To look at the beginning of experimental psychology is to look at the beginning of

psychology. The typical perception about psychology today is that it consists mostly of
practitioners: clinicians, counselors, and therapists trained in the helping profession.
Currently, that view is accurate: over half of the members of the APA identify themselves
as practitioners. However, the clinical and counseling areas of psychology did not
emerge on a large scale until about 1945, at the close of World War II.
So how did psychology get its start? Wilhelm Wundt founded the first exclusive
psychology laboratory in 1879; it was a laboratory that conducted experiments related to
matters in experimental psychology. However, the study of, and interest in, human
behavior has been with us probably since humans walked the earth. In fact, Hermann
Ebbinghaus said it best in 1885, only six years after the founding of psychology, when he
said, "Psychology has a long past but a short history." Our brief review of the history of
psychology traces some of the antecedent influences leading psychology to its present
status. As a psychology major, a better understanding of our historical roots will better
equip you to evaluate and place current and future ideas in the appropriate context. Also,
this chapter might come in as a handy review source if your college or university requires
you to take a History and Systems of Psychology course or some sort of senior Capstone
Course that includes historical information.
Why bother discussing the history of psychology in a book designed to be an
introduction and overview of the psychology major? Watson and Evans (1991) note that
there are a number of basic maxims (or beliefs) that govern the process of understanding
behavior, and it is the ultimate goal of an experimental psychologist to understand
behavior. Their historical maxims are presented here. Given the study of human
behavior over the ages, a limited, common set of themes have emerged, and
understanding the context and perspective of these themes hopefully helps us to
understand behavior. Perhaps the most persuasive evidence for a psychologist to study
the history of psychology comes from George Santayana, who once said, "Those who do
not know history are doomed to repeat it." Whether this caution applies to prior research
done in a particular area of experimental psychology or whether it applies to larger world
events (e.g., the holocaust), the implications are clear: ignorance of the past is
undesirable.