Sneha Ravi - 1114375

The Evolution of the Psychological Research Tradition: Experimental Psychology

The origins of much of the scientific thinking in contemporary psychology lie in early rigorous efforts to study psychological processes objectively, as demonstrated by Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) and William James (1842-1910).

The Early Psychology Laboratories: 

                Wilhelm Wundt opens first experimental laboratory in psychology at the University of Leipzig, Germany. In 1896, one of  Wudnt's students, Lightner Witmer combined research with application and established the first American psychological clinic at the University of Pennsylvania. By the first decade of 20th century a number of psychological laboratories and clinics were set up, and a great deal of research was being generated. this period saw the origin of many scientific journals for the propagation of research and theoretical discoveries. By the start of the twentieth century it was seen that there were a lot psychological laboratories and clinics were emerging in all over which meant that Psychology as a study was getting more appreciation. 

There emerged many perspectives in this era. First of the slot was The Behavioral Approach. which consisted of Classical conditioning and Operant conditioning.

Classical conditioning:
Origins of the behavioral view of abnormal behavior and its treatment are tied up with experimental work This involves the stimulus being paired with an unconditioned stimulus that is neutrally elicits an unconditioned behavior. This neutral stimulus then becomes conditioned that elicits a certain type of conditioned response. This was experiment was done by Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov and John B Watson.
  
Operant Conditioning:
E.L.Thorndike and B.F.Skinner was the man behind Operant conditioning.They were on the turn to find out whether a particular behavior will be repeated if a similar setting is given again. This type of learning was called "instrumental conditioning" and was later given the name Operant Conditioning. According to Skinner, "behavior is shaped when something reinforces a particular activity of an organism-which makes it ossible to shape an animal's behavior almost as a sculptor shapes a lump of clay.