Psychology 190: History & Systems

Spring Semester, 2012

Meeting Time: Tuesday and Thursday at 9:35	Room: Fletcher 112
Professor: Jeff Lewis	Office: Fletcher 214
Phone: 73069 (607-3069 from off campus)
E-Mail: jeff_lewis@pitzer.edu	Web Page: http://www.pitzer.edu/~jlewis

Office hours: Tuesday at 11:00 p.m., Thursday at 3 p.m., before or after class, or by appointment.

Text:

Goodwin, C. James (2012). A History of Modern Psychology (4^th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Abbreviated G below.

Goals of the Course

This course will provide an overview and discussion of the major theoretical and historical foundations of modern psychology, with a special emphasis on situational, cultural, and social factors contributing to advances in our discipline. Tracing the origins of the field, the course begins with a focus on the events that led to its founding in 19th century Europe, moves to the rise of psychology in the United States, and finishes with an examination of current trends and future directions.

Initially, we will talk about how we construct a history of a discipline and then move into a brief summary of the philosophical and scientific foundations of Psychology. We will then move to an exploration of the context contributing to the founding and important developments within and outside the field that shape its direction, participants and development. Finally, we will consider more recent events and explore the current role that Psychology plays in our society and end with some discussion of what the future may bring. Throughout the course, an emphasis will be placed on external factors that influenced the field while we also cover important theoretical contributions.

As one of the only required components of your major, this course has an important role serving as a point for integration of your previous work as well as a place where we can develop a fuller appreciation of how Psychology has developed as a science and a profession. For this reason, it is best taken after one has completed a number of upper-division courses and also done some active applied work in the community. The conflicting view of Psychology as a scientific pursuit and an applied craft will be front and center throughout the semester, and it is hoped that what we accomplish here will allow you to develop a deeper appreciation of the many possibilities we have as in this field.

This course and the Psychology major as a whole are also aligned with the college’s educational objectives. In this course it is hoped that students’ work will exemplify critical thinking, effective expression, interdisciplinary appreciation, intercultural understanding, and ethical evaluations.

In addition, this course is designed to help students achieve the following objectives:

• Discover the history of our field and how it connects to the discipline you have experienced in your time here. In particular, it is hoped that you will better appreciate how work from a historical perspective leads to a fuller understanding of modern psychology in the United States (in terms of both what is and what might have been).
• Develop an understanding and appreciation of the important tensions that influence the development of Psychology and how these forces continue to determine our path.
• Achieve an understanding of how science evolves and how one might best describe change in a discipline and the direction research takes.
• Be able to identify and retrieve historically relevant sources to address questions of interest.
• Demonstrate competency in producing work that conforms to the writing and reporting guidelines published by the American Psychological Association.

Expectations

Your active participation in this course will enhance not only your learning but also the experience we all will share in this class. You are expected to prepare fully each week prior to the class, reading the assigned material before the class sessions and coming prepared with questions that you want answered. We will proceed with the assumption that you have completed the assigned work will actively seek out answers to points you don’t understand.

The major assignments in this course allow for extended preparation, and working with your fellow students as you absorb the material is encouraged. Papers and examinations are individual products, however, and it is expected that works collected from you to meet the course requirements will be of your own creation. You are required to adhere to the College’s Code of Student Conduct, which upholds academic integrity and prohibits academic dishonesty, including those forms of academic dishonesty that are listed as follows in the Pitzer College 2010-11 Student Handbook (Section III.C):

1. Plagiarism. No Pitzer student shall appropriate the work of another—for example, parts of passages of another’s writings, the ideas and language of another, the artistic compositions of another—and pass them off as his/her own work. Students may not use substantial extracts from books, journals, or other sources without citation.

2. Cheating. No Pitzer student may intentionally use or attempt to use unauthorized materials, information, or study aids in an academic exercise or examination.

3. Duplicate papers. No student may hand in the same paper in more than one course without obtaining prior permission in writing from the instructor(s) and stipulating the conditions (such as extra research, length of paper, etc.).

4. Facilitating Academic Dishonesty. Intentionally or knowingly helping or attempting to help another to violate this code of academic integrity.

5. Claiming Credit Falsely. Intentional fraud, in which a student seeks to claim credit for the work or effort of another without authorization or uses unauthorized materials or fabricated information in any academic exercise. Academic dishonesty can include forgery of academic documents, intentionally impeding or damaging the academic work of others or assisting other students in acts of dishonesty.

Course Requirements

Exams (60% of the course grade) – There will be three exams in this course (as noted in the following schedule). Each will cover approximately one third of the book and related lectures. The exams themselves will be a mixture of multiple-choice items and essays, and the third test is NOT cumulative.

Overview Exercises (10%) – You will be asked to contribute your views of the field, the role of psychologists and your experience of the major at various times in class. These assignments will be completed primarily in class with the results stored on the class Sakai site. Specific instructions will be distributed as needed in class.

Research Paper (30%) - This assignment should give you an opportunity to gain more extensive familiarity with one topic relevant to psychology's history, and will also increase your knowledge and experience in reading psychological literature. A longer description of this assignment appears below after the lecture schedule.

Schedule of Lectures and Readings

Date	Topic		Readings
January 17^th and 19^th	Introduction		G – 1
January 24^th and 26^th	The philosophical foundation		G – 2
Jan. 31^st and Feb. 2^nd	The Neurophysiological foundations		G – 3
February 7^th and 9^th	Wundt and the start or experimental psychology		G – 4
Initial Research Paper Topic Statements due February 14^th
February 14^th and 16^th	Review and Exam 1	G – 1-4
February 21^st and 23^rd	Darwin and Evolutionary thought	G – 5
Feb. 28^th and March 1^st	Psychology comes to the United States	G – 6 & 7
March 6^th and 8^th	Structuralism, Functionalism and expanding the field	G – 7 & 8
Research Paper Topic Proposals due March 8^th
Spring Break –March 12^th through 16^th (no class on March 13^th or 15^th)
March 20^th and 22^nd	Growth of the applied side and Gestalt Psychology	G – 8 & 9
March 27^th and 29^th	Review and Exam 2	G – 5-9
April 3^rd and 5^th	Behaviorism rise and fall	G – 10 & 11
April 10^th and 12^th	Clinical and applied practice	G – 12 & 13
April 17^th and 19^th	The rise of Cognitive Psychology	G – 14
April 24^th and 26^th	Cognition and Neuroscience	G – 14 & 15
Research Papers due April 26^th
May 1^st and 3^rd	Review and Senior Final	G – 10-15
Test Three: Seniors – Thursday, May 3^rd at 9:35 am Chapters 10-15 Regular Final – Tuesday May 8^th at 9 am Chapters 10-15

Psychology 190: History and Systems in psychology
Research Paper assignment

For this assignment, you are asked to create a review paper that illuminates an interesting aspect of Psychology’s history. The main goal for this review is to highlight key historical trends illustrated in your textbook as you describe four articles taken from different points in time. To complete this assignment, you should begin by selecting an article from the American Psychologist or from article reprints and source material that can be found the Classics in the History of Psychology website (http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/index.htm ) on a topic that interests you and is also related to the history of Psychology. You can chose an article from another journal, but its role as your central article will need to be approved before you move to your final paper. After discussing this central article, its place in history and its connection to your textbook, you are then to review three additional articles topically related to the first. These articles may be research articles, article reviews or theoretical statements (not, however, book reviews, brief case or research reports, or letters to the editor), but all should reinforce and support your view of the historical placement of your initial article. In general, your paper should discuss how your selected papers illustrate their historical context through the empirical work that they perform or review, contrast how the conclusions and questions have changed over time and how the four papers as a whole illustrate the larger historical trend introduced by your main article and in class material. The three additional articles could trace backwards and demonstrate how issues raised in your central article got started, or if you select an older article from the American Psychologist or the website, you could trace the steps the field has taken to the present day. Regardless of which path you chose, you should select articles that demonstrate the trend in some topic that has been a focus of study over a fifty year or more timeframe.

While the subject area is up to you, there are some requirements in terms of the articles that you need for this paper:

1. One of the articles (either a supporting or the central article) must be relatively recent - no earlier than 2005 in terms of its publication date, and one must be published in 1960 or earlier. The other articles can fall in-between in any fashion, but having at least a few years between the articles helps make the contrast easier in this paper.

2. Try to use articles from the journals listed at the end of this handout or from the Classics website. This list has journals that are in our library and are also widely available both in paper and electronic form. Articles from other publications may not be acceptable and your grade may be adversely affected. If you find relevant articles from journals not on the list, be sure to obtain prior approval before you use them.

3. When writing your paper, the relevance of your trend is most importantly demonstrated through the connection of your review to class material. While we do not cover all aspects of the field so your specific articles might not be included in the textbook for this class, the analysis dimensions and theoretical trends discussed in this course should tie to your arguments and conclusions.

When developing your idea for the paper, try to first develop a historical trend that you wish to illustrate, and then find articles that fit the trend. Most textbooks covering a sub-discipline of this field include a history chapter, and you might want to start your search for trends and articles there. Review material in the later chapters of our textbook as well, as many trends are highlighted there, and a connection in your paper to the class material is important. You might also find that the yearly volumes of the Annual Review of Psychology are helpful in the development phases of your paper. Otherwise, glancing through the table of contents from recent issues of the American Psychologist could also be a way to begin.

The assignment consists of three parts (note the due dates on the syllabus). First, you will be asked to turn in a short statement of what topic you plan to cover, a list of possible sources (in APA reference style), and how your topic connects to class material. This statement need only be a short introduction to your main thesis (possibly only a paragraph), but a clear connection to class material should be provided, and at least a suggested article found in the American Psychologist or at the Classics website should be listed.

Next, after further research you will hand in a proposal outlining your paper topic more fully. This proposal needs to include:

• your paper’s thesis, an introduction of the selected central article the other supporting articles
• the historical trend that you are illustrating
• a description of how the articles connect to one another and build your thesis
• specifically how your paper connects to the class material
• a reference section listing your articles as well as the textbook (formatted according to A.P.A. style guidelines)

You will also need to include with your proposal photo-copies or printouts of first page of your articles (which will hopefully include the abstract). The proposal will be worth 25 points in terms of your eventual overall score (out of a 100 point scale).

Near the end of the term, the paper is due in class. Note that papers accepted after the announced due date will receive a serious penalty. The paper should include a general statement of your topic and why you think that it is historically important. Following this, you should briefly introduce your central article and then step through a review of the supporting set of articles. Where appropriate, you should carefully review the main ideas, conclusions and goals of the authors, summarize the arguments, methods and results of each, and connected the papers in such a way that they support your arguments and the historical relevance of your chosen topic. The bulk of the paper should consist of a comparison of the four articles and a discussion of how they all connect. Keep in mind that you need to go beyond providing only a descriptive review. Your conclusion should revisit the trend that these studies illustrate, the role played in the history of the field, and what you believe might have been as well as what future work might discover.

While the paper is basically a review paper, style guidelines are important. Your references, citation of sources and general page layout must adhere to the A.P.A. guidelines (see the newest edition of the publication manual of the A.P.A. at the library and bookstore, or visit the links on my web site for aids in using A.P.A. style guidelines; see also the PsychWeb internet site at http://www.psywww.com), and the section structure should follow generally that of a review paper (not an experimental report). Finally, the paper must be typed, although electronic submission is also acceptable if you get prior approval.

The Writing Center

Located in 131 Mead Hall, just across from the fountain, the Writing Center offers student writers free one-on-one conferences with experienced fellow writers trained to consult on assignments in any discipline, application essays, and cover letters. As you begin to work on your paper for this class you will find this to be a wonderful resource for you, particularly if you need to deal with issues of APA style. I strongly urge you to drop by for an appointment. Please visit the Writing Center’s website for a list of regular hours: http://www.pitzer.edu/offices/writing_center/.

Journal List – The library has most of these (or they are available electronically) and they generally contain articles that work for this assignment. Note, however, that they may include articles that are not appropriate for this assignment.

Asian American Journal of Psychology

Child Development
Cognitive Neuroscience

Cognitive Psychology
Developmental Psychology
Hispanic Journal of the Behavioral Sciences
History of Psychology
Journal of Abnormal Psychology
Journal of Applied Psychology
Journal of Black Psychology
Journal of Child Language
Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology
Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology
Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology
Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology
Journal of Educational Psychology
Journal of Experimental Psychology (all sections)
Journal of Experimental Child Psychology
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology
Journal of Language and Social Psychology

Journal of Neuroscience, Psychology, and Economics
Journal of Personality
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
Journal of Research in Personality
Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology
Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences
Memory and Cognition
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
Physiological Psychology

Psych Discourse

Psychological Science

Psychology & Neuroscience
Psychology of Women Quarterly
Science

Social Cognition

Social Neuroscience
Sex Roles

Other journals and magazines may lead you to interesting topics but articles from journals not on this above list would need prior approval before being counted as one of the three articles for your paper. Please note that it would be best that you avoid using articles from psychiatric and medical journals as they are not always clearly empirically-based research articles. Also be sure NOT to use anything from Psychological Reports or Perceptual and Motor Skills as their studies are typically problematic.