History of Psychology 2007 Lecture 1

1. History of Psychology 2007 Lecture 1 Professor Gerald C. Cupchik Office:S634 Email: cupchik@utsc.utoronto.ca Office Hours: Wednesdays 1-2 pm Thursdays 12-1 pm T.A: Michelle Hilscher Office: S150 Email: hilscher@utsc.utoronto.ca Office Hours: Thursdays 11-12; 3-4 pm Course Website: www.utsc.utoronto.ca/~cupchik Textbook: Benjafield, J. History of Psychology. Oxford University Press

2. 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.

3. 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.”

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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.”

8. 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.)

9. 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)

10. 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.”

11. 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.”

12. 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.

13. 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.

14. 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?

15. We will consider the development of the three problems (mind-body, 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.