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Wilhelm Wundt, the son of a Lutheran clergyman, was born in 1832 in a small German village called Nekarau. He was a solitary child who shunned the games of children in favor of books and study.
At 19 Wundt decided to study medicine, most likely as a means of entering a scientific career. His attention shifted to physiology, the field in which he lectured widely and published a number of articles during the years following his graduation. Psychology was just beginning to emerge as a distinct science, and much of Wundt's work anticipated the value of physiological methodology in dealing with psychological problems. In 1879, at the University of Leipzig, Wundt established the first psychology laboratory. Here, he concentrated almost exclusively on psychological research, particularly on the study of human sensory experience--research that had previously belonged to the realm of physiology and philosophy. Wundt's use of a systematic methodological approach in tackling psychological problems was a landmark in establishing psychology as a science. Wundt pursued his work with the boundless energy and enthusiasm up until the time of his death near Leipzig, two weeks after his 88th birthday in 1920. |
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