History of Psychology

Video Lectures

Lecture 1 - Overview of Psychology's History

What are systems?
Why do we study the history of psychology?
How do scholars study history?
What are presentism and historicism?
What are internal and external histories?
What are personalistic and naturalistic histories?

Lecture 2 - Influence of Philosophy

What is the difference between philosophy and physiology?
How did ancient Greek philosophers contribute to the development of psychology?
How did Copernicus, Vesalius, and Bacon contribute in the 16th century?
How did Descartes and Locke contribute in the 17th century?
How did Berkeley and Hume contribute in the 18th century?
How did Mill and Leibniz contribute in the 19th century?

Lecture 3 - Influence of Physiology

What is the difference between philosophy and physiology?
How did the study of decapitation contribute to the development of psychology in the 18th and 19th centuries?
How did phrenology contribute to the development of psychology in the 19th century?
How did physiologists’ experiments contribute to the development of psychology in the 19th century?
How did the study of nerve cells contribute to the development of psychology in the 19th century?

Lecture 4

Who contributed to German psychology in the 1800s?
How did Herbart, Weber, and Fechner contribute to German psychology in the 1800s?
Who was Wilhelm Wundt? How did Wundt contribute to German psychology in the 1800s?
How did Ebbinghaus, Müller, and Külpe contribute to German psychology in the 1800s?

Lecture 5 - Darwin & Galton in the 1800s

What was the species problem? How did religion and science propose to answer the species problem?
Who was Charles Darwin? How did Darwin create his theory of evolution? What were Darwin’s major contributions to psychology?
Who was Francis Galton? What were Galton’s major contributions to psychology? What is eugenics?

Lecture 6 - Pioneers of the 1800s & 1900s

In the 1800s, what was the zeitgeist of USA’s psychology?
Who was William James? How did he contribute to psychology?
Who was G. Stanley Hall? How did he contribute to psychology?
What barriers did USA’s minority students face in the 1800s?
In 19th century USA, who was influential in psychology? In 20th century USA?

Lecture 7

Who is Edward Titchener? How did Titchener contribute to psychology?
What is structuralism? What is introspection?
What is functionalism? How did functionalism develop?
Who were the other pioneers of functionalism? How did they contribute to functionalism?
What are the differences between structuralism and functionalism?

Lecture 8 - Mental Testing & Applied Psychology

How did applied psychology develop? Why were psychologists interested in application?
How did mental testing develop? How did Galton, Cattell, Binet, Goddard, Terman, and Hollingworth contribute?
How did Münsterberg, Yerkes, Bingham, and Gilbreth contribute to the development of applied psychology?
How did the Hawthorne studies contribute to the development of applied psychology?

Lecture 9 - Gestalt Psychology

What is gestalt psychology?
What are the principles of perceptual organization?
How did Max Wertheimer, Kurt Koffka, and Wolfgang Köhler establish gestalt psychology?
How did gestalt psychology spread to the USA? How did Kurt Lewin spread gestalt psychology?
How did gestalt psychology impact the field of psychology?

Lecture 10 - Behaviorism: Watson & Pavlov

What is behaviorism?
Why did behaviorism develop? Who contributed to the development of behaviorism?
Who is Ivan Pavlov? What did Pavlov study? How did Pavlov contribute to behaviorism?
Who is John Watson? What did Watson study? How did Watson contribute to behaviorism?

Lecture 11 - Behaviorism: Skinner & More

What caused behaviorism to expand in the late 1920s to early 1930s?
Who is Edward Tolman? How did he contribute to behaviorism?
Who is Clark Hull? How did he contribute to behaviorism?
Who is B. F. Skinner? How did he contribute to behaviorism? What did he study?
What is the difference between classical conditioning and operant conditioning?

Lecture 12 - Mental Health Treatment: Part 1

Historically, how was mental illness treated?
How did Pinel, Tuke, Kirkbride, Dix, and Beers contribute to the reforms of mental illness treatment?
How was hypnotism used to treat mental illness?
Who is Sigmund Freud? How did he contribute to the treatment of mental illness? What are some weaknesses of his work?
How did Anna Freud, Adler, and Jung contribute to the treatment of mental illness?

Lecture 13 - Mental Health Treatment: Part 2

What medical approaches were used to treat mental illness? How were these approaches used to treat mental illness?
How did clinical psychology develop before WWII? How did clinical psychology develop after WWII?
What other treatment options were available? What is behavior therapy? What is humanistic psychology? How did Maslow and Rogers contribute?

Lecture 14

How did cognitive psychology develop? How did Piaget, Bartlett, Broadbent, and Miller contribute?
How did neuroscience develop? How did Lashley and Hebb contribute?
How did perceptual psychology develop? How did J. Gibson and E. Gibson contribute?
How did social psychology develop? How did F. Allport, Festinger, and Milgram contribute?
How did personality psychology develop? How did Murray and G. Allport contribute?

Lecture 15

What is the scientist-practitioner split?
How were minorities represented in psychology? How are gender and racial minorities represented today?
Is psychology unified? Are there multiple psychologies?
What are today’s trends in psychology?

Downloads

Feel free to download the PDFs below to follow along with the corresponding lectures.

History of Psychology - Lecture 1 - Overview of Psychology’s History (pdf)

History of Psychology - Lecture 2 - Influence of Philosophy (pdf)

History of Psychology - Lecture 3 - Influence of Physiology (pdf)

History of Psychology - Lecture 4 - Wundt & German Psychology in the 1800s (pdf)

History of Psychology - Lecture 5 - Darwin & Galton in the 1800s (pdf)

History of Psychology - Lecture 6 - Pioneers of the 1800s & 1900s (pdf)

History of Psychology - Lecture 7 - Titchener’s Structuralism & James’ Functionalism (pdf)

History of Psychology - Lecture 8 - Mental Testing & Applied Psychology (pdf)

History of Psychology - Lecture 9 - Gestalt Psychology (pdf)

History of Psychology - Lecture 11 - Behaviorism Skinner & More (pdf)

History of Psychology - Lecture 10 - Behaviorism Watson & Pavlov (pdf)

History of Psychology - Lecture 12 - Mental Health Treatment Part 1 (pdf)

History of Psychology - Lecture 13 - Mental Health Treatment Part 2 (pdf)

History of Psychology - Lecture 14 - Psychology in the Mid-1900s (pdf)

History of Psychology - Lecture 15 - Psychology in the 2000s (pdf)