History of Psychology 2008

History of Psychology
Psychology 414

Fall 2008
December 1
This is an ADVANCED course if taken for the Psychology Major. For the course to count as an advanced course in the major, you need to have had the prerequisites — 5 courses in psychology.
Instructor
William M. Mace
Office: Life Sciences 212A
Office Hours:
MWF 10 – 11:30 am
Thursday 2 – 3 pm

and by Appointment
Extension: X2343
E-Mail: william.mace@trincoll.edu

Required Reading

  • All on line

On World Wide Web — Just a click away when you are reading this syllabus on the World Wide Web.

  • Archives of the History of Psychology
  • Two of the early journals to publish articles that became important in the history of psychology are the Journal of Philosophy, Psychology, and Scientific Methods (begins in 1904) and Mind (begins in 1876). The Trinity library has access to electronic versions of both of these going back to their very first issues. I cannot put a direct link to them on the syllabus. To get them, you need to go first to the Trinity Library, which is linked here, then search the catalogue for the journal. Once you have found the entry in the catalogue, you’ll see that one of the listings is for the JSTOR electronic version. Then you can click on that and open the door to a resource that was much more difficult to look at in the past.
  • PsycInfo. The main database for articles in psychology. It also must be accessed through the Trinity Library. Go to “Trinity Online Resources” and then, under “All Resources by Title,” find Psycinfo.
  • Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences. A main journal specializing in history, mostly of psychology. Just type in the name of the journal in the Trinity catalogue listing on the library home page. Indicate that it is a journal title. Electronically available from 1989. Older issues are in hard copy on the C Floor of the library.
  • The American Psychological Association. This page (past the Home page) lists the Divisions of the APA, to show you just how many subdivisions there are in American psychology. Under “More info” at Divisions 4 and 11, you can get a brief history of various divisions.
  • The Association for Psychological Science. Why does this organization exist?

Expanded History of Psychology Reading List. May be read on the World Wide Web by clicking here.

Classics in Psychology
Huge archive of online books and articles. Indispensable for this course
Course Work

Grades will be based on written work and class participation. Class participation 25%, 75% written work (papers).

Class participation will be based on attendance, your willingness to talk in class, and performance on the full range of assignments that I’ll call “homework.”

Occasional quizzes may be necessary to make sure you are keeping up.

Papers

Your main written work for the semester will be a series of papers on a topic drawn from our series of suggestions. These really will be successive stages of one paper, but each stage will require a serious effort and will be graded.

Our topic list

The assignments and dates due are these:

Due Date: September 26 .The first paper topic should be selected.
Due Date: October 17. The Full Proposal plus complete bibliography to be turned in. 15% of final grade.
Due Date:November 10. The First Full Draft of the paper is due. 15% of Final Grade
Due Date:December 1. Second draft of paper due. 20% of Final Grade.
Due Date:December 15 Final Draft of Paper Due. 25% of Final Grade.
Autobiographies available immediately on the Web

 

Other Assignments (to be discussed)

Schedule of Classes
DATE READING FOR CLASS TOPIC DESCRIPTION
Class 1
September 3		 Our course “map” If you don’t see this open, check your Downloads and open in Excel.

Questions to answer for Friday

 Introduction to the course
Class 2
September 5		 Reading:

  1. Darnton on “News” Read Section 1.
  2. Boring & Boring — Masters and Pupils article. American Journal of Psychology, 1948, 61, 527-534 JSTOR
  3. Boring — The Psychology of Controversy
  4. Allport (1939) Review of 50 years of research
 What Darnton says about news is like written history. Remember that there is considerable distance between what all really happens and what is later reported.

TURN IN ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS BY 3 pm
 Class 3
September 8		 Add/Drop Period ends tomorrow

Mathematical proof and existence
 Class 4
September 10		 Current Lakoff An earlier follower, then semi-rival of Chomsky.

Weimer — Plato and Chomsky Psycholinguistics and Plato’s Paradoxes of the Meno. American Psychologist, 1973, 28, 15-33.

Meno
Proof in Meno with diagrams

  Plato and rationalism. Thinking about mathematical reasoning and mathematical “objects.”
 Class 5 September 12
  Weimer; Meno  Major aspects of Plato — essence, primacy of the abstract, anamnesis
 Class 6 September 15  Weimer  Learning on the first instance; a little Aristotle
 Class 7 September 17   Required reading:Summary of Kuhn by Emory Professor

Blumenthal, Arthur (1975). A reappraisal of Wilhelm Wundt. American Psychologist, 30, 1081 – 1088.

  Kuhn — Normal science, paradigms, and revolutions
 Class 8 September 19  Read: Aristotle’s Psychology  Aristotle — Nominalism, 4 causes, teleology
Class 9 September 22 Begin Descartes Rationalism, Mechanism, Mind-Body dualism
Class 10 September 24 Meditation 1

Meditation 6

 Class participation on Descartes. Be ready with your paragraph of Meditation 6 by Descartes.
Class 11 September 26 Continue Meditation 6 Last day to withdraw from classes

Second half of class presentations commenting on paragraphs from Meditation 6

Paper topic due
Class 12 September 29 Locke intro British empiricism 1

Primary and secondary qualities
Class 13 October 1  Read:

  1. Locke on qualities Essay Concerning Human Understanding. Book II, Chapter 8, Section 8.
  2. Locke on External Existence Essay — Book IV, Chapter 11.
  3. Berkeley – Of the Principles of Human Knowledge Sections 1-5, 8-11, 14-15, 18-20, 23-30, 33-34, 36, 42-45, 48, 58.
  Locke and Berkeley
 Class 14 October 3 Hume Treatise of Human Nature. Vol. I, Part IV, Section 2.

Mill on the “permanent possibility of sensations” in Chapter XI of An Examination of Sir William Hamilton’s Philosophy.

 Hume and Mill

Oct. 6-7 Trinity Days WORK ON PAPERS
Class 15 October 8 Hume Treatise of Human Nature. Vol. I, Part IV, Section 2.

Mill on the “permanent possibility of sensations” in Chapter XI of An Examination of Sir William Hamilton’s Philosophy.

  More Berkeley discussion; “objects” consist of bundles of associated experiences (secondary qualities). The distinction between primary and secondary qualities disappears in Berkeley. All are like secondary qualities.
Class 16
October 10		 Kant reading Mill and Kant
Class 17 October 13 Wozniak on mind and brain Read: Section I “Brain” people. Note Gall,
Class 18
October 15		 Wozniak on mind and brain Read: Sections II and III

Outline from Boring

Look ahead to Francis Crick’s Astonishing Hypothesis. One review.

 Especially Fechner, Helmholtz, Müller
Psychology “proper”
 Class 19
October 17		  Read: Introduction to Wundt’s major work by Rob Wozniak Wundt

Full 500 word Proposal plus complete bibliography Due
 Class 20
October 20		 Read:

Wundt intro in the Classics

Paper about Urban at Trinity — On Blackboard

  College Mid Term
Darwin, James and Functionalism
 Class 21
October 22		   Read:

  1. Darwin Introduction, and “The Struggle for Existence”
  2. Wozniak on Galton
  3. Introduction to Galton’s Hereditary Genius Note that this is from the Website, Galton.org. Check it out.
  Darwin
 Class 22
October 24		  Galton
 Class 23
October 27		 Read:

    1. Taylor and Wozniak on James
    2. James — The Stream of Consciousness
    3. James’ essay of pure experience; his ‘radical empiricism.’
  William James
 Class 24
October 29		 Read:

  1. Hall on the traditions of Psychology in the U.S. prior to the “new psychology.”
  2. Hall on the “new psychology.”
  3. James on Pragmatism
 Filling in some James. He was definitely influential with respect to pragmatism.

G. Stanley Hall’s interpretation of the history at the time.
 Class 25
October 31		  Read:

  1. Diehl American Psychologist, 1986, Vol. 41, 868-878.
  2. Shields, American Psychologist, 1975, Vol. 30, 739 – 754.
 Paradoxes in G. Stanley Hall (first article.)

Functionalism, Darwinism & Psych of Women — second article.
Behaviorism
 Class 26
November 3		  Read:

  1. James McKeen Cattell on “Mental” testing
 Advising Week Nov. 3-7

Cattell theory and data, then: What Wissler’s data said
 Class 27
November 5		  Read:

  1. Christopher Green on Watson
  2. Rob Wozniak on Watson
  3. Watson’s Classic 1913 paper
  4. Baars, pp. 19 – 84 Chapter 2. On Blackboard.
  Behaviorism
 Class 28
November 7		  Behaviorism discussion
Gestalt Psychology
 Class 29
November 10		  Gestalt Readings. You may omit the autobiography of Stumpf. Gestalt Psychology

Preregistration Week

First draft of paper due
Class 30
November 12		 Continue above, especially Köhler More highlights of Gestalt Psychology

Psychopathology and Psychoanalysis

Clinical and Applied Psychology
Class 31
November 14		 Read:

  • Psychoanalysis arrives in America: The 1909 psychology conference at Clark University. American Psychologist, 1985, 40, 942 – 948.
  • Freud — First lecture on psychoanalysis at Clark University. American Journal of Psychology, 1910,21, 181 – 218. Electronically in JSTOR.
  • Hornstein — The Return of the Repressed. American Psychologist, 1992, 47, 254 – 263.
 Freud and Clinical Psychology
Class 32
November 17		 Our course “map”. Encore. A little Freud, a little Witmer; then review where we’ve been to consolidate the content
Class 33
November 19		 Continuing Excel summary Review of issues, focusing on role of experience. Can there be a novel experience?

Social Issues in U.S. Psychology’s History
Class 34
November 21		 Ladd-Franklin on Endowed Professorships for Women Also review Oct. 31 readings from Hall.

Finally — Note that the Classics link has a topic section on women and the history of Psychology

 Women in Psychology
Class 35
November 24		 Solomon Carter Fuller

Clark interview covering Sumner

 Race in U. S. Psychology

Psychology Today — The Advent of Cognitive Psychology
Class 36
December 1		 Readings — See Jenkins interview and Chomsky interview in Baars book. Both available on Blackboard site. Also review Weimer article linked to September 10. Second Draft of paper due
Chomsky role in cognitive revolution
Class 37
December 3		 Beginning the language side — Chomsky
Class 38
December 5		 Beginning the language side — Chomsky
Class 39
December 8		 Last Day of Classes; Last day to change pass/fail to letter grade

Final Paper Due December 15 (scheduled Final Exam Day)