2. The Study of the History of Psychology LECTURE PREPARED BY: DR. M. SAWHNEY

3. Topics 1. Why Study the History of Psychology? 2. The Development of Modern Psychology 3. The Data of History: Reconstructing Psychology’s Past 4. Contextual Forces in Psychology 6. Conceptions of Scientific History 7. Schools of Thought in the Evolution of Modern Psychology

4. Why study the History of Psychology?  Some reasons:  Significant area of study in the field  No single form or approach of psychology exists  The past helps shape the present  Integrates areas/issues within modern psychology

5. History of Psychology in colleges  History of psychology: common requirement for majors  As early as 1911  93 percent of the psychology departments offer this course  Unique among the sciences in the focus on our history

6. The Development of Modern Psychology  Psychology derived from ancient philosophy  Ideas reminiscent of:  Plato, Aristotle, and other Greek philosophers  Ideas:  Memory, learning, motivation, thought, perception, abnormal behavior

7. The Development of Modern Psychology  Philosophy + Physiology= Psychology  Modern psychology:  Defined by its methods  Uses techniques of physical sciences  Increased precision and objectivity

8. The Development of Modern Psychology  Data of history  Data cannot be reconstructed  Only access to fragments of events  May be unreliable or false  May be lost or distorted

9. The Data of History: Reconstructing Psychology’s Past  Historicism and Historiography  Data of psychology:  Conduct a laboratory experiment  Observe behavior under controlled real-world conditions  Take a survey  Calculate the statistical correlation between two variables

10. The Data of History: Reconstructing Psychology’s Past (cont’d.)  Lost or suppressed data  Data can be misplaced or deliberately destroyed  Examples:  John B. Watson  Hermann Ebbinghaus  Gustav Fechner  Charles Darwin

11. The Data of History: Reconstructing Psychology’s Past (cont’d.)  Data distorted in translation  Data may become altered from translation and change meanings  The information can be altered by someone else  Freud  Carl Jung  The information can be altered by the person himself:  Freud’s theory of personality  Freud’s notion of “free association”, “Einfall”

12. The Data of History: Reconstructing Psychology’s Past (cont’d.)  Self-serving data  Data is subject to the biases of people who report it  Example:  B.F. Skinner described himself as rigorous and disciplined graduate student in his biography  Later recanted these statements

13. Contextual Forces in Psychology  Psychology affected by the cultural Zeitgeist:  Economic opportunity  Economic opportunity promotes psychology  Scholarly and real- world careers opened  https://www.youtube.c om/watch?v=6DBTfq25 YYM https://www.youtube.c om/watch?v=6DBTfq25 YYM

14. Contextual Forces in Psychology  The World Wars  Job opportunities  Expansion of testing services and psychotherapy  After witnessing the WWI and WWII,  Freud proposed that aggression as a significant motivation force for the human personality

15. Prejudice and discrimination  Discrimination again women  Denied admissions to graduate schools  Eleanor Gibson  https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=1VPaBcT1KdY  Sandra Scarr  Paid lower salaries than men

16. Prejudice and discrimination: Mary Calkins  Founded the first experimental laboratory in women’s college  Refused the PhD she earned at Harvard College  APA first female president in 1905

17. Prejudice and Discrimination  James Cattell : urging the acceptance of women in psychology  APA—the 1 st scientific society to admit women.  Female APA members: 79 women (1893-1921), 20% (1938)….  Currently, more than 75 percent of all PhD in psychology are women  The Feminist Psychologist https://www.youtube.com/user/psyc hsfeministvoices James Cattell

18. Discrimination based on ethnic origin  Many groups have little to no access to higher education and career opportunities  In 1960s admission quotas for Jews at Harvard, Yale & Princeton  Julian Rotter : “Jews could not get academic jobs”  https://www.wnyc.org/radio/#/ond emand/455057 Julian Rotter

19. Francis Cecil Sumner  First African American to earn a PhD  Areas of interest were understanding racial bias and supporting educational justice  Served as department chair at Howard University from 1928 - 1954. Francis Cecil Sumner

20. Kenneth and Mamie Clark  K. Clark and M. Clark awarded Ph.D.s at Columbia University in 1940 and 1943, respectively. The Clarks investigated how racism and segregation influenced African- American children’s self-image. Testified in Brown v. Board of Education (1954). K. Clark was the first African- American president of the APA in 1966.

21. Conceptions of Scientific History  The personalistic theory  Progress/change are a result of individual contributions  Has intuitive appeal

22. Conceptions of Scientific History  The naturalistic theory  Two determinants physical and psychological  Evidence:  Simultaneous discoveries  Difficulty accepting a less dominant/contradictory theory  Progress/change are inevitable  Result of general Zeitgeist  Example: Theory of Evolution

23. Conceptions of Scientific History  Inhibiting effect of the Zeitgeist  Delaying effect  Garcia effect

24. Schools of Thought in the Evolution of Modern Psychology  School of thought:  Group of psychologists who become associated ideologically or geographically with the leader of a movement  Preparadigmatic  Scientific Revolution  Different theological/methodological orientations  May occur simultaneously  Usually led by charismatic leader  Cyclical nature

25. Scientific Revolution

26. Schools of Thought in the Evolution of Modern Psychology (cont’d.)  Structuralism  Titchener’s system  Dealt with conscious experience as dependent on experiencing persons  Functionalism  Concerned with the mind as used in adaptation to environment

27. Schools of Thought in the Evolution of Modern Psychology (cont’d.)  Behaviorism  Watson’s science of behavior  Observable behavioral acts  Objective methodology  Gestalt psychology  Focus: learning and perception  Combining sensory elements creates novel patterns

28. Schools of Thought in the Evolution of Modern Psychology (cont’d.)  Psychoanalysis  Freud  Theory of personality  System of psychotherapy  Humanistic psychology  Emphasizes the study of conscious experience  Wholeness of human nature  Cognitive psychology