Beyond Wundt and James: A global origin story of experimental psychology

Canonized in psychological scholarship is a specific narrative about the origins of experimental psychology. Within this narrative, Wilhelm Wundt and William James are frequently presented as dual progenitors of the experimental method. A widespread presumption is that these methods radiated from the United States and Germany outwards to other regions. However, broader evidence, drawing from the medieval Arab world and from later instantiations of laboratory psychology in Japan, China, India, and Argentina, demonstrates that experimental methods in psychology were developed and adapted for a range of contexts and purposes in other world regions. In these regions, laboratory psychology methods were marshalled to successfully effect major social and structural reform. These works are almost entirely absent from the canon of scholars associated with the birth of experimental psychology, yet their impact, like that of James and Wundt, has endured for over a century. The paper analyzes how the prevailing narrative describing the genesis of experimental psychology has been an organizing factor in the field. Recognizing a broader genealogy recognizes the accomplishments of psychological pioneers around the world, articulates the range of impacts that experimental psychology can achieve, and expands the hypothesis space of experimental psychology.