In a philosophical context psychology was around thousands of years ago in ancient Greece, Egypt, India, Persia and China. Medieval Muslim psychologists and doctors had a more clinical and experimental approach to psychology - they were the first to have psychiatric hospitals.
Pierre Cabanis (France) created biological psychology in 1802. A physiologist, Cabanis wrote a well known essay called "Relations between the physical and moral aspects of man" ("Rapports du physique et du moral de l'homme"). He interpreted the mind according to his previous studies of biology. He believed that sensibility and soul were parts of the nervous system.
1879, the birthdate of psychology - In 1879 Wilhelm Wundt, Germany, founded psychology as a truly independent experimental field of study. He set up the first laboratory that carried out psychological research exclusively at Leipzig University. Wundt is known today as the father of psychology.
Principles of Psychology, published by William James, an American philosopher in 1980, was discussed by psychologists worldwide for many decades.
Hermann Abbingaus (1850-1909), University of Berlin, was the first psychologist to study memory extensively. Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936), famous today even among lay people for the term Pavlov's dog, researched the learning process called "classical conditioning."