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PSYC407 History and Philosophy of Psychology

10 cp
Prerequisites Entry into the BPsychSc (Honours) or PgDipPsych courses
Teaching Organisation 2 hours per week for twelve weeks or equivalent of lectures, seminars and presentations of research papers with the possibility of running via videoconferencing between Brisbane and Melbourne.

This unit aims to develop in students a critical appreciation of the breadth and limitations of the scientific approach to psychology. Students will be introduced to an historical analysis of prevailing social, political, and religious thought in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and how these have reflected changing models of human and animal behaviour and perceptions of reality. Students will consider the presence of sexist and racist assumptions and bias towards genetic predispositions across a broad spectrum of psychological theory and research, and the effects of these, not just upon the discipline of Psychology, but also upon the lives of individuals whose future and fate lies within the hands of psychologists. It is hoped that such consideration will help students to define new goals, principles, ethics, and practices for a psychology in the twenty-first century.

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