Beginnings of Psychology in the US

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Beginnings of Psychology in the US
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• Before 1880s, two major psychological traditions
  in US
• Phrenology
• Despite its errors, phrenology was objective
  I.e., relied on measurement
• Flourished outside the schools
• physicians, businessmen and reformers found it
  met needs
• Interest among physicians practicing in mental
  hospitals
• Without totally accepting, they thought it
  offered general guidance in thinking about
  abnormal functioning of the mind
• Phrenology was minor theme in various activities
  directed toward, e.g., temperance, anti-tobacco,
  birth control
• Extremely popular with general public in US
• Even in latter part of 20th century, popular
  magazines featured it and phrenology charts
  remained a staple at fortune teller booths at
  amusement parks
• Phrenology did serve the function of making the
  man in the street aware that he had a brain
  (R.I. Watson, 1968).

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• Scottish psychology
• Associationist tradition
• Mainly introspective and non-empirical
• Common sense philosophy

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• US textbooks written to review European
  literature work in US overshadowed to near
  oblivion
• Before Civil War
• Colleges typically had one curriculum,
  emphasizing Latin, Greek, Mathematics,
  Philosophy. Little instruction in physical
  sciences, and then usually without labs
• Scientific work done almost completely outside
  colleges (as in England, but without the benefit
  of the well-to-do amateur)
• Establishment of scientific schools (Renssellaer,
  Yale, Harvard) helped change this, though they
  were isolated from the colleges. Med schools
  started to contribute, although not much research
  there.
• Enrollments in colleges declined as they became
  more out of touch with the times number of
  students going to Germany for graduate study
  increased (in 1880, there were about as many US
  students abroad as in US)
• German universities dominated by idea of
  research scientific centers of the world

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• After Civil War, movement to extend scope and
  improve quality of university education
• Presidents of Cornell, Johns Hopkins, and Harvard
  introduced changes. As result, these schools
  figure prominently in development of psych.
• G. Stanley Hall, 1st president at Clark
  influenced by European grad schools
• Stanford, U of Chicago, Yale, and Princeton
  figured prominently in this trend
• Important reforms
• Introduction of elective system to replace fixed
  curriculum.
• Consequence increase in of courses and in
  number of departments, e.g., modern languages,
  social sciences, psychology
• Establishment of graduate schools
• Earlier, M.A. based on 5th yr of residence
• Johns Hopkins grad school opened in 1876, with
  independent research project required of all
  students.

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• In these changes, Psychology had favored and
  strategic position.
• new subject brought from the German system
• While psych still located in philosophy
  departments in Germany, the introduction of
  psychology instruction in US often led to
  creation of independent departments
• Economic and social conditions in US made
  application of psychology almost a foregone
  conclusion.
• These were years of preparation to become a
  science still not much scientific advance,
  however.