History and Systems / Philosophy of Science

During the Spring of 2017, I taught "History and Systems/Philosophy of Science" to clinical psychology Ph.D. students at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science. I've taught History and Systems before at the Illinois School of Professional Psychology and at Cal State, Fullerton; I reworked the class again to make it current, exciting, and applicable to our students. Feel free to send me any input. I anticipate revising this class some for the next time I teach it, though this was a great start; for now, this page is a work in progress...


Syllabus (updated 2/11/17)


Assigned Readings

  • Benjamin, L.T. (2006) Application of Scientific Principles: Hugo Munsterberg’s attack on the applications of scientific psychology. Journal of Applied Psychology, 91, 414-425. (pdf)

  • Foucault, M. (1988). Madness and civilization: A history of insanity in the age of reason. New York: Vintage. (pdf)

  • Green, C. D. (2002). Digging archaeology: Sources of Foucault’s historigiography. Journal of Interdisciplinary Crossroad, 1, 121-141. (pdf; link)

  • Kendler, H. (2005). Psychology and phenomenology: A clarification. American Psychologist, 60, 318-324. (pdf)

  • Maher, W. B., & Maher, B. (1982). The ship of fools: Stultifera navis or Ignis fatuus? American Psychologist, 37, 756-761. (pdf)

  • Meehl, P. E. (1993) Philosophy of science: Help or hindrance? Psychological Reports, 72, 707-733. (pdf)

  • O’Donohue, W., & Buchanan, J. A. (2001). The weaknesses of strong inference. Behavior and Philosophy, 29, 1-20. (pdf)

  • Overskeid, G. (2007). Looking for Skinner and finding Freud. American Psychologist, 62, 590-595. (pdf)

  • Platt, J. R. (1965). Strong inference: Certain systematic methods of scientific thinking may produce much more rapid progress than others. Science, 146, 347-353. (pdf)

  • Roseboom, W. W. (2005). Meehl on meta-theory. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 61, 1317-1354. (pdf)

  • Taylor, E. (1999). William James and Sigmund Freud: “The Future of Psychology Belongs to Your Work.” Psychological Science, 10, 465-469. (pdf)

Other Readings Mentioned in Class

  • Churchill, S. D., & Mruk, C. J. (2014). Practicing what we preach in humanistic and positive psychology. American Psychologist, 69(1), 90-92. (pdf)

  • Everitt, D. L. (2005). Cultural constraints on grammar and cognition in Piraha: Another look at the design features of human language. Current Anthropology, 46(4), 621-646. (pdf)

  • Hacking, I. (2004). Between Michel Foucault and Erving Goffman: between discourse in the abstract and face-to-face interaction. Economy and Society, 33(3), 277-302. (pdf)

  • Meynen, G. (2013). A neurolaw perspective on psychiatric assessments of criminal responsibility: Decision-making, mental disorder, and the brain. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry. 36(2), 93-99. (pdf)

  • Plato. The Republic. Boox VII (Allegory of the Cave) (pdf)

  • Schneider, K. J. (2014). Humanistic and positive psychology need each other, and to advance, our field needs both. American Psychologist, 69(1), 92. (pdf)

  • Sripada, C. (2015). Commentary on Kozuch and McKenna: Mental illness, moral responsibility, and expression of the self. In Philosophy and Psychiatry: Problems, Intersections and New Perspectives (pp. 114-122). Taylor and Francis Inc.. doi: 10.4324/9781315688725 (pdf)

  • Sripada, C. (in press - 2017). Franfurt's unwilling and willing addicts. Mind. (pdf)

  • Sripada, C (In Press). The second hit in addiction in Walter Sinnott-Armstrong. Moral Psychology: Volume 4: Free Will and Moral Responsibility. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press (pdf)

  • Waterman, A. S. (2013). The humanistic psychology-positive psychology divide: Contrasts in philosophical psychology. American Psychologist, 68(3), 124-133. (pdf)

  • Waterman, A. S. (2014) Further reflections on the humanistic psychology-positive psychology divide. American Psychologist, 69(1), 92-94 (pdf).

History of Some Psychological Associations

  • Benjamin, L. T. (1979). The Midwestern Psychological Association: A history of the organization and its antecedents, 1902-1978. American Psychologist, 34, 201-213. (pdf)

  • Cautlin, R. L. (2009). The founding of the Association for Psychological Science: Part 1: Dialectical tensions with organized psychology. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 4, 211-223. (pdf)

  • Cautlin, R. L. (2009). The founding of the Association for Psychological Science: Part 2: The tipping point and early years. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 4, 224-235. (pdf)

Lecture Power Points / Notes

Writing Prompts

Student Presentations from 2017

Journals

Useful Sites

I also found this series, A History of Psychology in Autobiography, to be very interesting. I also have hard copies of the series, A History of Clinical Psychology in Autobiography, which has two volumes.

I also have hard copies of the series, A History of Clinical Psychology in Autobiography, which has two volumes.

  • Volume I - C. Eugene Walker (Ed.), (1991)

    • Albert Ellis

    • Hans J. Eysenck

    • Sol L. Garfield

    • Molly Harrower

    • Margaret Ives

    • Alan O. Ross

    • Edwin Schneidman

    • Hans H. Strupp

  • Volume II - C. Eugene Walker (Ed.), (1993)

    • Theodora M. Abel

    • Anne Anastasi

    • Luise Bates Ames

    • Raymond B. Cattell

    • W. Grant Dahlstrom

    • Robert R. Hold

    • John Money

    • Julian B. Rotter

  • Also, see these volumes of The Teaching of Psychology in Autobiography.