PSY 410 – HISTORY &
SYSTEMS
Dr. Nancy Alvarado
Welcome to PSY 410

What are systems?
 Systems
of thought
 Theoretical perspectives
 Ways of organizing the core ideas of our field
 Approaches to developing new knowledge
 Influences on the development of modern psychology

“Systems Psychology” means something different
than “psychological systems” – it is a subfield of
psychology that studies behavioral systems and
their dynamics.
Who are these people?
William James
G. Stanley Hall
Sandra Scarr
Sources for Today’s Lecture


Blackboard Reading 1:
A History of Modern Psychology (3rd Edition) by C.
James Goodwin, Chapter 1 – Introduciung
Psychology’s History (p. 1-24).
Blackboard Reading 2:
Timeline of Psychology from inside front and back
covers of the Goodwin textbook.
Why do we study history?

Hegel said that the only true lesson of history is that
nations have never learned anything from history.
 The
past is too different from the present to offer much
help and has little reality to those living in the present.

Boring said: “The seats on the train of progress all
face backward.”
 The
past does not predict
the future very well.
To better understand the present
“Imagine a man who professes over and over his
unending love for a woman but who knows nothing
about where she was born or who her parents were
or where she went to school or what her life had
been like until he came along – and furthermore
doesn’t care to learn. What would you think of such
a person?”
David McCullough, 1992
Why is there an APA and an APS?



APA = American Psychological Association
APS = American Psychological Society = Association for
Psychological Science
These two organizations reflect the tension between
research and practice within psychology.
A separate group of “Experimentalists” was formed in 1906
 The APA’s division structure was created after WWII to
accommodate the split.
 Despite that, researchers seceded from the APA in 1988.

Other reasons

The same problems are still with us, for example:
 Nature-nurture
– how heritable are traits such as
intelligence, shyness or schizophrenia? Criminality?



Science does not proceed directly from error to
truth, so the evolution of current thinking is
informative – the dialectic of science.
An overview of progress gives unity to a highly
diverse field – all psychologists share a common
history.
Psychologists are people who behave in a context.
Recurrent Questions

Is a science of the mind possible?
 Comte





said no, J.S. Mill said yes, Wundt tried it out.
How do we see, perceive and have knowledge of
the world?
What is the nature and locus of the mind?
What is the relationship between mind and body?
Nature vs nurture (nativism vs empiricism)
See Hothersall text, pg 1.
Hot or Not?
1970’s –
Disco Boogie
1950’s – All Hail
Rock & Roll
2013 -Prom
Presentism vs Historicism

Presentism – interpreting the past in terms of the
present.
 Stocking
(1965) – use of modern knowledge and
values to interpret the past.
 Was Gordon Allport racist when he referred to
“Negroes” or “colored people”? He might be by
today’s standards, but not those of his time.

Historicism – placing historical events within the
overall context of their times.
 The
contextual approach to history.
Psychology is contextual too.


We cannot totally escape presentism because we
are embedded in and formed by our experiences,
but we can try.
It takes a conscious act of empathy and imagination
to try to place oneself in a historical context in
order to understand behavior of others.
 This
is the same empathy and imagination demanded
of therapists who work with people different than
themselves, even of another sex.
 The more you know the better this can be accomplished.
Lessons from the Past


It takes an act of imagination to identify the
assumptions of one’s own time period.
Broca was convinced that women were inferior to
men because their brains were less developed.
 He
proposed that the difference
between male and female brain
sizes increased with each generation.
 Because his views were consistent with
the beliefs of the time, they went
unchallenged.
New Arrivals at Ellis Island
Immigrants from
Norway, 1904/1905
Goddard and Ellis Island

Goddard translated Binet’s IQ test from French to
English to screen immigrants upon entry to the USA.
 Those
with low scores were classified as “mentally
defective” and denied entry (deported).
 The test was not validated across cultures.

What was he thinking? Why would he do this?
 Darwinian
evolution and Mendelian genetics strongly
influenced thinking at the time, IQ was believed inborn.
 The nation feared being overrun by immigrants.
 Testing was considered “scientific” and thus infallible.
Internal vs External History

Internal history – the history of ideas.
 Traces
the development of theories held by different
psychologists.
 Ignores influences outside psychology that have
affected the discipline.

External history – focuses on those external
influences from outside psychology.
A
broader view that examines societal and economic
contexts in which ideas arise.

A balance is needed between the two.
Timelines and Maps show context


Goodwin textbook’s timeline for the history of
psychology –Blackboard Reading 2.
Wikipedia timeline of the history of psychology:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_psychology
Sample Timeline
An Individual Person’s Timeline
Personal vs Naturalistic History

Personal history – sees the actions of individual
historical figures as primary.
 Emphasizes
the overall intellectual and cultural climate.
 Hegel called this the zeitgeist
 Biographies are important and historical periods are
identified by the people who shaped events (eponyms).


Our Hothersall textbook takes this approach.
Theories in psychology and periods epitomized by
certain viewpoints are often named for people
originating them – such as Freudian or Skinnerian.
Academic Pedigrees



A pedigree is the ancestry of a person or animal
(the family tree).
In psychology, famous people may have studied
with earlier influential figures, so you can trace their
lineage.
Schools of thought were also organized around
institutions where people collaborated (e.g., major
universities such as the University of Chicago).
 This
is also a kind of academic pedigree.
My Academic Tree
Abraham Robinson
UCLA (Mathematics)
later, Yale Univ.
Louis Narens
UC Irvine
(Cognitive
Science)
PhD Advisor
Silvan Tomkins
Princeton Univ.
Paul Ekman
UCSF
Nancy Alvarado
Cal Poly Pomona
Postdoctoral Mentor
The Alternative View

Naturalistic history – an approach that emphasizes the
broader forces of history acting on individuals.
Great men are agents of forces beyond their control.
 Boring promoted this view of psychology, the Goodwin book
emphasizes it.


Multiple events occur when two people independently
create the same theory or discovery.


Darwin & Wallace developed identical theories of evolution
However, it is mistaken to think of such forces as
deterministically controlling ideas, as if people don’t
matter.
Critical Thinking about History

Primary vs secondary sources.
 Primary
sources are archives of records,
correspondence, diaries, speeches, minutes of meetings,
unpublished manuscripts and papers.
 Secondary sources are published analyses or
summaries found in journals, magazines, encyclopedias
written about some person, event, or time period.

Historians are human so their interpretations reflect
their beliefs and inevitably affect their work.
 Postmodernism
critiques this bias, but truth can be
approached via the combined efforts of historians.
How to Study for this Course



Remember the names of important people.
Read the details of the lives of the people in the
textbook – use empathy to imagine the times.
Always be asking yourself “What did this person
contribute to modern psychology?”
 Each


chapter in Hothersall ends with a summary of this.
Organize the people into schools of thought and
disciplines of psychology, and place on a timeline.
Memorize key terms in red (look up meanings too).
Some Suggestions

DO NOT underline your textbook.
 People
tend to underline the main points.
 When you go back, it is hard to see the text that isn’t
underlined, which has the details – so you wind up
studying what you already know.

DO NOT outline the chapters.
 Outlines


also focus on main points but not details.
DO make flash cards and use them to study.
DO use practice tests or test yourself from the book.
When something is unfamiliar




Look up words you don’t know using Google or
Wikipedia.
Ask questions, even in class.
Remember that words used in earlier centuries may
have had different meanings than they do today.
Look up unfamiliar names or terms in the indexes of
the textbook and then re-read where that term was
first defined or that person was first introduced.
Skimming the Book


Skimming is not reading -- reading occurs with full
attention.
You may be tempted to believe you already know
the content of the textbook’s chapters.
 Assume
that you don’t and read every word.
 The details in the Hothersall book are not in your other
textbooks – you WILL do poorly if you don’t read it.

Think about yourself as a future psychologist and
the people in the book as if they were your
professors, friends or colleagues. Care about them!