Mapping the Development of Psychology Ivan Flis PhD Candidate in History and Philosophy of Psychology PSI Early Graduate Group Conference 27-28 February 2015 The Descartes Centre for the History and Philosophy of the Sciences and the Humanities
Dec 22, 2015
Mapping the Development of PsychologyIvan Flis
PhD Candidate in History and Philosophy of Psychology
PSI Early Graduate Group Conference 27-28 February 2015
The Descartes Centre
for the History and Philosophy
of the Sciences and the Humanities
Outline
One map
One (hi)story
A few take-home messages (hopefully)
Wikimedia Public Domain: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Himmelwright_Stone_House_2nd_Floor_Plan.jpg
Short digression into my projectThe maps (1)
The maps (2)What do they teach us?
Let’s see on an example from the 1950s.
Outline
One map
One (hi)story
A few take-home messages
Wikimedia Public Domain: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Himmelwright_Stone_House_2nd_Floor_Plan.jpg
How did we end up with behavioral science?
Social science?
Behavioral science?
Based on, with permission, Jeff Pooley’s unpublished paper A “Not Particularly Felicitous” Phrase: A History of the “Behavioral Sciences” Label presented at a symposium in 2012. Link: http://jeffpooley.com/pubs/pooley-behavioral-sciences.pdf
Or how did the Ford Foundation coin the new name for objectivity in the 1950s
Connotations of socialism!Speculative and pre-scientific!
Palpable to biologists and other non-social scientists.Firmly rooted in quantitative methodologies.
Palpable to psychologists who resisted the moniker of social science
And note, this objectivity was powered by $417 million in assets
Outline
One map
One (hi)story
A few take-home messages
Wikimedia Public Domain: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Himmelwright_Stone_House_2nd_Floor_Plan.jpg
Take-home messages
Psychology, as any other science, is socially and historically contingent.
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Link: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ivory_Tower_Flyer.jpg
Be critical!
Do not disenfranchise yourself with myths of objectivity!