PSY 443: History & Theory
Fall 2013 ¨ Syllabus
General Information: Course & Instructor
Description
& Credits / This course (for advanced Psychology students) explores the history of psychology, focusing on the work done from the field’s philosophical prehistory, to its initial founding in 1879, and on through the present time. By looking at both major individuals and events influencing psychology during these eras, this course will allow you to arrive at an understanding of the major schools of thought within psychology, as well as the intellectual and cultural forces that gave rise to different explanations concerning the mechanisms of human behavior. In addition, being that a major task for historians involves understanding past trends to make better-informed decisions regarding modern issues, this course will focus on developing this skill as it pertains to behavioral issues. 3 credits.
Meeting Time(s) / Tuesdays & Thursdays, 9:30-10:50 am
General Education
Requirement / Writing Process. The writing component of this course will require students to reflect on a topic, conduct research on it, and finally produce one tentative draft of a major writing assignment on their chosen issue before arriving at the finished product. I will guide this process by providing instruction into various content and style elements of the required writing for this course, and will provide written or oral feedback on students' papers. Furthermore, College guidelines mandate that students in Writing Process courses will write a minimum of 3,000 words in formal, out-of-class essays; the Essay Exams in this course meet these requirements.
Major/Minor
Requirement / Psychology Major Capstone Requirement
Prerequisite(s) / all of PSY 111, 112, 211, & 212, and Junior standing as a PSY major/minor
Instructor & Title / Dr. Lou Manza, Professor & Chair of Psychology
Office Location / Lynch 287A
Office Hours / Mondays, Wednesdays, & Fridays, 8:00-8:45 & 10-10:45 am, and by appointment
Contact Details / 717.867.6193 (office); 717.269.3001 (cell); 717.867.6894 (fax);
Teaching
Philosophy / My approach to teaching is modeled heavily after the work of John Dewey (an early psychologist working in the late 1800s and early 1900s), who argued for the then-radical idea that students learn best by being actively engaged in their education, and not passively receiving information from their teachers. The work in this course reflects this idea, and is complemented by the following thoughts:
“Teaching is never telling . . . Real understanding [is something that] occurs through engagement in . . . problem solving, inference making and investigation, resolving contradictions, and reflecting. Learners need to be empowered to think and to learn for themselves . . . learning [is] something a learner does, not something that is done to a learner.”
} undated/anonymous quote from Cooperative and College Teaching Newsletter
“It is one of the principal tasks of education, I think . . . to discomfort students . . . to prod them out of comfortable, settled places and to nudge them into zones that don’t feel quite right, where . . . they must recalibrate their intellectual and social and moral gyroscopes . . . stripping away of things unexamined and taken for granted. And this is followed by the essential reconstruction: the guided, disciplined appendage of a new intellectual cloak, one designed by students themselves and woven together by them from fabrics of their own choosing.”
} Dr. Stephen MacDonald, LVC Presidential Inaugural Address, April 30, 2005
“High impact practices [have the most meaningful influence on students’ lives and] correlate to the most powerful learning outcomes. [Courses providing these experiences require] collaborative assignments, research, investing time and effort, interacting with faculty and peers, reflecting and integrating learning, and real-world application.”
} Randy Bass, “The Problem of Learning in Higher Education,” Educause Review, March/April 2012
Taking these ideas into consideration, this course is designed to meet the stated learning objectives by engaging you in activities that will (a) enhance your ability to think and communicate in a critically constructive manner, (b) challenge you to acquire a deep understanding of course content by integrating diverse concepts, and (c) foster interactive and intellectually challenging activities during class meetings and out-of-class work.
Student Learning Objectives & Outcomes: Instructor- and IDEA-based. The objectives below reflect the goals of the course, and the evidence of their attainment will be noted by the degree to which students attain the noted outcomes.A,B,C
Instructor Objectives / Instructor Outcomes
1a. connecting historical themes in psychology to current, real-world contexts / 1b. successful engagement in participation behaviors, and successful completion of the Essay Exams and Oral Presentation
2a. integrating ideas from different schools of thought on behavior in order to develop a comprehensive understanding of the history of psychology / 2b. successful engagement in participation behaviors, and successful completion of the Essay Exams and Oral Presentation
3a. explore controversial and mainstream ideas about psychology from a variety of perspectives, to appreciate the complexity involved in the historical analysis of behavior / 3b. successful engagement in participation behaviors, and successful completion of the Essay Exams and Oral Presentation
4a. analyzing quantitative data / 4b. successful completion of the Oral Presentation (as both presenter and audience member)
5a. actively participating in classroom-based exercises / 5b. successful engagement in participation behaviors
6a. attending to details of assigned work, to enable their effective completion / 6b. completing assignments according to stated criteria and avoiding penalties associated with erroneous work
IDEA Objectives / IDEA Outcomes
7a. learning to apply course material, to improve thinking, problem solving, and decisions) (obj. #3) / 7b. successful engagement in participation behaviors, and successful completion of the Essay Exams and Oral Presentation
8a. developing skill in expressing myself orally or in writing (obj. #8) / 8b. successful engagement in participation behaviors and Peer Reviews, and successful completion of the Essay Exams and Oral Presentation
9a. learning to analyze and critically evaluate ideas, arguments, and points of view (obj. #11) / 9b. successful engagement in participation behaviors and Peer Reviews, and successful completion of the Essay Exams and Oral Presentation
ACollectively, these objectives meet the goals of the College’s General Education program that requires coursework (a) “[to] deepen [students’] knowledge—in terms of both content and method—across a broad range of disciplines in the liberal arts, including history, the social sciences, the natural sciences, mathematics, literature, the fine arts, religion and philosophy,” (b) “[to] enhance [students’] intellectual and practical skills, including critical inquiry and analysis, effective written and oral communication, quantitative reasoning, information literacy, and the ability to draw upon and integrate both content and method from different academic disciplines when considering particular problems or issues,” and (c) “[where the] evaluation of writing quality [is] an important factor in the course grade” and faculty “teach the principles of clear and effective communication and provide opportunities to practice and refine them throughout a student’s college career.”
BCollectively, these objectives meet the goals of the College’s Mission that require experiences that (a) “enable [students] to become people of broad vision” and “enhance [students’] sensitivity to and appreciation of differences among human beings” and (b) “enable [students] to become capable of making informed decisions,” (c) “cultivate wisdom that is the capacity of judging rightly in matters of life and conduct ,” (d) “help [students] acquire the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values necessary to live and work in a changing, diverse and fragile world,” (e) “develop [students’] abilities to think logically & communicate effectively,” and (f) “give [students] practice in precise analysis and effective performance.”
CCollectively, these objectives meet the goals of the Psychology Department’s curriculum that require students to (a) “demonstrate understanding of historical trends and major recurring themes in psychology” (Obj. 1.3), (b) “use using psychological tools, including language, concepts, and theories, to interpret psychological phenomena” (Obj. 1.4), (c) “collect, analyze, and interpret data using appropriate statistical strategies” (Obj. 2.4), (d) “synthesize psychological literature to answer specific questions in psychology” (Obj. 3.1), (e) “evaluate the quality of empirical and speculative evidence according to accepted standards in psychology” (Obj. 4.1), (f) “evaluate the strengths and weakness of psychological methods and theories as a basis for inquiry” (Obj. 4.3), and (g) “create connections among diverse findings and theories, and their application to everyday life” (Obj. 4.4).
Course Assignments. The requirements below represent the different activities that students will complete during the semester, in order to meet the designated learning objectives and allow for grade determination.
Requirement / Description / Assessment Criteria / Weight
Class
Participation / Active learning is at the center of my approach to teaching, and attaining this objective requires a commitment from students to play an involved role in their education, going beyond mere class attendance. Along these lines, we will be engaging in discussions and activities during every class period that are designed to (a) encourage a deep understanding of course content, (b) enhance students’ ability to analyze and integrate information, and (c) develop effective listening and speaking skills that can be applied both in and out of the classroom. All students are expected to participate on a daily basis, and additional information about this requirement can be found in Appendix A. / Class Participation will be assessed during every class period, with each student assigned a score from 0 (absent, or present but disruptive/disengaged) to 3 (present, and participating frequently). ANY absence will result in a score of 0 for that class, and students that are absent for more than 25% of scheduled class meetings and fail to produce written documentation explaining such excessive absences will receive an F as their course grade. / 20%
(200 pts.)
Current Event Historical
Analysis
Project:
Essay
Exams / Students will identify a current event issue that represents a problem concerning human behavior, and investigate potential motivations underlying the behavior, as well as solutions to this problem, by way of integrating and applying the work of individuals working in both psychology’s past and present era. A portion of the work within this project will be displayed in a written manner, where students will be evaluated according their effectiveness in completing three 3-4 page take-home essay exams concerning their chosen issue. Material for these evaluations will arise from class discussions, the Pinker and Hergenhahn texts, and the Original Historical Source articles; additional details about this requirement can be found in Appendix B. / Each exam will be divided into several subsections, with the work within each of these evaluated according to a scale ranging from 0 (required elements not addressed at all or completely erroneous) to 5 (ALL requirements addressed, with minimal/no major weaknesses), according to the degree to which the work addresses the required Content using elements of effective writing Style and Mechanics. The grade assigned to this work will be determined by calculating the percentage of points (of all subsections) earned across all exams. / 65%
(650 pts.)
Current Event Historical
Analysis
Project:
Oral
Presentation &
Discussion / In addition to their written analyses of their selected current event problem, students will present their research to the entire class in the form of an interactive oral presentation requiring audience participation. This portion of the project requires an integration of students’ written work with the results of a self-constructed public opinion poll on their topic. Additional details are in Appendix C. / Presentations will assessed by measuring the degree to which the work addresses the required Content using elements of effective speaking Style. The same 0-5 scale mentioned earlier (within the Essay Exams section) will be utilized to evaluate student performance, with the percentage of points earned across all elements determining the grade for this work assigned to each student. / 15%
(150 pts.)
Overall Course Grade Criteria. Course grades will be assigned based on the specific number of Total Earned Points earned, as noted below. Furthermore, grades are determined by my evaluation of the quality of the work you submit, and not the effort that is put in to the production of that work.
Total Earned Points / Requirement Average / Assigned Course Grade
930-1000 / 93.0-100.0 / A
900-929 / 90.0-92.9 / A-
870-899 / 87.0-89.9 / B+
830-869 / 83.0-86.9 / B
800-829 / 80.0-82.9 / B-
770-799 / 77.0-79.9 / C+
730-769 / 73.0-76.9 / C
700-729 / 70.0-72.9 / C-
670-699 / 67.0-69.9 / D+
630-669 / 63.0-66.9 / D
600-629 / 60.0-62.9 / D-
000-599 / 00.0-59.9 / F
Reading Materials. The following items will be utilized during the semester.
Source / Status
Hergenhahn, B.R. & Henley, T.B. (2014). An introduction to the history of psychology (7th Ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning (ISBN 978113395809).
} When reading the Hergenhahn text, in preparation for the class discussion of each assigned chapter, students should (1) make sure to be able to define critical ideas that appear within the portion of the course outline associated with the reading, and (2) identify [and be prepared to comment on] some aspect of the work that raised unanswered questions, impacted you personally, or you found to be intriguing/controversial/flawed in some manner. / Required
Pinker, S. (2002). The blank slate: The modern denial of human nature. New York, NY: Viking/Penguin Group (ISBN 9780142003343).
} When reading both the Pinker text in preparation for the class discussion of each assigned work, students should (1) note at least 3 primary points/arguments that the author makes within the reading, (2) identify [and be prepared to comment on] some aspect of the work that raised unanswered questions, impacted you personally, or you found to be intriguing/controversial/flawed in some manner, and (3) rate [on a scale from 1 (very unfavorable) to 5 (very favorable)], and provide a rationale for, your overall view towards the validity of the primary arguments made by the author. / Required
Original Historical Sources. At various points during the semester, we will go beyond modern historians’ perspectives on the ideas of famous psychologists, opting instead to review such information in the authors’ own words, by evaluating content of their original publications. All of these are available on BlackBoard, but most can also be found at http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/author.htm, the Classics in the History of Psychology website, developed by Christopher D. Green (York University, Toronto, Ontario).