Reflection: Societal Development

Prompt: For this assignment, reflect on what you consider to be some of the most significant developments
covered in Modules Five and Six (for example,
discoveries, changes in thinking, or research advances), and address the following:
Identify the developments and how they impact individuals or larger groups/cultures.
Describe how the developments changed society’s understanding. How is the development applicable
outside of the social sciences? This assignment can be completed a short-answer response (1 to 2
paragraphs).
---Choose any two from the following topics. The paper is in social science-SCS-100
1879
First psychology laboratory
Wilhelm Wundt opens first experimental laboratory in psychology at the University of Leipzig, Germany.
Credited with establishing psychology as an academic discipline, Wundt’s students include Emil Kraepelin,
James McKeen Cattell, and G. Stanley Hall.
1883
First American psychology laboratory
G. Stanley Hall, a student of Wilhelm Wundt, establishes first U.S. experimental psychology laboratory at
Johns Hopkins University.
1886
First doctorate in psychology
The first doctorate in psychology is given to Joseph Jastrow, a student of G. Stanley Hall at Johns Hopkins
University. Jastrow later becomes professor of psychology at the University of Wisconsin and serves as
president of the American Psychological Association in 1900.
1888
First professor of psychology
The academic title “professor of psychology” is given to James McKeen Cattell in 1888, the first use of this
designation in the United States. A student of Wilhelm Wundt’s, Cattell serves as professor of psychology at
University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University.
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1892
APA founded
G. Stanley Hall founds the American Psychological Association (APA) and serves as its first president. He
later establishes two key journals in the field: American Journal of Psychology (1887) and Journal of
Applied Psychology (1917).
1896
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.
Psychoanalysis
The founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, introduces the term in a scholarly paper. Freud’s
psychoanalytic approach asserts that people are motivated by powerful, unconscious drives and conflicts.
He develops an influential therapy based on this assertion, using free association and dream analysis.
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.
1896
First psychology clinic
After heading a laboratory at University of Pennsylvania, Lightner Witmer opens world’s first psychological
clinic to patients, shifting his focus from experimental work to practical application of his findings.
1900
Interpretation of Dreams
Sigmund Freud introduces his theory of psychoanalysis in The Interpretation of Dreams, the first of 24
books he would write exploring such topics as the unconscious, techniques of free association, and
sexuality as a driving force in human psychology.
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1901
Manual of Experimental Psychology