Word: behaviorisms
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...interest in the neurological basis of behavior and the cognitive processes by which individuals understand their environments has come to the fore in psychology departments across the nation. Yale University Professor emeritus Irving L. Janis, an elder statesman of American psychology, calls growing interest in those two lines of inquiry, "the two great trends of today's psychology...
...psychology that border the natural sciences have captured most of Harvard's attention in recent years. Younger faculty members, such as Professor Stephen Kosslyn and Associate Professor James R. Stellar, are not the white-coated, ink blot-bearing researchers of late-night television. They use computers to study behavior and want to discover the biological causes of human action. Older members of the department say the work of the two men would not even have been recognized as psychological research 20 years...
According to professors, the increased emphasison experimental psychology has repercussions forundergraduate education. According to ProfessorRobert F. Bales, an expert on the behavior ofsmall groups, Harvard has presented a somewhatskewed view of psychology since his generation ofscholars began to cease active work. "It has been along-time failure of our department to makesufficient appointments on the social relationsside," Bales, who retired from active serviceearlier this semester, says. "The old guard hasthinned to the point where there's no point inkeeping the name," continues the professor...
With its broad conception of human behavior,Bales, a former member, says the department was a"huge success." According to another formerdepartment member, Riesman, the department was a"national magnet," attracting, "a great faculty,superb graduate students, and it was veryattractive to undergraduates...
...observers, even those sympathetic to abroad conception of human behavior, are slow tomourn the passage of interdisciplinary study. Manysay, in fact, that the move might open a newchapter in the development of social psychology.Some see psychologists with a broad outlook ontheir field being forced into new academicarrangements and into roles beyond academia whichcould increase their understanding of humanbehavior...