1879
Wilhelm Wundt founds the first experimental psychology lab in Leipzig, Germany, marking the moment psychology becomes its own field of study.
1886
Sigmund Freud, founder of psychoanalysis, begins treating patients in Vienna, Austria.
1900
Freud publishes The Interpretation of Dreams.
1901
The British Psychological Society is formed.
1903
Ivan Pavlov trains a dog to salivate on hearing the sound of a bell. Pavlov's dog becomes the first example of classical conditioning.
1907
Carl Jung publishes The Psychology of Dementia Praecox. Jung begins to break away from Freud's ideas to develop his own theories of analytical psychology.
1912
Max Wertheimer publishes his research on the phi phenomenon, which contributed to the development of the Gestalt school of psychology.
1920
John Watson becomes a founder of the school of behaviourism, believing that all thoughts, feelings and actions are developed through conditioning.
1932
Jean Piaget publishes The Moral Judgment of the Child.
1938
Electroconvulsive therapy is used for the first time on a person.
It becomes a popular method of treatment throughout the 40s and 50s (and remains in use today).
1942
Carl Rogers publishes Counselling and Psychotherapy, encouraging therapists to adopt a client-centred approach. This method becomes widely practised.
1943
Abraham Maslow, one of the founders of humanistic psychology, publishes his theory of the hierarchy of needs.
1962
Albert Ellis publishes Reason and Emotion in Psychotherapy, leading to the development of rational emotive behaviour therapy (REBT).
1967
Aaron Beck publishes a model of depression that suggests thoughts play a significant role. He is seen as the founder of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT).
1982
Carol Gilligan publishes the feminist tract In a Different Voice.
1994
Stephen Pinker's The Language Instinct is published.
1998
Martin Seligman chooses positive psychology as the theme for his speech to the American Psychological Association, as its incoming president.
2003
Simon Baron-Cohen's 'The Essential Difference: Men, Women and the Extreme Male Brain' proposes that autism may be an "extreme form of maleness".
