Speculations about the mind and its effect on behavior can be seen even in prehistory — as long as people have thought, they seem to have thought about thinking. Our focus, however, will be on psychology as it has defined itself throughout its short 150-year history. From Wilhelm Wundt’s first psychological laboratory to today’s multifaceted and often contentious discipline, we will consider where psychology has been and, through that survey, where psychology may go. In one sense, this course will be a clearly “disciplinary” course in psychology because we seek to understand what makes a particular approach to questions of human nature “psychological.” On the other hand, because it is a survey of psychology’s change over time, we will approach these varied viewpoints as culturally and historically embedded, seeing the influence of psychology on literature, film, education, and social policy.
Rather than relying on a textbook that surveys the history and current trends in psychology, we will use primary sources — the works of notable psychologists of the past, e.g., Sigmund Freud, B. F. Skinner, William James, Jean Piaget, as well as lesser known psychologists — to understand the historical antecedents of the various viewpoints about behavior, to determine what we as psychologists can learn from these various views, and to formulate our own vision of what psychology should accomplish.
Instructor: Terry Gottfried, professor of psychology, Lawrence University