Psychology in transition : Considering aspects of the history of psychology and the impact on teaching

Psychology is a fast-growing field in Germany with a huge influx of students. In research and teaching, however, a look back is only occasionally taken. It is agreed across disciplines, that psychology, like all sciences, is constantly undergoing periods of change. A major, drastic change that led to the professionalization of psychology in Germany occurred during and after National Socialism. Manuscript 1 contains the results of an evaluation of excerpts from contemporary witness interviews on the development of psychology in the post-war period with regard to the continuity or a new beginning in domains of psychology expressed there.  It became apparent that evaluators tended to understand that the contemporary witnesses were describing a continuity in some areas and a new beginning within the discipline after the Second World War in other areas. The eyewitness interviews underlined that different domains should be considered when treating the issue of change vs. continuity of the discipline. Since transcripts were used, the methodological question was raised as to whether listening to the interview passages leads to different evaluations of the auditory quotations than reading them. This was investigated in Manuscript 2, which showed that though the ratings of the quotes differed little in both perceptual modes differed little, they leaned farther toward the extreme end of the rating scale when raters read and listened to (rather than just reading) the statements. Potentially, the participants had already concluded from reading the statements that a new beginning or continuity in psychology was clearly expressed became even more certain when hearing the passage. In Manuscript 3, the question was addressed of how psychology students deal with the fact that psychology has been subject to change in the past and is currently undergoing change (e.g. due to the replication crisis). We found that students showed little disquiet and, after confrontation, continued to be interested to a similar extent in issues of scientific change in psychology, the expectation of learning about it, and the intention to do so. All in all, this dissertation provides a multifaceted view on change in the discipline. It suggests that the subdiscipline history of psychology can profit from and contribute to the discipline in a more substantive way. The current dissertation shows that psychological methods can be used when conducting research on the history of psychology and that students can be expected to actively participate in changes within the discipline.