COURSE OUTLINE
Psyc
6020 -- Historical & Theoretical Foundations of Psychology A
Fall 2011 -- Thursday,
11:30-2:30, Ross N814
Christopher Green
York ext. 66164
BSB 286
This
course will focus on the development of scientific and applied psychologies,
ca. 1850-1950.
Assignments: The required assignment
each week typically consist of three chapters or articles plus one
electronic media source (audio/video). The readings are drawn from textbooks,
from the scholarly secondary literature on the history of psychology, and from
primary source historical documents. The electronic media sources consist of
videos and podcast interviews with prominent historians of psychology. They are
available online.
Students
are expected to do the required readings/watchings/listenings
before each class, to attend every class, and to actively participate in class
discussion every week.
Textbook: Benjamin, L. T. (2007). A
Brief History of Modern Psychology. (Blackwell)
"Classics in
the History of Psychology" website: http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/
"This Week in
the History of Psychology" podcast series: http://www.yorku.ca/christo/podcasts/
(or iTunes)
"Toward a
School of Their Own" video documentary: http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=1488007330440945673&hl=en-CA
"A School of
Their Own" video documentary: http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=3352007762997860688
"An Academy
in Crisis" video documentary: http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=31528576023114946&hl=en-CA
Seminars: In the second class, each
student will be assigned a week during which they will lead the seminar
discussion in collaboration with two other students. Seminar leaders should, of
course, be intimately familiar with the assigned sources for that week, but they are also
expected to have gone well beyond those readings, presenting to the class
material that was not available in the assigned sources. They are also expected
not simply to talk themselves for the entire time, but to engage the class in substantial discussion
by offering pertinent questions that have not been resolved in the
foregoing assignments and presentations. Other students in the class, in turn,
are expected to actively participate in this discussion each week.
Course Conference: The last two weeks of the
course will be reserved for a conference on the history of psychology.
Scholarly conferences are a central part of academic life, and this aspect of
the course is aimed at giving students some experience in this critical skill.
A few other members of the York community may be invited to attend as well.
Each student will make a 10-min presentation, followed by a short
question-and-answer period. The topics of the presentations are to be mutually
agreed upon by the student and instructor. It is crucial that they be narrow
enough that something valuable can be said about them in the 10 minutes
allotted. Thus, "Sigmund Freud" is an inappropriately broad topic.
"The Impact of Freud's 1909 of Clark University Lectures on the American
Reception of Psychoanalysis" would be better (though, note, there is a
~450-pp. book on this particular topic, so even small-looking topics can
unexpectedly complex).
Evaluation: Students will be evaluated on
the seminar they led, their contributions to class discussion during others’
seminars, and their performance at the end-of-term conference (both in their
own presentation, and in their discussion of others' presentations). The
relative weights of these three aspects will be equal.
History
of Psychology Journals
Journal of the History of the
Behavioral Sciences
(the venerable)
History of Psychology (managed by APA Division 26)
History of the Human Sciences (European)
American Journal of Psychology (some history of experimental
psychology)
American
Psychologist
(some history articles, and many obituaries, which can be good sources of basic
information, but beware of their overtly "celebratory" character).
See
also Pickren, W. E. & Dewsbury, D. A. (2002). Evolving
perspectives on the history of psychology. Washington, DC: APA. It is a
collection of reprints of some of the best articles and chapters over the past
few decades.
Reference
Sources
Note:
Encyclopedia entries can be good places to start, especially for basic
biographical information (e.g., birth, death, degrees, academic positions,
titles of major works) but the entries are often written by non-specialists,
and so interpretations can be superficial, and occasionally be absurdly wrong.
Encyclopedia of
Psychology (APA./Oxford) on-line at York library
Biographical
Dictionary of Psychology
(L. Zusne, Ed.; older but still useful)
Dictionary of
Scientific Biography
(older now, but still useful)
Oxford Dictionary
of National Biography
(British) online at York library
American National Biography
The Canadian Encyclopedia (Hurtig)
on-line at York library
Encyclopedia Britannica (if you must use a wholly general source)
on-line at York library
Biographies
Biographies
are an essential resource, but they vary wildly in quality. Find the one that
historians use (e.g., Buckley's biography of J.B. Watson over others). Check
the book reviews (in Contemporary Psychology/PsycCRITIQUES),
or ask someone who knows.
See
bottom of Don Dewsbury's term paper guidelines for enormous list of sources: http://www.psych.ufl.edu/~dewsbury/termpapers.htm
Schedule
|
Week |
Topic |
Textbook |
Secondary
Source |
Primary
Source (on CHP) |
Media |
|
8 Sept |
Introduction |
|
|
|
[teach wiki] |
|
15
Sept |
Philosophical
& popular background |
Chap
1 |
Sokal (2001) |
|
Phrenology
video (Van Wyhe) in class |
|
22
Sept |
German
physiology & psychophysics |
Chaps
2 |
Borell (1987) |
------------ |
Broca podcast
(Finger) |
|
29
Sept |
Wundt
& the rise of experimental psychology |
Chap
3 |
Danziger (1980) Robinson
(2001) |
------------- |
Wundt podcast
(Robinson) |
|
6
Oct |
Evolution,
functionalism, & pragmatism |
Chap
4 |
Cadwallader (1992) Morris
(2005) |
Dewey
(1896) |
Functionalism
1 video (Green) Menand interviewed
on Metaphysical
Club in class |
|
13
Oct |
CO-CURRICULAR
WEEK |
NO
CLASS |
|
|
|
|
20
Oct |
Functionalism
2 / Founding of laboratories, journals, & associations |
Chap
5 |
Sokal (1992) |
APA
(1892-1893) |
Functionalism
2 video (Green) |
|
27
Oct |
Mental
tests, IQ tests, personality tests, eugenics, & immigration |
Chap
6 |
Danziger (1990) Sokal (1987) |
------------ |
R. B. Cattell podcast (Tucker ) |
|
3 Nov |
Psychoanalysis
|
Chap
7 |
Ellenberger
(1972) |
Freud
(1910) |
Freud podcast
(Fancher) |
|
10
Nov |
Behaviorisms
|
Chap
8 |
Wozniak
(1997) |
Watson
(1913) |
Watson
podcast (Brewer) |
|
17
Nov |
Professionalization
of clinical & other applied psychologies |
Chaps
9, 10- |
Taylor
(2000) |
|
Shakow report
podcast (Baker) |
|
24
Nov |
Conference
1 |
-------- |
|
|
|
|
1 Dec |
Conference
2 |
-------- |
|
|
|
References
(All documents at
psychclassics.yorku.ca are in the public domain. Others are available in or
through the York library.)
Abbott, A. H. (1900). Experimental psychology and the laboratory in Toronto. University
of Toronto Monthly, 1, 85-98, 106-112. (http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Abbott/)
American
Psychological Association.
(1892-1893). Proceedings of the Preliminary Meeting (1892),
the First Annual Meeting (1892), and the Second Annual Meeting (1893). (http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/APA/)
American
Psychological Association.
(1947). Recommended graduate training program in clinical psychology. American
Psychologist, 2, 539-558. (http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/APA/training.htm)
Benjamin, L. T. & Baker, D.
B. (2004). Clinical psychology. In From séance to science: A history of the profession
of psychology in America. (pp. 32-80). Thompson/Wadsworth.
Benschop, R. & Draaisma,
D. (2000). In pursuit of precision: The calibration of mind and machines in
late nineteenth-century psychology. Annals of Science, 57, 1-25.
Borell, M. (1987). Instrumentation
and the rise of modern physiology. Science &
Technology Studies, 5, 53-62. (on JSTOR)
Cadwallader, T. K.
(1992). The
historical roots of the American Psychological Association. In R. B. Evans, V.
S. Sexton, T. C. Cadwallader (Eds.), The American Psychological Association: A
historical perspective (pp. 3-42). Washington, D.C.: APA.
Danziger, K. (1980). The history of introspection
reconsidered. Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences,
16, 241-262.
Danziger, K. (1990). Marketable methods. Chapter 7
of Constructing the
Subject: Historical origins of psychological reearch.
Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Dewey, John. (1896)
The reflex arc concept in psychology. Psychological
Review, 3,
357-370. (http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Dewey/reflex.htm)
Ellenberger, H. F. (1972). The
story of "Anna O": A critical review with new data. Journal
of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, 8, 267-279.
Freud, S. (1910). First lecture.
from The origin and development of psychoanalysis. American
Journal of Psychology, 21, 181-218. (http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Freud/Origin/origin1.htm)
Morris, C. R.
(2005). The first mass consumer society. Chapter 6 of The tycoons: How Andrew Carnegie, John D.
Rockefeller, Jay Gould, and J, P, Morgan invented the American supereconomy. New York: Owl Books.
Myers, C. R.
(1982). Psychology at Toronto. In M. J. Wright
& C. R. Myers (Eds.), History of academic psychology in Canada (pp. 68-99).
Toronto: C. J. Hogrefe.
Robinson, D.
K. (2001). Reaction
time experiments in Wundt's institute and beyond. In R. W. Rieber
& D. K. Robinson (Eds.), Wilhelm Wundt in history: The making of a scientific psychology
(pp. 161-204).
Sokal, M. M.
(1992). Origins
and early years of the American Psychological Association: 1890-1906. In R. B.
Evans, V. S. Sexton, T. C. Cadwallader (Eds.), The American Psychological Association: A
historical perspective (pp. 43-72). Washington, D.C.: APA.
Sokal, M. M.
(1987). James
McKeen Cattell and mental
anthropometry: Nineteenth-century science and reform and the origins of
psychological testing. In M. M. Sokal (Ed.), Psychological
testing and American society, 1890-1930. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers
University Press.
Sokal, M. M.
(2001). Practical phrenology as psychological counseling in the
19th-century United States. In C. D. Green, M. Shore, & T. Teo (Eds.), The transformation of psychology: Influences of 19th-century
philosophy, technology and natural science. Washington, DC: APA)
Taylor, E.
(2000). Psychotherapeutics and the problematic origins of clinical
psychology in America. American Psychologist, 55, 1029-1033.
Watson, J. B. (1913). Psychology
as the behaviorist views it. Psychological Review, 20, 158-177.
(http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Watson/views.htm)
Wozniak, R. H. (1997).
Theoretical roots of early behaviorism: Functionalism, the critique of
introspection, and the nature and evolution of consciousness. (http://www.brynmawr.edu/Acads/Psych/rwozniak/theory.html)