Chapter 16: The Future of the History of Psychology

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Chapter 16 The Future of the History of
Psychology

• A History of Psychology
• (3rd Edition)
• John G. Benjafield

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Paradigms

• Recall
• (Kuhn) Normal science establishment of a single
  paradigm
• Has psychology ever had a paradigm?
• Should psychology have a paradigm?

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Does psychology have paradigms?

• Wundtian introspectionism
• Kirsch called this Mentalism
• Cognitive psychology
• Cognitive neuroscience

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Why is the paradigm concept so congenial?

• Erin Driver-Linn (2003)
• Structure of Scientific Revolutions cited in
  psychology journals an average of 55 times a year
• Kuhn explicitly used psychology in formulating
  his paradigm notion
• Piagets theory of cognitive development
• New Look approach to perception

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Social Constructionists

• Attempted to move to a new level of discourse in
  which knowledge is something people do together
• Psychological concepts understood as the outcome
  of social processes

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Ludwig Wittgenstein (18891951)

• Work falls into two periods
• Early work Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
• Shaped the logical-positivist movement in the
  1920s
• Later work Philosophical Investigations
• Turned to examinations of how concepts are used
  in ordinary language

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Language of Psychology

• Examined how concepts are used in ordinary
  language
• Revealed complex array of relationships between
  concepts
• We do not categorize based on common elements we
  categorize based on members possessing a
  heterogeneous set of events

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Anomalies

• Everyone will inevitably encounter events that do
  not fit nicely into ones favourite theory
• Anomalies events that do not fit our theories
• Ways of dealing with anomalies (Bloor)
• 1. Indifference
• 2. Exclusion
• 3. Accommodation
• 4. Opportunism

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Modernism

• Story of psychology in twentieth century a story
  of a modern discipline
• Parallels between development of art and
  psychology
• Twentieth-century modernism in part a reaction
  against what was perceived as the excesses of the
  late nineteenth century
• Victorian kitsch art

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Modernism

• Ex. Rich cultural milieu of Vienna
• Ex. Watsons elimination of past viewpoints

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Postmodernism

• Postmodern controversial and ambiguous term
• Not a rejection of achievements of modernism
• Argued for a more democratic and open system than
  may have existed previously
• Reassertion of previously rejected values
• Openness to the past, to reject viewpoints

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Postmodernism

• Ex. rehabilitation of Wundts approach to
  psychology
• Debate
• Kenneth Gergen postmodernism is an opportunity
• M. Brewster Smith fragmentation of psychology

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The Differentiation of Psychology

• Consequence of postmodernism
• Previously dominant forms of psychology have had
  to compete with alternative approaches
• As psychology has become more differentiated,
  increasingly more factions have entered the
  discipline

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The Differentiation of Psychology

• American Psychological Association
• Largest national association of psychologists
• 1960 20 divisions
• Divisions represented broad categories
• 28 new divisions in 35 years
• Increasingly more special interest groups
• Critics too much diversification

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The Differentiation of Psychology

• Donald Dewsbury
• Growing influence of non-academic sector in APA
  during last decades of twentieth century
• By 1980s, academic psychologists felt alienated
  from the APA
• 1988 formed the American Psychological Society
  (APS)

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The Differentiation of Psychology

• American Psychological Society (APS)
• Goal advance the discipline of psychology and
  preserve its scientific base
• 15,000 members five years after its founding
• Emphasis on the unity in psychologytrend toward
  undifferentiation?
• 2006 APS became the Association for
  Psychological Science
• 10 per cent of membership outside United States

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The Future of the History of Psychology

• E.G. Borings history of psychology
• Written in 1920s
• Psychology in the United States divided between
  scientists and practitioners
• Intended to persuade psychogists that academic,
  experimental psychology was the ideal form of
  psychology
• Biased account of history

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The Future of the History of Psychology

• History originally told from a single point of
  view
• Move is now towards history from the viewpoints
  of many

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Psychology as a Global Endeavour

• Pre-WWII
• Schools of psychology had their own local roots
• Post-WWII
• Psychology predominantly an American export
• Increasing attendance at international
  conferences, organizations

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Polycentric History

• Kurt Danziger
• Encouraged development of a polycentric history
  of psychology
• I.e., further the study of the social and
  cultural contexts within which psychology takes
  place

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Envoi

• Adrian Brock
• Producing international histories of psychology
  will be a difficult task
• History of psychology a tiny part of history as a
  whole
• Task of future histories to expand range of
  viewpoints included