On Sat, 12 Feb 2000, Gary Peterson wrote:
>snip
> I find Michael's nonsensical
> post demeaning to an understanding of the many actual contributions of
> African-Americans and others to psychology. At the same time, it simply
> illustrates an effort to demean the impetus to learn and respect history in
> favor of the latest fads to impose one's own favored (usually ethnocentric)
> views <snip>
This is rather harsh and hasty a judgement. Michael said:
> >
> >Just curious as to how many tipsters find time to recognize the
> >contributions of the Afrocentric world to Psychology.
> >Personally, I devote one class period to enumerate the contributions with
> >my classic lecture titled "What they never told you in Psychology class"
> >that:
> >
> >-The art and science of Psychology originated in Ancient Egypt and
> > long before Freud,Skinner and the Gestalt dudes,the Africans were
> >already advanced in the Psychoanalytic interpretations of dreams,that
> >they knew about the Law of Effect before Thorndike and perceptual
> >laws of figure ground were already familiar with the African hunters
> >
> > - Most of Sternberg and Howard Gardner's ideas of multiple intelligences
> > deal more with Afrocentricity than Eurocentricity.
One of the things we do in teaching is to trace the historical origins
of psychological ideas. It's not demeaning to suggest that similar
ideas arose in different cultures, even if their expression in those
cultures didn't influence how they came to be incorporated in modern
pschology.
The claim of dream interpretation in African societies before Freud is
not unreasonable; for example, it figures in the biblical story of
Joseph. I'm willing at least to consider how the Law of Effect and
laws of figure-ground were applied by African hunters. If we can trace
back the concept of the Law of Effect to ideas about hedonism more
than 2000 years ago, why not to ancient cultural practices in Africa?
And while I don't understand the claim about multiple intelligence and
Afrocentricity, there could be a case there as well. Call it
"Forerunners of of modern psychology in ancient civilizations". It
could be quite a challenging intellectual exercise.
Stephen (and you can call me Black as well)
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Stephen Black, Ph.D. tel: (819) 822-9600 ext 2470
Department of Psychology fax: (819) 822-9661
Bishop's University e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Lennoxville, QC
J1M 1Z7
Canada Department web page at http://www.ubishops.ca/ccc/div/soc/psy
Check out TIPS listserv for teachers of psychology at:
http://www.frostburg.edu/dept/psyc/southerly/tips/
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