2024/25 Undergraduate Module Catalogue

HPSC1030 History of Psychology

10 creditsClass Size: 150

Module manager: Dr Mike Finn
Email: m.finn@leeds.ac.uk

Taught: Semester 1 (Sep to Jan) View Timetable

Year running 2024/25

This module is approved as a discovery module

Module summary

- Can there be a science of the mind?- If so, what should it look like? Since the nineteenth century, the most extraordinary range of answers has been given to these questions. The phrenologists, for instance, turned psychology into the study of bumps on the skull, on the view that your particular set of bumps would reveal your unique talents and character. The psychoanalysts turned psychology into the study of the unconscious, where, they said, your mind locks away wishes and impulses too shameful to be acted upon. The behaviourists turned psychology into the study of reactions to stimuli, attempting to show that your environment made you who you are and, if changed, could remake you.- How did these different understandings of what psychology is come into being? - Why did each have its moment of popularity, only to be overtaken by a new answer? - Where does the truth lie? In this module we will be looking not just at a remarkable set of ideas about what psychology is, but at the people behind the ideas, from Darwin to Freud to Chomsky and beyond. Anyone curious to know more about the mind and its study will enjoy this module. There are no prerequisites.

Objectives

To provide an overview of the historical development of psychology as a scientific discipline.

Syllabus

The establishment of psychology as an experimental science, the historical context of the revolt against behaviourism and the subsequent cognitive revolution.

The relations of psychology to physiology, philosophy, education, and biology.

Teaching methods

Delivery type	Number	Length hours	Student hours
Lecture	11	1.00	11.00
Tutorial	5	1.00	5.00
Private study hours			84.00
Total Contact hours			16.00
Total hours (100hr per 10 credits)			100.00

Private study

Reading & tutorial preparation: 44 hours
Developing literature review: 15 hours
Writing essay: 25 hours

Opportunities for Formative Feedback

Students will have the option to submit a 500 word literature review on readings connected to their essay question. Students will also receive feedback informally through tutorial discussion and office hours.

Methods of assessment

Coursework

Assessment type	Notes	% of formal assessment
Essay	1,500 words	100.00
Total percentage (Assessment Coursework)		100.00

Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated.

Reading list

The reading list is available from the Library website

Last updated: 29/04/2024 16:19:42

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