Email: yujiajia2017@gmail.com
Address: Department of History and Philosophy of Science
University of Cambridge
Free School Lane
Cambridge
CB2 3RH
United Kingdom
Address: Department of History and Philosophy of Science
University of Cambridge
Free School Lane
Cambridge
CB2 3RH
United Kingdom
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Since 1952, the institutional reconstruction of psychology as a scientific discipline exerted lasting influences in China. The psychology speciality at Peking University was the last to remain operational in Chinese research universities in the early PRC. This paper examines the pedagogical history of psychology between 1952 and 1966. I use the local sources kept at Peking University to trace the departmental structure, academic backgrounds of faculty, enrollments, and changing curriculums. Within this context, I argue that the psychology speciality at PKU struggled to follow the Soviet school of human sciences. Although the emphasis on Pavlovian psychology was remarkable, the views of faculties had been polarizing, whose research and teaching needed to engage in shifting social and revolutionary movements at the time. The influence of China’s political ideology thus saliently remoulded the main purpose of psychology studies in the early PRC.
Since 1952, the institutional reconstruction of psychology as a scientific discipline exerted lasting influences in China. The psychology speciality at Peking University was the last to remain operational in Chinese research universities in the early PRC. This paper examines the pedagogical history of psychology between 1952 and 1966. I use the local sources kept at Peking University to trace the departmental structure, academic backgrounds of faculty, enrollments, and changing curriculums. Within this context, I argue that the psychology speciality at PKU struggled to follow the Soviet school of human sciences. Although the emphasis on Pavlovian psychology was remarkable, the views of faculties had been polarizing, whose research and teaching needed to engage in shifting social and revolutionary movements at the time. The influence of China’s political ideology thus saliently remoulded the main purpose of psychology studies in the early PRC.