Dr. Dean Keith Simonton, Distinguished Professor of Psychology
Course Goals: Our aim is to review the progression of psychological thought and inquiry. We will examine all major theories, methods, and substantive issues. We will also discuss these historical developments in the context of the metasciences, especially the psychology of science.
Prerequisite: Psychology 1; upper division standing or consent of instructor. In general, the more upper-division courses you have taken, the more you’ll gain from this class.
Your grade in the course will be based on the following three assessments:
To download a copy of the syllabus in Word please click here.
Lecture Topic (and pages in main text plus
link to lecture notes)
Roots in Philosophy
1 Introduction (pp. 2-4, 8-14, 16-18; notes)2 The Ancients (pp. 22-39; notes)
3 Medieval & Renaissance (pp. 46-62, 64-69; notes)
4 Descartes (pp. 69-76; notes)
5 British Empiricists (pp. 82-125; notes)
6 Continental Rationalists (pp. 76-81, 120-125; notes)
7 Pseudo-Sciences (pp. 114-115, 156-164, 422-424; notes)
Becoming a Science
8 French Clinicians (pp. 420-422, 424-427; notes)9 British Evolutionists (pp. 228-240; notes)
10 Galton (pp. 240-248; notes)
11 German Physiologists (pp. 148-153, 155-156, 168-174; notes)
12 Wundt (pp. 180-193, 222-223; notes)
13 James (pp. 253-262; notes)
14 Multiple-Choice "Who Am I?" Midterm (SCANTRON no. X-103979-UCD)
Subject for Term Paper due (April 30)
Emergence of Schools
15 Associationism (pp. 100-109, 211-216, 301-306, 318-323, 336-337; notes)16 Structuralism (pp. 193-202; notes)
17 Functionalism (pp. 263-285, 288-298, 486-497; notes)
18 Behaviorism I (pp. 327-335, 337-350; notes)
19 Behaviorism II (pp. 362-374, 378-386; notes)
20 Gestalt Psychology (pp. 392-408, 413-416; notes)
21 Psychoanalysis I (pp. 428-440; notes)
22 Psychoanalysis II (pp. 440-444, 446-456; notes)
Modern Viewpoints
23 Metasciences (pp. 4-8, 14-16, 125-127; notes)24 Scientific Genius [Creativity in Science; notes]
25 Humanistic Psychology (pp. 466-469, 508-510; notes)
26 Cognitive Science (pp. 532-556; notes)
27 Contemporary Psychology (notes)
28 Conclusion: Review for Final Exam/Term Paper Due (June 5; notes)
Essay Exam (Saturday, June 7, 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.)
Complete lecture notes for the course are available here.
I. The paper should be no more than 12 pages, double-spaced 12-point typescript, Times Roman font, with 1-inch margins all around, and printed on just one side of the page. This page count includes the title page, text, and references. In its pages you will discuss whether a major figure in psychology's past can be considered a scientific genius.
B. The reference section should include all sources actually employed, whether encyclopedias, biographical dictionaries, biographies, autobiographies, anthologies, etc. All references and citations should be in standard "APA format," as presented in either the official publication guide or the pamphlet on writing papers in psychology (see below). Special care should be taken for giving the sources for quotes and information not well known. There will be no abstract. Headings are not required, but can sometimes be useful to indicate the structure of your paper.
III. To help you decide whom to pick, you can look at the list of those individuals who have received the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award of the American Psychological Association. A complete list is available here.
For less recent individuals, you can consult the following Web pages
Psychology
Museum and Resource Page
Encyclopedia
of Psychology: People and History
Women's Intellectual
Contributions to the Study of Mind and Society
Women
in Psychology
History
of Psychology Archives
Classics in the History of
Psychology
Archives of the History of American
Psychology
The first two sites contain an extensive lists of eminent figures, with many links to places that provide valuable biographical information.
Please note that if you decide to examine someone who cannot really be considered a psychologist in even the most inclusive sense (e.g., Copernicus or Newton), you should spend some time discussing how that person contributed to the history of psychology.
IV. Please consult with either me or my TA (or both) about your progress and problems. Remember: The paper is due on the last lecture day. There will be a penalty for papers turned in late (namely, three percentage points per day).
V. Below is a bibliography of sources and materials that you might find useful. This reference list should also provide an idea of what APA format looks like (except that they really should be double-spaced, and underlining should be used instead of Italics):
Connery, B. A. (1988). Writing psychology at UC Davis. Davis, CA: Campus Writing Center.
Gillespie, C. C. (Ed.) (1970-1980). Dictionary of scientific biography. New York: Scribner.
Murchison, C. et al. (Eds.). (1930- ). A history of psychology in autobiography. New York: Russell & Russell.
O'Connell, A. N., & Russo, N. F. (Eds.). (1983-1988). Models of achievement: Reflections of eminent women in psychology. New York: Columbia University Press.
O'Connell, A. N., & Russo, N. F. (Eds.). (1990). Women in psychology: A bio-bibliographic sourcebook. New York: Greenwood Press.
Russo, N. F., & O'Connell, A. N. (1980). Models from our past: Psychology's foremothers. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 5, 11-54.
Scarborough, E., & Furumoto, L. (1987). Untold lives: The first generation of American women psychologists. New York: Columbia University Press.
Sheehy, N., Chapman, A. J., & Conroy, W. (Eds.). (1997). Biographical dictionary of psychology. New York: Routledge Reference.
Stevens, G., & Gardner, S. (1982). The women of psychology. Cambridge, MA: Schenkman.
Watson, R. I. (Ed.) (1974-1976). Eminent contributors to psychology (2 vols.). New York: Springer.
Zusne. L. (1984). Biographical dictionary of psychology. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
Zusne, L. (1987). Contributions to the history of psychology: XLIV. Coverage of contributors in histories of psychology. Psychological Reports, 61, 343-350.
Useful articles on a particular individual can often be found in the Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences and the History of Psychology. Moreover, whenever an individual receives the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award from APA, a brief biography will be published in the American Psychologist, which journal also publishes obituaries that are sometimes helpful as well.
Obviously, you may have to do a little scrounging around for some subjects. So be resourceful, and good luck!
Below are listed some of the major issues that have dominated the history of psychological thought since the times of the ancient Greek philosophers. On the last day of class we will select some of these for discussion. Your essay final will address one of these issues:
In many ways this class is unlike any other upper-division course you have taken in psychology. First, not since you took introductory psychology did you have a course cover the full range of psychology's many subdisciplines, from clinical to cognitive, from physiological to personality, from comparative to social. Second, this is the only course that adopts an expanded historical perspective, following the development of our discipline from the ancient Greek philosophers to the 20th century. Third, in line with this historical breadth, you will here encounter a great deal of philosophy, especially in the first half of the course. Fourth and last, the history of psychology is integrated with the psychology of science to produce a course that advances a truly metascientific view of our discipline. In short, during this quarter we shall appreciate all of psychology from historical, philosophical, and scientific points of view. As a result, 185 might be considered a "capstone course" that is essential to a complete understanding of what psychology fully represents as a continually evolving, intellectually rich human science. At the quarter's end, I hope you agree.
E-mail:
Dean Simonton (instructor) - dksimonton@ucdavis.edu
Rodica Damian (TA) - ridamian@ucdavis.edu
Last Revised: March 24, 2008.
