Wilhelm Wundt

views updated

Wilhelm Wundt

1832-1920

German physiologist and psychologist who is known as the founder of experimental psychology. In 1862 he offered the first course ever taught in scientific psychology, and in 1879 set up the first psychology laboratory—located at the University of Leipzig, where he carried out experiments to determine the dimensions of feeling and perception. Two years later he started the first psychology journal, Philosophische Studien ("Philosophical Studies"). Until Wundt's time, psychology had been considered a branch of philosophy, not a science.