The word "psychology" was apparently first used in Britain by a group of 18th century Scottish philosophers from Aberdeen. The city was later home to Alexander Bain, often described as the first British psychologist due to his two-volume treatise The Senses and the Intellect (1855) and The Emotions and the Will (1859). He also played a vital role in Founding the journal Mind (1876), which described itself as "the first English journal devoted to psychology and philosophy".

Bain followed a long tradition of British empiricist philosophers, including Locke, Berkeley, Hume and the Scottish school initiated by Reid, which laid great emphasis on the concept of association.

In 1879, Wundt established the first psychological laboratory in Leipzig, thus heralding what is usually called the modern era. Wundt trained as a physiologist but was made Professor of Philosophy at Leipzig. By establishing a laboratory and initiating experimental studies of vision, attention , reaction time and so forth, he set psychology on the course which has been academically dominant since.

For a time Scotland led the way in establishing psychology in Britain. In 1896 Aberdeen instituted a lectureship in Comparitive Psychology to which they appointed G.F.Stout.In 1903 Stout moved to St Andrews as Professor of Logic and Metaphysics. This was followed by lectureships in Edinburgh in 1906 and Glasgow in 1907. In his day Stout was regarded as one of the best psychologists in Britain.

His books "Analytical psychology" (1896) and his "Manual of Psychology" first published in 1898 underwent several revisions and for several generations of psychology students in Britain were their standard texts. Despite these early developments which could have ensured a promising start to psychology at St Andrews it sadly remained the case that it was not for another 65 years that psychology was allowed to become firmly established at St Andrews.

In the same period Edinburgh went on to become one of the strongest departments in Britain. The main reason was that Stout, like Bain, was not himself an experimenter, and by the time he came to St. Andrews his principal interests were largely philosophical. Stout remained at St. Andrews until his retirement over 30 years later.

During that time, several gifted young psychologists came and went. In 1926, C A Mace was appointed to a lectureship in the Department of Logic & Metaphysics. He assisted Stout in revising his Manual , and introduced into it the term "experimental psychology", which it was felt Stout did not welcome.

Mace was determined to set up a laboratory for psychological experiments, a home for which was eventually found in part of the cloisters of St Salvators's Chapel, later to be transferred to the basement of Younger Hall.

Mace left St Andrews in 1933, and Oscar Oeser was appointed to a lectureship in Experimental Psychology. Like Mace he was committed to experimentation and had strong interests in the potential practical applications of psychology. He carried out a pioneering study of unemployment in Dundee, which was interrupted by the war. Afterwards, Oeser chose not to return to St Andrews, perhaps because he was apparently the subject of much criticism. His work was seen as threatening because of his insistence on an empirical approach, as were his teachings, which included "socially dangerous" subjects such as Freudian theory.

In 1947 Henry Ferguson came to St Andrews to fill the vacancy left by Oeser, but he was only allowed to teach an introductory course to begin with. Later joint honours degrees were offered within the Department of Logic & Metaphysics. The feeling that psychologists were not always welcome was still present into the 1950s when Alfred Flook and Terry Lee lectured here.

Increasing tensions led to the commissioning of various reports, the result of which was that in 1959 the Psychology Department moved to Dundee (then still part of the University of St Andrews), and Alfred Flook became its head of department. Henry Ferguson remained at St Andrews, but was limited to teaching the introductory course. In 1967 all links were finally severed when the University of Dundee became autonomous.

Two years later, Malcolm Jeeves was appointed Foundation Professor of Psychology, and the subject took off. The number of posts rose dramatically, and the department soon began to make its mark in the fields of cognitive psychology and neuropsychology with strong emphasis on the subject's links with the biological sciences.

In 1979 the department moved to its current location in the Old Library, where for the first time its various resources were housed under one roof. Over the years the department's reputation has grown, to the extent that in the four national research assessment exercises which took place, the department was the only one in Scotland to receive the highest rating each time.