Historical Timeline of Modern Psychology

The timeline of Psychology spans centuries, with the earliest known mention of clinical
depression in 1500 BCE on an ancient Egyptian manuscript known as the Ebers Papyrus.
However, it was not until the 11th century that the Persian physician Avicenna attributed a
connection between emotions and physical responses in a practice roughly dubbed
"physiological psychology."
Psychology Events: 19th Century
 1758 publication of William Battie's "Treatise on Madness"
 1878: G. Stanley Hall becomes the first American to earn a Ph.D. in psychology.
 1879: Wilhelm Wundt establishes the first experimental psychology lab in
Leipzig, Germany dedicated to the study of the mind.
 1883: G. Stanley Hall opens the first experimental psychology lab in the U.S. at
Johns Hopkins University.
 1885: Herman Ebbinghaus publishes his seminal "Über das Gedächtnis" ("On
Memory") in which he describes learning and memory experiments he conducted
on himself.
 1886: Sigmund Freud begins offering therapy to patients in Vienna, Austria.
 1888: James McKeen Cattell becomes the first professor of psychology at the
University of Pennsylvania. He would later publish "Mental Tests and
Measurements" marking the advent of psychological assessment.
 1890: William James publishes "Principles of Psychology", Sir Francis Galton
establishes correlation techniques to better understand the relationships between
variables in intelligence studies.
 1892: G. Stanley Hall forms the American Psychological Association (APA),
enlisting 26 members in the first meeting.
 1896: Lightner Witmer establishes the first psychology clinic in America.
 1898: Edward Thorndike develops the Law of Effect.

Psychology Events: 1900 to 1950

 1900: Sigmund Freud publishes his landmark book, "Interpretation of Dreams."
 1901: The British Psychological Society is established.
 1905: Mary Whiton Calkins is elected the first woman president of the American
Psychological Association. Alfred Binet introduces the intelligence test.
 1906: Ivan Pavlov publishes his findings on classical conditioning. Carl Jung
publishes "The Psychology of Dementia Praecox"
 1911: Edward Thorndike publishes "Animal Intelligence" which leads to the
development of the theory of operant conditioning.
 1912: Max Wertheimer publishes "Experimental Studies of the Perception of
Movement" which leads to the development of Gestalt psychology.
 1913: Carl Jung begins to depart from Freudian views and develops his own theories,
which he refers to as analytical psychology. John B. Watson publishes "Psychology
as the Behaviorist Views" in which he establishes the concept of behaviorism.
 1915: Freud publishes work on repression.

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 1920: Watson and Rosalie Rayner publish research on classical conditioning of
fear with their subject, Little Albert.
 1932: Jean Piaget becomes the foremost cognitive theorist with the publication
of his work "The Moral Judgment of the Child."
 1942: Carl Rogers develops the practice of client-centered therapy, which
encourages respect and positive regard for patients.
Psychology Events: 1950 to 2000
 1952: The first Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is published.
 1954: Abraham Maslow publishes "Motivation and Personality" describing his
theory of a hierarchy of needs. He is one of the founders of humanistic psychology.
 1958: Harry Harlow publishes "The Nature of Love" which describes the
importance of attachment and love in rhesus monkeys.
 1961: Albert Bandura conducts his now-famous Bobo doll experiment in which child
behavior is described as a construct of observation, imitation, and modeling.
 1963: Bandura first describes the concept of observational learning to explain
aggression.
 1974: Stanley Milgram publishes "Obedience to Authority" which describes the
findings of his famous obedience experiments.
 1980: The DSM-III is published.
 1990: Noam Chomsky publishes "On the Nature, Use, and Acquisition of
Language"
 1991: Steven Pinker publishes an article introducing his theories as to how children
acquire language, which he later publishes in the book "The Language Instinct"
 1994: The DSM-IV is published.

Psychology Events: 21st Century

 2002: Steven Pinker publishes "The Blank Slate" arguing against the concept of
tabula rasa (the theory that the mind is a blank slate at birth). Avshalom Caspi offers
the first evidence that genetics are associated with a child's response to
maltreatment. Psychologist Daniel Kahneman is awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize
in Economics for his research on how people make judgments in the face of
uncertainty.
 2003: Genetic researchers finish mapping human genes, with the aim of isolating the
individual chromosomes responsible for physiological and neurological conditions.
 2010: Simon LeVay publishes "Gay, Straight, and the Reason Why" which argues
that sexual orientation emerges from prenatal differentiation in the brain.
 2013: The DSM-5 is released. Among other changes, the APA removes "gender
identity disorder" from the list of mental illnesses and replaces it with "gender
dysphoria" to describe a person's discomfort with their assigned gender.
 2014: John O'Keefe, May-Britt Moser, and Edvard Moser share the Nobel Prize for
their discovery of cells that constitute a positioning system in the brain that is key to
memory and navigation.
History of Indian Psychology in Higher Education

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 (1916) The first psychology department and first psychology laboratory in India was
established in 1916 under the leadership of Dr. N.N Sen Gupta at Calcutta
University
 (1922) In 1922 Dr. Girindra Shekar Bose, who succeeded Dr. N.N Sengupta at
Calcutta University established the Indian Psychoanalytical Society, by his intimate
contact and support of Sigmund Freud. It is affiliated to the international
psychoanalytic Association
 (1924) The second oldest Department of psychology established at the University of
Mysore in 1924, headed by M. V Gopalaswamy. The department was offering M.A
Degree in psychology until 1998
 (1925) The first Indian Psychological Association established by the constant effort
of S.N Gupta
 (1926) The Indian Journal of Psychology is founded and the first official founding
editor was N.N Sen Gupta
 (1929) In 1929, N.N Sen Gupta, along with Radhakamal Mukerjee published
instruction to social psychology which named the first text covering the topic of
social psychology published in India.
 (1934) In 1934 Jadunath Sinha wrote a book on Indian Theories of Perception.
 (1938) During the time of Silver jubilee session of the Indian Science Congress
Jung, Meyers and Spearman were invited and it helped India to establish an applied
psychology wing at Calcutta University.
 (1943) The Department of psychology emerged from the department of Philosophy
in the University of Madras. The founder-head of the Department was DR. G. D
Boaz.
 (1944) The establishment of "The Madras Psychology Society" took place in the
year 1944
 (1946) Psychology department instituted at Patna headed by H.P Maiti
 (1947) Girindra Shelter Bose published journal Samiksha. Patna Guidance Bureau
inspired departments of psychology to establish similar bureaus or guidance in other
states. UP Psychological Bureau is started for guidance and counselling by the
headship of Sohan Lal. Psychological bureau at Bihar and the Parsi Panchayat
Vocational Guidance Bureau at Bombay in 1947
 (1949) Psychological research wing was established by India Government Defence
Ministry with the aim of the inclusion of psychologists on research and selection
boards
 (1950) Department of psychology was established at University of Pune, named as
Experimental Psychology. Prof. V. K Kothurkar who trained at Cambridge
University was the founder and head of the department.
 (1950) Centring at UNESCO, the ministry of education procured the services of
Gardner Murphy to develop a research project to find out the causes of communal
violence. Many Indian psychologists team up on this project and published a book
named, In the minds of men

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 (1950-1960) In 1956, UGC was constituted and the availability of UGC funds
resulted in the establishment of 32 psychology departments in universities of all
over India by the end of 1960s
 (1957) ‘The Madras psychology society ‘published the first Journal of
Psychological Researches published.
 (1961) Department of psychology got late entry in the University of Allahabad
which was the 4th oldest university in India, known as the ‘Oxford of the East’. Prof.
Durganand Sinha was the first head of the department, one who trained at
Cambridge University and Patna University
 (1964) The Department of Psychology established at Delhi University as an
independent department in 1964 under the headship of Prof. H.C. Ganguli. The
psychology at the master’s level was introduced in Delhi University in 1957
 (1964) ‘The Madras psychology society’ published the Indian Journal of Applied
Psychology.
 (1955) With the collaborative support of Erikson and McClelland, advanced training
programmes in clinical psychology were introduced at All India Institute of mental
Health (NIMHANS) Bangalore
 (1953) Indian psychologist Jadunath Sinha wrote a book on Cognition
 (1959) The Department of Applied psychology was established in the University of
Mumbai. The four streams of study in applied psychology are clinical, counselling,
industrial and social.
 (1961) The National Council of Educational Research and Training reviewed all the
psychological tests that had been prepared up to 1961
 (1967) Though the applied psychology has beginning from 1931, the department of
psychology in Calcutta officially established Applied Psychology in 1967 by Prof.
S. N Roy
 (1968) The Indian Association of Clinical Psychologists was started in 1968. On 12
December 1968 an autonomous organisation (Indian Council of Social Science) was
established to provide valuable help to scholars from all over country through
fellowships and project grants.
 (1970) In the 1970s, the increased interest for research caused to come up many
well organised research centres. Some of the centres are ANS Institute of Social
Studies (Patna), the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (New Delhi), The
National Institute of Community Development (Hyderabad), National Council of
Educational Research and Training (New Delhi), National Institute of Educational
Policy and Administration (New Delhi), National Institute of Public co-operation
and Child Development (New Delhi), National Institute of Health and Family
Welfare (New Delhi), Indian Institute of Science (Bangalore), Academic Staff
College (Bangalore) and Indian Statistical Institute (Calcutta). Together with this,
the discovery of first statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS) manual
published by Norma H. Nie, Dale H. Bent, and C. Hadlai Hull’s made the research
works in psychology an outstanding one
 (1974) A directory made by compiling 503 psychological tests. The department of
psychology started at Bangalore University and Bharathiar University

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 (1975) By the end of 1975, 51 of the 101 recognised universities were offered
psychology.
 (1976) The Department of psychology in Madras University developed the
department by establishing criminology, applied psychology, organization
psychology and counselling. The publication of Journal of Indian Psychology
established
 (1981) Jadunath Sinha wrote a book on Emotions
 (1995) Out of 219 recognised universities, 70 universities offered psychology
 (1997) The first Asian conference Psychology was held in Singapore. It includes ten
countries named Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Hong Kong, Taiwan, India,
Austria, New Zealand, Korea and Singapore and together formed the Asia Oceanic
Psychological Association
 (1998) The inaugural meeting of the International Society of Clinical Psychologists
was held in San Francisco, United States
 (2005) The Asian Applied Psychology International Regional Conference was held
in Bangkok, Thailand. Asian Psychological Association was also held in Jakarta,
Indonesia
 (2009) Indian School Psychology Association established in 2009 to promote school
psychology in India and Abroad by the guidance and headship of Prof. B.
Mukhopadhyay

Establishment of Departments of Psychology in Indian Universities

Sr.N University Department Founder/First HoD Establishe

o d in Year
1 University of Calcutta Experimental Dr.N N Sen Gupta 1916
Psychology
2 University of Mysore Psychology MV Gopalswamy 1924

3 University of Madras Psychology Dr.G D Boaz 1943

4 Patna University Psychology Prof.M Z Abdin 1947

5 University of Pune Experimental Prof.VK Kothurkar 1950

Psychology
6 University of Mumbai Applied 1959
Psychology
7 Allahabad University Psychology Durganand Sinha 1961

8 Delhi University Applied Prof.KC Ganguli 1964

Psychology
9 University of Calcutta Applied Prof.SN Roy 1967
Psychology
10 Bangalore University Clinical and Prof. N.C.S. Rao 1974
Industrial
Psychology
11 Bharathiar University Psychology N. D. Sundarvadivelu 1974

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