Chapter 1: Psychology and History

Chapter 1: Psychology and History

A History of Psychology (3rd Edition)

John G. Benjafield

Studying the History of Psychology

• Why study the history of psychology? • Historiography: studying the history of

history

Edwin G. Boring (1886–1968)

• Wrote the most influential modern history of psychology

• Focused on the growth of experimental psychology since the nineteenth century

– These developments should be considered in their historical context

Edwin G. Boring

• Recognized two approaches to history:– Person: emphasizing the role of the individual– Zeitgeist: understanding the cultural context in

which the individual’s work took place• Concept attributed to Johann Wolfgang von

Goethe (1749–1832)

Other Constructs

• Progressive: the historical world seen as movement to an end– Ex. Jacob’s ladder

• Cyclical: history seen as a circularity– Ex. Ixion’s wheel

• Maybe psychology both progresses and is cyclical? – Think of a spiral

The New History of PsychologyLaurel Furomoto (1989: 11):

‘Whereas traditional history portrayed the scientist as an objective fact finder and neutral observer, the new history emphasized the notion that scientists often operate in a subjective fashion, under the influence of a variety of extra-scientific factors. Also, the new history rejected the traditional view of scientific activity as a continuous progression from error to truth, and opted instead for a model that depicts scientific change as a shift from one world view to another…’

Thomas Kuhn (1924–1996)

• The Structure of Scientific Revolutions• Development of scientific disciplines is

discontinuous

Thomas Kuhn

• Paradigm: the set of fundamental beliefs that guide workers in a scientific discipline

• Revolutionary period: occurs when a new paradigm is emerging and an old paradigm is being overthrown

• Paradigm clashes: fundamentally different ways of interpreting existing data

• Normal science: occurs once a discipline has established a single paradigm

Psychology’s Paradigms?

• Has psychology ever had a paradigm?• Should psychology have a paradigm?

Feminism and the Psychology of Women

Classic texts:• Simone de Beauvoir’s (1949/1989) The

Second Sex• Betty Friedan’s (1963) The Feminine

Mystique• Feminism ≠ a single point of view

Feminism and the Psychology of Women

Feminism and the Women’s Movement have helped change the history of psychology

• Idenitified distortions and biases in psychology

• Changes to curriculum so we can study the psychology of women and the women of psychology– Compensatory history– Reconstruction of women’s experiences

Two Traditions

Kimball: 1. Emphasizes the similarities between the

gendersex. Letta Hollingworth

2. Emphasizes feminine characteristicsex. Evelyn Fox Keller

Evelyn Fox Keller

Keller Noticed: 1. The relative absence of women in the

sciences2. That the style of thinking practised by

scientists had a masculine origin

Evelyn Fox Keller

Need to be aware of the science-gender system:

• ≠ ignore masculine science• = discuss feminine science as well as

masculine science

Social Constructionism

• Is psychology a social construction? • Dialectical process: one in which opposing

tendencies shape one another– Exogenic: coming from outside– Endogenic: coming from inside

• Limits to both exogenic and endogenic perspectives– Avoid problem by understanding

psychological concepts as the outcome of social processes

Psychological Research as a Social Construction

• Concern:– Psychology as a social construction suggests

psychological research is not objective• However:

– Can scientific research be both a social construction and the objective truth?

Psychological Researchas a Social Construction

Some social-constructionist historians:• Focus on the social processes that

determine how research is conducted • Avoid claiming a lack of empirical content• Ex. Kurt Danziger

Reconciling the ‘Old’ and ‘New’Histories of Psychology

• Presentism: the tendency to evaluate the past primarily in terms of its relevance for the present– George W. Stocking– Herbert Butterfield

Reconciling the ‘Old’ and ‘New’Histories of Psychology

• Historicism: the understanding of the past for its own sake

• Passéist: a person who values the past more than the present

• An historicist need not be a passéist

Precautions when Studying the History of Psychology

• History not important simply because it lays the groundwork for what we have now

• We should not regard all previous thinkers as obsolete

• We should guard against the danger of being too critical of the past

When studying the history of psychology….

• Try to rediscover what each psychologist was attempting to accomplish

• Try to understand each theory on its own terms