The formal beginning of psychology as a science is generally set at 1879, when Wilhelm Wundt established the first experimental laboratory devoted to the study of psychological phenomena. At about the same time, William James opened his laboratory.
Wundt's approach, known as structuralism, focused on the elements of the mind that underlie perception, consciousness, thinking, emotions, and other mental states and activities.
Structuralists used introspection, a procedure in which people were presented with a stimulus and were asked to describe what they were experiencing, to study the mind.
Functionalism, James's approach, became prominent in the early 1900s and asked what roles behavior plays in allowing people to better adapt to their environments.
Gestalt psychology is a perspective that focuses on how perception is organized.
