Re: [tips] History & Systems class ideas

[Christopher Green]

Ken, 

I haven't taught History of Psych at the undergrad level for a long time, but I 
regularly teach a (mostly) first-year grad version of the course, so there are 
a lot of similarities with teaching it as a small capstone UG course. 

Names and dates are boring, but necessary (they are where history begins, but 
not where it ends). They are only a struggle for students if they think they 
are going to have to memorize them them for a test. Either don't have in-class 
tests (they can look them up while writing papers, etc.) or give them a 
name/date list with the test (just like you might give a formula sheet with a 
stats test). 

Problems like students trying to memorize the ages of Freud's stages come, I 
think, from their experience with other psych course, and from their not really 
understanding what the point of a history course is. One mistake that a lot of 
psychologists make about history is thinking that it more or less equivalent to 
a review of past literature. Of course, knowing when major theoretical turns 
took place, and what influential studies prompted them, are important to know, 
but the aim of history is to place psychology in a broader context (what impact 
did wars, immigration, political movements, economic upheaval, and social 
trends have on the dev't of psych?), not just to list one darn theory after 
another. 

In my grad course, I start them term giving a couple of informal lectures (with 
a lot of discussion) to "set the stage" -- Descartes to Kant, roughly. After 
that, I mostly turn it over to teams of students to teach most of the rest of 
the course -- generating seminar-like presentations on topics assigned to them, 
instructing them to go well beyond the textbook and other readings in their 
presentations (not just summarize what everyone else has already read), and to 
end with question that are likely to generate discussion (a colleague of mine 
puts it as asking why and how questions, rather than what and when questions). 

As for evaluation, I got tired of in-class tests and term papers a long while 
ago. I have two alternatives: 1) for several years I set up a wiki and had the 
students write a digital biographical dictionary for psychology over the course 
of the term. Every few of weeks I assigned an important individual from 
psychology's past to each student and had them post 500 words to the wiki. On 
other weeks, I would "shuffle the deck" of individuals already written about, 
assigning each student to expand and edit the entry that had been started by 
someone else the week before. 2) Instead of term papers, I set aside the last 
week or two of class to hold an in-house conference at which each student 
presents on a topic developed by him or her (in consultation with me). The 
presentations are short -- 10-15 min each -- but enough to know whether they 
have done their work. I sometimes invite other faculty or senior 
history-of-psych grad student to keep the presenters on their toes. 

Best,
Chris
...
Christopher D Green
Department of Psychology
York University
Toronto, ON   M3J 1P3

chri...@yorku.ca
http://www.yorku.ca/christo

> On Jan 8, 2015, at 1:53 PM, Ken Steele  wrote:
> 
> This is my 3rd post of the day so I won't be able to reply publicly in the 
> near future.
> 
> The class is supposed to be a senior capstone course and the enrollment is 
> capped at 20 students.  The class size is one reason I thought I could get 
> away from the lecture format.
> 
> One observation from last semester about students taking a History of Psych 
> course.  My students seemed to focus on almost irrelevant details, like birth 
> and death dates, and seemed to miss the big picture, like why Piaget or Hull 
> think this approach is the important way to think about issues.  Freud was a 
> complete disaster, with students wanting to memorize the age ranges of 
> psychosexual stages.
> 
> A public thanks to all that have replied (or may reply in the near future).
> 
> Ken
> 
> PS - two short teaching tales for the non HoP people:
> 
> 1.  My second course in psychology as an undergrad was the senior-level H&S 
> course.  (Obviously, I never met with an advisor.) My instructor didn't know 
> what was going on until I went to meet with him to discuss my paper project 
> and then it was past the drop date. I loved H&S because it was all about big 
> ideas, and their historical interrelationships. This carried over to the rest 
> of my education. I could see why there was a separate "cognition" and 
> "learning" course, and what this might mean about psychology.
> 
> 2.  Small courses invite different approaches.  I remember an instructor who 
> was used to teach, by lecture, classes of 25-30 students.  One semester, for 
> some reason, this instructor had about 5 registered students.  Only 2 to 3 
> students would actually show up for an individual class.  I would see him 
> "lecturing" to 2 or 3 students in a 70-seat room.
> 
> 
>> On 1/8/2015 12:40 PM, Paul C Be

Re: [tips] History & Systems class ideas

[Deborah S Briihl]

Here is what I do. Every day, when students come into class, they pick up their 
index card. By picking it up, I know that they have attended class. When 
students participate, I give them a pen (I have a bunch of different colors so 
different colors for different days). They mark down a small bit about what 
they said. Students only get 1 participation per class to make sure everyone 
gets a chance. After a while, I let the pen float around the class. I ask 
questions and students must answer and that is how lecture rolls. I start out 
with points given for both right and wrong answers. The card allows the student 
to see how much they have participate.

I have had students give presentations but I have had several times in which 
wrong information was presented so I moved to this.

Deb
Deborah Briihl
Dept of psych and counseling
Valdosta state university
dbri...@valdosta.edu
 ,Sent from my iPad

> On Jan 8, 2015, at 1:56 PM, Ken Steele  wrote:
> 
> This is my 3rd post of the day so I won't be able to reply publicly in the 
> near future.
> 
> The class is supposed to be a senior capstone course and the enrollment is 
> capped at 20 students.  The class size is one reason I thought I could get 
> away from the lecture format.
> 
> One observation from last semester about students taking a History of Psych 
> course.  My students seemed to focus on almost irrelevant details, like birth 
> and death dates, and seemed to miss the big picture, like why Piaget or Hull 
> think this approach is the important way to think about issues.  Freud was a 
> complete disaster, with students wanting to memorize the age ranges of 
> psychosexual stages.
> 
> A public thanks to all that have replied (or may reply in the near future).
> 
> Ken
> 
> PS - two short teaching tales for the non HoP people:
> 
> 1.  My second course in psychology as an undergrad was the senior-level H&S 
> course.  (Obviously, I never met with an advisor.) My instructor didn't know 
> what was going on until I went to meet with him to discuss my paper project 
> and then it was past the drop date. I loved H&S because it was all about big 
> ideas, and their historical interrelationships. This carried over to the rest 
> of my education. I could see why there was a separate "cognition" and 
> "learning" course, and what this might mean about psychology.
> 
> 2.  Small courses invite different approaches.  I remember an instructor who 
> was used to teach, by lecture, classes of 25-30 students.  One semester, for 
> some reason, this instructor had about 5 registered students.  Only 2 to 3 
> students would actually show up for an individual class.  I would see him 
> "lecturing" to 2 or 3 students in a 70-seat room.
> 
> 
>> On 1/8/2015 12:40 PM, Paul C Bernhardt wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> You don’t indicate the level of the class. I have been teaching
>> it as one of our capstone courses for seniors. Therefore, YMMV.
>> 
>> I do a strict discussion format. No lecture at all. I treat it as
>> if all students have read before coming into the room and I raise
>> questions about various historical turns, outside historical
>> issues that may have influenced psychology, ask students to
>> compare and contrast, etc. Students are graded daily for
>> participation (though I’ll probably go for a weekly grade in the
>> future to reduce my evaluation load and their stress). I am
>> fortunate that the class is generally small (about 15 students).
>> 
> 
> -- 
> ---
> Kenneth M. Steele, Ph.D.  steel...@appstate.edu
> Professor
> Department of Psychology  http://www.psych.appstate.edu
> Appalachian State University
> Boone, NC 28608
> USA
> ---
> 
> 
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Re: [tips] History & Systems class ideas

[Ken Steele]

This is my 3rd post of the day so I won't be able to reply 
publicly in the near future.


The class is supposed to be a senior capstone course and the 
enrollment is capped at 20 students.  The class size is one 
reason I thought I could get away from the lecture format.


One observation from last semester about students taking a 
History of Psych course.  My students seemed to focus on almost 
irrelevant details, like birth and death dates, and seemed to 
miss the big picture, like why Piaget or Hull think this approach 
is the important way to think about issues.  Freud was a complete 
disaster, with students wanting to memorize the age ranges of 
psychosexual stages.


A public thanks to all that have replied (or may reply in the 
near future).


Ken

PS - two short teaching tales for the non HoP people:

1.  My second course in psychology as an undergrad was the 
senior-level H&S course.  (Obviously, I never met with an 
advisor.) My instructor didn't know what was going on until I 
went to meet with him to discuss my paper project and then it was 
past the drop date. I loved H&S because it was all about big 
ideas, and their historical interrelationships. This carried over 
to the rest of my education. I could see why there was a separate 
"cognition" and "learning" course, and what this might mean about 
psychology.


2.  Small courses invite different approaches.  I remember an 
instructor who was used to teach, by lecture, classes of 25-30 
students.  One semester, for some reason, this instructor had 
about 5 registered students.  Only 2 to 3 students would actually 
show up for an individual class.  I would see him "lecturing" to 
2 or 3 students in a 70-seat room.



On 1/8/2015 12:40 PM, Paul C Bernhardt wrote:




You don’t indicate the level of the class. I have been teaching
it as one of our capstone courses for seniors. Therefore, YMMV.

I do a strict discussion format. No lecture at all. I treat it as
if all students have read before coming into the room and I raise
questions about various historical turns, outside historical
issues that may have influenced psychology, ask students to
compare and contrast, etc. Students are graded daily for
participation (though I’ll probably go for a weekly grade in the
future to reduce my evaluation load and their stress). I am
fortunate that the class is generally small (about 15 students).



--
---
Kenneth M. Steele, Ph.D.  steel...@appstate.edu
Professor
Department of Psychology  http://www.psych.appstate.edu
Appalachian State University
Boone, NC 28608
USA
---


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RE: [tips] History & Systems class ideas

[Manza, Louis]

I've been teaching our capstone level History course since 1995, and like Paul, 
it is completely discussion-based.  Participation is 20% of the grade, and 
evaluated daily.  65% of the final grade comes from 3 analytical papers that 
students submit and another 15% is from a presentation at the end of the 
semester.

I got away from the heavy names-and-dates model some time ago, and the course 
is much better as a result.  Class periods are centered around a variety of 
critical thinking questions on a given topic (using Hergenhahn's text), with 
students first discussing responses within small teams and then all groups 
presenting their ideas to the entire class.

I can go into a lot more detail (e.g., syllabi, sample outlines, etc.) off-list 
if you want; feel free to e-mail me.

Cheers,

Lou

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Dr. Lou Manza
Professor & Chair of Psychology

Lebanon Valley College
101 N. College Avenue, Annville, PA 17003
Phone: 717.867.6193 | Fax: 717.867.6894 | ma...@lvc.edu | 
www.lvc.edu

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mailto:steel...@appstate.edu>> wrote:
from Ken Steele:
Hi all:

I took over a History and Systems class (Yes, Chris, that is the title) in the 
middle of last semester on an emergency basis. I followed the syllabus of the 
original instructor. It seemed to follow a common format. The initial 3/4 of 
the semester was lecture and the last 1/4 was student presentations of classic 
studies.  I could see that most students hated having to sit through the 
presentations. In addition, the memory load of names and facts was overwhelming 
for many students.

I will need to teach the class again this semester and I have been searching 
for a different approach on the STP and SHoP sites without much luck.  Syllabi 
are either very similar to the one I used or are very individual, having been 
developed over many years.

My idea is that I want students participating from the beginning (whether doing 
presentations or involved in projects) to avoid the 12 weeks of lecture/3 weeks 
of presentations approach.

If you know of such an approach then I would be grateful if you could share it 
with me.

Ken

PS - The assigned textbook is by Schultz and Schultz.


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Re: [tips] History & Systems class ideas

[Paul C Bernhardt]

You don’t indicate the level of the class. I have been teaching it as one of 
our capstone courses for seniors. Therefore, YMMV.

I do a strict discussion format. No lecture at all. I treat it as if all 
students have read before coming into the room and I raise questions about 
various historical turns, outside historical issues that may have influenced 
psychology, ask students to compare and contrast, etc. Students are graded 
daily for participation (though I’ll probably go for a weekly grade in the 
future to reduce my evaluation load and their stress). I am fortunate that the 
class is generally small (about 15 students).

I use a short and to-the-point text that reduces the ancient history a bit and 
has chapters for material after 1960 when most other texts appear to think the 
history of psychology ended. (A Brief History of Psychology, 5th edition by 
Wertheimer (2012). ISBN 9781848728752). I think this encourages the students to 
actually read (though I see a lot of them cramming in the hallway before class).

In the past I’ve done a ‘history of psychology at our school’ project. But, it 
is played out. I’m considering, but not sure I have the energy to create, a 
“Reacting to the Past” type activity. It is a role play in which the students 
take on personas connected to an event in history and then play their roles as 
the event’s elements unfold. They must know that person well to do a good job 
on it. But, creating that kind of activity is extremely time consuming… 
probably not in the coming semester. (Search Reacting to the Past) to find out 
more about this ingenious program that has been largely used in history 
classes, among others.

The issue you raise with students remembering all the names and dates is very 
problematic. I’m not happy with their scoring on specific points of historical 
note, either. I’m not sure how I want to address it in future semesters. I’d 
love to see other’s ideas.

Paul C Bernhardt
Associate Professor of Psychology
Frostburg State University
pcbernhardt☞frostburg.edu




On Jan 8, 2015, at 12:10 PM, Ken Steele 
mailto:steel...@appstate.edu>> wrote:

Hi all:

I took over a History and Systems class (Yes, Chris, that is the title) in the 
middle of last semester on an emergency basis. I followed the syllabus of the 
original instructor. It seemed to follow a common format. The initial 3/4 of 
the semester was lecture and the last 1/4 was student presentations of classic 
studies.  I could see that most students hated having to sit through the 
presentations. In addition, the memory load of names and facts was overwhelming 
for many students.

I will need to teach the class again this semester and I have been searching 
for a different approach on the STP and SHoP sites without much luck.  Syllabi 
are either very similar to the one I used or are very individual, having been 
developed over many years.

My idea is that I want students participating from the beginning (whether doing 
presentations or involved in projects) to avoid the 12 weeks of lecture/3 weeks 
of presentations approach.

If you know of such an approach then I would be grateful if you could share it 
with me.

Ken

PS - The assigned textbook is by Schultz and Schultz.

--
---
Kenneth M. Steele, Ph.D.  
steel...@appstate.edu
Professor
Department of Psychology  http://www.psych.appstate.edu
Appalachian State University
Boone, NC 28608
USA
---


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Re: [tips] History & Systems

[Christopher Green]

A few other comments:

> On Sep 25, 2014, at 12:43 PM, "Mike Palij"  wrote:
> 
>> 
> (a) Structuralism (first Wundt's, later Titchener's)
Never Wundt's. An invention of Titchener's, picked up as fact by T's student 
Boring. 

> (b) Functionalism (such as Dewey's)

Dewey never adopted the term, though his student, Angell, did. The term 
originated as a term of derision from Titchener.

> (c) Pragmatism (somewhat William James-ish, Peirce-ish)

Hmm. Is pragmatism really part of the history of psychology? I used to think of 
Functionalism as the psychological counterpart to Pragmatism, but Angell -- the 
leading self-described Functionalist -- published deep doubts about the 
adequacy of Pragmatism. Although James picked up from Peirce the name of 
Pragmatism for his own philosophy in the late 1890s, Peirce became so horrified 
by came to be attached to the term that he changed the name of his own 
philosophy to Pragmaticism, a term he described in 1905 as being "so ugly that 
it will be safe from kidnappers."

> (d) Dynamic psychology (after Robert S. Woodworth)

Heidbredder seems to have been wrong about this. There was no "school," there 
was just Woodworth, who has long since been assimilated to the Columbia 
"branch" of Functionalism (and who argued in the 1930s that the vast majority 
of psychologist belonged to no school -- a very good reason NOT to organize 
your history of psychology course around "schools").

> (e) Behaviorism (different flavors depending upon the "the
> expert" being used as the "authority" to guide thinking)

Which is why I call this unit of my Hist of psych course "Behaviorisms"

> (f) Gestalt Psychology
> (g) Psychoanalytic theory/practice

Americans got so keen about the "school" as the fundamental structure of a 
scholarly discipline, that they began applying it willy nilly to things far 
outside of their experience. Gestalt -- maybe, but it was so badly 
misunderstood by Americans (who mostly never read the original German works) 
that it may deserve its own separate kind of treatment. Psychoanalysis? 
Interestingly, there was no real *school* here at all, just Freud's parlor (and 
later, bigger rooms elsewhere). It was kind of the anti-school (although 
American applied psychology of all kind mostly developed outside of schools 
too. Yes, there are exceptions like late Münsterberg, Harry Hollingworth, and 
Walter Dill Scott).


Best,
Chris
...
Christopher D Green
Department of Psychology
York University
Toronto, ON   M3J 1P3

chri...@yorku.ca
http://www.yorku.ca/christo
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Re: [tips] History & Systems

[Christopher Green]

To be clear, I don't think that too much hangs on a name. One can teach a 
crappy course under a cool name, no doubt, and vice versa. I think the problem 
that was being addressed by this change is that "history & systems" signalled 
(and often was) a course that was centrally focused on intellectual issues 
("cognitive resources," as historians of science like to say) to the exclusion 
of social and material resources (e.g., institutional developments with 
character of the university; social influences such as universal public 
education, immigration, labor strife; the new opportunities afforded by 
technological developments not specifically related to psychology or the 
laboratory (e.g., electrification, telephony)).

As the old intellectual history fell out of favor generally, ( in the 1970s) 
"history" courses as taught in economics, psychology, medicine, and philosophy 
department became increasingly anachronistic. The change to just "history" or 
"history and theory" was picked up by those who wanted to bring newer, more 
inclusive historiographic trends into their courses. If you're tempted to 
dismiss these changes as mere "fashion" or dismiss them as "post-modernism" or 
some such, I would put it to you that trying to teach the history of, say, 
intelligence testing without teaching at least a bit of the history of 
immigration and ethnic strife in turn-of-the-20th-century American cities is to 
simply miss the reason intelligence tests became so popular so fast in the US 
(as compared to, say, France -- see John Carson's book _The Measure of Merit_ 
on this last issue).

So, it doesn't really matter what you call your course, but if you want those 
whose research specialty is the history of psychology to presume (perhaps 
unfairly) that you're teaching a course in the style of 25 or 30 or even 40 
years ago, calling it "history & systems" will probably do the trick. 

Best,
Chris
...
Christopher D Green
Department of Psychology
York University
Toronto, ON   M3J 1P3

chri...@yorku.ca
http://www.yorku.ca/christo



> On Sep 25, 2014, at 12:43 PM, "Mike Palij"  wrote:
> 
> In these matters I generally defer to Chris Green's knowledge
> and expertise but one can evaluate for oneself whether a
> course title like "History and Systems" makes any sense.
> Consider:
> 
> (1) What is the definition of a "system"?  If one uses Edna
> Heidbeder's classic book "Seven Psychologies", then one
> can claim that once upon a time in psychology there were
> several theoretical-metatheoretical-philosophical positions
> that guided the study and interpretation of psychological
> phenomena, such as:
> (a) Structuralism (first Wundt's, later Titchener's)
> (b) Functionalism (such as Dewey's)
> (c) Pragmatism (somewhat William James-ish, Peirce-ish)
> (d) Dynamic psychology (after Robert S. Woodworth)
> (e) Behaviorism (different flavors depending upon the "the
> expert" being used as the "authority" to guide thinking)
> (f) Gestalt Psychology
> (g) Psychoanalytic theory/practice
> 
> All of the above can be considered a "school of thought" in that
> they tried to create an interpretative framework for doing psychology.
> In some cases, the proponents were located at a single institution
> or the "authority" figure was a specific school, giving rise to the
> notion of, say, the "Chicago school".
> 
> I think that it is fair to say that today the major distinctions
> involve whether is primarily focused on:
> (i) Behavior
> (ii) Cognition
> (iii) Neuroscience
> These are not "schools" in the sense used by Heidbeder and
> others, rather, these represent area of focus that one believes is
> of greatest relevance to the psychological phenomena that one
> is interested in.  One can focus on only one area (e.g., "old
> school" behaviorists who follow Skinner in ignoring cognitive
> and neuroscience) or some combination.  Researchers who
> are "methodological behaviorists" (i.e., they believe that cognitive
> and neuropsychological processes have to be explicitly linked
> to observable behavior in order to be valid theories) obviously
> rely heavily on behavior while others may not (e.g., theorists
> who use computer simulation of cognitive processing as "proof
> of concept" initially -- whether animals and/or humans engage
> in such processing is a later question).
> 
> (2) One could argue that the critical distinction today is whether
> or not cognitive and brain processes should be considered some
> form of computational process, either "rule and symbol" systems
> (e.g., the Atkinson & Shiffrin model of memory, Newell & Simon
> theories of problem solving and cognition, Chomsky's syntactic
> theory of language) or connectionist/neural network models
> (i.e., artificial networks of idealized neurons structured to perform
> particular tasks, such as NetTalk, a three layer neural network
> that learns the rules of correspondence between printed text
> and it spoken version, and the various PDP models by Rumelhart,
> McCl

re: [tips] History & Systems

[Mike Palij]

On Thu, 25 Sep 2014 08:25:33 -0700, Annette Taylor wrote:

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.


In these matters I generally defer to Chris Green's knowledge
and expertise but one can evaluate for oneself whether a
course title like "History and Systems" makes any sense.
Consider:

(1) What is the definition of a "system"?  If one uses Edna
Heidbeder's classic book "Seven Psychologies", then one
can claim that once upon a time in psychology there were
several theoretical-metatheoretical-philosophical positions
that guided the study and interpretation of psychological
phenomena, such as:
(a) Structuralism (first Wundt's, later Titchener's)
(b) Functionalism (such as Dewey's)
(c) Pragmatism (somewhat William James-ish, Peirce-ish)
(d) Dynamic psychology (after Robert S. Woodworth)
(e) Behaviorism (different flavors depending upon the "the
expert" being used as the "authority" to guide thinking)
(f) Gestalt Psychology
(g) Psychoanalytic theory/practice

All of the above can be considered a "school of thought" in that
they tried to create an interpretative framework for doing psychology.
In some cases, the proponents were located at a single institution
or the "authority" figure was a specific school, giving rise to the
notion of, say, the "Chicago school".

I think that it is fair to say that today the major distinctions
involve whether is primarily focused on:
(i) Behavior
(ii) Cognition
(iii) Neuroscience
These are not "schools" in the sense used by Heidbeder and
others, rather, these represent area of focus that one believes is
of greatest relevance to the psychological phenomena that one
is interested in.  One can focus on only one area (e.g., "old
school" behaviorists who follow Skinner in ignoring cognitive
and neuroscience) or some combination.  Researchers who
are "methodological behaviorists" (i.e., they believe that cognitive
and neuropsychological processes have to be explicitly linked
to observable behavior in order to be valid theories) obviously
rely heavily on behavior while others may not (e.g., theorists
who use computer simulation of cognitive processing as "proof
of concept" initially -- whether animals and/or humans engage
in such processing is a later question).

(2) One could argue that the critical distinction today is whether
or not cognitive and brain processes should be considered some
form of computational process, either "rule and symbol" systems
(e.g., the Atkinson & Shiffrin model of memory, Newell & Simon
theories of problem solving and cognition, Chomsky's syntactic
theory of language) or connectionist/neural network models
(i.e., artificial networks of idealized neurons structured to perform
particular tasks, such as NetTalk, a three layer neural network
that learns the rules of correspondence between printed text
and it spoken version, and the various PDP models by Rumelhart,
McClelland, and others). Even purely "behavioral" approaches
are incorporated into a computational framework if one thinks of
classical and operant conditioning as forms of associative learning --
this can be modeled by a neural network, thus, they are no longer
"noncognitive".  A critical issue is whether the computational
models we have are really adequate for psychological processing
and what relationship they have to basic brain processes which
they appear to mimic.  The question is whether to use them as
models and guides or to reject them as inadequate.  The third
way is to argue that hybrid models composed of rule and symbol
system components and connectionist components provide
better accounts than either one separate -- a situation similar
to theories of color vision where in the 19th century one either
supported a trichromaticity theory or an opponent process
theory and it is not until the mid 20th century the Hurvich and
Jameson showed that both were needed.  The computational
perspective goes back to the 19th century in psychology and
one can use the "phone books" of readings on "Neurocomputing"
as a guide to the history and theoretical developments that
have come to influence most of contemporary psychology.


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?


Again, I defer to others with greater knowledge in issues of
personality theory but I would point out two points to consider:

(1) From a purely behavioral perspective, personality theory
has little meaning given that behavior is seen as a function of
its consequences and as an adaptation to one's environment.
One has to assume ei

Re: [tips] History & Systems

[Michael Scoles]

In educational settings, nothing signals improvement like a name change.  You 
can be assured that the content changed significantly.


Michael T. Scoles, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Psychology & Counseling
University of Central Arkansas
Conway, AR 72035
Phone: 501-450-5418
Fax: 501-450-5424
 
AVID: UCA dedicates itself to Academic Vitality, Integrity, and Diversity.


>>> Christopher Green chri...@yorku.ca> 9/24/2014 2:39 PM >>
( mailto:chri...@yorku.ca) 

On Sep 24, 2014, at 10:28 AM, Lisa Gassin  wrote:
Thanks to all who responded! Any other thoughts will be appreciated, too.




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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Re: [tips] History & Systems

[Christopher Green]

> On Sep 24, 2014, at 10:28 AM, Lisa Gassin  wrote:
> Thanks to all who responded! Any other thoughts will be appreciated, too.
> 
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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Re: [tips] History & Systems

[Christopher Green]

I think it is usually taught as an upper division course because (although it 
might seem logical to go in chronological order from the historical background 
to the present), it turns out to be pretty difficult to make history meaningful 
to students until know a fair bit about psychology as it exists today. If they 
don’t know, say, the uses, strengths and weaknesses of intelligence tests 
today, then the historical underpinnings of how the tests got to be that way 
don’t make very much sense. They have nothing to “hang” their new historical 
knowledge on, and so it ends up floating free rather than integrating into a 
network of pre-existing knowledge (and free-floating knowledge rapidly turns 
into misremembered or forgotten knowledge). 

Chris
…..
Christopher D Green
Department of Psychology
York University
Toronto, ON M3J 1P#
Canada

chri...@yorku.ca
http://www.yorku.ca/christo
...

On Sep 23, 2014, at 1:01 PM, Lisa Gassin  wrote:

>  
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> Hello, All-
>  
> I have History & Systems as a new prep this year, so I have been checking out 
> the syllabi on the Division 2 website and visiting a variety of schools’ 
> websites to see where it falls in their curriculum. I notice that almost 
> always, it looks as if it is an upper division, if not actually senior level, 
> course. For some reason, we have it as a 200-level (sophomore) course. I’m 
> not sure what the rationale was for putting it at the 200-level, but for 
> those of you who teach it as upper division, do you have a sense of why it is 
> taught there and not earlier? If so, please share : ). If your school offers 
> it as lower-division, what are the reasons for that? We are re-visiting our 
> curriculum in general this year, so your comments may help with some 
> decision-making about the class’ placement.
>  
> Thanks!
> Lisa Gassin
>  
>  
> Elizabeth (Lisa) A. Gassin, Ph.D., LPC
> Professor of Psychology
> Olivet Nazarene University
> 1 University Avenue
> Bourbonnais, IL 60914
> Tel: (815) 928-5569
> Fax: (815) 928-5571
>  
> This message is from the Department of Behavioral Sciences at Olivet Nazarene 
> University and is intended only for the recipient to whom it is addressed.  
> This message and attachments may contain confidential or privileged 
> information (including FERPA-protected information) and are intended solely 
> for the use of the recipient noted above.  Please do not share or forward 
> this e-mail without the permission of the sender.  If you are not the proper 
> addressee, please do not review, disclose, copy, distribute or use the 
> contents of this message; please destroy the message immediately and notify 
> me at 815-928-5569 or lgas...@olivet.edu.
>  
>  
> 
> ---
> 
> You are currently subscribed to tips as: chri...@yorku.ca.
> 
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> 
>  


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Re: [tips] History & Systems

[Dr. Bob Wildblood]

I agree with Gary.  In several places where I have taught, History and Systems 
has always been a senior level course which was aimed, primarily, toward those 
who were preparing to go on to do graduate work.  One of the great things at 
one school was that money was provided to have some historically important 
psychologist each semester come to our campus to provide a public seminar and 
to meet with the class to discuss his/her area of interest and research.  A 
truly great experience for faculty and students.

Bob
- Original Message -
From: Gerald Peterson 
To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) 
Sent: Tue, 23 Sep 2014 13:21:14 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Re: [tips] History & Systems

Here it is an upper level, capstone class for seniors ready to graduate. Here, 
the student must apply for admission to this class. I think the intention is to 
revisit or provide discussion of historical context and classical philos 
perspectives.  The idea is to provide a framework that integrates the diverse 
classes and perspectives the student has encountered. It also serves to 
stimulate more mature discussion of historical and epistemological issues. I 
think personally, there is no reason why students could not be given some 
historical context earlier, except for the level of discussion and work 
expected. 

- Original Message -
From: "Lisa Gassin" 
To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)" 
Sent: Tuesday, September 23, 2014 1:01:44 PM
Subject: [tips] History & Systems

Hello, All-

I have History & Systems as a new prep this year, so I have been checking out 
the syllabi on the Division 2 website and visiting a variety of schools' 
websites to see where it falls in their curriculum. I notice that almost 
always, it looks as if it is an upper division, if not actually senior level, 
course. For some reason, we have it as a 200-level (sophomore) course. I'm not 
sure what the rationale was for putting it at the 200-level, but for those of 
you who teach it as upper division, do you have a sense of why it is taught 
there and not earlier? If so, please share : ). If your school offers it as 
lower-division, what are the reasons for that? We are re-visiting our 
curriculum in general this year, so your comments may help with some 
decision-making about the class' placement.

Thanks!
Lisa Gassin


Elizabeth (Lisa) A. Gassin, Ph.D., LPC
Professor of Psychology
Olivet Nazarene University
1 University Avenue
Bourbonnais, IL 60914
Tel: (815) 928-5569
Fax: (815) 928-5571

This message is from the Department of Behavioral Sciences at Olivet Nazarene 
University and is intended only for the recipient to whom it is addressed.  
This message and attachments may contain confidential or privileged information 
(including FERPA-protected information) and are intended solely for the use of 
the recipient noted above.  Please do not share or forward this e-mail without 
the permission of the sender.  If you are not the proper addressee, please do 
not review, disclose, copy, distribute or use the contents of this message; 
please destroy the message immediately and notify me at 815-928-5569 or 
lgas...@olivet.edu.



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Re:[tips] History & Systems

[Deborah S Briihl]

We teach the class as one of our capstone options. I think it works better as a 
senior level course because so much of it requires an understanding of a wide 
variety of psych concepts. It would be difficult for me to have to teach not 
only how the concepts developed but what they are as well.


Deborah Briihl, PhD
Dept. of Psychology and Counseling
Valdosta State University
229-333-5994
dbri...@valdosta.edu


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Re: [tips] History & Systems

[Gerald Peterson]

Here it is an upper level, capstone class for seniors ready to graduate. Here, 
the student must apply for admission to this class. I think the intention is to 
revisit or provide discussion of historical context and classical philos 
perspectives.  The idea is to provide a framework that integrates the diverse 
classes and perspectives the student has encountered. It also serves to 
stimulate more mature discussion of historical and epistemological issues. I 
think personally, there is no reason why students could not be given some 
historical context earlier, except for the level of discussion and work 
expected. 

- Original Message -
From: "Lisa Gassin" 
To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)" 
Sent: Tuesday, September 23, 2014 1:01:44 PM
Subject: [tips] History & Systems

Hello, All-

I have History & Systems as a new prep this year, so I have been checking out 
the syllabi on the Division 2 website and visiting a variety of schools' 
websites to see where it falls in their curriculum. I notice that almost 
always, it looks as if it is an upper division, if not actually senior level, 
course. For some reason, we have it as a 200-level (sophomore) course. I'm not 
sure what the rationale was for putting it at the 200-level, but for those of 
you who teach it as upper division, do you have a sense of why it is taught 
there and not earlier? If so, please share : ). If your school offers it as 
lower-division, what are the reasons for that? We are re-visiting our 
curriculum in general this year, so your comments may help with some 
decision-making about the class' placement.

Thanks!
Lisa Gassin


Elizabeth (Lisa) A. Gassin, Ph.D., LPC
Professor of Psychology
Olivet Nazarene University
1 University Avenue
Bourbonnais, IL 60914
Tel: (815) 928-5569
Fax: (815) 928-5571

This message is from the Department of Behavioral Sciences at Olivet Nazarene 
University and is intended only for the recipient to whom it is addressed.  
This message and attachments may contain confidential or privileged information 
(including FERPA-protected information) and are intended solely for the use of 
the recipient noted above.  Please do not share or forward this e-mail without 
the permission of the sender.  If you are not the proper addressee, please do 
not review, disclose, copy, distribute or use the contents of this message; 
please destroy the message immediately and notify me at 815-928-5569 or 
lgas...@olivet.edu.



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RE:[tips] History & Systems

[José Ferreira Alves]

Dear Lisa

In my school history of psychology was during many time taught at the first 
year of graduation in Psychology. However after two curriculum reforms we 
placed it at third year of the curriculum; I am teaching that and I become 
aware that it is much more interesting teaching it at a more senior level than 
at the beginning of the graduation; History of psychology course is for me and 
I guess for the students an opportunity of "connecting the dots" of so many 
knowledge they already have and at he same time to understand more some kind of 
discussions actually are taking place for the future of psychology and methods 
of teaching it.

I adopted the book form Goodwin, last edition and appreciate a lot the book of 
L. Benjamin also.

Best wishes

José
___
José Ferreira-Alves, PhD
Assistant Professor
School of Psychology
University of Minho
Campus de Gualtar
4710-057 Braga
Portugal
Tel.cel. +351919378514
Tel. Gabinete: 253604233
Email: al...@psi.uminho.pt
http://escola.psi.uminho.pt/docentes_investigadores/falves.html
http://orcid.org/-0003-1967-0074

De: Lisa Gassin [mailto:lgas...@olivet.edu]
Enviada: 23 de setembro de 2014 18:02
Para: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)
Assunto: [tips] History & Systems










Hello, All-

I have History & Systems as a new prep this year, so I have been checking out 
the syllabi on the Division 2 website and visiting a variety of schools' 
websites to see where it falls in their curriculum. I notice that almost 
always, it looks as if it is an upper division, if not actually senior level, 
course. For some reason, we have it as a 200-level (sophomore) course. I'm not 
sure what the rationale was for putting it at the 200-level, but for those of 
you who teach it as upper division, do you have a sense of why it is taught 
there and not earlier? If so, please share : ). If your school offers it as 
lower-division, what are the reasons for that? We are re-visiting our 
curriculum in general this year, so your comments may help with some 
decision-making about the class' placement.

Thanks!
Lisa Gassin


Elizabeth (Lisa) A. Gassin, Ph.D., LPC
Professor of Psychology
Olivet Nazarene University
1 University Avenue
Bourbonnais, IL 60914
Tel: (815) 928-5569
Fax: (815) 928-5571

This message is from the Department of Behavioral Sciences at Olivet Nazarene 
University and is intended only for the recipient to whom it is addressed.  
This message and attachments may contain confidential or privileged information 
(including FERPA-protected information) and are intended solely for the use of 
the recipient noted above.  Please do not share or forward this e-mail without 
the permission of the sender.  If you are not the proper addressee, please do 
not review, disclose, copy, distribute or use the contents of this message; 
please destroy the message immediately and notify me at 815-928-5569 or 
lgas...@olivet.edu.




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