CONTEXTS 

A new experience or meeting. For some of our figures on EPoCH, a new experience, often in the form of fieldwork in a new environment, proved to be a crucial moment in their development. For instance, Abraham Maslow began his academic career investigating, among other things, dominance and animal sexual behaviour. He also conducted cross-cultural fieldwork with the Blackfoot tribe under Anthropologist Ruth Benedict's supervision in 1938. This influenced him both in terms of shedding his ethnocentric bias but also in being impressed by the value of generosity shown by the Blackfoot Indians. Carl Rogers was also influenced by his fieldwork with deprived children in the Rochester Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. Jung worked with patients with severe psychopathologies rather than relatively mild hysteria. These experiences may explain why Jung was more interested in more severe disjunctions of the structure of the mind than Freud was. Written by: Course Team 

The 1980s. In 1979 a hitherto little noticed former minister of education, who had become leader of the Conservative party after Edward Heath in 1975, led the party to general election victory. Margaret Thatcher became the first woman to be British Prime Minister, and remained at the head of the UK government and parliament until her resignation in November 1990. She is widely credited with changed the political and cultural face of Britain, and of being the defining figure of the decade of the 1980s. In the 1970s there was a world recession and it was felt by all economies and people. This produced social and political unrest in its wake, and created the context for a driven ideologue of traditional conservative values and beliefs. Margaret Thatcher set out upon a programme of privatisation of public services (which she famously termed 'rolling back the state'), and legislation designed to minimise or even destroy the power of the Trades Unions. She redefined the political terrain of the UK by claiming that there was no area of life that is not political, and by defining political activity as necessarily adversarial. In 1983 she initiated and won a patriotically fuelled war with Argentina over possession of the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic. In 1984 she interpreted a strike by miners over pay and conditions as a challenge to government, and used legislation and troops quell it; in the same year the IRA bombed the conference where the Conservative party was holding its annual conference and killed 5 people. Her most controversial innovation, occasioning demonstrations around the country and contributing in no small measure to her eventual resignation, was the introduction of the so-called 'Poll Tax' – a per capita tax applied to all those on the electoral roll and replacing another tax ('the Rates') which had been based only on the value of owned property. Her influence on other politicians and the politics of the US and other European countries was substantial. She was extremely close personally and politically to Ronald Reagan, President of the USA for nearly the entire decade (1981-1989) .\nIn 1985 Mikhail Gorbachev took over as leader of the Soviet Union. A reformer, he introduced the concepts of glasnost and perestroika, and the idea of reconstructing the communist system. This reached its climax in 1989 when the East and West German authorities reached agreement on pulling down the Berlin wall. After this, Czechoslovakia, Romania and the rest of Eastern Europe initiated a flurry of reforms that were to lead in the next decade to the complete collapse of communism in Eastern Europe. However the remaining major world communist power, China, responded to this perceived threat to its political ideology with a wave of domestic political repression, culminating in the Tiananmen Square massacre when hundreds of demonstrating students were killed and thousands injured – and seen to be so on televised news around the world. \nArtistically and culturally this decade began the post-modernist trend. In youth culture the decade belonged to Punks – a style of dress and behaviour modelled on anarchism, and styled as anti-authority, traditional values and organised society. Popular music was dominated by punk, and new romanticism – which positioned itself in opposition to punk. 

Bristol. Very frequently in scientific work a particular department, centre or place becomes pivotal –associated with an important transition in thinking or with exciting new developments and breakthroughs. Such prominence can be quite transient, sometimes lasting for only for a few years, dependent on a particular combination of people and the Zeitgeist. The people and the Zeitgeist move on but nostalgia remains about these high points and heydays. In European social psychology and particularly British social psychology, Bristol University and the social psychological research conducted in the Psychology Department at Bristol in the 1970s and early 1980s has this reputation. These were the years in which Henri Tajfel was the Professor of Social Psychology. During these years a genuinely different European social psychology emerged first as a manifesto worked out in the early 1970s by a group of scholars across Europe with Moscovici in Paris and Tajfel in Bristol as prime movers. European social psychology was to be a more politically engaged and critical discipline and these ideals were realised in the stream of research from Bristol in the 1970s and 1980s on social identity theory and the study of intergroup relations and group process. Social identity theory remains one of the core theoretical frameworks of social psychology and still inspires a great deal of research today. Tajfel was a larger than life character and one of the most important intellectuals in the history of social psychology. He was someone with the energy and passion (and connections across Europe and in the USA) needed to gather together a highly productive group of students, research fellows and co-workers and inspire them to be creative. Everyone who was anyone in social psychology seemed to pass through Bristol in those years. Tajfel entertained a constant stream of eminent visitors from the States and elsewhere and as a PhD student at Bristol in the late 70s, my no doubt rather rosy memory is of large informal dinners at Tajfel's house which turned into impromptu seminars, with Tajfel presiding, goading and challenging and enjoying the cut and thrust as he turned over idea after idea for critical examination. The Bristol research group was not an easy environment, particularly for women, yet many of the current generation of British social psychologists were educated there and owe it an enormous debt. It created an academic network that persisted after Tajfel died in 1981 and the group dispersed. Tajfel included among the first generation of his students, for instance, Michael Billig, John Turner, Howard Giles, Rupert Brown, Richard Eiser, Colin Fraser and Glynis Breakwell and these academics in turn educated the next generation of social psychology researchers. In this way the memory of a place and the conditions which created an intellectual framework carried on. Written by: Margaret Wetherell 

The Cold War (1945-1991). At its height in the 1950s, the Cold War greatly influenced not only the types of research funded for psychologists, but also the 'mindset' of a whole generation reared on fears of nuclear attack. The McCarthyite witchhunts of left-leaning intellectuals during the 1950s were mainly focused on the entertainment industry in America. However, they left a lasting legacy on the psyche of a generation, while also isolating many psychologists in the Eastern Bloc. Some psychologists, like Erikson, were interested in the Cold War and its psychological effects, per se. For others the influence of the Cold War on their choice of research agenda was perhaps more subtle. Written by: Course Team 

Anti-psychiatry movement (1960 - 1975). The anti-psychiatry movement developed from criticisms of the medical model of mental illness, best exemplified by Thomas Szasz's 'Myth of Mental Illness' (first published in 1961). According to Szasz, a medical approach to mental illness is untenable because the symptoms treated by the psychiatrist involve a subjective judgement that what a patient says is not believable. Szasz began his assault in psychiatry by stating that:\nI submit that the traditional definition of psychiatry, which is still in vogue, places it alongside such things as alchemy and astrology, and commits it to the category of pseudo-science (Szasz, 1987, p. 17). One of the outcomes of Szasz's version of anti-psychiatry is that those traditionally defined as 'mad' should be made to take responsibility for their actions and, hence, should be seen as 'bad', not mad. A different approach is taken by another figurehead of the anti-psychiatry movement, R.D. Laing (1964). According to Laing, schizophrenia is effectively a label rather than a mental illness. The goal of treatment should not be to address the patient's symptoms, but rather to accept their experience as valid, and potentially meaningful. The goal of treatment is thus to guide the patient through their experiences, so that the experience is beneficial and the outcome is enlightenment, rather than medical intervention. However, there is little evidence that experiencing schizophrenia makes one a 'better person', and the outcomes of Laing's treatment were not often enlightenment for the patient. Nevertheless, the focus of the anti-psychiatry movement on the power of labelling has influenced how mental illness is represented to both patients and society. 

The 1960s spawned innumerable new social, political and religious movements. After the austerity of the post-Second World War period there was an economic boom in the West. The decade opened as South Africa left the Commonwealth with the then Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, giving his famous 'Winds of Change' speech in which he argued for a 'partnership of races' in that continent, and for inclusion of all in political and economic power. However , the struggle against apartheid and brutal white supremacist regimes was not to be complete until almost three decades later. In 1962 the USA became very nervous about the fact that the Soviet Union was building medium range missile sites in Cuba with strike capability on the USA. After supporting an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro, the US blockaded Cuba. Despite the exhortation of his chiefs-of-staff to use nuclear weapons to end the confrontation, President John F. Kennedy insisted on negotiation and averted what could have been the first (and probably last) nuclear war. In 1964 in Great Britain the Conservatives lost the general election and Harold Wilson became the first Labour prime minister since 1951. The United States became involved in a war in Vietnam, supporting a series of Saigon-based governments against rebels who appeared to have backing from Communist China and/or the Soviet Union. The US poured in resources, including up to 500.000 troops in the country at any one time. This war was one of the first in which a civilian population was attacked as much as the forces against whom was undertaken. The use of chemical weapons such as napalm (a jelly-like chemical flammable substance dropped from the air) and Agent Orange (a herbicide) did vast and terrible damage to the country, its people and the food systems that supported them. A huge popular protest movement in both the US and across Europe developed against the war. The ethic of rebellion and questioning of the traditional status quo fuelled the development of protest and alternative cultural, arts and religious movements too. These movements included the Pop Art movement, modernism and minimalism in art and architecture, the rock, soul and motown movements in music, and transcendental meditation, many cults of various kinds and the alternative lifestyle called 'hippy'. The idea that individuals should explore their own inner psyches and develop spiritually was also connected to particular drug cultures, where drugs like LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) were purported to produce the same self-knowledge and awareness as meditation and religious experience did. The chief proponent was an American psychologist Timothy Leary, who famously exhorted his followers to 'Turn on, tune in, drop out'. This decade spawned relaxation of dress codes and liberalisation of sexual behaviour, enabled by the development of a contraceptive pill, which enabled women for the first time in history to control their fertility. Despite the apparent tremendous optimism and energy with the decade opened, it closed more sombrely with the promise of wars and destruction becoming ubiquitous. The Vietnam war continued with thousands dead and opposed by violent demonstrations across the US and Europe; the six-day Arab-Israeli war occurred in 1967; in 1968 Martin Luther King, a US black rights activist was assassinated and Enoch Powell in the UK gave his notorious 'Rivers of Blood' speech opposing immigration; in 1968 also the USSR invaded Czechoslovakia after its liberal leader Alexander Dubcek had introduced the 'Prague Spring' of liberal reforms; in response to sectarian conflict over civil rights in 1969 British troops began to patrol the streets of Northern Ireland. The continuing sectarian conflict and its consequence became know as the 'Troubles', and has continued into the new century; in 1969 the there was a very severe famine amongst the Biafran people of Nigeria. For the first time television began to bring the acute suffering of people of the developing world into the living rooms of every industrialised nation. 

Anti-trait movement (1968). The anti-trait movement was launched by Mischel in 1968 in his book Personality and Assessment. According to Mischel, trait measures of personality showed little consistency across either settings or over time, and were of little predictive value, i.e. the person interacted with the situation (or environment) in which they found themselves. This is often referred to as the person-situation debate. To a degree, Mischel's thesis is similar in complaint to those that dogged attitude researchers at the same time - if traits or attitudes cannot predict behaviour, then what use are they? Defendants of trait theories argued that the studies chosen by Mischel to illustrate his point were particularly poor, and that better methodology would lead to better prediction of behaviour across time or situations. As with many debates in psychology, a great deal of effort was spent in trying to establish how much of people's behaviour can be predicted from knowing their traits and how much depends on the situation (i.e. person x situation interactions). Thus, if a personality measure of punctuality can predict 30% of the variance in a person's punctuality on a specific occasion, it inevitably follows that 70% of the variance is due to the situation. However, there are many difficulties in analysing what situation is and, in practice, it has generally been considered to be everything that is not the person (i.e. not a trait). As a result, there has been little advance in understanding what aspects of the situation or environment influence behaviour. 

The nature-nurture debate (1955 – present day). Between the mid 1950s and the early 1980s one of the main debates that dominated psychology was nature-nurture. The crux of the nature-nurture debate was the degree to which human attributes, particularly intelligence and personality, were determined by either genetic factors (nature) or environmental factors (nurture). This nature-nurture debate was particularly fierce in the area of intelligence, following the publication, and subsequent criticism, of Sir Cyril Burt's results from his study of the intelligence quotients (IQ) of separated twins. Over many years Burt claimed to have studied 58 pairs of monozygotic (MZ – from the same ovum) twins (popularly referred to as 'identical'). This was a larger number than any other researcher had been able to obtain. For that reason, Burt's claims that the IQs of separated MZ twins were more alike than those of dizygotic (DZ – 'non-identical') twins reared together was very influential in supporting claims that intelligence is largely inherited. However, it was later alleged that Burt at worst fabricated his results, and at best behaved in a 'dishonest manner' because he did not find as many separated twins as he had claimed. The debunking of Burt's results even became the leading article on the front cover of an issue of the Sunday Times in 1976 and Burt was posthumously discredited by the British Psychological Society (BPS). The nature-nurture debate over intelligence generated a public debate between a leading hereditarian (someone who believes that intelligence is largely inherited) – Hans Eysenck – and the environmentalist who had first uncovered problems in Burt's reported statistics (Leon Kamin). This was published in 1981 in a book titled Intelligence: the battle for the mind. The debate has rumbled on since with publications such as The Bell Curve by Herrnstein and Murray (1994) and with various defences of Burt's conclusions and data. Few psychologists now argue for only one side of the nature-nurture debate. This is partly because most now accept that both genetic inheritance and environment play some part in all human psychological processes. The successful mapping of human genes in the Human Genome project has contributed new evidence to discussions of the heritability of psychological characteristics. However, the debate in psychology is now more one of the relative contributions of nature and nurture, and the specific mechanisms of interaction, than one of absolute dichotomies. Written by: Course Team 

Own travel. Certainly, travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living. Miriam Beard. It is often said that travel broadens the mind, but it can also influence the development of psychological theory. For instance, Darwin's travels in South America and the Galapagos Islands are closely associated with his later theory of natural selection. Similarly, William James' travels around Europe allowed him contact with a body of psychological thought (both experimental and psychodynamic) quite different from the tradition developing in the United States. Travel also suggests permanent movement from one country to another. The impact of the movement of psychologists from mainland Europe to the UK and the USA during and following the second world war is discussed in the World War II entry. However, the experience of migration in itself can provide new insights into one's own identity, cultural and social differences and can highlight how we understand ourselves as a member of a specific group or social category. For instance, in developing the information for EPoCH we asked “Has your work been influenced by any historical/cultural/social contexts”. Csikszentmihalyi replies that: Moving from one culture to another (Hungary/Italy/the United States, with many side-trips elsewhere) has been very helpful in relativizing my beliefs, while impressing on me the fundamental similarities among human beings”\n\nWetherell, in reply to the same question states: \n\nI have been influenced by my status as a migrant to Britain and growing up in an ex-colony (New Zealand). Written by: Course Team 

Own family. Although a direct link between a figure's achievements and their own family and/or upbringing can only be identified for a relatively small number of our people on EPoCH, of course, our upbringing and family influence us all in some manner or other. Presumably, the socio-economic circumstances of a person's upbringing affect not only the opportunities afforded them, but also the experiences they bring to the study of psychology. As well as this, two quite different themes can be identified from the information provided for EPoCH: Having intellectual relatives. Intellectual relatives often open doors for contacts with the current 'leading lights'. For instance, William James' brother, the novelist Henry, settled in Britain, which not only enabled the younger William to continue to travel, but also to come into contact with contemporary European thinking. Indeed, James' family were all intellectual and his father took the children travelling and gave them an unusual and intellectual education. Similarly, Pierre Janet, the psychiatrist, was in contact throughout his career with many leading intellectuals living in metropolitan France, having many relatives, like the philosopher, Paul Janet, who were intellectuals and professional people. Indeed, the 'gentleman scientist' model that was widespread during the 19th Century may have attenuated the importance family had on an individual's own research. 'Gentlemen scientists' tended to come from relatively privileged families that had not only access to the material resources that are important to research, but also access to an intellectual environment that encouraged such activities. So it is hardly surprising that many of the early figures in EPoCH are either related (like Galton and Darwin), or had intellectual relatives in other fields (like James and Janet). Parental values and interests. For instance, Wundt is described as being a “serious and solitary child who spent most of his time studying”. His later capacity to work, and the approach he took, seems to have come from being born into a poor family of clergy and having a serious childhood.\nGail Goodman, who studies child witness testimony says: “My father, who revered science, was educated as an attorney. My mother, who grew up in an orphanage, knew all too well the meaning of child trauma. After graduating from UCLA, she became a teacher and child advocate. Given this familial history, perhaps my research and teaching interests come as no surprise”. Written by: Course Team 

The impact of new technology on psychological research (1900-2000). The technology available for psychological research can have an important impact on the type of research undertaken, and the questions posed. For instance: 1975: Development of Beta VCR system by Sony (Japan) and the VHS system by Matsushita (Japan). The development and widespread availability of video cameras and players made observation a widely available methodology for a generation of psychologists. In part this was the result of affordability and transportability – videos were cheap and relatively unobtrusive. It was also because video is relatively easy to time-stamp, rewind and fast-forward, making careful analysis possible. Andrew Whiten, in his reply to request for information to EPoCH, stated: suspect it is not well enough recognised how far video has transformed both the observational and experimental work that I and like-minded scientists have been able to undertake in the later part of the twentieth century and since. Instead of fleeting, once-only perceptions of behaviour, the luxury of repeated viewings (at different speeds if required) has allowed us to become 'superhuman' in the new depth of analysis of complex behaviour that we can achieve.\n\n1951: UNIVAC, the first commercial computer demonstrated at the US Census Bureau in Philadelphia 1965: The Minicomputer – Digital Equipment's PDP-8 1982: The personal computer: The use of computer technology in research has had a pronounced effect in a large number of areas, including the ability to conduct large scale factor analysis (something almost unimaginable when hand calculations would mean months or years of work), laboratory experiments of, for instance, reaction time measured in milliseconds by computer, and flight and driving simulators. Statistics, testing, experimental instrumentation, artificial intelligence, and teaching are some of the areas of psychology affected by the widespread availability of computers. Computers, and more specifically the Internet, have also enabled academics to communicate and collaborate more easily. The Internet is also becoming a popular laboratory for conducting research, allowing for wide sampling of a more general population than the undergraduates normally studied.\n1975–present: advances in brain imaging. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the only way to study neuropsychology was through case studies of brain damage. In a few cases, patients would present with localised brain damage, allowing the researcher to make generalisations about the functions of specific areas of the brain based on the deficits recorded in the individual patient. Later, as brain surgical techniques advanced, researchers were able to extrapolate brain function, often again from single case studies or small groups of patients, following for instance, surgical section of the corpus callosum or lobotomy. At the same time, groups of patients with neurological disorders could be tested for cognitive deficits, yielding important discoveries for neuropsychology. However, advances in scanning technology and techniques (e.g. MRI or PET scans) at the end of the 20th century have allowed researchers to pinpoint areas of brain damage, allowing more precise, and non-invasive, studies of the links between the brain and cognitive and social abilities. Developments in measures of brain activity level and location also allow for more precise study of the neurological structures underpinning psychological function in 'normal' people engaging in everyday activities. The impact of new scanning techniques for neuropsychology has been likened to the invention of the telescope on astronomy.\n2000: The mapping of the human genome. A working draft of the entire human genome sequence was announced in June 2000, which, alongside new techniques for genetic sampling, has also made possible further studies into the role of genetics in psychological characteristics and psychopathologies. Written by: Course Team 

The 'cognitive revolution', and the decline of behaviourism (1956-1967). The shift within psychology from an emphasis on observable behaviour to mental processes occurred in the 1950s and 1960s. For the first half of the twentieth century, psychological research was dominated by Behaviourist principles. Behaviourists initially ruled out considering any 'mental events' occurring between stimulus and response. When psychologists such as Tolman in 1932 described experimental animals as showing 'purpose' in their behaviour, and Bartlett spoke of 'remembering', the 'empty mind', the radical version of behaviourism began to run into problems.\nWithin a decade, applied psychological research began to investigate cognitive functions like attention, vigilance and decision making during the Second World War. The rapid development of computer technology (for instance, Alan Turing's Colossus computer designed to decode German Enigma codes at Bletchley Park) during the war, and information theory shortly after, provided additional impetus to those psychologists who were interested in how humans processed information, rather than just observable behaviour. \nInformation theory was developed by Claude Shannon during his time working at Bell Labs in the USA. He published the major part of his 'Mathematical theory of communication' in 1948. The main aim of information theory was to predict the capacity needed on any one network to transmit different types of information. Shannon defined information as something that contains unpredictable news – the predictable is not information (and so does not need to be transmitted). For instance, consider the sentence 'only infrmatn esentil to understandn mst b tranmitd”. English speakers can read it easily because the regularities in English make some information in sentences so predictable that it is redundant. Information depends on uncertainty – what is certain is redundant. Shannon also argued that symbols (e.g. words, icons, mathematical equations) are used to transmit information between people. Once the information is coded into the appropriate symbols, it is transmitted (e.g. spoken, drawn, written) and decoded at the other end. To decode these symbols, the receiver must match them against his or her own body of information to extract the data. In September of 1956, the twenty-seven-year-old Noam Chomsky delivered a paper entitled 'Three Models for the Description of Language' as part of a three-day MIT symposium on information theory. This contained contained the germ of Chomsky's cognitive approach to language. Allen Newell and Herbert Simon also presented work on problem solving with a 'logic machine,' and there were papers on signal detection and human information processing. This symposium – and these papers in particular – have been considered by some to mark the launch of the study of cognitive science. Although the battle was essentially played out between traditional linguists and supporters of Chomsky's model of generative linguistics, it had implications well beyond linguistics. This was because traditional structural linguistic theories were grounded in behaviourism and learning theory, while Chomsky's work directly challenged both the intellectual and political underpinnings of traditional structural approaches to grammar, and by implication, Behaviourism. At the same time, George Miller's work on the 'magic' number seven (the supposed limit of short term memory) began work on 'chunking' and memory from an information processing perspective.Chomsky's savage review of B.F. Skinner's Verbal Behavior (1957) appeared in the influential journal Language in 1959. In a letter to Robert Barsky, the author of Noam Chomsky: A life of dissent, Chomsky explains that: It wasn't Skinner's crazy variety of behaviorism that interested me particularly, but the way it was being used in Quinean empiricism and 'naturalization of philosophy,' a gross error in my opinion. That was important, Skinner was not. The latter was bound to collapse shortly under the weight of repeated failures. (31 March, 1995). \n\nCognitive psychology has grown rapidly since the events of the late 1950s. Ulric Neisser's 1967 textbook, Cognitive Psychology, gave a new legitimacy to the field, with its six chapters on perception and attention and four chapters on language, memory, and thought. Following Neisser's work, another important event was the beginning of the Journal Cognitive Psychology in 1970. This journal has done much to give definition to the field. Of course, just as cognitive psychology didn't begin in 1956, but can trace its roots much earlier, so Behaviourism didn't stop being an influential approach in psychology at the same time. Quite apart from the lasting legacy of experimental methodology, behavioural research is still widely conducted in psychology departments today, although radical behaviourism is largely dismissed.\nIt should also be noted that some psychologists have claimed that a second cognitive revolution occurred in the 1990s, with the rise in prominence of models of situated cognition, distributed cognition, and socio-cultural and social constructionist approaches that stress the role of artefacts or tools and social interaction, as well as meaning in cognitive processes – and hence the importance of language in human interactions. \n\nSources: Barsky, R. (1997) Noam Chomsky: A life of dissent. Available electronically at: http://mitpress.mit.edu/e-books/chomsky/Baars, B.J. (1986). The Cognitive Revolution in Psychology, New York, The Guilford Press Written by: Course Team 

Own illness. For some of the figures on EPoCH, a period of illness provided an opportunity to experience at first hand a subject they then went on to study, but also provided a time to begin thinking about the nature of psychology, to travel as part of their recuperation, or to reconsider the direction their life was taking. For instance, Jung's widely reported psychotic breakdown (along with his work on more severe cases) may explain the different focus of his work compared to Freud's. William James was seemingly obsessed with his own illness, while Darwin was also often ill and thus spent time being introverted and depressed and 'thinking'. Written by: Course Team 

New legislation. Just as psychological research responds to social changes, so it also responds to new legislation. Examples include changes to legislation on health and safety, on discrimination in training and selection, and on treatment of, and facilities for, people with mental health problems. This relationship is not one-way – psychologists have influenced public policy in a number of areas in recent years, for instance, in censorship and the child maltreatment. Two pieces of legislation can be linked to early developments in psychology: 1890: The Lunacy Act was passed in the UK (the Act has been linked to the formation of the British Psychological Society). At around the same time similar legislation was enacted across Europe and the USA to regulate the treatment of the insane. 1876-1900: Education Acts: Compulsory education was introduced first in England, then at the turn of the century in France. Along with compulsory education came a perceived need for mental tests of children (first developed by Alfred Binet and his collaborator Théodor Simon in France), and a market for psychological data on education. Later laws regulating, for instance, re-training and industrial law, influenced the development of occupational psychology. More recently, debates and legislation on stem cell research illustrate the direct impact laws can have on research. Written by: Course Team 

World War II (1939-1945). The Second World War had two main effects on the development of psychology. Firstly, a diaspora of Jewish intellectuals from Europe arrived in Great Britain and the United States, and secondly, psychological research was funded, and used extensively during the war.\n\n1. The diaspora. The diaspora refers to the scattering of Jewish people around the world before, during and following the Second World War. This scattering of intellectuals had a pronounced effect, not because of the psychologists who fled, but also because of the many US or UK psychologists who came into contact with many new ideas for the first time. This included not only fellow psychologists, but also philosophers, linguists and novelists. As well as the Jewish diaspora, a large number of gentile intellectuals also left Germany and mainland Europe before and during the war, often for New York or London, where they interacted and greatly influenced the existing scholars. According to Peter Robinson, who edited a volume of essays dedicated to Henri Tajfel “…it is thanks to the émigrés of Henri's generation that the field gained a foothold in the academic world” (Robinson, 1996, p. xi). 2. Applications of psychology. Unlike the First World War, when the application of psychology began only towards the end, psychology was used almost immediately from the beginning of World War II. Also, unlike World War I, where most psychological input was in the selection of recruits or treatment of 'shell shock', during World War II psychologists contributed in a variety of different areas. For instance, psychologists worked on: • Personality psychometrics – Psychologists devised tests used for the selection of 'officer material' and in the main combatant forces. In the UK, the War Office Selection Boards were set up in 1942 for this purpose, and by 1945 some 100,000 applicants for officer rank had been psychometrically tested. Also, during the war factor analytic techniques first applied on a mass scale – for instance, H.J. Eysenck studied 700 patients at the Mill Hill Emergency Hospital during the war. This research was the basis for his subsequent theory of personality. • Psychiatric disabilities of war – For instance, work at the Tavistock Clinic on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Psychoanalytic theories. • Attitude research - large research programs on attitude change and persuasion were funded by the American Army during the war. Related research on leadership and group behaviour was also extensively funded during this period. • Interaction with equipment – World War II was unique in its reliance on human operation of new technology, in areas as diverse as air traffic control, radar or code breaking. This led to psychological research into topics such as vigilance, training, stress and decision making. During this time, some old concepts (e.g. attention) were investigated with new vigour, while new concepts (e.g. stress) were developed as explanatory concepts. • The rapid development of neuropsychology in the 1950s was very much based on studies of combat victim's head wounds and their subsequent psychological functioning. Written by: Course Team 

World War I (1914 - 1918). Psychology was first used widely in the First World War in 1917, when mass psychometric testing was carried out by the US Army. Psychologists also studied 'shell shock' or war neuroses (later recognised as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD)\nIt could be argued that applied psychology was effectively born during World War I. For instance, studies of fatigue in munitions factories were the first major industrial psychology studies to be conducted. Psychologists also worked on specific programs, like for instance, the selection of hydrophone operators best suited for 'hearing submarines'. According to Hearnshaw (The Shaping of Modern Psychology, 1989), the work of psychologists during World War I “helped to establish the claims of applied psychology, and led to its continuation on a still small, but nevertheless significant, scale” (p. 200). Written by: Course Team 

USSR (1917-1964). Following the revolutions of 1917, the USSR was, for a short time, a strong influence on the thinking and imagination of many contemporary Western intellectuals. However, following the death of Lenin, and with Stalin leading the country, psychologists working in the USSR became increasingly insulated from US and European intellectual influences. This led to the development of a unique approach to psychology, best represented by Vygotsky and Luria, that was broadly Marxist in intent, and stressed the interaction between people and culture. In recent years, these psychologists have enjoyed increasingly popularity beyond the USSR. Written by: Course Team 

19th-century society (1840-1900). Late 19th-century society inevitably influenced the outlooks of many early psychologists. In an era dominated in the UK by Queen Victoria, it is perhaps not surprising that nineteenth century society is seen as strict and regimented, with little opportunity either for women or for individuality. However, it was also an era of inventions – from the telegraph in the 1840s through to the motor car, telephone, and great advances in engineering, in travel and in the natural sciences. It was also in this period that modern psychology came into being in a number of countries. As an era, it was one in which it was believed that everything could be classified, ordered and tamed, through science, engineering and medicine. Perhaps not surprisingly, measurement and classification were two important themes in the work of early psychologists, alongside the development of medical psychiatry and early studies of hypnotism and hysteria. The development of psychology in the late 19th Century is also important because there were no funded University posts in psychology until the end of the century. As such, early psychological research was (with some notable exceptions) generally conducted by 'gentlemen scientists' who tended to come from privileged backgrounds. Written by: Course Team 

The Tavistock clinic (1920-the present). Dr. Hugh Crichton-Miller set up the Tavistock Clinic, London, in 1920, in response to a need for psychological help for people affected by the First World War. From that time to the present, the Clinic has aimed to combine research into the causes of mental ill-health with the development of effective treatments, along with a commitment to the dissemination of skills to trainees and other professionals. During the Second World War, many of the staff joined the Forces to provide psychological and psychiatric treatment, particularly to people suffering from what was then called 'war neurosis' or 'shell-shock' and would now be called PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder). The return of these staff, with their experience in military service, influenced the Clinic's work, which continues to have as one of its specialities the treatment of trauma-related conditions. The period immediately following the Second World War was a time of great theoretical developments in psychoanalytic theory, and in Britain this was very much centred on the Tavistock Clinic. Amongst many theorists, it is notable that Melanie Klein, John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth were working at the Clinic and contributing to the development of the unique Tavistock style of work. This combines a deep compassion for the difficulties many people face in psychological adjustment with a concern for the development of theoretical understandings of the processes by which such difficulties arise and how best they can be treated. As well as being one of the key centres in which modern object relations theory continues to develop, the Tavistock Clinic has an international reputation for its work in marital therapy, for its systemic approach to family therapy and for its unique infant observation training.\nThe Tavistock Clinic is also important for another theme in the development of psychology – the systems approach to psychology – which has relevance in family therapy but also in industrial and occupational psychology. To quote from its published aim: \n\nToday, our core aim remains unchanged. It is as relevant for the millennium as it was in 1920: to make a significant contribution to improving the mental health of the nation by leading the development of innovative, multidisciplinary training for professionals working in the mental health field, the probation service, education and social work. Written by: Course Team 

Post-modernism and French social theory (1974 to present day). During the 1970s and early 1980s, new intellectual influences such as the writings of French philosophers and social theorists Jean-François Lyotard, Michel Foucault, Roland Barthès and Jacques Derrida began to influence psychology. In general, these authors can be seen as sharing a rejection of the central assumptions of the modern world (i.e. modernism): First the assumption that modern society will become more democratic just because of our growing ability rationally and objectively to understand society's best interests Second the assumption that scientists and social theorists hold a privileged viewpoint because they are assumed not to operate with local interests or bias. Both of these assumptions suggest the possibility of disinterested knowledge, universal truths and social progress. The late twentieth century writings of Michel Foucault (1929-1984) and Jean François Lyotard called these assumptions into question. Foucault's work has argued that knowledge and power are always intertwined and that the social sciences, rather than empowering human actors, have made humans into objects of inquiry and subjected them to knowledge that is given authority by the claims of science. Similarly Lyotard has argued that social theory has always imposed meaning on historical events rather than providing the means by which it is possible to understand the empirical significance of events. Taken together such ideas are called 'post-modernist' because they follow (post-date) modernism, take forward some ideas and replace others. Post-modern theories reject the idea of social and intellectual progress and argue that we must accept three consequences of this: First, the possibility that history has no meaning or purpose, and the abandonment of the idea that we can know what is or is not true (this idea is called realism) and instead recognising that knowledge is socially constructed. Second, we must accept that science can never create and test theories according to universal scientific principles because there is no unitary reality from which such principles can be established Third, that we live in a fragmented world with multiple realities. As a result we must be sceptical about claims to authority based on certainty of knowledge or science. The clearest expressions of a post-modern approach to psychology can be found in social constructionism and discourse analysis. Written by: Course Team. 

Social change. 1. The Post-War period (1945 - 1959) Post-War society, particularly in Europe and the US, saw a number of significant changes that influenced the opportunities for psychologists, and the focus of psychology. The formation of the NHS and expansion of education in post-war Britain led to increased opportunities and better health among working class families. Women were more likely to enter paid employment following the War – in part because of the experiences of work they gained while working during the War. The removal of all rationing in the early 1950s led to a boom in the sale of household appliances, again making it easier for women to enter the job market. More houses for nuclear families were built, which encouraged changes in the demographics in many households. Similarly, the slum clearances that began in the 1950s led to the formation of unique social environments (and later social problems).\nThe social changes following the Second World War fed into the development of psychology as applied to education, mental health and work. 2. Since the 60s (1970 – the present). Many social commentators argue that the late 20th century saw the beginning of a period of rapid social change. This was led by increasing technological innovation, resulting in what is frequently referred to as 'globalisation'. This is marked by increased speed of communications and travel around the world and access to information, goods and services from around the world for those with access to resources and technology. Globalisation has thus widened the differences between the rich and the poor around the world and perhaps made the affluent more similar to each other across national boundaries – which are more permeable to them than previously. Within psychology, globalisation, national identities and cross-cultural issues have begun to be addressed more frequently than previously. In affluent societies, the final quarter of the 20th century also saw other social changes. For example, child abuse and maltreatment, and addiction, began to receive widespread attention in the mass media. These changes in focus on what society deems acceptable or important have influenced psychologists' research priorities. For instance, the widespread media coverage of False Memory Syndrome and the effect of TV violence on children, led to responses from the British Psychological Society and various programmes of research. In addition, it is now more common for both parents to be employed outside the home while their children are young, and this has affected psychological work on the effects of day care and so on.\nSimilarly, changes in the focus of Government health campaigns (e.g. on nutrition and safe sex) are mirrored by psychological research into such matters as attitudes to health behaviour and actual behaviour. Written by: Course Team