Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Chapter 1 – Historical Studies: Some Issues A History of Psychology: Ideas and Context (4 th edition) D. Brett King, Wayne Viney, and William Douglas Woody This multimedia product and its contents are protected under copyright law. The following are prohibited by law: any public performance or display, including transmission of any image over a network; preparation of any derivative work, including the extraction, in whole or in part, of any images; any rental, lease, or lending of the program

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Why Study History? Improves our understanding of the future Enriches our understanding of the present Enriches a liberal education –In psychology –In a broad education across disciplines Teaches humility Teaches a healthy skepticism

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Some Problems in historiography Historiography includes –the researching and writing of history –questions about history and historical methods –characteristics of historical writings

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Some Problems in historiography Historical consciousness emerged over time. –Early historians Herodotus Thucydides

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Definition History is the interpretive study of the human past Contains –Empirical component Historical data –Explanatory component Interpretations of data

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Can History Be Objective? Objectivity implies a correspondence between a historical narrative and the past events it describes. –Historians cannot directly observe the events. –Historians must be selective with the data. –Objectivity is a desirable ideal.

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Presentism and Historicism. Historicism is the commitment to understanding the past for its own sake. Presentism emphasizes the biased nature of human experience and the difficulties in separating historical facts from current biases. There may be room for a middle ground.

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Is There a Pattern in History? The cyclical hypothesis suggests that history repeats itself in cycles. The linear-progressive hypothesis argues that progress is a fundamental characteristic of history. The linear-regressive hypothesis argues that decline is a fundamental characteristic of history. The chaos hypothesis maintains that there is no overall identifiable and universal meaning of history.

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 What Makes History? The great-person theory suggests that powerful individuals are most important in shaping history. Others argue that the historical context shapes thinkers. –Zeitgeist (spirit of a time) –Ortgeist (spirit of a place) History may require an efficient combination of productive individuals working within a receptive social, political, educational, technological, and temporal context.

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 New or Old history? Older histories –Usually written by practicing scientists in the field, – internalist, or focused on the discipline without context, and –presentist. New history – typically written by professional historians, –emphasizes the contexts in which the events occurred, and relies more heavily on archival and other original sources. Some scholars question this distinction.

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 The History of the History of Psychology. Early thinkers acknowledged contributions from fields outside of psychology such as physiology, philosophy, and physics. In 1913, James Mark Baldwin wrote History of Psychology: A Sketch and an Interpretation. Several works followed that are now classics, Boring (1929), Brett (1912), and Heidbreder (1933).

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 The History of the History of Psychology. The 1960s formalized the history of psychology. –The Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences was founded in –The Archives of the History of American Psychology were established in –The APA formed division 26, The Division of the History of Psychology in –In 1967, the University of New Hampshire started the first Ph.D. program in the History of Psychology. –In 1968, Cheiron, the International Society for the History of the Behavioral and Social Sciences, was created.