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The Psychology Department in the Faculty of Arts and Science recently celebrated its 75th anniversary and Eve Thomson recently completed her thesis titled The Establishment of a Psychology Department at Queen’s University which was perfectly aligned with this significant milestone.

Psychology became a department at Queen’s University in 1949 but teaching and research in psychology were happening long before this date. As an example, content that is typically covered in psychology courses today was part of the first Mental and Moral Philosophy course in 1846. This included topics such as the physical and intellectual nature of humans, and the importance of mental science and ethics. Other psychology-related courses were taught in the philosophy department before 1949, as well as in biology, theology, and economics.

The project started when Thomson took a summer course taught by Professor Mary Olmstead on the history of psychology. “It was fascinating. I learned about the important aspects of psychology in Canada and how that discipline really shaped the world that we live in. That was an interesting perspective of psychology that I hadn’t really grasped until I took this course.”  

Dr. Olmstead remembers that Thomson was one of the most engaged students in the class, so when   they started discussing an honours thesis, she asked if Thomson would be interested in taking on a history project. “This is the first time I’ve ever had a student do a project like this and Eve should be commended on that. It was a very big undertaking.”

A goal of the thesis was to trace the factors that led to the establishment of a separate psychology department at Queen’s. This investigation will help us understand how and why the department became an independent academic unit. “My first step was learning how other people had written on the history of psychology because it’s such a vast topic,” Thomson explains. “It was hard for me to conceptualize where to start.”

Psychology, as an academic discipline, formed around the end of the 19th century when Queen’s was already well established. Still, the Psychology Department wasn’t officially established until 1949 even though other Canadian institutions had separate psychology departments

“That brings up the question why was our department so late in forming? People were teaching courses with psychology content and people were doing research, Eve found evidence of that. We examined what was already happening and what were the forces that resulted in the 1949 decision to start the department.” reflected Olmstead.

Thomson explains she accessed the Queen’s Archives and examined the Queen’s Academic Calendar which gives an overview of academic activities each year, beginning in 1845. While only 10 pages long, the first printing shows what academic life at Queen’s was like during its early years teaching humanities, mathematics, Greek, natural philosophy, Hebrew, theology, and church history.

Thomson also scoured the Queen’s Journal which she says gave her a student perspective on psychology and the general vibe around campus at that time. The Principal’s report from the time also gave her an administrative perspective on Queen’s.

When asked about the actual date of the formation of the department, Thomson says it was a challenge to find a major announcement of this event. “The closest I could find would be a principal’s report from 1950. It said Mr. ARC Duncan has been appointed the head of the Department of Philosophy and Dr. Julian Blackburn was named the head of the Department of Psychology. The two departments were officially separated, and Psychology became its own department.”

Thomson’s project laid the groundwork for the next round of inquiry. Dr. Olmstead has two new honours students who are continuing research into the origins and establishment of psychology at Queen’s department.

As Thomson notes on her compiled research poster “It would benefit Psychology at Queen’s today to understand its history and reconnect with its philosophical origins.”