[APA World Wide Web Logo]

APA Historical Database: Selected Entries


On April 8:

1859 — Edmund Husserl was born. Husserl coined the term phenomenology. Husserl contended that because consciousness synthesizes a meaningful reality from the objective data it is given, phenomenological observation of subjective experiences is essential to the understanding of being. Husserl's thought has influenced humanistic psychology.

1865 — The New York state legislature passed the Willard Law, named for psychiatrist Sylvester D. Willard, providing a mental health facility for the care of the "chronic pauper insane." When it opened on October 13, 1869, the Willard Asylum for the Insane near Ovid, on Seneca Lake, was the first U.S. institution for chronically ill patients, reflecting more sophisticated diagnosis and treatment methods. It is now named Willard Psychiatric Center.

1868 — Herbert S. Jennings was born. Jennings was a comparative psychologist who focused on the behavior of lower organisms. He avoided mentalistic explanations for animal behavior.

1885 — James McKeen Cattell completed running participants for his doctoral research on reaction times. Cattell studied under Wilhelm Wundt.

1911 — Edward Maynard Glaser was born. Glaser was an organizational consulting psychologist. During World War II, Glaser worked to improve training, organizational structures, and classification procedures in the U. S. Navy. In addition to professional consulting, Glaser chaired first California state psychology licensing standards committee (1957) and founded the interdisciplinary Human Interaction Research Institute (1961).

1947 — The Institute for Sex Research, popularly known as the Kinsey Institute, was incorporated in Indiana.

1957 — The antipsychotic drug Compazine (prochlorperazine; Smith, Kline, and French) was approved for use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Prochlorperazine is also prescribed for severe nausea and vomiting.


Copyright © 1995, American Psychological Association. Web version by permission. Source: Street, W. R. (1994). A Chronology of Noteworthy Events in American Psychology. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. The American Psychological Association and Central Washington University have supported the development of the APA Historical Database.

Choose Another Day
How to Cite This Page in APA Style