Introduction:

The New Psychology and New Psychologists

While William Wundt is generally credited as the founder of the field of psychology, other researchers in Germany, including Hermann Ebbinghaus, Franz Brentano, Carl Stumpf, and Oswald Külpe, were working on psychology problems at about the same time. Before long, however, Americans trained under Wundt returned to the United States to conduct their own research. Edward Bradford Titchener introduced Wundt’s experimental psychology to American students. Although he inferred that he represented Wundt’s ideas, he actually altered them to create a completely different form of psychology, structuralism.

As psychology emerged in the early 1900s, the United States was, like most academic and scientific endeavors, a white man’s world. Soon, however, women and people of different ethnic groups demanded their place, changing both the field of psychology and the scientific zeitgeist (simply defined as the general intellectual, moral, and cultural climate of a specific period).

Tichener played an interesting role in advancing women in psychology, as your readings for this week explain. He excluded women from the Experimentalists Society and his informal group of research psychologists who met in what would be termed a men’s club; however, at the same time, he actively promoted women in psychology. Zeitgeist is more often suggested as the reason women’s contributions to early psychology were often overlooked as their educational opportunities were severely limited and if allowed, they often focused on “female” issues such as child-rearing.

Segregation, prejudice, and racism also help explain why ethnic minority psychologists such as Francis Cecil Sumner, Albert Sydney Beckham, Kenneth Bancroft Clark, and Jorge Sanchez struggled for recognition during the early years of American psychology. This week focuses on the roots of modern psychology, including contributions of individuals whose work still are not fully recognized.

Be sure to review this week’s resources carefully. You are expected to apply the information from these resources when you prepare your assignments.

Books and Resources for this Week:

Books

Reference

Instruction

Benjamin, L.T. (2014) A brief history of modern psychology

Read Chapters 2, 3, and 5 (pp. 77-96)

Websites

Reference

Instruction

American Psychological Association. (2015). Surviving and thriving in academia.

http://www.apa.org/pi/oema/resources/brochures/surviving.aspx

Review website

Audacity freeware program. (2015). Source Forge.

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Review website

Edward Bradford Titchener Biography

http://peace.saumag.edu/faculty/kardas/Courses/HP/Lectures/titchener.html

Review website

Heffner, C. (2015). Timeline of History of Psychology. AllPsych.

History of Psychology (387 BC to Present)

Review website

Holliday, B.G., & Holmes, A.L. (2003). A tale of challenge and change: A history and chronology of ethnic minorities in psychology in the United States.

http://www.apa.org/pi/oema/resources/tale-challenge-change.pdf

Read article

Indiana University.(2012). Indiana University Teaching Handbook, Lecturing.

http://www.teaching.iub.edu/wrapper_big.php?section_id=lect

Review website

McLeod, S. (2008). Wilhelm Wundt. Simply Psychology.

Wilhelm Wundt: Father of Psychology

Review website

Milar, K. (2002). An historical view of some early women psychologists and the psychology of women. Classics in the History of Psychology Special Collections.

http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Special/Women/

Review website

Northcentral University. Academic Integrity Tutorial.

http://learners.ncu.edu/public_images/learner_portal/AI_Tutorial/Academic_Integrity_Tutorial.htm

Review tutorial

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. (2014). Franz Brentano.

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/brentano/

Review website

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. (2014). Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz.

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hermann-helmholtz/

Review website

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. (2014). The founding of experimental psychology: Wilhelm Wundt and William James.

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/mental-imagery/founders-experimental-psychology.html

Review website

University of Minnesota. (2010). Designing Smart Lectures.

http://www1.umn.edu/ohr/teachlearn/tutorials/lectures/index.html

Review website

Document/Other

Reference

Instruction

Directions for using audacity

Directions_for_Using_Audacity.pdf

Review document

Warm-Up Activity 2.1: Read article

The following article, located under your weekly resources, traces the emergence of members of minority groups into the field of psychology. While reading this article, consider how the zeitgeist promoted or prevented this emergence and how the eventual entry of such individuals changed the science of psychology.

•Holliday, B.G., & Holmes, A.L. (2003). A Tale of Challenge and Change: A History and Chronology of Ethnic Minorities in Psychology in the United States.

Warm-Up Activity 2.2: Academic Integrity

Throughout your coursework, you will be asked to review the work of others, analyze, and provide your own solutions to issues and problems related to the field. During this process, meticulously distinguish between your work and the work of others. One way of doing this is through integrity in writing.

Northcentral University considers it a violation of Academic Integrity to knowingly submit another person’s work and present it as that of the Student’s, without properly citing the source of the work.

•Carefully note that Northcentral University’s Academic Integrity code requires not only that the student abstain from presenting the work of another as his or her own work, but also that the student cites the source of the work properly.

•Northcentral University considers it the responsibility of the student to become familiar with how to properly cite sources. All students are required to successfully complete the Academic Integrity Questionnaire at the beginning of their course of studies, thus confirming their understanding of the Integrity policy and their commitment to adhering to that policy.

•Instructors are required to provide a sample of each student’s work to the turnitin service, which checks each paper for similarity to original works and papers turned in by students in hundreds of other universities.

•The student is responsible for understanding and adhering to the Academic Integrity Policy and for avoiding all instances of plagiarism in writing. Violations of the Northcentral University Integrity Code are reported by the instructor to the school and a series of consequences follow, ranging from being required to revise the paper within 3 days (first violation only) to grade penalties, course failures, and dismissal from the university.

View the Northcentral Academic Integrity Tutorial, located under your weekly resources, to refresh your knowledge of how to achieve academic integrity.

Warm-Up Activity 2.3

For this assignment, and without a doubt in your career, you will need to present effective and engaging lectures. To find out how to polish your lecture skills, review the following websites, located on your weekly resources:

•University of Minnesota. (2010) Designing Smart Lectures.

•Indiana University. (2012). Indiana University Teaching Handbook, Lecturing.

Assignment

Prepare a lecture suitable to deliver to an undergraduate psychology class, which describes the emergence of the new psychology. Include the following in your lecture transcript:

•Explain why the middle to late nineteenth century is considered as the founding date of psychology.

•Indicate the key figures and the context in which the new psychology arose.

•Discuss the importance of experimental and physiological psychology in the founding of the new psychology.

•Mark the entry of women and minorities to the field of psychology; be sure to analyze Titchener’s role in the admissions of women to the profession of psychology.

Present the lecture in an engaging way, appropriate to the interests and learning capacity of undergraduate psychology students. Include at least two references. In addition to these specified resources, other appropriate scholarly resources may be included.

You may prepare your lecture as an audio file and upload it to the courseroom, accompanied by a transcript of the lecture. Or, you can upload only the lecture transcript. Check the supplemental readings in this course for appropriate and interesting resources to support your lecture.

In making your lecture engaging, you may depart from usual writing form and organization and choose to use anecdotes, humor, or other speaking tools; be sure however, to cite your sources appropriately in the print version of the lecture that you submit. Be sure to adhere to Northcentral University’s Academic Integrity Policy.

If you choose to record your lecture upload it to your instructor in MP3 format; this file must not exceed 8mb. An average lecture tends to be 100 to 150 words per minute. There are many audio recording programs available. Audacity is an open-source recording program available on the Internet.

Instructions on using Audacity for your recording, are located under your weekly resources.

Length: 2-4 pages, approximately a 5-7 minute lecture.

Upload your assignment using the Upload Assignment button below.