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This study is an empirical analysis of the recent past and current state of Argentinian undergraduate psychology education in the context of psychology programs' ongoing evaluation and accreditation processes. We used six bibliometric parameters to retrieve the required listed readings (N = 16,085) of the 452 compulsory undergraduate courses' syllabi from Argentina's 12 most populated psychology programs at public and prívate universities. We then compared our data with analyses from the 2000–2010 period and with official accreditation criteria. Results showed a marked obsolescence and a limited updating of required readings. Syllabi showed a clear hegemony of psychoanalytically-oriented authors and readings, dominance of books and faculty-written manuscripts over scholarly articles, and a very limited internationalization. Our findings suggest that accreditation processes have not modified Argentinian psychology's main, historical characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To clarify the historical origins of theoretical and methodological problems faced by Argentinian psychology today, this article describes the philosophical and epistemological ideas held by psychoanalytically oriented professors and transmitted to undergraduate students during the institutionalization and professionalization of psychology at Argentinian universities between 1962 and 1983. Drawing from primary sources such as official publications and undergraduate syllabi, we analyze the systematic and normative perspective of those psychoanalysts on issues such as the nature of science, the scientific method, and the legitimate ways to do research. We argue that the philosophical approach they defended within psychology programs was markedly relativistic, solipsistic, and often recursive, leading them to conceive of psychoanalysis both as a meta‐theory and a self‐sufficient science. The fact that this "theory‐laden" philosophy of science was gradually adopted by psychology graduates (or undergraduates) throughout their education could thus help explain several epistemological beliefs currently held by a majority of Argentinian psychologists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]