I defer to Chris but... I taught the class for ages, but no longer. It is still
called History and Systems here. I don't think there is much in the name, and
no colleague has mentioned this new trend. I am older and out of touch with pop
trends in psych ha. I think systems or schools of thought is still fine.
Should we start a discussion about the mis-use or understanding psychologists
have regarding what counts as a scientific theory? The class today (we have
two faculty who do it most) may involve more emphasis on cross-cultural issues
and the nasty way Western psychologists ignored non-western epistemological
views, or a more traditional perspective emphasizing historical/philosophical
perspectives. Regardless, students are expected to participate in discussions
and produce a paper looking at current psych topics/theories, and show
integration with the historical/philosophical background for such. I haven't
seen the latest reviews of our class but it appears to serve the function of a
capstone class as we wish regardless of who is teaching the class.
My area of emphasis is Social-Personality and I have taught the Personality
class most of my teaching career. I am now on a reduced load approaching
retirement, and that was one class I was happy to give up. I would love to
teach a class with emphasis on current theoretical ideas and research. However,
the class we have is the old-fashioned perspectives that go from Freud to
humanistic ideas, Cattell and Eysenck and trait views, then near the end,
Skinner, Rotter and Bandura. The scientific utility of these perspectives vary
considerably. I do stress also, what I think Mike P. noted, Skinnerian views of
personality might question the common way personality has been conceptualized.
I would love some effort to alter the usual psych curriculum and develop a
class with some appreciation of historical contributions, but with emphasis on
what might be actually going on in the field. And so it goes...
- Original Message -
From: Annette Taylor tay...@sandiego.edu
To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) tips@fsulist.frostburg.edu
Sent: Thursday, September 25, 2014 11:24:49 AM
Subject: [tips] History System
The response from my department has been: a rose by any other name
I argue that it's not the same and would like more input from the list for this
topic that omitting systems is a significant departure. I have some ideas but
they are probably not sufficiently strong to sway the rose by any other name
folks.
Finally another colleague asked me to ask the list about theories of
personality. It is currently taught, pretty much, as the history of the
theories of personality with an extremely strong emphasis on psychodynamic and
humanistic approaches. Are there no 21st century theories?
Annette
Annette Kujawski Taylor, Ph. D.
Professor, Psychological Sciences
University of San Diego
5998 Alcala Park
San Diego, CA 92110-2492
tay...@sandiego.edu
Subject: Re: History Systems
From: Christopher Green chri...@yorku.ca
Date: Wed, 24 Sep 2014 15:39:20 -0400
One other thought: no one in the know uses history and systems anymore.
That was a phrase popularized in the 1950s (though it may date back to the
1930s) that marks a course as one that hasn't been rethought in a very long
time. Plain history of psychology (or sometimes history theory, which was
a 1980s phenomenon) signals a more contemporary approach.
Chris
-
Christopher D. Green
Department of Psychology
York University
Toronto, ON M6C 1G4
Canada
chri...@yorku.ca
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