Psychology 3950G-001
History of Psychology
If there is a discrepancy between the outline posted below and the outline posted on the OWL course website, the latter shall prevail.
1.0 CALENDAR DESCRIPTION
A study of persistent problems in the history of psychology and an introduction to traditional systems in psychology.Antirequisites: Psychology 3893F/G (King’s)
Antirequisites are courses that overlap sufficiently in content that only one can be taken for credit. So if you take a course that is an antirequisite to a course previously taken, you will lose credit for the earlier course, regardless of the grade achieved in the most recent course.
Prerequisites: Psychology 2800E and 2810, plus registration in Year 3 or Year 4 of a Psychology Major or Honors Specialization in Psychology, Honors Specialization in Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, Honors Specialization in Physiology/Psychology, or Honors Specialization in Animal Behavior
Other Psychology students and Psychology Special Students who earn 70% or higher in Psychology 2820E (or 60% or higher in Psychology 2800E and 2810) also may enrol in this course
4 lecture/discussion hours, 0.5 course
Unless you have either the requisites for this course or written special permission from your Dean to enroll in it, you may be removed from this course and it will be deleted from your record. This decision may not be appealed. You will receive no adjustment to your fees in the event that you are dropped from a course for failing to have the necessary prerequisites.
2.0 COURSE INFORMATION
Instructor: Dr. Albert Katz
Office and Phone Number: Room 7322 SSC, Tel: 519-661-3681
Office Hours: by appointment
Email: katz@uwo.ca
Teaching Assistant: Hamad Al-Azary
Office:
Office Hours: by appointment
Email:
Time and Location of Classes: Tuesday and Thursdays 2:30-4:30 UCC-60
If you or someone you know is experiencing distress, there are several resources here at Western to assist you. Please visit: http://www.uwo.ca/uwocom/mentalhealth/ for more information on these resources and on mental health.
Please contact the course instructor if you require material in an alternate format or if you require any other arrangements to make this course more accessible to you. You may also wish to contact Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD) at 519-661-2111 ext 82147 for any specific question regarding an accommodation.
3.0 TEXTBOOK
Fancher, R. and Rutherford. (2012). Pioneers of Psychology (4th edition; paperback) Norton and Company: New York. (A few additional papers as noted below)4.0 COURSE OBJECTIVES
This course will different from others that you will have taken in Psychology. Here we do not consider the specifics of a given field in depth (such as “Cognition” or “Social Psychology”) but rather discuss people (and their times) who have made a difference in the growth of different strands of thoughts, ideas, and methodologies which have emerged over the centuries. Some of these ideas have been important to several of the sub-fields of modern day Psychology, and some of which are more specific to a given sub-field.As with other sciences, Psychology has evolved through changes in paradigms and technologies, making the study of Psychology a microcosm of the development of scientific thought. Examination of the history of Psychology also informs us on how the current concept of what it means to be human has been shaped. By exploring the history and (to a lesser extent) the philosophy of psychology we’re also exploring the great questions regarding who we are and how we came to acquired that knowledge (belief?).
The text book we use covers a critical period starting with the work of Rene Descartes, and going to about 20 to 30 years ago. Clearly many of the questions addressed during that period were considered by ancient thinkers, going back thousands of years, but for a half course we have to make a decision of where to start our “history” and when to end a course dealing with historical events and people. Descartes is a good starting point given his influence and thoughts on the ‘mind-body” dichotomy. I have decided to end the time periods we will study somewhere around 1960-1980 because much of what you learn in other Psychology courses emphasizes the methods, theories, people, findings etc. that have been active since then. .
The book for the most part works in a chronological fashion (as will I in lectures). You will notice that around 1900 Psychology starts to divide into the major sub-fields we have today. So after discussing the major themes that dominated Psychological thought, the later lectures will concentrate on the growth of the various sub-fields (such social psychology, cognitive psychology, clinical psychology and so on). Despite this basic chronological structure, I want you to continually think about what an historical perspective informs us about such questions as
-What is the relationship between humans and non-human animals?
-What is the relationship between the “mind’ and the “body”
-Where does human knowledge come from?
-What is the nature of “mind (what is being conscious, unconscious; is it best conceptualized as atomistic or holistic, static or dynamic??)
-What is the relationship of Psychology as a science and as an applied profession?
Specific Objectives and Student Tasks
Objective One: To learn about the major figures and schools of thought in psychology's history; to become familiar with the chronological history of ideas contributing to the modern field of psychology.
This objective will be evaluated by writing two multiple choice exams worth 50% of your total grade (see below). You will be responsible for material on the assigned readings from the textbook, material introduced in lecture and from the occasional additional reading.
Objective Two: The study of history is more than just learning a list of names, events and intellectual contributions. It is also a field of research and inquiry in its own right (what is called historiography).The second objective is to get you started in doing historical research.
This objective will be met by three “research” tasks, which, together are worth 50% of your final grade (see below). The overall aim of the task is to trace the intellectual lineage of one of the current members of the Psychology Department at Western. On the 7th floor you will see earlier versions of when this task was done (I encourage you to go and look at the pictures on the walls, near the A/B elevators on the 7th floor). We will add to the knowledge of the history of the Department by tracing the lineage of those people who have joined the Department since the last “family tree”
Task 1: interview one of the members of the Department. I have a list of the people to interview. All have agreed to be interviewed and I will try to work with you to find a person with academic interests that matches. In the structured interview, you will be asked to obtain specific information about the Western Psychology professor AND whatever he knows about the person(s) who served as his MA, PhD advisor and, if possible, who were the people who served as his intellectual grandparents Iie the advisors of his advisors). I will provide a template for the type of questions to ask, though feel free to expand upon this list—write up worth 10%
Task 2: Now is when you will probably be starting doing library research. IF the faculty member’s advisor is still alive, you may try to contact him or her, and see if they would be willing to be interviewed (by phone, skype, facetime, or just by submitting questions by email). The task here will be similar to that done for task 1. Namely find out what you can about the person and most importantly about who was his/her advisor. It is very possible that the advisor’s advisor is no longer active or willing to be interviewed, so now you will need to go to archival sources to get the information required (this could include trying to find the person’s PhD thesis and see who he/she acknowledged, go to the university website to see what information might be available, citation index and the like. TRY to trace the lineage back as far as you can. In most cases this will be to a person who worked in about 1880.– write up worth 10%
Final Essay: Both the earlier tasks are meant to prepare you for the final essay. In this essay you are to provide the family tree leading to the person currently at Western and an in-depth description of all the information you can find about each person you identified in the intellectual family tree. This information will include a short biographical piece about his/her life, education, scholarly/academic history and, if possible, his/ her influence on subsequent research and the development of psychological thought. (Worth 30%)
5.0 EVALUATION
Although the Psychology Department does not require instructors to adjust their course grades to conform to specific targets, the expectation is that course marks will be distributed around the following averages:
70% 1000-level and 2000-level courses
72% 2190-2990 level courses
75% 3000-level courses
80% 4000-level courses
The Psychology Department follows the University of Western Ontario grading guidelines, which are as follows (see http://www.uwo.ca/univsec/pdf/academic_policies/general/grades_undergrad.pdf ):
A+ 90-100 One could scarcely expect better from a student at this level
A 80-89 Superior work that is clearly above average
B 70-79 Good work, meeting all requirements, and eminently satisfactory
C 60-69 Competent work, meeting requirements
D 50-59 Fair work, minimally acceptable
F below 50 Fail
6.0 TEST AND EXAMINATION SCHEDULE
April exam period TEST TWO =25%
See objective One (above): You will be evaluated by writing two multiple choice exams worth 50% of your total grade. You will be responsible for material on the assigned readings from the textbook, material introduced in lecture and from the occasional additional reading. Tests are not cumulative: Test one based only on material covered to February 11; test two on material covered after that date.
January 26 Task 1 due (10%)
March 1 Task 2 due (10%)
April 5 Final paper due (30%)
7.0 CLASS SCHEDULE
Dates (2016) Topic Reading
Background:
January 5-12 Why Study History
General Background ; A primer on the philosophy of science
Your writing tasks
Philosophical Background
January 14 Descartes Chapter 1
January 19-26 British Empiricism, and Continental rationalists
Chapter 2 and Chapter 4 (except pp. 172-185)
JANUARY 26 Task 1 DUE
Psychology as an Emerging Science -- But what type of Science?
January 26/28 Wundt Chapter 5
January 28 `Titchener (and Ebbinghaus) Chapter 5
February 2 Darwin Chapter 6
February 4 Galton Chapter 7
February 11 TEST ONE
February 15-19 Reading Week
February 23 William James Chapter 8
March 1 Task 2 Due
February 25 Freud Chapter 11
March 1 Behaviorism Chapter 9
March 3 Gestalt Psychology Chapter 4 (pp. 172-185)
Growth of Sub-Disciplines in Psychology
March 3-8 Growth of Social and personality Psychology Chapter 10;
Chapter 12 (pp. 505-530)
March 8-10 Growth of Developmental Psychology Chapter 13
March 15-17 Growth of Cognitive Psychology Chapter 14
March 22- 24 Growth of Clinical Psychology Chapter 12 (pp. 530- 560) Chapter 15
Mar 29-April 5 Growth of the Neurosciences Chapter 3
April 5: Final paper Due
Final Exam: during Final Exam Period (April 9-30)
8.0 STATEMENT ON ACADEMIC OFFENCES
Students are responsible for understanding the nature and avoiding the occurrence of plagiarism and other scholastic offenses. Plagiarism and cheating are considered very serious offenses because they undermine the integrity of research and education. Actions constituting a scholastic offense are described at the following link: http://www.uwo.ca/univsec/pdf/academic_policies/appeals/scholastic_discipline_undergrad.pdf
As of Sept. 1, 2009, the Department of Psychology will take the following steps to detect scholastic offenses. All multiple-choice tests and exams will be checked for similarities in the pattern of responses using reliable software, and records will be made of student seating locations in all tests and exams. All written assignments will be submitted to TurnItIn, a service designed to detect and deter plagiarism by comparing written material to over 5 billion pages of content located on the Internet or in TurnItIn’s databases. All papers submitted for such checking will be included as source documents in the reference database for the purpose of detecting plagiarism of papers subsequently submitted to the system. Use of the service is subject to the licensing agreement, currently between Western and Turnitin.com http://www.turnitin.com
Possible penalties for a scholastic offense include failure of the assignment, failure of the course, suspension from the University, and expulsion from the University.
9.0 POLICY ON ACCOMMODATION FOR MEDICAL ILLNESS
The University of Western Ontario’s policy on Accommodation for Medical Illness can be found at:
http://www.westerncalendar.uwo.ca/2015/pg117.html
Students must see the Academic Counsellor and submit all required documentation in order to be approved for certain accommodation:
http://counselling.ssc.uwo.ca/procedures/medical_accommodation.html
10.0 OTHER INFORMATION
Office of the Registrar web site: http://registrar.uwo.ca
Student Development Services web site: http://www.sdc.uwo.ca
Please see the Psychology Undergraduate web site for information on the following:
http://psychology.uwo.ca/undergraduate/student_responsibilities/index.html
- Policy on Cheating and Academic Misconduct
- Procedures for Appealing Academic Evaluations
- Policy on Attendance
- Policy Regarding Makeup Exams and Extensions of Deadlines
- Policy for Assignments
- Short Absences
- Extended Absences
- Documentation
- Academic Concerns
- 2015 Calendar References
No electronic devices, including cell phones, will be allowed during exams.
