Psy 312: The History of Modern American Psychology (Spring 1997)

Instructor: Robert H. Wozniak, Bryn Mawr College

I. Introduction

A. History, Historiography, and Psychology

1. (January 21)

II. Historical Roots of American Psychology

René Descartes
(1596-1650)

B. Psychophysiology and the Relation of Mind and Body

2. (January 23)

Boring, E. G. (1950). Psychophysiology in the first half of the Nineteenth Century. In E. G. Boring. History of experimental psychology (pp. 27-49). New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.

3. (January 28)

Boring, E. G. (1950). Phrenology and the mind-body problem; Physiology of the brain: 1800-1870. In E. G. Boring. History of experimental psychology (pp. 50-77). New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.

John Locke
(1632-1704)

C. Reason and the Analysis of Experience

4. (January 30)

Boring, E. G. (1950). Beginning of modern psychology: Descartes, Leibnitz and Locke. In E. G. Boring. History of experimental psychology (pp. 160-178). New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.

5. (February 4)

Boring, E. G. (1950). British empiricism: Berkeley, Hume and Hartley. In E. G. Boring. History of experimental psychology (pp. 179-202). New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.

Herbert Spencer
(1820-1903)

D. Associations, Representations, and the Analysis of Mind

6. (February 6)

Boring, E. G. (1950). Scottish and French psychologies of the eighteenth century; British associationism (part 1): the Mills. In E. G. Boring. History of experimental psychology (pp. 203-233). New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.

7. (February 11)

Boring, E. G. (1950). British associationism (part 2): Bain, Spencer; German psychology before 1850: Kant and Herbart. In E. G. Boring. History of experimental psychology (pp. 233-261). New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.

Charcot Lecturing at the Salpêtrière

E. The Rise of Dynamic Psychology: Functional Nervous Disorders from Mesmer to Charcot

8. (February 13)

Ellenberger, H. F. (1970). The emergence of dynamic psychiatry. In H. F. Ellenberger. Discovery of the unconscious. The history and evolution of dynamic psychiatry (pp. 53-102). New York: Basic Books.

Herman von Helmholtz
(1821-1894)

F. The Founding of Scientific Psychology: Psychophysics, Sensory Physiology, and Physiological Psychology

9. (February 18)

Boring, E.G. (1950). Gustav Theodor Fechner; Hermann von Helmholtz. In E.G. Boring. History of experimental psychology (pp. 275-315). New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.

10. (February 20)

Diamond, S. (1980). Wundt before Leipzig. In R. W. Rieber (Ed.), Wilhelm Wundt and the making of a scientific psychology (pp. 3-36, 43-46, 58-63). New York: Plenum Press.

Wundt in the Laboratory at Leipzig

11. (February 25)

Wundt, W. (1862/1961). Introduction: On the methods in psychology. In W. Wundt. Beiträge zur theorie der sinneswahrnehmung. Leipzig und Heidelberg. C. F. Winter'sche Verlagshandlung. Translated in T. Shipley (Ed.), Classics in psychology (pp. 51-78). New York: Philosophical Library.

G. Mid-Term Review

12. (February 27)

Francis Galton
(1822-1911)

H. Statistics and the Quantitative Psychology of Individual Differences

13. (March 4)

Fancher, R. E. (1979). The measurement of mind: Francis Galton and the psychology of individual differences (part 1). In R. E. Fancher. Pioneers of psychology (pp. 250-276). New York: W. W. Norton.

14. (March 6)

Fancher, R. E. (1979). The measurement of mind: Francis Galton and the psychology of individual differences (part 2). In R. E. Fancher. Pioneers of psychology (pp. 277-294). New York: W.W. Norton.

Diamond, S. (1977). Francis Galton and American psychology. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 291, 47-55.

Galton, F. (1883). Whistles for audibility of shrill notes; Mental imagery. In F. Galton. Inquiries into human faculty and its development (pp. 38-40, 83-92). London: Macmillan.

I. Mid-Term Exam Discussion

15. (March 18)

III. American Psychology: 1890 to World War I

J. Establishment of Modern Psychology in America

16. (March 20)

Boring, E. G. (1950). American psychology: Its pioneers. In E. G. Boring. History of experimental psychology (pp. 505-543). New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.

William James
(1842-1910)

K. William James and the Principles of Psychology

17. (March 25)

James, W. (1890). The stream of thought (excerpt). In W. James. The principles of psychology (pp. 224-271). New York: Henry Holt.

L. American Psychotherapy and Exceptional Mental States: William James and the Boston Psychotherapy Group.

18. (March 27)

James, W. (1983). Dreams and hypnotism; Automatism; Hysteria. In W. James. William James on exceptional mental states. The 1896 Lowell Lectures (pp. 15-72). Reconstructed by E. Taylor. New York: Charles Scribner's.

G. Stanley Hall
(1844-1924)

M. From Child Study to Genetic Logic: the Origins of American Developmental Psychology

19. (April 1)

Wozniak, R. H. (1995) Introduction. In R. H. Wozniak (Ed.), Mind, adaptation and childhood (pp. ix-xxxv). London: Routledge/Thoemmes

Hall, G. Stanley (1907). The contents of children's minds on entering school. In G. S. Hall et al. Aspects of child life and education (pp. 1-24). Boston: Ginn & Company, 1907.

Baldwin, J. M. (1895). Summary: Final statement of habit and accommodation. In J. M. Baldwin. Mental development in the child and the race (pp. 476-488). New York: Macmillan.

John Broadus Watson
(1878-1958)

N. Animal Learning, Functionalism, and the Origins of Behaviorism

20. (April 3)

Buckley, K. W. (1989). The making of a psychologist: 1908-1913. In K. W. Buckley. Mechanical man: John Broadus Watson and the beginnings of behaviorism (pp. 59-72). New York: Guilford Press.

Wozniak, R. H. (1994). Behaviourism: The early years. In R. H. Wozniak (Ed.), Reflex, habit and implicit response: The early elaboration of theoretical and methodological behaviourism (pp. ix-xxxii). London: Routledge/Thoemmes.

Watson, J. B. (1913). Psychology as the behaviorist views it. Psychological Review, 20, 158-177.

Alfred Binet
(1857-1911)

O. Alfred Binet, World War I, and the Growth of Mental Testing

21. (April 8)

Wolf, T. H. (1973). The emergence of the first useful test of children's intelligence; The emergence of Binet's conceptions and measurement of intelligence. In T. H. Wolf. Alfred Binet (pp. 139-218). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Kevles, D. J. (1968). Testing the Army's intelligence: Psychologists and the military in World War I. Journal of American History, 55, 565-581.

Samelson, F. (1977). World War I intelligence testing and the development of psychology. Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, 13, 274-282.

IV. American Psychology between the Wars

Edward Chace Tolman
(1886-1959)

P. Neobehaviorism and the Axes of Influence in American Psychology, 1930-1950

22. (April 10)

Bower, G. H. & Hilgard, E. R. (1981). Tolman's sign learning. In G. H. Bower & E. R. Hilgard. Theories of learning (5th ed., pp. 326-345). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Tolman, E. C. (1938). Behavior, a molar phenomenon. In E. C. Tolman. Purposive behavior in animals and men (pp. 3-23). New York: Century.

Clark Leonard Hull
(1884-1952)

23. (April 15)

Bower, G.H. & Hilgard, E.R. (1981). Hull's systematic behavior theory. In G. H. Bower & E. R. Hilgard. Theories of learning (5th ed., pp. 95-122). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Hull C. L. (1943). General summary and conclusions (excerpt). In C. L. Hull. Principles of behavior. An introduction to behavior theory (pp. 384-393). New York: D. Appleton-Century.

Wolfgang Köhler
(1887-1967)

Q. The European Migration: Gestalt Psychology and Its Influence on American Theory and Research

24. (April 17)

Ash, M. G. (1985). Gestalt psychology: Origins in Germany and reception in the United States. In C. E. Buxton (Ed.), Points of view in the modern history of psychology (pp. 295-333). New York: Academic Press.

Köhler, W. (1929). The properties of organized wholes. In W. Köhler. Gestalt psychology (pp. 187-223). New York: Horace Liveright.

Lewin's Topology Group
Meeting at Bryn Mawr, 1935

25. (April 22)

Marrow, A. J. (1969). Early Iowa years--social theory and social problems; Topology and the representation of psychological forces. In A. J. Marrow. The practical theorist. The life and work of Kurt Lewin (pp. 96-118). New York: Basic Books.

Lewin, K. (1946). Behavior and development as a function of the total situation (an excerpt). In L. Carmichael (Ed.), Manual of child psychology (pp. 791-802). New York: Wiley.

V. American Psychology in the Post-World War II Era

R. New Directions in Research and Practice: the Influence of World War II on American Psychology

26. (April 24) Cartwright, D. (1945). American social psychology and the war. Journal of Consulting Psychology, 9, 67-72.

Watson, R.I. (1953). A brief history of clinical psychology. Psychological Bulletin, 50, 321-346.

S. The Mind's New Science: Cognitivism in American Psychology

27. (April 29)

Gardner, H. (1985). Laying the foundation for cognitive science; Psychology: The wedding of methods to substance. In H. Gardner. The mind's new science: A history of the cognitive revolution (pp. 10-45, 89-98, 116-137). New York: Basic Books.

VI. Conclusion

T. Concluding Comments

28. (May 1)

Assignments: a) Readings (available on library reserve); b) Study questions (Questions to direct your reading will be handed out in advance of each class for which reading is due; questions must be answered in writing and submitted on the day the reading is due. Submitted answers can be completely informal (e.g., outline notes) and are graded pass/fail; c) take-home, time-limited (3 hour) mid-term that will be distributed February 29th and is due March 7th; d) take-home, time-limited (3 hours) final that will be distributed on May 2nd and is due on or before the end of exam period (Saturday, May 10, at 5 p.m. for seniors; Friday, May 16, at 12 noon for everyone else).

Grades: Assuming that all study questions have been completed, the mid-term and final each count for 50% of the grade. Missing study questions deduct 5% each from the grade.

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