Re: [tips] Fwd: [PSYCHTEACHER] Changing Dept. name from Psychology to Psychological Science
Thanks for this historical perspective, Chris. I was unaware of the cachet of physiological during Wundt's time. As Santayana said, those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. As you can see in my signature, my department has made this leap (and created a name that is too long to meet the character limits of fields in university and State data systems). UWF is in the middle of a reorganization. The current proposal entails eliminating the College of Arts and Sciences and creating three colleges: College of Sciences and Engineering, College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, and College of Health. The campus discussions about which departments and programs belong where have been most interesting. Some departments have multiple programs that will be located in different colleges. Language is powerful. Sometimes what we call things is important. Yes, it is marketing. But there is marketing that is pure spin and marketing that communicates substance to people who won't take the time to discover it otherwise. I think psychology is thin-skinned about this topic because it has sometimes harbored some silly stuff . . . as have other sciences, if we consider some of the dead ends of other sciences (phlogiston is the easiest target, cold fusion might be another, remember RNA-transfer of memories? - psychology shares some blame for that one). The self-correcting nature of science solves those problems (eventually). Still, the question about whether this particular marketing misfires and undermines our credibility is worth discussion. _ Claudia J. Stanny, Ph.D. Director Center for University Teaching, Learning, and Assessment Associate Professor NSF UWF Faculty ADVANCE Scholar School of Psychological and Behavioral Sciences University of West Florida 11000 University Parkway Pensacola, FL 32514 Phone: (850) 857-6355 (direct) or 473-7435 (CUTLA) csta...@uwf.edu CUTLA Web Site: http://uwf.edu/cutla/ Personal Web Pages: http://uwf.edu/cstanny/website/index.htm On Tue, Jan 28, 2014 at 9:56 AM, Christopher Green chri...@yorku.ca wrote: Yesterday, someone on PsychTeacher asked a question about changing the name of his dept from Psychology to Psychological Sciences. I was reminded of the old adage, Any discipline that needs 'science' in its name isn't one, and I said so. A number of people responded, some on the list, some through back channel. Last night, I offered this explanation (below), but the PsychTeacher gate keepers thought it was argumentative and insulting (their words) and refused it. I had thought it was the opposite of that, but chacun à son goût. I repost it here, for those of you who are on that other list, and wondered whether I was serious. Chris ... Christopher D Green Department of Psychology York University Toronto, ON M6C 1G4 chri...@yorku.ca http://www.yorku.ca/christo Begin forwarded message: *From:* Christopher Green chri...@yorku.ca *Date:* January 28, 2014 at 12:32:07 AM EST *To:* Society for Teaching of Psychology PsychTeacher psychteac...@list.kennesaw.edu *Subject:* *Fwd: [PSYCHTEACHER] Changing Dept. name from Psychology to Psychological Science* Earlier today I wrote: All I can think of is the old saying, Any discipline that needs 'science' in its name, isn't one. There has been a bit more blowback than I expected. Note, I didn't say it was an immutable truth, only that I was reminded of it. When I first heard the expression, I was doing graduate cognitive science, and reflexively thought They can't mean us! Then one day I saw a poster for a graduate program in pastoral science, and I laughed and laughed. Just the way those in biology laughed at me, and those in chemistry laughed at those in the biological sciences, and so forth. Things don't have to be literally true to make one productively reflect on one's claims and, perhaps more important, on the academic insecurities that make one react defensively to a harmless joke. I understand why a laboratory department wouldn't want to be confused with a clinical department, but I also know a bit of the history of the field, and that knowledge makes me sometimes giggle at our modern turf battles. Wundt didn't call his psychology physiological because he thought he was doing physiology. He called it that in order to borrow for his new approach to psychology the aura of successes that modern German experimental physiology had achieved in the pervious few decades (while simultaneously borrowing their lab equipment). Physiology was the fashionable academic word of the age. There were physiological ethics and physiological aesthetics at the time too, so-named for the same reason. It was marketing, pure and simple. And it worked. Wundt and his lab were so successful in placing graduates in philosophy chairs around Germany that the traditional philosophers were driven to present a petition to the
RE: [tips] Fwd: [PSYCHTEACHER] Changing Dept. name from Psychology to Psychological Science
I'm curious, Claudia: will your School end up in the College of Sciences and Engineering or in The College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences? Marty Martin Bourgeois Professor and Chair Social and Behavioral Sciences Florida Gulf Coast University Fort Myers, FL 33931 ** Confidentiality Statement Florida has a very broad public records law. As a result, any written communication created or received by Florida Gulf Coast University employees is subject to disclosure to the public and the media, upon request, unless otherwise exempt. Under Florida law, e-mail addresses are public records. If you do not want your email address released in response to a public records request, do not send electronic mail to this entity. Instead, contact this office by phone or in writing. From: Claudia Stanny [csta...@uwf.edu] Sent: Tuesday, January 28, 2014 11:48 AM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Subject: Re: [tips] Fwd: [PSYCHTEACHER] Changing Dept. name from Psychology to Psychological Science Thanks for this historical perspective, Chris. I was unaware of the cachet of physiological during Wundt's time. As Santayana said, those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. As you can see in my signature, my department has made this leap (and created a name that is too long to meet the character limits of fields in university and State data systems). UWF is in the middle of a reorganization. The current proposal entails eliminating the College of Arts and Sciences and creating three colleges: College of Sciences and Engineering, College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, and College of Health. The campus discussions about which departments and programs belong where have been most interesting. Some departments have multiple programs that will be located in different colleges. Language is powerful. Sometimes what we call things is important. Yes, it is marketing. But there is marketing that is pure spin and marketing that communicates substance to people who won't take the time to discover it otherwise. I think psychology is thin-skinned about this topic because it has sometimes harbored some silly stuff . . . as have other sciences, if we consider some of the dead ends of other sciences (phlogiston is the easiest target, cold fusion might be another, remember RNA-transfer of memories? - psychology shares some blame for that one). The self-correcting nature of science solves those problems (eventually). Still, the question about whether this particular marketing misfires and undermines our credibility is worth discussion. _ Claudia J. Stanny, Ph.D. Director Center for University Teaching, Learning, and Assessment Associate Professor NSF UWF Faculty ADVANCE Scholar School of Psychological and Behavioral Sciences University of West Florida 11000 University Parkway Pensacola, FL 32514 Phone: (850) 857-6355 (direct) or 473-7435 (CUTLA) csta...@uwf.edumailto:csta...@uwf.edu CUTLA Web Site: http://uwf.edu/cutla/ Personal Web Pages: http://uwf.edu/cstanny/website/index.htm On Tue, Jan 28, 2014 at 9:56 AM, Christopher Green chri...@yorku.camailto:chri...@yorku.ca wrote: Yesterday, someone on PsychTeacher asked a question about changing the name of his dept from Psychology to Psychological Sciences. I was reminded of the old adage, Any discipline that needs 'science' in its name isn't one, and I said so. A number of people responded, some on the list, some through back channel. Last night, I offered this explanation (below), but the PsychTeacher gate keepers thought it was argumentative and insulting (their words) and refused it. I had thought it was the opposite of that, but chacun à son goût. I repost it here, for those of you who are on that other list, and wondered whether I was serious. Chris ... Christopher D Green Department of Psychology York University Toronto, ON M6C 1G4 chri...@yorku.camailto:chri...@yorku.ca http://www.yorku.ca/christo Begin forwarded message: From: Christopher Green chri...@yorku.camailto:chri...@yorku.ca Date: January 28, 2014 at 12:32:07 AM EST To: Society for Teaching of Psychology PsychTeacher psychteac...@list.kennesaw.edumailto:psychteac...@list.kennesaw.edu Subject: Fwd: [PSYCHTEACHER] Changing Dept. name from Psychology to Psychological Science Earlier today I wrote: All I can think of is the old saying, Any discipline that needs 'science' in its name, isn't one. There has been a bit more blowback than I expected. Note, I didn't say it was an immutable truth, only that I was reminded of it. When I first heard the expression, I was doing graduate cognitive science, and reflexively thought They can't mean us! Then one day I saw a poster for a graduate program in pastoral science, and I laughed and laughed. Just the way those in biology laughed at me
Re: [tips] Fwd: [PSYCHTEACHER] Changing Dept. name from Psychology to Psychological Science
That you were able to share your contribution with us without anyone deciding whether it was appropriate or not is one of the reasons I like TIPS so much and why I wouldn't join that other list. Admittedly, I sometimes cringe at some of the stuff that gets posted here (you all know what I mean), but I rather put up with that noise than miss a valuable signal, such as your post. Thank you for your contribution, Chris, I, too, was not aware that the term physiological was the 19th century equivalent of today's neuro-. Miguel Original Message - From: Christopher Green chri...@yorku.ca To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) tips@fsulist.frostburg.edu Cc: Victor Benassi victor.bena...@unh.edu Sent: Tuesday, January 28, 2014 10:56:05 AM Subject: [tips] Fwd: [PSYCHTEACHER] Changing Dept. name from Psychology to Psychological Science Yesterday, someone on PsychTeacher asked a question about changing the name of his dept from Psychology to Psychological Sciences. I was reminded of the old adage, Any discipline that needs 'science' in its name isn't one, and I said so. A number of people responded, some on the list, some through back channel. Last night, I offered this explanation (below), but the PsychTeacher gate keepers thought it was argumentative and insulting (their words) and refused it. I had thought it was the opposite of that, but chacun à son goût. I repost it here, for those of you who are on that other list, and wondered whether I was serious. Chris ... Christopher D Green Department of Psychology York University Toronto, ON M6C 1G4 chri...@yorku.ca http://www.yorku.ca/christo Begin forwarded message: From: Christopher Green chri...@yorku.ca Date: January 28, 2014 at 12:32:07 AM EST To: Society for Teaching of Psychology PsychTeacher psychteac...@list.kennesaw.edu Subject: Fwd: [PSYCHTEACHER] Changing Dept. name from Psychology to Psychological Science Earlier today I wrote: All I can think of is the old saying, Any discipline that needs 'science' in its name, isn't one. There has been a bit more blowback than I expected. Note, I didn't say it was an immutable truth, only that I was reminded of it. When I first heard the expression, I was doing graduate cognitive science, and reflexively thought They can't mean us! Then one day I saw a poster for a graduate program in pastoral science, and I laughed and laughed. Just the way those in biology laughed at me, and those in chemistry laughed at those in the biological sciences, and so forth. Things don't have to be literally true to make one productively reflect on one's claims and, perhaps more important, on the academic insecurities that make one react defensively to a harmless joke. I understand why a laboratory department wouldn't want to be confused with a clinical department, but I also know a bit of the history of the field, and that knowledge makes me sometimes giggle at our modern turf battles. Wundt didn't call his psychology physiological because he thought he was doing physiology. He called it that in order to borrow for his new approach to psychology the aura of successes that modern German experimental physiology had achieved in the pervious few decades (while simultaneously borrowing their lab equipment). Physiology was the fashionable academic word of the age. There were physiological ethics and physiological aesthetics at the time too, so-named for the same reason. It was marketing, pure and simple. And it worked. Wundt and his lab were so successful in placing graduates in philosophy chairs around Germany that the traditional philosophers were driven to present a petition to the Minister of Education to have it stopped. The German government responded by creating separate Psychology departments. It is the same with our lobbying for the word science to be included in the names of our departments. Both true and necessary as well as petty and casuistic, all at the same time. Such is life. Chris ... Christopher D Green Department of Psychology York University Toronto, ON M6C 1G4 chri...@yorku.ca http://www.yorku.ca/christo --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: miguelr...@comcast.net. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=1133043.af3ec43309a63197bc82eb6702801542n=Tl=tipso=33603 or send a blank email to leave-33603-1133043.af3ec43309a63197bc82eb6702801...@fsulist.frostburg.edu --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: arch...@jab.org. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5n=Tl=tipso=33611 or send a blank email to leave-33611-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
Re: [tips] Fwd: [PSYCHTEACHER] Changing Dept. name from Psychology to Psychological Science
On 2014-01-28, at 11:48 AM, Claudia Stanny wrote: Language is powerful. Sometimes what we call things is important. Yes, it is marketing. But there is marketing that is pure spin and marketing that communicates substance to people who won't take the time to discover it otherwise. I think psychology is thin-skinned about this topic because it has sometimes harbored some silly stuff . . . as have other sciences, if we consider some of the dead ends of other sciences (phlogiston is the easiest target, cold fusion might be another, remember RNA-transfer of memories? - psychology shares some blame for that one). The self-correcting nature of science solves those problems (eventually). Still, the question about whether this particular marketing misfires and undermines our credibility is worth discussion. Christian Science - http://christianscience.com Creation Science - http://www.icr.org/articles/type/9/ Chiropractic Science - http://www.oztrekk.com/programs/chiropractic/PG/macquarie.php Reflexology Science - http://www.reflexology4backpain.com/ascience.html Psychic Science - http://www.psychicscience.org It's just a word. Anyone can use it. No one should be convinced that psychology is a science just because we stick the word in our department's name. Perhaps it expresses our commitment to being scientific, but the word is so flexible in the first place (and so widely abused in the second), that I don't know that it tells anyone about our commitments (except that we felt compelled to add an honorific to our dept name, which might speak as much to insecurities as to our convictions). What is more, since the phrase Clinical Science is becoming increasingly popular, it doesn't really even serve to make the distinction we want it to. Perhaps Psychological Research would mark a distinction from Practice, but I have never seen that used. Besides, Research is just as flexible and just as liable to be adopted by people we don't regard as being serious. In any case, there are probably activities that legitimately take place in scholarly psychology departments that would only count as science in the broadest sense of the term. Theoretical critique? Historical research? And what about truly science-based (by whatever definition you favor) psychological assessment and therapy? Everyone is, of course, free to add to their name whatever symbolic markers they would like. But I don't think there is much long term value to be gained in waging (metaphorical) wars over such things. Words and things. Words and things. (To be fair, I feel the same way about people who insist on having PhD affixed after their name on APA convention name tags. I even saw a vanity license plate on a car the other day that said PhD 68. Sheesh!) cynical Chris --- Christopher D. Green Department of Psychology York University Toronto, ON M3J 1P3 Canada chri...@yorku.ca http://www.yorku.ca/christo/ = --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: arch...@jab.org. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5n=Tl=tipso=33614 or send a blank email to leave-33614-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
