History of Psychology

3 credits

Ph.D. students only; all others by instructor permission.. This course surveys the philosophical roots and the development of psychological thought from the Grecian and medieval periods to the present. Topics include: doctrines of human nature in early Greek philosophy; emergence of science in the post-Renaissance period; contributions of Descartes, Locke, the British empiricists and associationists to mental philosophy; major developments in nineteenth-century physiology; Darwin's evolutionary theory and its implications for psychology; emergence of psychology as an independent discipline; the rise and demise of the major systematic schools in psychology--structuralism, functionalism, Gestalt, behaviorism and psychoanalysis and, an overview of recent theoretical developments and controversies in contemporary psychology.