History of PsychologyWhy Study the History of Psychology?Slide 3Slide 4How does this translate to your life?How does this translate to your life?Slide 7Archives of PsychologyAcademically speaking…Clinically speaking…Slide 11The Development of Modern PsychologySlide 13Slide 14Soooo is this a history class or a psychology class?Data CollectionData collectionContext in PsychologyEconomic OpportunitySlide 20WarSlide 22Slide 23Prejudice and DiscriminationSlide 25Slide 26Slide 27Slide 28Slide 29Slide 30Slide 31Slide 32What does all this Zeitgeist have to do with anything?The Personalistic TheorySounds good, right?The Naturalistic TheoryThe ShiftSlide 38Schools of Thought in the Evolution of Modern PsychologySlide 40Slide 41Discussion QuestionsSlide 43Slide 44Slide 45Slide 46Slide 47Slide 48MONDAY JANUARY 12TH, 2015HISTORY OF PSYCHOLOGYWHY STUDY THE HISTORY OF PSYCHOLOGY?•“History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.”--Mark TwainWHY STUDY THE HISTORY OF PSYCHOLOGY?•Case in point:•Wilhelm Wundt (1861) noticed that astronomers who were tracking stars could not focus his attention on both stars and gridlines at the same timeWHY STUDY THE HISTORY OF PSYCHOLOGY?•Simons & Chabris (2010)•https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJG698U2MvoHOW DOES THIS TRANSLATE TO YOUR LIFE? •Hyman et al. (2009)•Campus shenanigans! Who notices?•People walking alone?•People walking with friends?•People talking on the phone?HOW DOES THIS TRANSLATE TO YOUR LIFE?•Hyman et al. (2009)•Campus shenanigans! Who notices?•People walking alone? 50%•People walking with friends? 70%•People talking on the phone? 25%WHY STUDY THE HISTORY OF PSYCHOLOGY?•Conclusion: we must become aware of what was done in the past because the past informs the present and our lives•History can tell us about the world today•Disclaimer: just because something has been done in the past does not make it correct•But awareness is still valuableARCHIVES OF PSYCHOLOGY•The American Psychological Association was founded in 1892•They maintain archives that contain:•50,000 books•15,000 photographs•6,000 films•Audio and video tapes•Hundreds of thousands of letters•Manuscripts, lecture notes, testing and lab matierals•Fun fact: most psychology departments offer a history course – most other disciplines do not offer studies in the history of their fieldsACADEMICALLY SPEAKING…•Your intro section ALWAYS starts with PAST research on a topic•This informs the questions you will ask and the answers you will seek in your research•Research BUILDS on itselfCLINICALLY SPEAKING…•Think about therapy…what is the first thing you do?•Well, you ask them about the problem first, but then what?CLINICALLY SPEAKING…•You take their history!•Medical, social, family, vocational, psychiatric, etc.•Often goes back to childhood in order to understand the way the client learned to see the world•This builds a cohesive picture, called a “conceptualization” of the client•In the same way, the history of psychology makes current branches of psychology cohesive and sensible with a common coreTHE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN PSYCHOLOGY•When did psychology start? •It’s one of the newest and one of the oldest of all scholarly disciplines•Its origins can be traced back to the 5th century BC•Aristotle and other Greek philosophers•Memory, learning, motivation, thought, perception, and abnormal behaviors •Modern psychology as an empirical science emerged only 200 years ago•Emerged largely from philosophyTHE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN PSYCHOLOGY•Until the mid 1850s, psychology was studied very informally •Thinking, speculating, making generalizations from one person’s experience (usually whoever was doing the writing)•Eventually adopted methods from biological and other physical sciences to explore psychological constructs empirically•This is why taking PSYC 317 is so important!THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN PSYCHOLOGY•For the purposes of this little class, we’re going to examine the history of psychology from the 19th century, when it became an independent discipline with empirical methods•We can consider the philosophical underpinnings of psychology as “prehistory” (Danziger, as quoted in Brock, 2006, p. 12)SOOOO IS THIS A HISTORY CLASS OR A PSYCHOLOGY CLASS? •Both! •We use the methods of history (historiography) to study the methods of psychologyDATA COLLECTION•Collecting data through historiography isn’t always as precise as the empirical methods of psychological research•We can’t just go run a controlled experiment on history•Data gets lost or suppressed (burned letters, only certain data revealed)•Data gets distorted when translated (translations of Freud are perhaps not as accurate in English as they were in the original German)•Data can be contaminated with self-serving bias (people and ideas can be presented more favorably or unfavorably than is accurate)DATA COLLECTION•But this is the information we have for reconstructing psychology, and it’s far from overCONTEXT IN PSYCHOLOGY•Like all things, you cannot make an accurate interpretation without including context•In this case, we consider zeitgeist•“The intellectual and cultural climate or spirit of the time”•Here are a few Zeitgeist type factors to consider in the history of psychologyECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY•Psychologists in the early 20th century had economic incentive to apply their knowledge•However, there were far more psychologists with doctoral degrees than labs to employ them•This certainly applies to the present!ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY•Teaching became a good area for psychologists – this was a major shift from laboratory science to applied science•New universities started cropping up across the country •Immigration led to population increases that required more teachers in public education•Early psychology departments did not get a lot of funding as compared to other sciences (still applicable!)•So these psychologists had to work even harder to prove their value in societyWAR•Vocationally speaking…•World War I and II accelerated the growth of applied psychology•Personnel selection•Psychological testing•Treating veterans returning from warWAR•Geographically speaking…•During World War II, many psychologists fled Nazi Germany and Austria, two of the most prominent headquarters for psychological research and practice•Thus, psychology’s home base
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