During the 1800s, major advances in biology, medicine, and technology
paved the way for psychology to emerge as an academic discipline.
Two scientific giants, Hermann von Helmholtz and Charles Darwin
were especially important to the development of psychology.
In the 1840s, German scientist Hermann von Helmholtz demonstrated and measured
the transmission of an electrical impulse within neurons, what we now call the action potential.
He also made major contributions to our understanding of color vision
and many other areas of science as well.
By the mid-1800s, the discoveries of many fossils of extinct species led several people
including an English naturalist named Charles Darwin, to believe that animals evolve over time.
While on a 5-year voyage on a ship called the Beagle
Darwin made his own discoveries about animal variation around the world
and these observations led him to propose that evolution occurs through a process he called natural selection
As he described in his 1859 book On the Origin of Species
genetic traits that help an organism survive and reproduce
are more likely to be passed on to the next generation.
Darwin’s work showed us the essential continuity between human beings and animals
which is crucial for modern research in psychology.
Psychology as a unique discipline arose late in the 19th Century as a synthesis of philosophy and physiology
It is generally considered to begin with the work of Wilhelm Wundt
who founded the first psychological laboratory at the University of Leipzig in 1879
the same year that Thomas Edison applied for a patent for the incandescent light bulb
Wundt also taught the first course in scientific psychology.
One of Wundt’s students was G. Stanley Hall, who established what many consider
the first formal psychology laboratory in the United States at Johns Hopkins University in 1883.
Hall went on to found the American Psychological Association in 1892.