3 WEIRD psychology

Psychology as it is researched and practised today has its roots in Europe and North America in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, although with some influence from elsewhere. The late 1800s may seem very recent in human history, and indeed people have been asking ‘psychological’ questions for thousands of years (probably much longer, but we have no written records older than about 5,000 years). However, the modern academic discipline of psychology is very young: only about 150 years old.

An idea of the ‘diversity’ (or, more accurately, the lack of diversity) of psychology in its earliest days can be gleaned from the fact that probably the two most influential early psychologists were both called ‘William’ (sort of). In Germany, Wilhelm Wundt (Wilhelm is the German equivalent of William) set up what was called the first psychology ‘laboratory’ to investigate psychological questions through experimentation. In the United States, William James (William is the English equivalent of Wilhelm) investigated many questions including the nature of emotion, mainly through reflecting on his own experience. Both of these men worked in the late nineteenth century, and can be considered to have set many of the foundations for modern psychology.

Figure 8 Spot the difference! Wilhelm Wundt (left) and William James (right) were two important early psychologists.

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These are two early twentieth-century black and white portrait photographs, positioned side by side. Each of them features an older bearded man in a head-and-shoulders shot, posed in three-quarter profile and facing to the right. Both men are formally dressed in jacket and tie. The one on the left wears glasses and gazes out of the frame. The one on the right turns his head to look directly at the camera.

Figure 8 Spot the difference! Wilhelm Wundt (left) and William James (right) were two important early psychologists.

Psychology developed from the ideas of a very narrow set of people: almost exclusively white men in Europe and North America. At the time, women were largely excluded from public life, including academic education, and were not able to gain university degrees, so there were very few women contributing to the early days of the discipline. More women than men now study for psychology degrees in the UK, but this was not always the case. The two Wills were not only men; they were also white, upper class and lived in similar cultures, either Europe or North America (the United States and Canada themselves being former European colonies).