PSYC 311 History and Systems of Psychology

This course examines psychological thought from ancient Eastern and Western cultures, the Roman Empire, the Middle Ages, and Renaissance. In contemporary times from 1600, the focus will be on intellectual traditions that contributed to the formal founding of psychology as an independent discipline. Traditions which will be examined include radical and empirical philosophies, advances in physiology, new quantitative techniques, evolutionary theory, naturalistic approaches to emotional problems, and significant humanitarian reform movements of the nineteen century. Trends that followed psychology’s formal founding in the late 1870s will be explored, along with major trends in scientific and professional psychology from the latter half of the twentieth century to the early twenty first century.