- Alexander Bain (1818-1903) : Alexander Bain is the the first to attempt to relate known physiological facts to psychological phenomena. He also wrote the first psychology texts, and he founded psychology's first journal (1876). Bain explained voluntary behavior in much the same way that modern learning theorists later explained trial-and-error behavior. Finally, Bain added the Law of compound association and the Law of constructive association to the older and traditional Laws of association.