If you would like to work with me on a research project, feel free to discuss your interests with me.
The history of psychology is a vast sub-discipline within the field of psychology. The field encompasses all psychological knowledge produced by individuals from the beginnings of the discipline in the late 19th century (and even before) to the present.
Boundary-work
My main interest in the history of psychology is investigating how American psychologists formed and continue to form psychology's disciplinary structure. I attempt to answer how psychologists developed the discipline, how they maintained the discipline, and how they continue to expand the discipline. This type of analysis is called "boundary-work" analysis. Boundary-work defines the ways in which scientists demarcate their intellectual territory. From this perspective, I view the discipline of psychology in cartographic terms. Psychologists demarcate specific forms of knowledge as "psychological" in nature and claim this "territory" as their own.
Currently, I am investigating how psychologists responded to three interdisciplinary program that infringed on psychology's intellectual territory from the 1960's to the late 1990's. The three interdisciplinary programs I am investigating are cognitive science, evolutionary psychology, and chaos theory.
History and Systems of Psychology Textbook Analysis
Undergraduate Student: Michael Bordelon
One of the challenges of teaching history and systems of psychology courses is choosing an appropriate textbook that meets the goals and expectations of the professor. With this in mind, an undergraduate and I are undertaking a content analysis of all currently published history and systems of psychology textbooks. We will provide professors with an at-a-glance overview of these textbooks.
The Influence of American Psychological Association Presidents
Every year APA presidential addresses are presented at the APA's annual conference and subsequently published in American Psychologist. Each president suggests possible avenues of research for psychologists to pursue. My questions are, "How influential are APA president speeches in getting psychologists interested in certain topics?", and "Do psychologists actually develop research around these suggested areas?" My analysis will consist of searching several top tiered APA journals for a 5-year period subsequent to each presidential address. This analysis will provide indications as to whether psychologists actually follow the advice of APA presidents.