Theories of Human Nature (Psych 4220.06/99-2000)
(A seminar course open to Fourth year Honors students or upon consultation with the instructor)
Meetings:Tuesday 2:30-5:30 in Rm. 3004 Vari Hall
Instructor: Paul F. Ballantyne
Office Hours: Thursday 1:30-3:00 or by appointment.
(Behavioral Sciences Building 369);
Class Format: Lectures, class readings, seminar discussions, and occasional videos.
Readings: In the form of a Course Kit Booklet (listed below).
Grading
& Assignments:
For each term: Regular attendance is crucial. Active participation in class discussions (quantitative and qualitative) will be considered in the grading of students.
For each term: Two sets of take-home ("mid" and "end" of term) short answer question format exams will be provided. The form of each exam will be "pick 4 of the following 6 questions" and each answer should be a minimum of 2 typed pages in length. [For "end" of term exams, students are required to hand in their typed answers to my office by the end of the last scheduled class session so as to not interfere with their preparation for non-seminar course final exams].
Exact
percentage of each grading aspect:
Attendance 10%
Participation 10%
Test one 20%
Test two 20%
Test three 20%
Test four 20%
Table of Contents (Booklet of Readings)
Paul Kline, in Psychology Exposed, Or the Emperor's New Clothes,
London:Routledge, 1988.
Chapter 1: "The Problem"
Chapter 2: "What the Scientific method is and why Psychologists use it"
Chapter 3: "A Way Ahead"
Paul F. Ballantyne, "From Initial Abstractions to a Concrete Concept of Personality" in Lubek, R. Hezewijk, G. Pheterson, C. Tolman eds., Trends and Issues in Theoretical Psychology, New York Springer, 1995.
Kurt Danziger & Paul Ballantyne, "Psychological Experiments," in Bringmann, W. et al., A Pictorial History of Psychology, Chicago: Quintessence, 1997.
S.S.
Stevens ed. Handbook of Experimental Psychology. New York: John Wiley &
Sons, 1951,
Leonard Carmichael, "Ontogenetic Development"
Henry W. Nissen, "Phylogenetic
Comparison"
Charles
W. Tolman, in Ethel Tobach ed., Historical Perspectives and the International
Status of Comparative Psychology. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
Publishers, 1987,
Chapter 2: "Theories of Mental Evolution in Comparative Psychology: Darwin to Watson."
Chapter 14: "The Comparative Psychology of A.N. Leontyev (U.S.S.R.)."
Joseph B. Cooper, "Comparative Concepts and Problems at the Human Level," in Comparative Psychology. New York: The Ronald Press Company, 1972.
Charles W. Tolman, in Psychology, Society, and Subjectivity: An Introduction to German Critical Psychology. New York: Routledge, 1994.
"Preface"
"Social-historical theory"
"Methodological Implications"
A.R. Luria & L. S. Vygotsky, "Primitive Man and His Behavior:
Three Planes of Psychological Development," translated by Evelyn Rossiter,
Ape, Primitive Man and child: Essays in the History of Behavior. Orlando:
Paul M. Deutsch, 1992.
Barbara Rogoff, in Apprenticeship in Thinking: Cognitive Development in social Context. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.
"Cognitive development in Sociocultural Context"
"Shared Thinking and Guided Participation: Conclusions and Speculations"
Harry Cowen, in The Human Nature Debate: Social theory, Social Policy and the Caring Professions. London: Pluto Press, 1994.
"The Human Nature Debate"
"Conclusion"
John Somerville, "The Nature of Reality: Dialectical Materialism," in The Philosophy of Marxism: An Exposition. Minneapolis: Marxist Educational Press, 1967/1983.
Richard Morris, in Evolution and Human Nature. New York: Avon Books, 1984.
Chapter 1 "Two theories of Human Nature"
Chapter 5 "The Aryan Myth and Other Aberrations"
Robert V. Guthrie, in Even the Rat was White: A historical view of psychology. Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 1997.
"The Mulatto Hypothesis"
"The Past is Prologue"
Graham Richards, in Race, Racism and Psychology: Towards a reflexive history. London:Routledge, 1997.
"Racism at bay: Psychology and 'race' 1945-69.
"Race and IQ 1969-96: An undead controversy"
James M. Lawler, in IQ, Heritability and Racism. New York: International Publishers, 1978.
Elaine Mensh & Harry Mensh, "The IQ Hierarchy," in The IQ Mythology: Class, Race, Gender, and Inequality. Illinois: Southern Illinois University, 1991.