Transcript No Slide Title

History of Psychology 2007
Lecture 1
Professor Gerald C. Cupchik
Office: S634
Email: [email protected]
Office Hours:
Wednesdays 1-2 pm
Thursdays 12-1 pm
T.A: Michelle Hilscher
Office: S150
Email: [email protected]
Office Hours:
Thursdays 11-12; 3-4 pm
Course Website:
www.utsc.utoronto.ca/~cupchik
Textbook:
Benjafield, J. History
of Psychology. Oxford
University Press
From Pascal’s Pensées (18th century)…
“Man is only a reed, the feeblest reed in nature, but he
is a thinking reed. There is no need for the entire
universe to arm itself in order to annihilate him: a
vapor, a drop of water, suffices to kill him. But were the
universe to crush him, man would yet be more noble
than that which slays him, because he knows that he
dies, and the advantage that the universe has over him;
of this the universe knows nothing.”
“When I consider the brief span of my life, swallowed up in the
eternity before and behind it, the small space that I fill, or even
see, engulfed in the infinite immensity of spaces which I know not
and which know not me, I am afraid, and wonder to see myself
here rather than there; for there is no reason why I should be here
rather than there, now rather than then…”
Existential psychology concept of “thrownness” We are thrown into a particular life.
Cicero: “Those who know only their generation are destined to
remain children forever.”
R.I. Watson (1960):
“Each generation rewrites history in terms of its own values.”
“…in the past writing of our history, material either ignored as
irrelevant or simply not known at that time can now be utilized.”
“To neglect history does not mean to escape its influence.”
Croce (1921):
“Every true history is contemporary history.”
In America we have just begun to emerge from an
a-historical period - 1920-1960 ca. Because
eminent experimentalists have expressed a strong
distaste for “hashing over old theories.”
May (1958): What is the reason for resistance in America to the
study of history of psychology?
1. Assumption that all major discoveries have been made and we
need only fill in the details.
2. Feeling that the study of history is associated with philosophy
and metaphysics.
We now stress method and the objective exploration of a
phenomenon: isolating factors and observing them from a
detached base. But is it not essential to examine our
assumptions?
Methodolotry - Worship of method - Defined by May
3. Tendency to stress technique and impatience with searches for
the foundations of techniques.
May (1958): What is the reason for resistance in America to the
study of history of psychology?
4. We have a frontier history - optimistic, altruistic, applied
and less theoretical.
- Genius in behavioristic, clinical and applied areas.
5. Larger problem than people of the 19th and 20th century
faced because of industrialism.
- Compartmentalization: separate or isolate
aspects of life, e.g., home & work
6. Problem of “autonomous sciences” (Cassirer)
- Each science develops in its own direction - no unifying principle,
particularly in relation to man.
- The “facts” of science are isolated - modern theory of man lost its
intellectual centre - anarchy of thought.
- Relate to problem of repression within the individual to maintain
compartmentalization - surrender self-awareness as a protection
against reality and then suffer neurotic consequences.
May (1958): What is the reason for resistance in America to the
study of history of psychology?
7. Our goal should be to gain perspective, to see the whole, thus
freeing ourselves from the restrictions of roles and perceive
ourselves in the context of becoming.
What are the rules of history in psychology?
1. Know what has been done to avoid stupid repetition and take
advantage of research possibilities that have lain dormant.
- Avoids “jumping on the bandwagon.”
2. Knowledge of roots may help to chart future course.
E.G. Boring (1959):
- “Each individual effort is an eddy in the total stream
of science and we shall become much wiser, get much
nearer the truth, if we remember to look at the stream as
a whole and notice the eddies only as they contribute to
the sweep of the main current.”
- “One finds that he needs to know about the past, not in
order to predict the future, but in order to understand the
present.”
What are the rules of history in psychology?
…2. Knowledge of roots may help to chart future course.
B. Wheeler (1936):
- “Scientific theory has had a strikingly cyclic history.
At 1250, 1650 and 1820 and now at 1935 it is
organismic (holistic) in intent. Between these peaks,
the thought pattern swerved to an opposite extreme,
that of mechanism (atomism) whose peaks fall at about
1400, 1775 and 1860.”
The cycles are getting shorter (organismic in 1940 and
atomistic between 1950-1960.)
-
What are the rules of history in psychology?
3. Importance of training scientists. It is felt by humanist
educators that there has been a lack of communication of
cultural values and of the historical background necessary for
critical judgments in important areas of contemporary life.
Gordon Allport (1960s)
1. Lockean approach typical of American and British psychology.
- pragmatic emphasis on mind as tabula rasa
- analytical microscopic approach
- stimulus-response and animal psychology
- functional relations between independent and dependent
variables
2. Leibnizian: an holistic Continental and German perspective
- mind has potentially active core of its own
Personalistic (great scholar) VERSUS
Naturalistic (environmental & historical explanation)
Julian Jaynes (1970s):
1. To discover the historical structure under the logical surface of
science.
2. To understand the present.
3. To be relevant to real questions.
4. To liberate ourselves from the persuasions of fashion.
5. To comprehend psychology as a whole.
Robinson: “History is not simply a subject to be learned. It is a
method by which we can attempt to know ourselves and the
world.”
Henle: “History gives us the distance necessary for problem
solving.”
Krantz:
- History gives us freedom from the unverbalized.
- History can serve the same function for the scientist as
psychotherapy for the therapist in becoming aware of one’s own
biases, attitudes and assumptions. This makes it easier to partial
out the effects of one’s own background/socio-cultural context.
- By clarifying the effects of the Zeitgeist we are less subject to the
blind effects of external cultural factors.
Also: “An historical perspective reveals problems in their
ontogenesis, in the back and forth of interrogation, and in the fire
of controversy. Thereby they become clearer and more
transparent.”
Three Basic Domains:
1. Phenomena - events that recur in the world, are noticed and
require explanation or understanding.
Explanation - explain an event as an instance of a more general
law (nomothetic approach).
Plane of Observation…
Understanding - (Verstehen) - understand the overall structure of
an event in its uniqueness.
(ideographic approach - individual cases)
Lived-world…
2. Theory - ordered set of cause and effects statements that link
concepts. Can never be proven true but only disproved.
3. Method - Technique for examining phenomena.
A. Inductive - start with individual facts and then arrive at
general statements. Based on observing…
B. Deductive - start with general statements and arrive at
particular facts.
C. Quantitative data - based on use of measurement
Operational definition - define something by how we
measure it.
D. Qualitative data - interpret the content or structure in verbal
discourse or comment.
What is progress?
1. Collection of facts in the inductive approach… facts in the
world, facts in the lab.
2. Integrative theories and paradigms in the deductive approach.
Three problems in psychology:
1. Mind-Body:
What is the relationship between the two?
What is the nature of consciousness?
Do they affect each other?
2. Epistemology:
What is the nature & origin of knowledge?
This is the nature-nurture problem.
Is it innate?
Is it acquired?
3. Meaning & Behaviour:
How do we understand the nature of
morals and the social order?
What is the source of morality? A deity?
Social convention?
We will consider the development of the three problems (mindbody,
epistemology,
behaviour/motivation)
from
early
philosophical speculations to the methodological innovations of
the 1800s that accelerated our knowledge by (1) providing a more
differentiated appreciation of the physiological structure of
humankind and (2) of the value of experimental technique.
To a great extent psychology can be viewed as the study of how
the structure of mankind as an organism mediates our actions in
and understanding of our world.