Was Wundt's lab Founded?
Tradition in psychology has it that
the first laboratory of psychology
was founded in 1879 by Wilhelm Wundt.
However, there have been debates among
historians of psychology surrounding
the founding date of Wundt's lab.
Confusion mainly comes from the time
gap between the date when Wundt came
to the University of Leipzig (1875)
and the date when first working research
laboratory was explicitly devoted
to experimental psychology (1879).
Although formal space for psychological
experiments was not given from the
University, some citations suggest
that Wundt's lab was in operation
as early as 1875, the year when Wundt
came to the University of Leipzig.
As an attempt to resolve the confusion
related to the founding year of
lab, historians of psychology use
a dual system clarifying both a de
jure establishment and a de facto
founding. Within the system, '1875'
is commonly considered as the de jure
establishment date and '1879' as the
de facto founding year of Wundt's
Lab Came First? Wundt's Lab or
related to Wundt's lab involves its
historical status as the first experimental
psychology lab. William James claimed
that his was in operation as early as
1874 at Harvard. However, the laboratory
of James in the 1870s and 1880s was
frequently evaluated to be ill equipped,
and thus to hardly meet qualifications
for a psychology laboratory.
Changes of the Institute for Experimental
Psychology,Univ. of Leipzig
| In 1879,
Wundt's lab had rooms provided by the
university with appropriations and in
the eighties went from four to six rooms
with 19 students conducting research.
However, subjects were not provided
from the University, and thus experiments
were conducted to the graduate students
who were mutually serving one another.
In 1883, under the supervision of
Wundt, the first doctoral degree was
awarded to Max Friedrich who investigated
the time-courses of individual psychological
process at the Leipzig lab. In the
same year, Volume I of the Journal
Philosophische Studien was published.
The year of the first issue of psychology
professional journal was a turning
point for the fate of the Leipzig
Psychology Institute. Since 1883,
the institute became formally listed
as one of the general university institutes,
and an assistant could be hired. Furthermore,
the workspace was expanded by two
small rooms. The first assistant in
the lab was the American James McKeen
Cattell (1860-1944) who volunteered
to be an assistant of the lab in 1886.
From 1887 onwards the post of assistant
was filled by Ludwig Lange (1863-1936),
and soon was succeeded to Oswald Kulpe
(1862-1915). After having undergone
several brief changes of the personnel,
the position was given to August Kirschmann
(1860-1932) in 1888.
In the late 1890s, the reconstruction
of the campus was planned and under
way by the University of Leipzig.
This university's rebuilding project
brought about a big gain to Wundt's
lab. Following the rebuilding of the
University in 1896, the psychology
institute was situated in the upper
stories of the two buildings in such
a way that the institute formed a
connecting link between the two buildings,
which included 2 large rooms for teaching
purposes and 15 rooms for laboratory
purposes. For a drawing of the Leipzig
psychology institute in 1909 and brief
descriptions of Wundt's lab, follow
the link below.