The Teaching of Psychology in High Schools: A Review of the Literature

Abstract

~HE EARLIEST DATE at which psychology was introduced into the high school as a separate area of instruction appears to be 1910. Harris reports it was added at about that time to the Kansas high-school curriculum as an elective subject open to Seniors, with a course in either biology or physiology as a prerequisite (18). Courses and course materials with psychological content had, of course, been in the schools long before 1910, but this review is concerned only with the teaching of psychology as such. From 1925 to 1930, William F. Linehan, dean of the Teachers College of the City of Boston, headed a committee studying the educability of the emotions. This committee produced three manuscripts: The Educability of the Emotions: A Suggested Discussion Approach (23), Fear (24), and Controlling Self-assertion (25), which were designed to provide a guide to a discussion approach to these topics. Pupils were to be given an opportunity to talk about fears and thwartings in general, and their own fears and thwartings in particular. Fear found some use in Boston high schools, though it was intended primarily for use in Grades VII and VIII. Controlling Selfassertion never reached the stage of publication. In the 1930's there was evidence of