasized individual mental abilities

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advances in social psychology have demonstrated the power of the social environment.

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Experiments by social psychologists Kurt Lewin, Solomon Asch, and Stanley Milgram

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provided a clearer picture of the way that the behavior of other people influences our thinking and our actions.

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The development of new methods of recording the activity of the nervous system and visualizing the brain

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have helped neuroscience emerge as a central concern of psychology, influencing all areas of study.

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Cognitive neuroscience is an interdisciplinary effort to link brain activity to cognitive processes

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such as perception, thinking, and memory.

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Experiments by Roger Sperry and Michael Gazzaniga described

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how the right and left hemispheres of the brain contribute to cognition

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based on studying “split-brain” patients whose hemispheres were unable to communicate with each other.

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In the 1960s and 70s

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scientists observed a variety of ways in which humans and animals are not born as “blank slates” as Aristotle suggested.

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Children have an uncanny ability to learn language in a short period of time from a jumble of sounds.

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Rats are able to associate nausea with food faster than other stimuli.

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Multiple species seem programmed from birth to engage in social behaviors with other members of their species.

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These findings represent insights from evolutionary psychology, an approach to understanding behavior and the mind

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by trying to understand the adaptive significance of the behavior.

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Each of these behaviors has been shaped by natural selection to promote survival.

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In a sense, psychology has returned once again to its roots in physiology and evolutionary biology

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as discoveries in brain science and behavior genetics have provided new insights on some old puzzles of behavior.