Wundt, Wilhelm Max
1832–1920
GERMAN EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGIST, UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR
UNIVERSITY OF HEIDELBERG, PhD, MD, 1856
Brief Overview
Wilhelm Max Wundt (1832–1920) opened an experimental laboratory that has been called the first of its kind in the history of psychology. By combining the methods of physiological examination with psychology theory, he created a whole new way to understand human behavior. Wundt has become known as the "founder of modern psychology," according to Thomas Hardy Leahey, author of the book History of Psychology. In 1987, Leahey wrote that Wundt "wedded physiology and psychology and made the resulting offspring independent." In 1875 Wundt was named a professor of physiology at the University of Leipzig, and he immediately established his innovative laboratory to empirically research his theories of psychology.
According to the 1997 Biographical Dictionary of Psychology, however, some of Wundt's colleagues disagreed with the designation of his laboratory's as the first of its kind. Two other experimental psychologists and contemporaries of Wundt, William James and G. Stanley Hall, both argued that they and others had employed similar experimentation methods in their labs. Yet Wundt did play a crucial role in the field as science was beginning to explore psychology in a new way.
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