Psyc 415 History & Systems of Psychology SPRING 1999 TR 2:00 - 3:15, Gore 205 John P. McLaughlin 213 Wolf Hall 831-2752 johnmcl@udel.edu. Office hours: 11 - 12 TR; 2-3 W and by appointment. If I am in my office, you are welcome to knock and come in. Generally, the best way to reach me is by e-mail. I look at it at least twice a day. Voice mail is OK, but can stil1 lead to prolonged telephone-tag. The TA in the course is Jay Reiss, 116 McKinly, 831-1041, jreiss@udel.edu. His office hours are 1-2 T,W The textbook is: Hergenhahn, B. R. An Introduction to the History of Psychology , 3rd Ed, 1997, Wadsworth:Belmont,CA. Additional readings will be available in the reserve room and on the Web, where electronic copies will be available via Netscape and can be downloaded and printed. The Library has a handout on the procedures to do this. In this syllabus, articles are indicated by the author's name. A good deal of communication about exams, study guides, etc. will be electronic, using e-mail and a class newsgroup. If you have not become familiar with these tools already, you may want to buy "Using Electronic Communication on Unix Systems" at the bookstore. It is a pamphlet that describes the procedures for using PINE, the e-mail system, and newsgroups. The newsgroup's address is udel.spring99.psyc415-10 Date Topic Readings 2/9 Introduction 2/11 Science Chap.1 2/16 Major Themes Chap 2. 2/18 Continued Chap3;4 2/23 Modern Phil & Sci. Chap 4 2/25 Review 3/2 EXAM 3/4 Empiricism Chap 5 3/9 Rationalism Chap 6, Deadline for paper-topic clearance 3/11 19th C. Sci Chap 8 3/16 Wundt, et al Chap 9 3/18 Gestalt Chap 14 3/23 EXAM 3/25 Evolution Chap 10 3/27-4/4 SPRING BREAK 4/6 Intelligence Plomin; Weinberg, Murray & Herrnstein 4/8 " Gould; Kamin; Zuckerman 4/13 " TBA 4/15 Functionalism Chap11 4/20 Behaviorism Chap 12; Samelson 4/22 Neobehaviorism Chap 13; PAPERS DUE 4/27 Review 4/29 EXAM 5/4 Science & Bias Bleier; Popper 5/6 Romantics Chap 7 5/11 Mental Illness Chap 15 5/13 Psychoanalysis Chap 16 5/18 Potpurri 5/?? Exam Grades will be based on exams and a term paper. Four exams will be given and the best three will each contribute 25%. The term paper will contribute the remaining 25%. Exams will be essay in form. The questions will be of two types, requests for summaries and requests for reasoning. A common request for summaries is: Describe the major ideas of someone, e.g., Aristotle, and show where they came from and whom the work influenced. The second type would not necessarily have a "correct" answer, but would ask you to argue, i.e., compare and evaluate ideas or contributions, e.g., who was better, Plato or Aristotle ? The term paper assignment is a 3,000-word paper. Your eventual paper should summarize current published experimental work, particularly 1999 work, or at least 1998, and the historical background of the work, which should include a description of the major philosophical issues relevant to the current work. By the third class in March, I want you to hand in (1) The title of an article that was published in 1998 or 1999, reporting original empirical data that have some theoretical significance, (2) some other reasonably current references and (3) some of the least current that you have. In the Fall of 1995, it became clear to many of us on the faculty that students were "recycling" term papers that they had originally written for other courses. This is not acceptable behavior. In reporting a grade for this course, I attest that you thought about and learned a body of material to some degree. If you did not learn anything new in doing your paper, you put me in the position of telling a lie, however unwittingly. Do not do it. If a paper does not include the type of material described above, it will be clear that you didn't do the assignment and you will simply have to rewrite. It should go without saying that you have typed the paper, proofread it and checked your spelling. If you haven't done these things, I will turn it back ungraded. I have no objection if you wish to take an early draft to the writing center for help. Please keep in mind that poor writing and careless preparation make me grumpy. It is very hard to get a good grade from a grumpy reader, no matter how brilliant your ideas may be. As I indicated above, I am going to try to make extensive use of e-mail and a newsgroup this semester. I will send messages to all of you on e-mail as it is appropriate. I will also post material on our own bulletin board and I invite you to post your own ideas or questions.