Psychology
Psychology has roots in both the humanities,
social science and science. Any consideration of psychology that leaves out some
of these three perspectives will result in an amputated view of the field.
Wilhelm Wundt is often mentioned as a founder of psychology as an independent
science about 1885. He was a physician and is mostly known for his experimental
contributions to the field. The fact is, however, that he considered
experimental and "scientific" psychology to be a less important part of
psychology and he worked hard to establish a place for psychology among the
humanities and in close cooperation with other humanist disciplines such as
linguistics and cultural study.
When psychology developed the way it did (and became more
related to science compared than to humanities), a part of the explanation is to
be found in the tasks that psychology and psychologists have to do for a living.
Such a kind of social-constructivist analysis of the history of psychology
is provided by Kurt Danziger (1990, 1997).
Robins;
Gosling & Craik, 1999 provided a graphical outline of the development of
four major schools in psychology:
Robins, Gosling & Craik (1999, fig 1).
"Some have argued that
the human mind naturally organizes its knowledge of the world
into such systems [as biological taxonomy]. This view is often
based on the epistemology of Immanuel Kant. Anthropologists have
observed that taxonomies are generally embedded in local
cultural and social systems, and serve various social functions.
Perhaps the most well-known and influential study of folk
taxonomies is Émile Durkheim's The Elementary Forms of
Religious Life." (Wikipedia, 2007-05-19)
Literature:
Braun, C. M. J. &
Baribeau, J. M. C. (1984): The Classification of Psychology Among the Sciences
from Francis Bacon to Boniface Kedrov. Journal of Mind and Behavior, 5(3),
245‑259.
Danziger, K. (1990). Constructing the subject.
Historical origins of psychological research. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Danziger, K. (1997). Naming the Mind. How Psychology
Found its Language. London: SAGE.
Hjørland, B.
(1998). The Classification of
Psychology: A Case Study in the Classification of a Knowledge Field. Knowledge
Organization, 24(4), 162-201.
http://www.db.dk/bh/the_classification_of_psychology.pdf
Jørgensen, J.
(1963): Hovedtræk af bevidsthedsytringernes klassifikation [Main outline of the
classification of expressions of consciousness] (Chapter VIII+IX, pp. 189-242)
In: Jørgen Jørgensen: Psykologi paa biologisk grundlag. Copenhagen:
Munksgaard.
Kant, E. (1790).
Kritik der Urtheilskraft. (Translated by J. Creed Meredith: The Critique
of Judgement. Oxford: Clarenton Press, 1969).
Krauth, J.
(1981). Techniques of classification in psychology I: factor analysis, facet
analyses, multidimensional scaling, latent structure analysis. International
Classification, 8(3), 126-132.
Krauth, J.
(1982). Techniques of classification in psychology 2: cluster analysis, typal
analysis, configural frequency analysis, discriminant analysis, regression
analysis. International Classification, 9(1), 1-10.
Mills, J. &
Broughton, V. (1978): Bliss Bibliographical Classification. 2. ed. Class
I: Psychology and Psychiatry. London: Butterworth.
Robins, R. W., Gosling, S. D. & Craik,
K. H. (1999). An empirical analysis of trends in psychology. American
Psychologist, 54(2), 117-128.
Soudek, M. (1980).
On the classification of psychology in general library classification schemes.
Library Resources & Technical Services, 24(2), 114-128.
Soudek, M. (1983).
The inadequate treatment of psychology in general library classification
schemes. Canadian Psychology, 24(3), 181-189.
Wikipedia. The free encyclopedia. (2007-05-19). Taxonomy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxonomy
See also: Color;
Psychology (Epistemological Lifeboat);
Thesaurus of
Psychological Index
Birger Hjørland
Last edited:
19-05-2007
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