Undergraduate Course: Marxist Psychology (PSYL10092)
Course Outline
| School | School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 4 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 10 |
ECTS Credits | 5 |
| Summary | We will look at theoretical positions and empirical research directly influenced by Marxism, studying the contribution of particular psychologists, exploring particular issues, reconstructing particular debates, and studying philosophical dimensions of psychological theories and models.
We will explore the impact of Marxist philosophy on psychological theory and practice. We will predominantly be concerned with the psychology of language and higher cognition, but the philosophical and scientific conclusions will apply across all of Psychology.
There are no course requirements of previous knowledge of philosophy or cognitive modelling.
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| Course description |
(See Fourthyear Psychology Handbook for further details.)
Students (even if they are just auditing the course) must prepare for each of the five double-slot sections of the course.
For the first meeting, students should have selected a topic or issue in Psychology in which they are particularly interested. This topic does not have to be unique within the class, and can be changed at any point in the course. The assessed work for this course will be a Marxist analysis of research on that topic, and a proposal for further research on that topic. We have to be able to make such an analysis of any topic in Psychology, from neurons and genes through to introspection and group behaviours, so the choice is wide open.
For the first meeting, a specially written book chapter sent by email and/or put on the Learn pages, should be read and studied. This chapter is in easily assimilable dialogue-form, taking the reader through the arguments, starting from scratch.
For the first meeting, students should also have looked through a set of lecture slides that correspond to the first double-slot. Each week begins with a 50-minute abridged commentary of these slides, by the lecturer. The relevant book chapter will also correspond to these slides. Certain key words in the slides will have been obscured, requiring students to prepare answers to these omissions in advance, when they are considered in class.
The size of our class (20-25) will allow us to use the second part of each weekly session for elements of seminar work, small-group work, and discussion of the assessment topics.
The other four weeks will proceed in the same way.
During the whole course, from Monday of Week 1, there will be a Discussion Board open on Learn for this course. Students are required to contribute to this forum. A student's default activity in the forum will be to open a thread with the title of their topic, and say whatever they think is useful for themselves and the rest of the students on the course. They can solicit ideas, make suggestions in other threads about other topics students are working on, or start a new thread on any topic about the course content not specifically related to their topic. The lecturer will monitor the discussions and chip in as appropriate.
Each week there will be a couple of other readings that are relevant; these will appear on Learn as .pdfs. The chapter and the lecture slides will help students assimilate these other readings, which can be read after the relevant lecture. There is one book-length reading (in pdf form), by A. Spirkin (see handbook). This is a comprehensive textbook-introduction to dialectical materialism (a.k.a. Marxism), which students may wish to access throughout the course; the subject matter is very clearly flagged.
Although each week¿s specially-written chapter will contain crucial material, together with the slides (which are often quite sparse), students should also take notes during each session, in the lecture and the discussions.
A final outcome of the course, in line with the collective aspects of the discussions, will be that (with everyone¿s agreement) we will collate all of the essays into a single (@100k-word) volume (see below for details of assessment) for everyone.
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Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | Degree major in Psychology and passes in Psychology courses at least to the equivalent of Junior Honours level in Edinburgh. Prior agreement with the 4th Year Honours Course Organiser |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2015/16, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: None |
| Course Start |
Block 1 (Sem 1) |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
100
(
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 10,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 2,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
88 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Students will take a psychological phenomenon of their own choosing and, during the course, produce (a) a short (e.g. 10-20 articles) annotated bibliography of research papers on that topic, to demonstrate knowledge of the topic, and introduce a non-expert psychologist to the topic (b) a 2000-word exploration of the assumptions embedded in that research (relevant to the dialectical materialist approach developed in the course (c) a 1000-word discussion of how that research topic might be advanced within the perspectives of the course. |
| Feedback |
Not entered |
| No Exam Information |
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| Academic year 2015/16, Part-year visiting students only (VV1)
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Quota: None |
| Course Start |
Block 1 (Sem 1) |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
100
(
Lecture Hours 10,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 2,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
88 )
|
| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
|
| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Students will take a psychological phenomenon of their own choosing and, during the course, produce (a) a short (e.g. 10-20 articles) annotated bibliography of research papers on that topic, to demonstrate knowledge of the topic, and introduce a non-expert psychologist to the topic (b) a 2000-word exploration of the assumptions embedded in that research (relevant to the dialectical materialist approach developed in the course (c) a 1000-word discussion of how that research topic might be advanced within the perspectives of the course. |
| Feedback |
Not entered |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- A working literacy in general philosophical terminology useful for psychologists.
- Ability to apply a Marxist approach relevant to understanding natural phenomena, cognition, and the emergence of the individual.
- Critical powers concerning the philosophical and ideological assumptions present in research.
- Skills in analysing the research concerning a particular issue.
- Skills in formulating a program of research for a particular research issue.
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Reading List
Levins, R. (2006). Strategies of abstraction. Biology and Philosophy, 21, 741¿755.
Ollman, B. (2003). Dance of the Dialectic: Steps in Marx's Method. University of Illinois Press. Chapter 1.
Further background reading
Spirkin, A. (1983). Dialectical Materialism.
http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/spirkin/works/dialectical-materialism/index.html
Week 2: Philosophical issues in cognitive modelling
Shillcock, R. (2014). The concrete universal and cognitive science. Axiomathes 24, 63-80. DOI 10.1007/ s10516-013-9210-y.
Ollman, B. (2003). Dance of the Dialectic: Steps in Marx's Method. University of Illinois Press. Chapter 5: ¿Putting dialectics to work¿ in Dance of the Dialectic.
Further background reading
Engels, F. (1896, 1898, 1925). Dialectics of Nature. http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1883/don/index.htm
(This collection of fragments, mostly unpublished during Engels¿ lifetime give a flavour of scientific and philosophical debate at the time.)
Week 3: The materialist program for language research, from Vygotsky onwards
Bakhurst, D. (1991). Consciousness and Revolution in Soviet Philosophy: From the Bolsheviks to Evald Ilyenkov. Modern European Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Chapter 3.
Wertsch, J.V. & Tulviste, P. (1992). L. S. Vygotsky and contemporary developmental psychology. Developmental Psychology, 28, No. 4, 548-557.
Shillcock, R. (submitted). The Schwa Sound in Language Use; The Philosophical Understanding of a Psychological Domain and the Case for a Critical Extension of the Cognitive Research Paradigm. Ms.
Further background reading
Mikhailov, F. (1976). The Riddle of the Self. Chapter 3. ¿Man and his thought¿.
Week 4: The Meshcheryakov Experiment: Soviet work on the education of blind-deaf children
30-minute film, in class, on the education of blind-deaf children, in Russia in the 1990s.
Bakhurst, D. & Padden, C. (1991). The Meshcheryakov experiment. Learning and Instruction, 1, 201¿215.
Meshcheryakov, A.I. (1979). Awakening to life: forming behaviour and the mind in deaf-blind children. Progress Publishers. Conclusion chapter.
Further background reading
Mikhailov, F. (1976). The Riddle of the Self. Chapter 2. ¿Social and Individual Consciousness¿.
Week 5: The history of the debate on IQ and human nature
Deary, I.J., Lawn, M., Brett, C.E., & Bartholomew, D.J. (2009). ¿Intelligence and Civilisation¿: A Ludwig Mond lecture delivered at the University of Manchester on 23rd October 1936 by Godfrey H. Thomson. A reprinting with background and commentary. Intelligence 37, 48¿61.
Deary, I.J. (1999). Book review. Intelligence 34, 621¿622.
Lawler, J.M. (1978). IQ, Heritability and Racism. Lawrence and Wishart Ltd. Chapter 9.
Further background reading
Charney, E. (2012). Behavior genetics and postgenomics. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 35, 331¿410 doi:10.1017/S0140525X11002226
(A recent review, plus peer commentaries, addressing some of the complexities of the relationship between genetics and psychology.)
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Richard Shillcock
Tel: (0131 6)50 4425
Email: R.Shillcock@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Ms Fiona Graham
Tel: (0131 6)50 3440
Email: F.Graham@ed.ac.uk |
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