week 1

• Why study psychology's history?

  • Knowledge is rarely ever new. New discovery needs to rely and learn from the past
  • Historical context gives perspective and clarity to different concepts and subjects in Psychology
  • History gives unity to a broad field such as psychology
  • History is useful in practical application of psychology
  • History of psychology is interesting for our understanding of human behavior
  • History of psychology helps develop critical thinking in psychology students
  • Teaches how the field has adapted to and evolved due to political realities
• Where do we start telling psychology's history?

  • Subject matter related to psychology dates back to ancient philosophers particularly Greek philosophers
  • Aristotle coined the term "Psyche" which refers to the soul
  • Modern Psychology was born in 1879 in Leipzig
  • Ebbinghaus – "Psychology has a long past but a short history"
  • 19th century, because that is when psychology became a science and became scientific in it's methods of study – before that it was largely speculative
• Definitions of Psychology


  • Soul Definition
  • Mind Definition
  • Consciousness Definition
  • Behavior Definition
• Key philosophical debates in psychology's History

  • Mind – body debate
  • Nature – nurture debate
  • Theorist – practitioner debate
  • Ethics debates
  • Free will – determinism debate
  • Empiricism – rationalism debate
• Historiography


  • Techniques and principles employed in historical research
  • Historians and Psychologists differ in their method of conducting research and face different challenges
  • Data of history and data of science differs
  • Data of science can be controlled and therefore replicated but the data of history cannot
  • History of Psychology must rely on data collection methods of history and therefore important debates in data collection and analysis came up
• Presentism


  Interpreting historical events using our current understanding and contemporary knowledge
• Historicism


  Studying past events and concepts in it's appropriate sociocultural and historical context without much interpretation
• Zeitgeist


  The intellectual and cultural climate or spirit of the times; including important events, economic, political and social forces
• Personalistic theory


  • Focuses on achievements and contributions of specific individuals
  • Development, progress and change comes from the charisma, intellect and will of these individuals
  • The person makes the times
• Naturalistic theory


  • Argues that the socio-cultural context of the times makes possible for us to recognize the person
  • Operates both at a cultural level and in the field as well
  • A discovery usually must await the proper times
  • People worlds apart in the same times have managed to discover the same thing
• Problems in data selection: Lost data


  • Incomplete historical records due to lost data
  • Data is lost sometimes due to deliberate destruction
  • Sometime data is misplaced
  • Sometimes data is stolen
  • Sometimes data is deliberately altered/suppressed by others or by the theorist
• Problems in data collection


  • Language barriers
  • Self-serving data
• Approaching Historical Truth


  • Schools of thought – group of psychologists who are associated geographically or ideologically
  • Thomas Kuhn – preparadigmatic and paradigmatic natural science
  • Schools of thought: Structuralism, Functionalism, Gestalt School, Behaviorism, Psychoanalysis, Cognitive School
• Presentism vs Historicism


  • Presentist views – do not take historical context into consideration
  • Example – IQ testing of immigrants (Henry Doddard)
  • What could be possible reasons for this?
  • What are the key take away points from this practice?
• Internal vs External History


  • Internal history – written by psychologists
  • External history – outside influences are considered
  • Example – Cognitive Psychology resulted in the decline in Behaviorism?
• Personalistic vs Naturalistic History


  • Personalistic approach – actions, events that are turning points due to an individual's contribution (eg: Darwinian biology, Freudian psychology, Newtonian physics)
  • Naturalistic approach – history is continuous and sleek (Boring, 1963)
  • Zeitgeist – intellectual and cultural climate of a particular era
• Sources of Historical Data


  • Textbooks – Secondary Data
  • Research – Primary Sources
  • Archives – unpublished data
• Understanding of history has to be dynamic