.
History of Psychology
Study Course Description
Course Description Statuss:Approved
Course Description Version:6.00
Study Course Accepted:01.08.2024 12:37:31
| Study Course Information | |||||||||
| Course Code: | VPUPK_281 | LQF level: | Level 6 | ||||||
| Credit Points: | 2.00 | ECTS: | 3.00 | ||||||
| Branch of Science: | Psychology; General Psychology | Target Audience: | Psychology | ||||||
| Study Course Supervisor | |||||||||
| Course Supervisor: | Guna Svence | ||||||||
| Study Course Implementer | |||||||||
| Structural Unit: | Department of Health Psychology and Paedagogy | ||||||||
| The Head of Structural Unit: | |||||||||
| Contacts: | Riga, 5 J. Asara Street, vppk rsu[pnkts]lv, +37167061587 | ||||||||
| Study Course Planning | |||||||||
| Full-Time - Semester No.1 | |||||||||
| Lectures (count) | 12 | Lecture Length (academic hours) | 2 | Total Contact Hours of Lectures | 24 | ||||
| Classes (count) | 6 | Class Length (academic hours) | 2 | Total Contact Hours of Classes | 12 | ||||
| Total Contact Hours | 36 | ||||||||
| Part-Time - Semester No.1 | |||||||||
| Lectures (count) | 6 | Lecture Length (academic hours) | 2 | Total Contact Hours of Lectures | 12 | ||||
| Classes (count) | 3 | Class Length (academic hours) | 2 | Total Contact Hours of Classes | 6 | ||||
| Total Contact Hours | 18 | ||||||||
| Study course description | |||||||||
| Preliminary Knowledge: | Not required. | ||||||||
| Objective: | To further the acquisition of knowledge of psychological developments in the course of history, the main principles of the formation and development of psychology as a science and the most important aspects from a historical point of view. | ||||||||
| Topic Layout (Full-Time) | |||||||||
| No. | Topic | Type of Implementation | Number | Venue | |||||
| 1 | History of psychology as a scientific discipline. The subject of the history of psychology. Historical timeline and insights into various directions of psychology. Internal and external history of psychology, link of psychology with philosophy. Causes of the historical changes in psychology development. Methods of the history of psychology. | Lectures | 1.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 2 | Prehistory of psychology. Notions of the soul (psyche and its functioning) within ancient traditions of wisdom. Pre-Socratic period. Material elements (Thales, Anaxagoras), transformation processes (Heraclitus), mathematics (Pythagoras) and human biology (Hippocrates, Parmenides) perspectives. | Lectures | 0.50 | auditorium | |||||
| 3 | Socratic or classical period in the ancient world. The ideas of the Sophists idea about cognition processes, thinking and speech. Main ideas of Socrates and their further development. Materialism of Democritus. Platonic idealism. Typology of Plato of types of the soul, the ability of the soul and the concept of the inner conflict. Aristotle’s view of the nature, the soul as a function of the body, about hierarchical organisation of the soul and cognitive abilities. | Lectures | 1.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 4 | Notions of a human and psyche in the Roman Empire. Development of biological conception of the soul. Galen’s studies about the localisation of functions of the psyche. Insights into therapeutic philosophies (Cynics, Cyrenaics, Stoics, Sceptics). Stoic doctrine of affects. Plotinus and Neoplatonism. Patristics. Works by Aurelius Augustinus; a study of the possibilities of cognition and the dichotomous nature of the human. | Lectures | 0.50 | auditorium | |||||
| 5 | Development of philosophy and science and perception of the human development in the Middle Ages. Manifestation of existentialism and the role of symbols. Mysticism, Gnosticism and scholastics. Development of the science in the Arab world and arrival in Europe (Avicenna, Averroes). Studies on cognitive processes and other psychological phenomena in the works of W. Ockham, R. Bacon and Thomas Aquinas. | Lectures | 0.50 | auditorium | |||||
| 6 | Development of philosophy, science and perception of humans in the Renaissance period. Paracelsus’ ideas about memory, thinking, dreams and the role of personality in the structure of the psyche. B. Telesio’s ideas about affects. Achievements of Spanish physicians and beginnings of differential psychology. | Lectures | 0.50 | auditorium | |||||
| 7 | Main trends of philosophy and psychology during the Age of Discovery. Rationalism approach: empirical methodology in works of F. Bacon, theory of reflex action and psychophysical parallelism in the mind-body problem of R. Descartes; rationalism and determinism in works of B. Spinoza. | Lectures | 1.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 8 | Associationism approach: T. Hobbes, consciousness as epiphenomenon and non-subject psychology; J. Locke’s theory of association, association as the main principle of psyche’s functioning in D. Hume’s works, D. Hartley’s materialistic associationism and doctrine of neural vibrations. | Lectures | 1.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 9 | French empirical psychology: Julien de La Mettrie and „psychical mechanics”, interpretation of the human abilities in the works of C. Helvetius and D. Diderot. Psychology ideas in the works of German philosophers (I. Kant, G. Hegel, J. Fichte, A. Schopenhauer). J. Herbart and his ideas of mental dynamics. | Lectures | 1.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 10 | Further development of the rationalism: psychophysical parallelism of G.W. Leibniz, concepts of psychic determinism and apperception; subjective idealism and association as learning mechanism of G.Berkeley. Further development of associationism: principles of association, introspection and the processes of experience development in the works of T. Brown, J.St. Mill and H. Spencer. | Lectures | 1.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 11 | Development of the basis of natural sciences in psychology. Phrenology and studies of brain morphology of F.J.Gall. H. von Helmholtz’s studies of neural impulses and perception. Psychophysics of E. Weber and G. Fechner, studies of sensory processes. F. Galton’s ideas of genetic basis of abilities and anthropometry. Contribution of psychiatry to the development of psychology: J. Charcot, C.Lombroso, R. Kraft-Ebbing, P. Gannushkin. Ideas of Ch. Darwin, T. Maltus and K. Marx. | Lectures | 1.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 12 | The first scientific programmes of psychology: W.Wundt, I.Sechenov, H.Ebbinghaus, F.Brentano. German descriptive psychology (W.Dilthey and E. Spranger). Institutionalisation of psychology and development of various schools: Structuralism of E. Titchener, functionalism of J.Dewey and W.James’ studies. Development of psychometry: Intelligence tests of A. Binet, J. Cattell and Ch. Spearman and statistical analysis of data. Origins of Gestalt psychology (K. Stumpf, O. Kulpe, C. von Ehrenfels). | Lectures | 1.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 13 | Emergence and development of psychoanalysis. Role of J. Breuer and J. Charcot in the development of psychoanalytic ideas. S. Freud’s concept of the psyche. Transformation of psychoanalytic ideas in the works or A. Adler, C.G.Jung; development of neopsychoanalysis (K. Horney, E. Fromm, H.S. Sullivan, J. Lacan). | Lectures | 1.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 14 | Development of psychology in Russia (the USSR): works by of V. Bekhterev and I. Pavlov, principle of the unity of action and consciousness (L.Vygotsky, S. Rubinstein, A. Luria). Development of behaviourism in the USA: concepts of behaviour of J. Watson, E. Thorndike and E. Tolman. Further development of behaviourism: mechanical behaviourism of K.Hall, cybernetic behaviourism of J. Miller, K. Pribram and E.Galanter, operant behaviourism of B. F. Skinner. | Lectures | 0.50 | auditorium | |||||
| 15 | History of the development of cognitivism. Origins of cognitive psychology (works of H. Ebbinghaus, L. Vygostky, J. Piaget) and its further development: L. Festinger’s theory of cognitive dissonance; U. Neisser’s perceptual cycle model and schema theory, J. Bruner’s contribution to educational psychology, N. Chomsky’s psycholinguistics. | Lectures | 0.50 | auditorium | |||||
| 16 | Development of psychology after World War II (a seminar). | Classes | 6.00 | auditorium | |||||
| Topic Layout (Part-Time) | |||||||||
| No. | Topic | Type of Implementation | Number | Venue | |||||
| 1 | History of psychology as a scientific discipline. The subject of the history of psychology. Historical timeline and insights into various directions of psychology. Internal and external history of psychology, link of psychology with philosophy. Causes of the historical changes in psychology development. Methods of the history of psychology. | Lectures | 0.50 | auditorium | |||||
| 2 | Prehistory of psychology. Notions of the soul (psyche and its functioning) within ancient traditions of wisdom. Pre-Socratic period. Material elements (Thales, Anaxagoras), transformation processes (Heraclitus), mathematics (Pythagoras) and human biology (Hippocrates, Parmenides) perspectives. | Lectures | 0.25 | auditorium | |||||
| 3 | Socratic or classical period in the ancient world. The ideas of the Sophists idea about cognition processes, thinking and speech. Main ideas of Socrates and their further development. Materialism of Democritus. Platonic idealism. Typology of Plato of types of the soul, the ability of the soul and the concept of the inner conflict. Aristotle’s view of the nature, the soul as a function of the body, about hierarchical organisation of the soul and cognitive abilities. | Lectures | 0.50 | auditorium | |||||
| 4 | Notions of a human and psyche in the Roman Empire. Development of biological conception of the soul. Galen’s studies about the localisation of functions of the psyche. Insights into therapeutic philosophies (Cynics, Cyrenaics, Stoics, Sceptics). Stoic doctrine of affects. Plotinus and Neoplatonism. Patristics. Works by Aurelius Augustinus; a study of the possibilities of cognition and the dichotomous nature of the human. | Lectures | 0.25 | auditorium | |||||
| 5 | Development of philosophy and science and perception of the human development in the Middle Ages. Manifestation of existentialism and the role of symbols. Mysticism, Gnosticism and scholastics. Development of the science in the Arab world and arrival in Europe (Avicenna, Averroes). Studies on cognitive processes and other psychological phenomena in the works of W. Ockham, R. Bacon and Thomas Aquinas. | Lectures | 0.25 | auditorium | |||||
| 6 | Development of philosophy, science and perception of humans in the Renaissance period. Paracelsus’ ideas about memory, thinking, dreams and the role of personality in the structure of the psyche. B. Telesio’s ideas about affects. Achievements of Spanish physicians and beginnings of differential psychology. | Lectures | 0.25 | auditorium | |||||
| 7 | Main trends of philosophy and psychology during the Age of Discovery. Rationalism approach: empirical methodology in works of F. Bacon, theory of reflex action and psychophysical parallelism in the mind-body problem of R. Descartes; rationalism and determinism in works of B. Spinoza. | Lectures | 0.50 | auditorium | |||||
| 8 | Associationism approach: T. Hobbes, consciousness as epiphenomenon and non-subject psychology; J. Locke’s theory of association, association as the main principle of psyche’s functioning in D. Hume’s works, D. Hartley’s materialistic associationism and doctrine of neural vibrations. | Lectures | 0.50 | auditorium | |||||
| 9 | French empirical psychology: Julien de La Mettrie and „psychical mechanics”, interpretation of the human abilities in the works of C. Helvetius and D. Diderot. Psychology ideas in the works of German philosophers (I. Kant, G. Hegel, J. Fichte, A. Schopenhauer). J. Herbart and his ideas of mental dynamics. | Lectures | 0.50 | auditorium | |||||
| 10 | Further development of the rationalism: psychophysical parallelism of G.W. Leibniz, concepts of psychic determinism and apperception; subjective idealism and association as learning mechanism of G.Berkeley. Further development of associationism: principles of association, introspection and the processes of experience development in the works of T. Brown, J.St. Mill and H. Spencer. | Lectures | 0.50 | auditorium | |||||
| 11 | Development of the basis of natural sciences in psychology. Phrenology and studies of brain morphology of F.J.Gall. H. von Helmholtz’s studies of neural impulses and perception. Psychophysics of E. Weber and G. Fechner, studies of sensory processes. F. Galton’s ideas of genetic basis of abilities and anthropometry. Contribution of psychiatry to the development of psychology: J. Charcot, C.Lombroso, R. Kraft-Ebbing, P. Gannushkin. Ideas of Ch. Darwin, T. Maltus and K. Marx. | Lectures | 0.50 | auditorium | |||||
| 12 | The first scientific programmes of psychology: W.Wundt, I.Sechenov, H.Ebbinghaus, F.Brentano. German descriptive psychology (W.Dilthey and E. Spranger). Institutionalisation of psychology and development of various schools: Structuralism of E. Titchener, functionalism of J.Dewey and W.James’ studies. Development of psychometry: Intelligence tests of A. Binet, J. Cattell and Ch. Spearman and statistical analysis of data. Origins of Gestalt psychology (K. Stumpf, O. Kulpe, C. von Ehrenfels). | Lectures | 0.50 | auditorium | |||||
| 13 | Emergence and development of psychoanalysis. Role of J. Breuer and J. Charcot in the development of psychoanalytic ideas. S. Freud’s concept of the psyche. Transformation of psychoanalytic ideas in the works or A. Adler, C.G.Jung; development of neopsychoanalysis (K. Horney, E. Fromm, H.S. Sullivan, J. Lacan). | Lectures | 0.50 | auditorium | |||||
| 14 | Development of psychology in Russia (the USSR): works by of V. Bekhterev and I. Pavlov, principle of the unity of action and consciousness (L.Vygotsky, S. Rubinstein, A. Luria). Development of behaviourism in the USA: concepts of behaviour of J. Watson, E. Thorndike and E. Tolman. Further development of behaviourism: mechanical behaviourism of K.Hall, cybernetic behaviourism of J. Miller, K. Pribram and E.Galanter, operant behaviourism of B. F. Skinner. | Lectures | 0.25 | auditorium | |||||
| 15 | History of the development of cognitivism. Origins of cognitive psychology (works of H. Ebbinghaus, L. Vygostky, J. Piaget) and its further development: L. Festinger’s theory of cognitive dissonance; U. Neisser’s perceptual cycle model and schema theory, J. Bruner’s contribution to educational psychology, N. Chomsky’s psycholinguistics. | Lectures | 0.25 | auditorium | |||||
| 16 | Development of psychology after World War II (a seminar). | Classes | 3.00 | auditorium | |||||
| Assessment | |||||||||
| Unaided Work: | Active participation in classes (involvement in group work, answers to the questions related to the topics covered during the course, defining and expressing own opinion). Reading of literature and active participation in the seminar, presenting the results of the group work according to the requirements. Preparation for the exam-test. In order to evaluate the quality of the study course as a whole, the student must fill out the study course evaluation questionnaire on the Student Portal. | ||||||||
| Assessment Criteria: | Fulfilment of the semester requirements: attendance and active participation in classes: 30%, participation in the seminar: 60%, self-examination work (preparation for the exam): 10%. Students who have successfully finished all the semester assignments are allowed to take the course exam (test). The final mark for the course is formed as the arithmetic mean value of the semester mark and the exam-test mark. | ||||||||
| Final Examination (Full-Time): | Exam | ||||||||
| Final Examination (Part-Time): | Exam | ||||||||
| Learning Outcomes | |||||||||
| Knowledge: | On successful completion of the course, students will be able to describe the stages of formation and development of psychology as a science, its historical context and fundamental problems. Students will know the founders of different schools of psychology, compare and explain methodological differences of different approaches, will be aware of their limitations and contribution to the development of psychology. | ||||||||
| Skills: | On successful completion of the study course, students will be able to use the scientific terms acquired during the course and to distinguish between the concepts used in different schools of psychology. Students will be able to critically evaluate the advantages and limitations of different schools of psychology and their approaches. | ||||||||
| Competencies: | Students apply their knowledge producing their research work in psychology and reflecting the historical context of the chosen topic, its specific problems and main achievements in it. Independently advance the development of their competencies. Able to apply the acquired knowledge to the professional activities as an assistant psychologist, working independently or as part of a multi-professional team and seeing the place of a certain approach in the context of the existence of diverse schools and approaches of psychology. | ||||||||
| Bibliography | |||||||||
| No. | Reference | ||||||||
| Required Reading | |||||||||
| 1 | Mārtinsone, K., Lasmane, A., Karpova Ā. (2016). Psiholoģijas vēsture. Zvaigzne ABC. | ||||||||
| 2 | Walsh, R. T., Teo, T., & Baydala, A. (2014). A critical history and philosophy of psychology: Diversity of context, thought, and practice. Cambridge University Press. | ||||||||
| 3 | Goodwin, C. J. (2015). A history of modern psychology. John Wiley & Sons. | ||||||||
| 4 | Smith, N. (2009). Current Systems in Pshychology. History, Theory, Research, and Applications. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. | ||||||||
| 5 | Schultz D. P. (2010). A History of Modern Psychology. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. | ||||||||
| Additional Reading | |||||||||
| 1 | Baker, D. B. (Ed.). (2012). The Oxford handbook of the history of psychology: Global perspectives. Oxford University Press. | ||||||||
| 2 | Dirāns, V. (2010) Filosofijas stāsts. Zvaigzne ABC. | ||||||||
| 3 | Лихи, Т. (2003). История современной психологии. СПб.: Питер | ||||||||
| 4 | Kūle, M., Kūlis, R. (1998) Filosofija. Zvaigzne ABC. | ||||||||
| 5 | Mārtinsone K. (Sast.) (2012). Psiholoģija Latvijā: psihologi, izglītība, profesionālā darbība. Rīga: RaKa, 320 lpp. | ||||||||
| 6 | Pipere, A., Sebre, S., Mārtinsone, K., & Vorobjovs, A. Ārija Karpova and psychology in Latvia: Voices from past and present. | ||||||||
| 7 | Robinson, D. N. (1995). An intellectual history of psychology. Univ of Wisconsin Press. | ||||||||
| 8 | Šuvajevs, I.(2006) Dzīļu psiholoģija. Personas, idejas un risinājumi. Zvaigzne ABC. | ||||||||
| 9 | Соколова, Е. Е. (1997). Тринадцать диалогов о психологии. М.: Смысл. | ||||||||
| 10 | Ждан, А. Н. (2012). История психологии: от Античности до наших дней. Академический проект. | ||||||||
| Other Information Sources | |||||||||
| 1 | History of Psychology (APA recenzējams akadēmiskais žurnāls) | ||||||||
