when,where and how psychology became a independent science? who are the persons who initiates it?

-- kristine q. gonzales (kwatz_g@yahoo.com), June 25, 2001

Answers

Response to psychology

The answer to this question is, of course, very complicated, and cannot be adequately answered in this small space. The main "mother" disciplines were philosophy and physiology, and the emergence took place mainly in the last decades of the 19th century. Some of the major figures were Gustav Fechner, Hermann Helmholtz, Wilhelm Wundt, Francis Galton, William James, and James McKeen Cattell. I would suggest that you have a look at one of the many standard textbooks on the history of psychology. Raymond Fancher's _Pioneers of Psychology_ (now in its 3rd ed.) is particularly readable, and is available in an inexpensive paperback edition. For more of the complexities, you might look at C.D. Green, M. Shore, & T. Teo (Eds.), _The Trasnformation of Psychology: Influences of 19th-Century Philosophy, Technology, and Natural Science_ (APA, 2001).

-- Christopher Green (christo@yorku.ca), June 25, 2001.