Personal Reflections on 60 Years of Psychology: Many Roads to Truth.

Abstract

Abstract The author selects from her 60 years of personal experiences examples of conflicting views within the profession of psychology on the means of discovering and creating knowledge and truth. She presents vignettes of differences that occur within professional education, research, the regulation of the profession, and belieft about diversity. Aspirational ethics, as in the Canadian Code of Ethics for Psychologists, is inspiring and unifying in using moral principles to bring together apparently divergent people and divergent views to serve our common humanity. Diversity can enrich. CPA's motto of Advancing Psychology for All is a commitment to place the welfare of society individually and collectively above self-interest. Over 60 years of personal encounters with the many tongues, many dreams, many colours, and many struggles of psychologists to discover the truths about human behaviours have led me to believe that there are many paths to follow in the creation of knowledge. My beginnings are clearly rooted in western Canada, in the climate of social activism of prairie politics, and the belief that psychological practice contributes to healthier lives. My reflections are personal and selective and do not reference all the great achievements of Canadian psychologists. My parents believed that education was the road to a better world. Scientific knowledge applied to the welfare of society would eliminate poverty, war, and discrimination, and bring about social justice. A better world would be egalitarian and just, with all people sharing the resources and pleasures of life. I saw psychology as a pathway to truth and social justice. However, snapshots from my life's journey demonstrate some sharply differing views on what psychology is all about, and competing tongues on the nature of truth. Education Sixty years ago, I took two very different courses at the same summer school at the University of Alberta. Dr. John M. MacEacheran (1877-1971) taught the philosophy course that explored the nature of truth, knowledge, and the process by which people seek and achieve wisdom. Dr. Douglas E Smith (1912-1995) taught us about how experimental research and measurement led to a knowledge of truth. I wrote two final exams, one after the other answering similar questions, but I can assure you that I offered different versions of the truth. I received good marks from both instructors. Dr. MacEacheran had studied Mental and Moral Philosophy at Queen's University, and experimental psychology with Wilhelm Wundt in Germany before establishing the Department of Philosophy and Psychology at the University of Alberta in 1909. In 1938-39, he was charged with writing the constitution for the newly formed Canadian Psychological Association and he became its first Honorary President (Pettifor, 1982). he was scholarly, kindly, and interested in social problems. he chaired the Eugenics Board in Alberta for many years, presumably to ensure that there were no abuses in implementing the Act that allowed for the sterilization of those with serious genetically transmitted diseases. Our concepts of respect for human rights and for diversity have changed since that time. This man was highly respected for his many achievements, but, he is much maligned today because of his association with the Eugenics Board. Dr. Smith spent the World War II years as a Staff Officer in the Directorate of Personnel Selection at National Defense Headquarters in Ottawa. He returned to the University of Alberta, served as Head of the Department of Philosophy and Psychology 1952-57, and Chair of the Department of Psychology in 1960 when it became independent of philosophy. he reshaped the department in the belief that experimentalists would have an understanding of community needs and practitioner problems (Pettifor, 1982). he had measurement stories to tell. This was a time when the disclosure of Nazi experimentation on human beings was supposed to be shocking the world into recognizing the need to protect human research subjects, but I do not recall any mention of ethics or of institutional ethics review boards. …