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Dowling College

 

Exploring the Self

99931 - HUM 6645

99788 - SSC 6645

 

Oakdale RC 201

Tuesdays 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm

 

Christian Perring, Ph.D.

E-mail: perringc at dowling.edu  [All email to me should have "SSC6645" in the subject line]

Office Phone: 244-3349

Office: 330B RC (next to the computer lab)

Office Hours: M 2:30-5:00PM, T 4:30-5:30PM, W 11:30AM-12:50PM

 

Course Description

This course aims to examine the modern history of studying the self.  It will compare methods of studying the nature of personhood and identity, primarily in philosophy and psychology, but also considering literature, sociology, and biology.  It is primarily a theoretical course, assuming that students are already familiar with some of the basic methods in several disciplines, and the aim of the course is to consider how the disciplines relate to each other.  It is rooted in the history and philosophy of psychology, also drawing on the resources of philosophy of science, philosophy of mind, and even areas such as cultural studies.

The course will proceed by examining the works of major figures in various disciplines.  It will very briefly outline some approaches in the ancient world, but only as background.  The real focus will start in the seventeenth century and then proceed onto to contemporary authors.  Of particular importance will be the split between the humanities and the human sciences, the birth of psychology as a separate discipline, and the interaction between scientific and other approaches in the twentieth century. 

Ultimately, students will have to consider whether any particular discipline can hope to give a complete view of the self, and more importantly, whether any particular discipline can even exist independently of other disciplines, and how it might be possible to integrate the insights of different disciplines. 

Students will better understand the nature of knowledge that different approaches to psychology generate, and how the different methodologies relate to each other. 

 

Learning Outcomes: Students will better understand the nature of knowledge that different disciplines studying humans generate, and how the different methodologies relate to each other. 

 

Reading Notes: you must make notes on the reading every week.  Each week I will collect and review your reading notes.  Each set is worth 1% of your final course grade.  The notes should be at least 3 pages long (single spaced), with benchmarks (page, section, or chapter markers), and should include some personal thoughts and reactions that strike you as you read.  Since you either get full credit or no credit, you do not need to worry so much about spelling and grammar. 

 

Plagiarism detection and prevention: All papers should be submitted via Turnitin.com or sent to me by email as an attachment in MS Word or RTF.  I will give you information about how to use Turnitin.com.  Note that I view any form of academic dishonesty very seriously, and if I find that you have engaged in any significant form of plagiarism or cheating I will fail you in this course and report my action to the Dean of Students.

 

Attendance: Attendance is required, including the first class.  You need to be seated in the classroom by the start of the class period, when I will take attendance.  If you are late to class, you need to speak to me at the end of class to explain why you were late and ask me to record your presence on my roster.  If you need to miss a class, you should notify me by phone or email before the class.  To get an absence excused, you must provide documentation of a medical reason.  .  Your attendance grade will suffer significantly if you miss classes without excuse.

Attendance grade: 0 absences =100; 1 absence =90; 2 absences=75; 3 absences=50; 4 or more = 0

 

Classroom Etiquette.  All cell phones ringers should be turned off and you should never talk on your cell phone in class.  You should not eat any food in class, especially food that others will notice through sound or smell.  You should turn up on time to all classes.  You are free to express your views and question the views of others, including your professor, and you can be passionate about your opinions.  However, you must always treat others in the class with respect; you can criticize the views and arguments of others, but you cannot criticize them as persons.  You should also make sure you are not dominating classroom discussion to the exclusion of other class members. 

 

Participation: You should be engaged in the class, ready to answer questions and thinking of useful questions to ask.  If you do not participate, your participation grade will be 0.  Satisfactory participation (B grade) requires at least two thoughtful contributions per class or on the class Blackboard discussion board. 

 

Academic and Personal Problems.  If you have problems that cause you to be late with work or to miss a number of classes, please stay in communication by phone, email, or by meeting with me in person.  I will be willing to work with you and sort out a way for you to still stay in the class and get a fair grade.  If you miss a number of classes or fail to hand in work on time but don't give me any explanation then you risk failing the class.

 

Keeping Copies of Your Work.  It is your responsibility to keep copies of all your work in this course until your final grade is submitted.  You need to keep copies of your work in at least 3 different places, because all storage methods are fallible.  Floppy disks are very unreliable and I recommend you don't use them.  If you do use them, back them up every day.  Better methods of storage are CD-ROMS, flashdrives or jumpdrives, zip-drives, hard disks, and emails to yourself with your work attached to the emails.  It can be a good idea to print out your work and keep a hard copy.  But remember that no method of data storage is perfect, which is why you should keep your work stored in at least 3 separate places.

 

Grade formula

Attendance 3%

Participation 5%

Reading notes 12%

Presentation.  15%

Final exam: 25%

Term paper 40%

 

Presentation.  Your presentation should be 30 minutes long.  You have a choice about how to do it.  Note that we will not have use of any computers and so you cannot do a Powerpoint presentation.  Presentation grades will be 50% from me and 50% from the rest of the class.  Naturally presentations have to be your own work.  They cannot just be downloaded from other sources.

  • Either you can do it as a regular presentation on the assigned topic.  You can research the topic independently and discuss some aspect of the topic that is relevant to the class--i.e., how the psychology or psychologist is relevant to our thinking about the self.  You should give a useful handout to the class, and this should also be posted to the Blackboard page.  Your presentation must go beyond the information that is available in the class textbooks.
  • Or you can do a mini-lesson related to the assigned topic and you must supply a lesson plan in hardcopies for the class and via Blackboard.  Your lesson plan must have the following elements when applicable.

·         Title

·         Your name and school affiliation

·         Primary Subject

·         Secondary Subjects

·         Grade Level

·         Duration

·         Goals

·         Objectives/ Lesson Outcomes

·         Context

·         Resources/Materials

·         Procedures/Schedule

·         Student Assessment with Grading Rubric

 

Papers.

  • Your paper needs to address issues of the way that some aspect of the self came to be theorized in different ways with the development of psychology. 
  • You should have at least 5 scholarly references in your paper.  These need to be cited in the paper, and you should discuss what they say.
  • Papers are due by Nov 27. 
  • Papers must be submitted via Turnitin.com.  Class ID and password will be given out.
  • Papers should be in APA format.  Be especially careful citing Internet sources in the proper format.
  • Your paper should be at least 4000 words of text (not including the list of works sited.  Papers shorter than this will receive an automatic penalty of 10%.

 

Final Exam

The Final Exam will be based on information available in the presentations and textbook.  It will be 2 hours long. 

 

Required Books:

 

Supplementary: On Reserve

Hergenhahn, B.R.  An Introduction to the History of Psychology.  Fifth Edition.  Thomson, 2005.

Hothersall, D.  History of Psychology.  Fourth Edition.  McGraw-Hill, 2004.

Jansz J and van Drunen, P. (Eds)  A Social History of Psychology.  Blackwell, 2004.

Leahey, TH A History of Psychology: Main Currents in Psychological Thought.  Fifth Edition.  Prentice Hall, 2000

Macdonald PS.  History of the Concept of Mind: Speculations about Soul, Mind and Spirit from Homer to Hume.  Ashgate, 2003.

Mandler, G.  A History of Modern Experimental Psychology: From James and Wundt to Cognitive Science .  MIT Press, 2007.

Robinson, D.  The Intellectual History of Psychology.  Third Edition.  (University of Wisconsin Press, 1995)

Seigel, J.  The Idea of the Self: Thought and Experience in Western Europe Since the Seventeenth Century.  Cambridge University Press, 2005.

Taylor, C.  Sources of the Self: The Making of Modern Identity.  (Harvard University Press, 1989)

Thorne, B.M. & Henley, T.B.  Connections in the History and Systems of Psychology.  Third Edition.  Houghton Mifflin, 2005.

Viney, W.  A History of Psychology: Ideas and Context.  Allyn & Bacon, 1993.

 

 

Date

Topic

Reading

Presentation Topics

9/4

Introduction

 

 

9/11

A Brief Survey of Psychology of the Ancient World

Munger Ch 1.  (1-67)

 

Plato

Aristotle

 

9/18

Early Modern Approaches: Rationalism

Munger Ch 2 (68-127)

Descartes Meditations, Especially I & II

http://www.wright.edu/cola/descartes/mede.html

Descartes

Spinoza

Leibniz

9/25

Early Modern Approaches: Rationalism

Locke, Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Book II: Of Ideas

http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/texts/locke/locke1/Essay_contents.html

Hume, Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sections I-V.

http://18th.eserver.org/hume-enquiry.html

Locke

Hume

10/2

Rationalism, Romanticism, and Existentialism

Munger Ch 2, p 127-end

Benjamin Ch 1

Kant

Goethe

Nietzsche

10/9

Early Psychophysiology and Experimental Psychology

Munger Ch 3 (142-187)

Benjamin Ch 2

Fechner

Von Helmholtz

Pavlov

10/16 

 

Early Approaches to Psychology

Munger Ch 6 Wundt (296-308)

Wertheimer (308-324)

Benjamin Ch 3

Wundt

Brentano

10/23

 

Darwinian Psychology, Mental Testing, and Genetic Ideology

Munger.  Darwin (188-202), Galton (232-249), & Binet & Simon (270-287)

Darwin

Galton

10/30 

William James

Benjamin Ch 4

Munger.  James (216-231), Munsterberg (288-295)

+ Selections

http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/James/Principles/index.htm

James

Cattell

11/6

Titchener & Functionalism

Benjamin Chs 5 & 6

Munger.  Titchener (324-331)

Titchener. 

Functionalism

11/13

Behaviorism and Neobehaviorism

Munger.  Ch 7 (332-367) & Skinner (399-407)

Benjamin Ch 8

Watson

Skinner

11/20

 

Abnormal Psychology, Clinical Psychology, and Psychoanalysis

Munger.  Freud. (258-269)

Benjamin Ch 7

Charcot

Freud

Jung

 

11/27

The Profession of Psychology, and Its Place in Society

Benjamin Chs 8 & 9

The American Psychological Association

Lewin

12/4

Cognitive Psychology

Munger Ch 8 & Ch 9  (368-510)

Benjamin Ch 11 & Epilogue

 

Piaget

Chomsky

12/11

Final Exam

 

 

 

 

Web resources