History of Psychology - Session 1: Introduction PDF

History of Psychology Session 1: Introduction Flis & van Eck (2018) Loreen Tisdall, Center for Cognitive and Decision Sciences September 23, 2024 Welcome! Prof. Dr. Rui Mata Dr. Loreen Tisdall Center for Cognitive...

History of Psychology Session 1: Introduction Flis & van Eck (2018) Loreen Tisdall, Center for Cognitive and Decision Sciences September 23, 2024 Welcome! Prof. Dr. Rui Mata Dr. Loreen Tisdall Center for Cognitive and Center for Cognitive and Decision Sciences (CDS) Decision Sciences (CDS) Agenda Course overview: sessions, materials, exam Why study the history of psychology? Problems with history Historiographic approaches to study and understand the history of psychology Summary Learning outcomes for this session ✓ Know how this course works, where to nd materials, etc. ✓ Consider the pros and cons (but mainly pros 😊) of studying the history of psychology ✓ Be aware of problems in the history of psychology ✓ Gain knowledge about historiographic methods ✓ Critically re ect on the impact that di erent historiographic methods have on students’ perception of a discipline (e.g., the Great Man vs. psychological factories) fl ff fi Course overview Course materials Slides, available from course website (https://matarui.github.io/HISTPSY_HS24/), uploaded after the lecture ADAM HS2024 (https://adam.unibas.ch/ilias.php? baseClass=ilrepositorygui&ref_id=1736796) Vorlesungsverzeichnis (https://vorlesungsverzeichnis.unibas.ch/de/home?id=284661) Key readings (cf. links on slides) Website, sessions, & slides Exam In-person Multiple choice Mock exam (end of November) ADAM forum Q&A (use it, we are here to help!) Any administrative questions? A brief exercise to get us started Your turn! Write down 3 events or individuals that you think have signi cantly shaped psychology as a discipline. Image created with AI (Bing), February 2024 ~1 minute, keep for later fi Why study the history of psychology? “What’s past is prologue” “Let sleeping dogs lie” What is your (current) perspective, “Out with the old, in with the new” and, importantly, “History repeats itself” “Don’t cry over spilt milk” why is this your (current) perspective? “Standing on the shoulders of giants” 9 great reasons to study the history of psychology Understanding the origins of ideas: Studying the history of psychology helps Recognizing contributions of diverse gures: Studying psychology’s history us trace the origins of key psychological concepts and theories. This understanding helps uncover contributions from lesser-known gures, women, and individuals provides insight into how modern psychological frameworks evolved from earlier from marginalized groups. This can correct historical biases that have often focused philosophical and scienti c debates, showing the progression from philosophical disproportionately on a few “great men” while ignoring the contributions of others. musings on the mind to formal scienti c inquiry. Appreciating the interdisciplinary nature of psychology: The history of Contextualizing current theories: Psychological theories are often shaped by psychology reveals its deep connections to other elds, including philosophy, the historical, social, and cultural contexts of their time. By studying history, we can biology, economics, and sociology. By examining these interdisciplinary roots, we understand how societal events, such as wars, political movements, or can gain a more comprehensive understanding of the eld and its future directions. technological advancements, in uenced the development of psychological thought and how these contexts impact current approaches. Encouraging critical thinking: Learning the history of psychology fosters critical thinking by showing that scienti c knowledge is not static. It demonstrates that Avoiding past mistakes: Examining the history of psychology helps avoid theories are not immune to challenge or revision, encouraging students and repeating past mistakes, such as discredited theories (e.g., phrenology, eugenics). professionals to remain open to new ideas and critical of established ones. It encourages critical re ection on how certain concepts or methods, once widely accepted, were later rejected for ethical, empirical, or conceptual reasons. Inspiring new research: By studying historical trends and developments in psychology, researchers may identify overlooked areas of inquiry or gaps in Highlighting its evolution: The history of psychology shows how ethical knowledge that can inspire new studies or theoretical advancements. standards and other practices (e.g., open science) have changed over time. Understanding past ethical frameworks for psychological research (e.g., Milgram’s Building a sense of identity: For those in the eld of psychology, understanding obedience experiments) helps inform current ethical guidelines and promotes the its history helps build a professional identity. It connects modern psychologists with protection of participants and researchers in contemporary research. the intellectual traditions and foundational debates that shaped the discipline. fl fi fi fl fi fi fi fi fi fi 3 major problems for studying history (of psychology) Causality Not value-free History o ers us no Historians (academics) counter-factuals, no have motivations, too! Ask multiverse. How do we yourself, who writes history know what/who led to and why? #hindsight, what, and why? #ethnocentrism Domino effect icons created by lut x - Flaticon; Value icons created by logisstudio - Flaticon; Diversity icons created by Freepik - Flaticon ff fi Remember me? Find the 3 events or individuals that you think have signi cantly shaped psychology as a discipline. By show of hands: Who wrote 2 or 3 names of individuals? Image created with AI (Bing), February 2024 fi Who is the history of psychology? Haggbloom, S. J., Warnick, R., Warnick, J. E., Jones, V. K., Yarbrough, G. L., Russell, T. M.,... & Monte, E. (2002). The 100 most eminent psychologists of the 20th century. Review of General Psychology, 6(2), 139-152. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1037/1089-2680.6.2.139 3 major problems for the study of history Causality Not value-free Diversity History o ers us no/few Historians (academics) Jocelyn Bell Burnell counter-factuals, no have motivations, too! Ask discovered pulsars multiverse. How do we yourself, who writes history (neutron stars). Her PhD know what/who led to and why? #hindsight, supervisor received the what, and why? #ethnocentrism Nobel Prize for that … Domino effect icons created by lut x - Flaticon; Value icons created by logisstudio - Flaticon; Diversity icons created by Freepik - Flaticon ff fi  How to study the history of psychology? If we agree on the notion that history does have a role in the discipline of history, we must ask ourselves: How can the history of psychology be studied in a meaningful, productive way without hero-worship? Psychological Scienti c personae & Multisited Biography of scienti c Historiometry factories moral economies ethnography objects Statistical approach to nd patterns in What are individuals’ values at a given historical data of human personality or “A lab that has produced 10 or more time, and do they align with the status behavior scholarly articles per year for at least Concerns itself with the proliferation/ quo/mainstream of the discipline? Related to multisited ethnography Focus on (groups of) individuals but two years in a row.” circulation of phenomena and social Considers who rose to eminence at Focuses on the historical and social considers the social factors Individual success happens within an processes in different environments what time and in which cultural life of a particular scienti c concept, Dkfmdlkf Uses (auto)biographical data, ecology! Examines people, practices, and space? product or object, tracing its historical records, societal and E.g., use PsycNET to identify interactions across various sites How and why do scientists engage development, usage, and meaning cultural data psychological factories —> study who E.g., global spread of beliefs about with particualr topcis, methods, and across time and space E.g., study groups of artists or has in uenced psychology without speci c individuals and impact of evidence? E.g., lifecycle of a psychological test scientists within a certain time frame the hagiography/hero worship media and culture E.g., open science, ethics, mentoring, Mixed, but more of a qualitative focus to identify common patterns in their (objective in uence?) Mixed, but more of a qualitative focus objectivity, quanti cation, fairness creative development Quantitative, data-driven Qualitative focus Quantitative, data-driven Ball, L. C. (2012). Genius without the “Great Man”: New possibilities for the historian of psychology. History of Psychology, 15(1), 72. https://oce.ovid.com/article/00120507-201202000-00005/PDF fi fl fi fl fi fi fi fi Example: A short history of psychology (and psychiatry) in context Wango, G. (2017). History and systems of psychology: Timelines in the development of contemporary psychology. Journal of Psychology and Behavioral Science, 5(2), 29-43. Link to paper Example: Bibliometric analysis of key psychological terms over time What is at the core of psychology as a discipline, and (how) has this changed over time? ‣ “Considering the popularity of the unity/disunity debates among psychologists and historians, we approach the question of disciplinary formation by reframing it into a history of methods.” ‣ “If we take a bird’s-eye view of psychological research, made possible by new ways of analyzing large amounts of data, can we identify a) the growth of the literature b) the fundamental changes in the content of the science c) the methodological traditions akin to the ones Cronbach talks about?” […] We aim to explore exactly that through a large-scale analysis of the content of psychological journals.” ‣ “We aim to show that even though the growth of the literature was massive, the fundamental changes in the content of psychological research were not structural. The structure of the eld remained the same, and at the center was a methodological core.” Flis, I., & van Eck, N. J. (2018). Framing psychology as a discipline (1950–1999): A large-scale term co-occurrence analysis of scienti c literature in psychology. History of Psychology, 21(4), 334. https://scholarlypublications.universiteitleiden.nl/access/item:2974919/download fi fi Example: Bibliometric analysis of key psychological terms over time data-mining terms from scienti c journals sample of 676,393 articles published in journals indexed in PsycINFO from 1950 to 1999, and conduct an analysis of the relevant terms they use in their abstracts and titles terms are visualized in two-dimensional co-occurrence maps of the discipline ➡ the larger the number of abstracts/titles which contain the same two terms together, the closer those terms will appear in the map ➡ co-occurrence maps as a proxy for the discipline of psychology (“digital history”) Flis, I., & van Eck, N. J. (2018). Framing psychology as a discipline (1950–1999): A large-scale term co-occurrence analysis of scienti c literature in psychology. History of Psychology, 21(4), 334. https://scholarlypublications.universiteitleiden.nl/access/item:2974919/download fi fi Example: Bibliometric analysis of key psychological terms over time data-mining terms from scienti c journals sample of 676,393 articles published in journals indexed in PsycINFO from 1950 to 1999, and conduct an analysis of the relevant terms they use in their abstracts and titles terms are visualized in two-dimensional co-occurrence maps of the discipline ➡ the larger the number of abstracts/titles which contain the same two terms together, the closer those terms will appear in the map ➡ co-occurrence maps as a proxy for the discipline of psychology (“digital history”) Flis, I., & van Eck, N. J. (2018). Framing psychology as a discipline (1950–1999): A large-scale term co-occurrence analysis of scienti c literature in psychology. History of Psychology, 21(4), 334. https://scholarlypublications.universiteitleiden.nl/access/item:2974919/download fi fi Example: Bibliometric analysis of key psychological terms over time “There is a certain democracy of large numbers involved in taking the term-mining perspective, where the terms that dominate texts frame our view - not analytical categories like individual or institutional reputation. The Big Names still exert their in uence over historical trajectories of terms by virtue of their importance, but by taking the term-mining road, they are not the point from which we start as historians.” Flis, I., & van Eck, N. J. (2018). Framing psychology as a discipline (1950–1999): A large-scale term co-occurrence analysis of scienti c literature in psychology. History of Psychology, 21(4), 334. https://scholarlypublications.universiteitleiden.nl/access/item:2974919/download fl fi  Summary of this session Studying the history of psychology as a scienti c discipline allows us to understand the evolution of theories, methods, and approaches that have shaped our understanding of human behavior, as well as to critically evaluate past assumptions, recognize how cultural and societal in uences have impacted the eld, and appreciate the contributions of key gures in advancing psychological knowledge and practice. Studying the history of psychology is plagued by various problems, including the limited exploration of counterfactuals, which constrains our understanding of alternative causal paths, the tendency to view historical developments through a retrospective and motivational lens that is not value-free, and the lack of diversity in recognizing contributions from marginalized or underrepresented groups in the eld. Studying the history of psychology can be approached through a variety of historiographic methods, which o er valuable insights into the contributions of speci c individuals or groups, while avoiding the pitfalls of the hero-worship of a few "Great Men”. fi ff fi fi fi fi fl Key reading(s) Ball, L. C. (2012). Genius without the “Great Man”: New possibilities for the historian of psychology. History of Psychology, 15(1), 72. https://oce.ovid.com/article/00120507-201202000-00005/PDF