A History of Psychology

Catalog description

The intention in this course is to guide the student to understand Western psychological science through its history, and through the histories of the societies in Europe and North America within which that science has been embedded. The goal is to have the student become aware that today's psychology is not just a discipline of the 20th/21st century; rather that its roots lie within "long-forgotten" texts that still influence our thoughts today. By the end of this course students will have learned the major philosophical perspectives governing the various schools of psychology and be able to draw more solid connections from past to present. Students will furthermore come to understand contextual relevance and most importantly learn ways to approach research through guiding theory. In the end, it should become clear to students why ignoring the legacy of their intellectual ancestors would be a grave mistake; the great dinosaurs from the old schools of psychology are still able to teach us 'modern' psychologists plentiful.