History & Systems of Psychology

History & Systems covers both the founders of psychology but also their theories. What we believe is often tied to who we are. To understand one is to better understand the other.

Historically, psychology is the combination of philosophy and experimental physiology. Essentially, we use the techniques of experimental physiology to answer the questions of philosophy. We try to use the scientific method to study the brain, thinking, consciousness, self concept and personality. Tobetter understand where we are, we first must look back at where we have been.

This usually is an upper level course, numbered on the 300-400s, and taken toward the end of your undergraduate degree. It used to be a requirement for entering graduate school. You had to have this class but that was okay because, back in the day, the class was used as prep for a test you also had to take: the Psych GRE.

Graduate Record Exam GRE) was a general aptitude or general intelligence test used to see if you were smart enough to go to graduate school. But had an an additional exam (GRE Psych), at an additional cost, to test your knowledge of psychology. You had to know about psychology to study it. That test was a big deal, and this class was used to help prepare for it.

Here is a catalog style description of the course:

History & Systems seeks to illuminate current psychological thought by placing it within its historical context. Tracing psychology’s origins in philosophical thought will highlight and contrast current trends in philosophical, cultural and ethical approaches to research. The course focuses on pioneers in psychology and their contribution to current thought.

Here is what it actually means:

There will be a lot of names and terms in this class. You’ll need to find a way to cluster them together or it will be overwhelming. Fortunately, psychology is very person oriented. If you cluster all the terms associated with Freud and all those associated with Skinner, you will never get them confused.

History & Systems is worth the hard work. Current thinking is an extension of the work of people long ago. The pioneers of psychology provided important contributions in their original works but also in the influence they had on those who followed. They moved psychology from individual speculative studies into organized and coordinated systems of inquiry.

Let’s start with the earliest attempts to understand the mind. We’ll look at a number of ancient theories. Before there was psychology, there was philosophy. it’s not just dead old white people. Every ancient culture had something to say about how the mind works. Then we’ll look at the earliest research methods. Finally we’ll combine philosophy and experimental physiology together to create psychology.

But first, a bit about truth.