A History of Psychology

Chapter one: The study of the History of Psychology

A note before studying history of psychology

Historical facts can change: Several Freud’s document will not be available until the 21th century

Bias: History is highly selective and subjective

Zeitgeist (the spirit of the time) influences the decision/trend

“Internal” (psychology) vs. “external” (socio-cultural,

political, or economic context) history Presentism (looking at past events from today’s perspectives) vs.

Historicism (placing past events into their actual social and intellectual context)

Approaches to the History of psychology(Wertheimer, 2000)

1. Quasi-chronologies: one trend and then a different trend

2. The Great Schools of Psychology: structuralism, functionalism, Behaviorism, Gestalt

Psychology, Psychoanalysis, Humanistic and Cognitive movement

3. Personal or professional autobiographies 4. Major figures in the history of psychology 5. History of organizations 6. History of psychological research

Why study history of psychology

Avoid mistakes Indicate the original ideas, the lines of

development The influence of the past helps shape the

present …….

I. The Development of Modern Psychology One of the oldest disciplines Issues first raised in philosophy and

theology Can be traced back to 5th B.C. Plato and Aristotle

I. The Development of Modern Psychology Modern psychology distinct from the old

discipline of philosophy A primarily scientific field Applies tools and methods from biology and

physiology Relies on controlled observation and

experimentation Objectivity and precision are continually

sought and refined

Eastern Traditions in Psychology Similarly, psychology had been philosophical, religious,

and moralistic in the eastern culture (e.g., Chinese culture) I-Ching Yin-Yang (balance and harmony within the environment) Confucius

A series of practical teaching directed toward morals and politics; the rules of proper conduct in relationships

Taoist Philosophy (e.g., Lao-Tze) Book of the Ways and of Virtue: a path to wise living A simple life that is close to nature Living in harmony with environment

Buddhism

II. The Relevance of the Past for the Present History of psychology: common

requirement for majors As early as 1911 64% of undergraduate: history of psychology as

degree requirement Unique among the sciences in the focus on

our history

II. The Relevance of the Past for the Present

Graduate training in history of psychology 1969: history of psychology course in graduate training

(U of Florida, U of Oklahoma, U of Pennsylvania, $ Texas A&M)

Journal and other document: 1965: Journal of the History of the Behavioral Science

1965: Archives of the History of American Psychology (at University of Akron, Ohio)--25,000 books, 3,000 photographs, hundreds of film, etc.

1998: History of Psychology (Div 26 journal)

II. The Relevance of the Past for the Present Formal Organizations

APA Division of the History of Psychology (Division 26) founded in 1966

The International Society for the History of the Behavioral and Social Science was founded in 1969

II. The Relevance of the Past for the Present The nature of history of psychology

Values diversity within psychology Provides a framework for a coherent picture Values the influence of the past which shape the

present History is the most systematic way to integrate the

areas and issues in modern psychology Recognize relationships among ideas, theories, and

research efforts that make the whole cohesive

III. The Data of History: Reconstructing psychology’s past

How we study history Historiography: The principles, methods, and

philosophical issues of historical research Data of science

Conduct a laboratory experiment, observe behavior under controlled real-world conditions, take a survey, or calculate correlations….

Can be replicated by other scientists at other time and places Data of history

Materials used to reconstruct lives, events, eras Not replicable, conditions not controlled From data fragments

III. The Data of History: Reconstructing psychology’s past

Lost or suppressed data Lost: permanently or temporarily Suppressed: Freud’s materials to be opened in

the 21st century (to protect the privacy of Freud’s patients and their family and reputation of Freud and his family)

Altered: Self-interest: Freud’s case; Skinner’s youth To protect: Freud’s cocaine use

III. The Data of History: Reconstructing psychology’s past

Data Distorted in Translation Deliberately: Freud’s use of I and it (ego and

id) Lack of equivalents b/w languages: Zeitgeist

Gestalt By participants carelessly recording the

relevant events

III. The Data of History: Reconstructing psychology’s past

Self-serving data Skinner described in his autobiography his rigorous

self-discipline as a graduate student. However, he denied later on

=> consulted other sources.

History is dynamic and constantly changes and corrected when new data are reinterpreted or revealed.

IV. External Context in Psychology

Economic opportunity War (WWI and WWII) Prejudice and Discrimination

IV. External Context in Psychology---Economic opportunity

From Experimental Psychology to Applied psychology More Ph.D. than job opportunities Established university In Midwest and West and increased

teaching job But, psychology is the newest science and received

smallest financial support Solving real world problems to get financial support 1890-1918: increased public school enrollments to 700%

due to immigrants Actively apply psychology into education, teaching, and

learning.

IV. External Context in Psychology---War (WWI and WWII)

Personnel selection, psychological testing, or engineering psychology---This work demonstrated to the public how useful psychology could be.

Psychologist relocated from Europe to the US (because of Nazi menace in 1930s)

After witnessing the WWI and WWII, Freud proposed that aggression as a significant

motivation force for the human personality Erich Fromm: interested in abnormal behavior

IV. External Context in Psychology----Prejudice and Discrimination

Discrimination against women: Denied admission to graduate

school, excluded from faculty position, lower salaries, encountered barrier to tenure

Eleanor Gibson (Visual Cliff): not allow to use graduate students’ library, cafeteria, director’s facility in lab, or take seminars in Freudian psychology at Yale University

Eleanor Gibson

IV.External Context in Psychology----Prejudice and Discrimination

Discrimination against women:

James Cattell (mental testing): urging the acceptance of women in psychology

1983: he nominated 2 women for APA membership

APA—the 1st scientific society to admit women.

Female APA members: 15% (1893-1921), 20% (1938)….James Cattell

Discrimination against women:

Mary Calkins (psychology of selves): APA first female president in 1905

denied her doctorate from Harvard University. She only can be a person to sit-in one class or a guess in the lab.

Mary Calkins

IV. External Context in Psychology----Prejudice and Discrimination

IV. External Context in Psychology----Prejudice and Discrimination

Discrimination based on ethic origin Late 1800s: a policy to exclude Jewish

professors from faculty position (John Hopkins University and Clark University)

1960s: admissions quotas for Jewish college students

Julian Rotter (Internal vs. External Control) : was warned that “Jew simply could not get academic jobs regardless of their credentials” in 1941. Julian Rotter

IV.External Context in Psychology----Prejudice and Discrimination

Maslow was urged by his professor at the University of Wisconsin to change his first name to “something less obviously Jewish”, so that he would have a better chance to obtaining an academic job. Maslow refused to do so.

Abraham Maslow

IV.External Context in Psychology----Prejudice and Discrimination

Discrimination based on ethic origin 8 out of 3700 Ph.D in psychology was Black

(1920-1966)

Kenneth Clark (psychological effects of racial segregation):

1st African American president at APA. Rejected by Cornell U graduate admission because of race, received his doctoral degree from Columbia University in 1940

The Clarks

IV.External Context in Psychology----Prejudice and Discrimination

Mamie Clark (his wife): earned a doctoral degree at Columbia University

Could not find the academic job; found a job analyzing data

The Clarks’ research on racial identity and self-concept issues for Black children impacts the decision to end racial segregation in public school in 1954.

IV.External Context in Psychology

Even the Rat was White

Recent…Prejudice and Discrimination

Few female and minority psychologist were listed in the history of psychology or great psychologists

Book: Even the Rat was White (1998)

A project of “Great psychologist

of color” is conducting by U of Notre Dame (2003)

V.Personalistic and Naturalistic theory of scientific history Personalistic theory:

The view that progress and change in scientific history are attributable to the ideas of unique individual; focused on the achievement and contributions of specific individuals.

However, often individuals were not recognized during their lifetimes.

V.Personalistic and Naturalistic theory of scientific history Naturatlistic theory

The view that progress and change in scientific history are attributable to the Zeitgeist (the spirit or climate of the times), which makes a culture receptive to some ideas by not to others

Darwin: his theory developed is because the intellectual climate was ready to accept such a way of explaining the origin of the human species.

V.Personalistic and Naturalistic theory of scientific history Problems?

An established theory can determine the ways in which data are organized and analyzed as well as research results permitted to be published or not.

Findings oppose current thinking may be rejected by a journal’s editors.

John Garcia: challenging the S-R learning theory. Major journals refused to accept his articles. (later, he received the APA’s Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award for his research

VI. Schools of Thought in the evolution of modern psychology.

School of thoughts A group of psychologists who become

associated ideologically and sometimes geographically, with the leader of a movement.

VII. Schools of Thoughts Each school points to the weakness of the

old school and offered new definitions, concepts, and research strategies to correct the previous school.

VII. Schools of Thoughts Structuralism Functionalism Behaviorism Gestalt psychology Psychoanalysis Humanistic psychology Cognitive psychology