History of Psychology
Dr. Paul Dockree, History of Psychology: PS1203, 2009
Course Information
•
Location:
•
Mondays: Arts 2037; Thursdays: Arts 2043
•
Lecture Notes:
• All lecture notes will be provided before each lecture and will go on Psychology web pages
after the lecture:
• Go to http://www.tcd.ie/Psychology/lecturer_notes/index.html
•
Reading:
• Core text: B. M Thorne & T. B. Henley, Connections in the History and Systems of
Psychology (3rd ed., Houghton Mifflin, 2005)
• Optional reading of interest:
•
•
Fancher, R.E. (1996). Pioneers of Psychology. (3rd Ed.). London: Norton.
Fuller, R. (1995). Seven Pioneers of Psychology. London: Routledge.
•
Examinations:
• One end-of-year essay examination – details of its content and when and where will follow.
• Please contact me if you are a visiting student who will not be here for the end-of-year exams
in May.
•
Contact:
• dockreep@tcd.ie
• Room 1.04, School of Psychology.
Course Timetable
Lecture 1: Introduction to the
History of Psychology
Why Study History?
Given the current level of
research sophistication, what
can be learned by studying a
discipline’s history?
To have a knowledge base – to know what has already been
investigated and understood. “Those who do not know history are
doomed to repeat it” (George Santayana).
To understand how theoretical developments have evolved in
psychology through competition and opposition of ideas.
Why Study History?
• To make connections in an incredibly diverse field of study.
• To discover interesting personalities or ‘characters’ in history.
• To be able to critique our current thinking about psychology
today.
• Is the current “mindset” the most appropriate that will be
refined and augmented in the years to come or will it be
replaced?
• To understand the ethical issues pertaining to psychological
questions.
• Emotional distress for the participants of certain studies
• Theoretical understanding vs. real-world application
• To change behaviour or leave unadulterated
Being Aware of Bias in History
• Idiosyncrasies of the historian – overemphasis of
certain events and de-emphasis of others.
• Dominant theories can dominate the textbooks and
hence the history books giving the impression that
past theories were stepping stones to the modern
correct way of thinking.
• Imposing present sensitivities (e.g., cultural, sexual,
ethical) on the past.
• Great person (personalistic) vs. zeitgeist (naturalistic)
view
• “You get the personalistic view when you ignore the
antecedents of the great man, and you get the naturalistic
view back again when you asked what made the great man
great” (Boring, 1950)
What is it about Psychology that
is Scientific?
• What psychology aspires to be is a good starting
point in its history – psychology aspires to be a
science.
• What is it about psychology that is or could ever hope
to be a science? When is something scientific?
When it employs the scientific method?
• We expect science to explain how things work, how
mechanisms operate.
• What is it that makes a explanation a scientific
explanation? (Carl Hempel, 1950)
• Nomological deductive model – an event or phenomenon is
an instance of a universal law known to be true.
• An explanation sketch – a very reliable statistical law (e.g.,
supply and demand in economics).
What is it about Psychology that
is Scientific?
• How does psychology stand up to Carl Hempel’s
analysis?
• In some areas of psychology (sensation and perception,
aspects of learning and memory) there are reliable statistical
laws that allow one to make accurate predictions about
behaviour.
• In other areas of psychology (interpersonal behaviour,
psychoanalytic theory, personality theory, emotion,
motivation etc.) the relationships prove less reliable with less
predictive power.
• Scientific and Humanistic approaches: two opposing views
• What makes an event psychological in the first instance?
What is it about Psychology that
is Scientific?
• Two different psychologies
• A scientific psychology or a psychology aspiring to scientific
status. A process based approach, not concerned with
individuals but group norms
• e.g., visual processing, RT as a function of stimulus intensity,
how often you should rehearse a list of items in order to
remember them, the effects of brain lesions on speech, the
effects of brain lesion on emotion etc.
• Deterministic view: behaviour can be explained in terms of
biological, electrical and chemical changes in the brain. In other
words all behaviour is determined by brain states.
• A humanistic psychology argues that we can predict
behaviour, not through deterministic laws, but based on
common culture, values, language, development and
attitudes.
What do we want from psychological
theories and explanations?
• Reduction & replacement
• Scientists try to reduce larger theories to more
elementary or basic theories
• Physical reduction in psychology is the theory that
all mental states will ultimately be explained as
brain states; psychology will become an outpost of
biology.
• The non-reductive perspective
• Psychological phenomena cannot be reduced or
replaced by simpler theories – cultural, social,
interpersonal factors are a different level of
explanation from the biological
How do levels of explanation differ
among peers and predecessors?
Will psychology ever develop a cohesive,
widely accepted theory and should it try?
What counts as progress in
science and psychology?
• Does science develop in a series of
progressive steps leading up to our
current state of enlightenment? No.
What counts as progress in
science and psychology?
• In reality, the history of science has a
repeating cycle of stages
lac
p
e
r
adigm
r
a
p
New
ins
g
e
b
ce
scien d within
Pre-paradigm
period
• contending
schools
• random factgathering
• no science
Solve m or
ig
parad
d
Normal Science elveAnomaly
sh
• science begins
• one paradigm, no
schools
• puzzle solving
research
• important
insoluble problem
es
p
w
e
n
,
old
ha
orm
n
f
o
se
al
Crisis
Revolution
• insecurity
• younger scientists
adhere to new
paradigm
• loosening of
paradigm
restrictions
• contending
theories
• emergence of
new paradigm
• some older
scientists switch
allegiance
What have been psychology’s
biggest blunders and greatest
hits?
• Falsification – Karl Popper (1902-1994)
• How do you tell real science from fake science?
• A real scientific theory risks falsification from data
accumulation over time (ie., the theory could ultimately
be proven wrong)
• A fake scientific theory can never be proven wrong
usually because of ‘escape clauses’
– Eg, astrology, psychanalysis
• But scientific vs non-scientific is not sufficient
criteria to determine psychology’s highpoints and
lowpoints.
How did Psychology evolve as a
discipline?
• The founders of psychology were
philosophers – the ancient Greeks
were important antecedents to
modern Western ideals.
• Roman pragmatism and
scepticism towards science and
philosophy
• The renaissance (‘rebirth’) of
science 14th – 16th century in
Europe.
How did Psychology evolve as a
discipline?
• 17th century – Psychological idea emerges as an
outgrowth of empirical and rational philosophy
• Science displaces religion as an authority on
understanding
• 18th century – Psychology began to emerge as a
science in conjunction with studies of the nervous
system
• Founder of Experimental Psychology: Wilhelm Wundt
(1832-1920).
• Established the first laboratory for the study of psychology in
Leipzig in 1879;
• Campaigned to make psychology an independent discipline;
• Defined psychology as the scientific study of conscious experience;
• Trained psychologists who spread throughout Europe and North
America.
On Thursday:
Origins Of Modern Psychology
Within Philosophy