First Year Studies in Psychology: The Science of Mental Life

Fall 1996

Elizabeth Johnston
ebj@mail.slc.edu
Science Center 313
x2245

Section I: Introduction: Infantile Amnesia and Psychological Theory

The purpose of this opening section is to introduce psychological thinking in the context of a particularly compelling example: infantile amnesia. Infantile amnesia refers to our inability to recall the early years of our lives. Earliest memories are typically assigned to the third or fourth year and memories are generally sparse prior to the age of seven. This phenomenon has been widely discussed by psychologists of varied theoretical persuasion. Consequently, infantile amnesia provides a good lens for our initial explorations of the diverse perspectives in psychology.

9/2 Introductions and early memories data collection assignment

9/9 Inspection of the data and a first look at psychological theory

Sacks, O. (1995) The Landscape of His Dreams, In An Anthropologist on Mars, Vintage:NY, pp. 153-187.
Richards, G. (1996) Putting Psychology in its Place, Routledge:New York, Chapter 1: Psychology and history.

9/12 Computer Resources Meeting in Bates Mac Lab: We will learn about internet resources for this course and how to enter the early memories data into the computers.

9/16 The psychoanalytic perspective on infantile amnesia

Freud, S. (1901) Childhood Memories and Screen Memories, In The Psychopathology of Everyday Life, Norton:NY. Class Handout.
Freud, S. (1917) An early memory from Goethe's autobiography. In Memory Observed, U. Neisser (Ed.) Freeman:NY. Class Reader #2
Lewis, M. (1995) Memory and Psychoanalysis: A New Look at Infantile Amnesia and Transference, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 34:4, 405-417. Class Reader #4

9/19 Recent social-cognitive treatments of infantile amnesia

Nelson, K. (1993) The psychological and social origins of autobiographical memory, Psychological Science, 4, 7-14. Class Reader #3
Usher, J.N. & Neisser, U. (1993) Childhood Amnesia and the Beginnings of Memory for Four Early Life Events, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 122, 155-165. Class Reader #1

NB Short Class Paper on Infantile Amnesia Due

Section II: Mind and Brain

9/23 Localization of Function and the Nerve Impulse

Temple, C. (1993) The Brain, Chapters 1 & 2.
Introduction to the Human Brain, from The Human Brain Coloring Book. Reader #5
The Nerve Impulse: An Introduction, from The Physiology Coloring Book. Reader #6
Richards, I. (1996) Putting Psychology in Its Place, Chapter 9: Psychology and the Brain.

9/26 and 9/30 Hemispheric Asymmetry and Language

The Brain, Chapters 3 & 4.
Pinker, S. (1994) Language Organs and Grammar Genes, In The Language Instinct, New York:William Morrow. Reader #7.
Blakeslee, S. (1994) Odd Disorder of the brain may Offer New clues to Basis of Language, NY Times. Reader #8.

10/3 Amnesia: The Loss of Memory

The Brain, Chapter 5.
Milner, B., corkin, S. & Teuber, H-L. (1968) Further analysis of the hippocampal amnesic syndrome: 14-year follow-up study of H.M., Neuropsychologia, 6, 215-234. Reader #9
Sacks, O. (1987) The Lost Mariner, In The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat, New York: Harper. Reader #10

10/7 Vision I

The Brain, Chapter 6.
Sacks, O. (1995) The Case of the Colorblind Painter, In An Anthropologist on Mars.

10/10 Vision II

Sacks, O. (1995) To See and Not See, In An Anthropologist on Mars.
Weiskrantz, L. 91992) Unconscious Vision, The Sciences, Sept/Oct, 23-28. Reader #11
Richards, G. (1996) Putting Psychology in its Place, Routledge:New York, Chapter 10: Looking at perception.

10/14 Dyslexia

The Brain, Chapter 7.
Chall, J.S. & Peterson, R.W. (1986) The Influence of Neuroscience upon Educational Practice. In The Brain, Cognition and Education, Friedman,S.L., Klivington,K.A. & Peterson, R.W. (Eds.), New York:Academic Press. Reader #12
Blakeslee, S. (1994) New Clue to Cause of Dyslexia Seen in Mishearing of Fast Sounds,New York Times, August 16. Reader #13

10/24 Emotion

The Brain, Chapter 8.
Blakeslee, S. (1994) Old Accident Points to Brain's Moral Center, New York Times, May 24. Reader #14
Richards, G. (1996) Putting Psychology in its Place, Routledge:New York, Chapter 4: William James and the founding of American Psychology.

Group Web pages due.

Section III: Sigmund Freud's Psychoanalytic Psychology

10/28 Introduction to Freud's Thought

Freud, S. (1917) Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis, Part I: Parapraxes, Lectures I,II and III.
Fancher, R. (1973) Psychoanalytic Psychology: The Development of Freud's Thought, New York: Norton. Chapter 1: Introduction: The Background of Freud's Thought.

10/31 Early Development of Psychoanalytic Psychology

Psychoanalytic Psychology, Chapter 2: The Early Data: Hysteria and Hypnosis, and Chapter 3: Project for a Scientific Psychology, pages 63-77, 88-97.

11/4 Film About Freud and some of the Dream Reading

Introductory Lectures, Part II: Dreams, Lectures V,VII,IX, and X.

11/7 Discussion of The Interpretation of Dreams

Introductory Lectures, Part II: Dreams, Lectures XI and XII.
Psychoanalytic Psychology, Chapter 4: Dreams.

11/11 Sexuality

Introductory Lectures, Part III: General Theory of the Neuroses, Lectures XX and XXI.
Psychoanalytic Psychology, Chapter 5: Sexuality

11/14 Psychotherapy and the Implications of Psychoanalysis

Introductory Lectures, Lectures XXV, XXVII, and XXVIII.
Psychoanalytic Psychology, Chapter 6: Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy and the Theory of Instincts and Chapter 7: Freud's Final Model of the Mind and the Implications of Psychoanalysis.
Richards, G. (1995) Putting Psychology in its Place, Chapter

11/18 Freud on Femininity

Freud, S. (1908) Civilized Sexual Morality and Modern Nervous Illness. Class Reader #15
Freud, S. (1932) Femininity. In New Introductory Lectures, New York: Norton. Class Reader #16
Wollheim, R. (1993) So What Did They Want?, New York Times Book Review, January 24. Reader #17

11/21 Feminist Critiques of Freud's Discussion of Femininity

Horney, K. (1939) Feminine Psychology, In New Ways in Psychoanalysis, New York: Norton. Reader #18.
Chodorow, N.J. (1974) Family Structure and Feminine Personality. In Women, Culture, and Society, Rosaldo & Lamphere (Eds.), Stanford: Stanford University Press. Reader #19

11/25 Erikson's Ego Psychology

Obituary of Erik Erikson, New York Times, May 13, 1994.
Erikson, E. (1969) Eight Ages of Man. In Childhood and Society, New York: Norton. Reader #22
Erikson, E. (1969) Toys and Reasons. In Childhood and Society, New York: Norton. Reader #21

Paper on psychoanalytic psychology due.

Education and Intelligence

12/2 Philosophy of Education

Photocopied package from the 1935-1940 Sarah Lawrence Self Study

12/3 Attend the Sarah Lawrence Round Table on Philosophy of Education

12/9 Intelligence Testing

Readings 23 and 24 of the class reader

12/12 Recent Developments

Readings 25 and 26 of the class reader
Stephen Jay Gould (1995) Curve Ball (review of the Bell Curve), The New Yorker.

12/16 and 12/19 Movie Week: Baby Its You films on early childhood development

Spring 1997

Piagetian Theory

1.23.97. Introduction to Piagetian Ideas

Fancher, R. (1990) The Developing Mind: Alfred Binet, Jean Piaget, and the Study of Human Intelligence, In Pioneers of Psychology, pp. 411-422.
Bringuier, J-C (1980) Conversations with Jean Piaget. Conversations 1,4,& 5.

1.27.97. Excerpts from Piaget's Baby Books

J. Piaget (1937) The Construction of Reality in the Child. In The Essential Piaget, pp. 215-222, 234-240, 250-269.

1.30.97. Piaget & Education and Piaget on Piaget Film (meet in small FVR)

Kamii, C. (1984) Autonomy: The Aim of Education Envisioned by Piaget, Phi Delta Kappan, February, 410-415.

Presentations of conference papers

2.3.97.
2.6.97.
2.10.97.
2.13.97. NB Second Semester Conference Proposals Due

Children's Minds: Donaldson's Revisions of Piaget

2.17.97 Decentering: A Reexamination of Egocentrism

Donaldson, M. (1978) Children's Minds, Chapters 1-3.
Piaget, J. & Inhelder, B. (1967) The Child's Conception of Space, Norton: NY, pp. 209-223.

2.24.97. Warm Blooded Reasoning

Donaldson, M. (1978)Children's Minds, Chapters 4-6.
M. Hughes & R. Grieves (1980) On Asking Children Bizarre Questions. First Language, vol. 1, pp. 149--160.
Gussin Paley, V. (1986) On Listening to What the Children Say. Harvard Educational Review, vol. 56, pp. 122-131.

2.27.97. Implications for Schooling

Donaldson, M. (1978)Children's Minds, Chapters 7-11.

Vygotsky's Sociocultural Theory

3.3.97. Tool and Symbol

Vygotsky, L. (1978) Mind in Society, Introduction, pp. 1-16, Chapter 1, pp. 19-30.
Kozulin, A. (1984) Psychology in Utopia, Chapter 5: Lev Vygotsky: The Continuing Dialogue, pp. 102-120.

3.6.97. The Development of Higher Mental Functions

Vygotsky, L., Mind in Society, Chapters 2,3,4 & 5, pp. 31-75.
NB Essay on Donaldson Due

3.10.97. Educational Implications

Vygotsky, L., Mind in Society, Chapter 6, pp. 79-91.
Bruner, J. (1986) Actual Minds, Possible Worlds, Chapter 5: The Inspiration of Vygotsky, pp. 70-78.

3.13.97. "It's a Kid's World"

Scientific American Video on recent work in developmental psychology.

3/14 - 3/30 Spring Break

The Child's Theory of Mind

3.31.97. Primate Intelligence, Folk Psychology and Intentionality

Astington, J.W. The Child's Discovery of the Mind, Chapters 1,2 & 3.
Premack, D. & Woodruff, G. (1978) Does the chimpanzee have a theory of mind? Behavioral Brain Sciences, vol. 1, pp. 515-526.

4.3.97. Pretend Play

The Child's Discovery of the Mind, Chapters 4 & 5.
Vygotsky, L. Mind in Society, Chapter 7: The Role of Play in Development.

4.7.97.Thinking About Thinking

The Child's Discovery of the Mind, Chapters 6,7 & 8.
Olson, D.R. & Astington, J.W. (1993) Thinking About Thinking: Learning How to Take Statements and Hold Beliefs, Educational Psychologist, 7-23.

4.10.97. Autism and Theory of Mind

The Child's Discovery of the Mind, Chapters 9 & 10.
Sacks, O. (1995) An Anthropologist on Mars, "Prodigies" and "An Anthropologist on Mars".

4.14.97. Vygotsky Revisited

Mind in Society, Chapter 8 and Afterword

4.17.97. Special Session on Reuven Feuerstein, co-led by Rachael

Readings to be announced.

4.21.97. Human Minds:The Modes of Thinking and Feeling

Donaldson, M. (1992) Human Minds, Penguin:New York. Chapters 1, 2, 3 & 4 and Appendix: The Modes.

4.25.97. Human Minds: Intellectual Development

Human Minds, Chapters 5,6,7 & 8.

4.28.97. Human Minds: A Look at History of Knowledge

Human Minds, Chapters 9,10,& 11

5.1.97. Human Minds: Dealing with Emotions

Human Minds, Chapters 12,13,14 & 15.

5.5.97. - 5.15.97. Conference Paper Presentations

NB Final Conference Papers Due on 5/5/97

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