History of Psych at Beloit College Post and Reflection

Larry's book allowed me to feel more connected to Beloit College because I was able to learn about the school and the psychology and major and the historical contexts in which they developed. I was surprised to learn about the department's progressive start and close ties to the very roots of psychology, with Professor Tawney having earned his PhD with Wundt. However, despite the head start, it seems that the dept stalled or lagged behind the interest in psychology nation wide, being carried by only one professor for so many years. I wonder if there was anything that the administration of the school could have done to increase the attraction of the position and retain faculty for longer than a couple years. It's interesting to think about what the dept could have been had it been stronger from the beginning. The history of the dept reinforces what I've learned in several classes, especially social psychology. No individual or institution is an island; they are influenced by the social influences all around. This is evident in the dept's shift to behaviorism during that school's heyday, and eventual conversion to cognitive psych. It is regrettable that during these times one school of thought dominated in the dept to the exclusion of other valuable viewpoints. Presently, I think the dept is doing a wonderful job of including a broad sampling of perspective and I am confident that it will continue to do so. We even continue to do original research, which is difficult to do at a small liberal arts school, because professors' time is taken up by teaching several classes, spending more time with students, etc. Here is a link to the study Greg conducted with one of the founders or positive psychology, Martin Seligman:

http://ft.csa.com/ids70/resolver.php?sessid=4j409lb1lcn4lbddam19lamtk6&server=csaweb106v.csa.com&check=45085fb0d70009bcf60ae0c74fb5811b&db=psycarticles-set-c&key=PRE%2F2%2Fpre_2_1_10a&mode=pdf