Allgemeine Psychologie - ein Fach ohne Geschichte?

This article deals with the history of theGerman subject»Allgemeine Psychologie« (general psychology) in academic education. Already at the end of the eighteenth century the idea of such an area of research dealing with the »normal« person was suggested. In presentday general psychology in Germany a certain degree of abstinence toward the history of the subject can be seen. This abstinence is related to the late institutionalization of the German academic diploma in psychology in 1941. However, research areas of general psychology like perception, memory, learning etc. have a long, meaningful and rewarding history. Themissing discussion about earlier systematic and theoretical approaches within Allgemeine Psychology is seen as a deficit here as well. According to the examination regulation dated 1941 Allgemeine Psychologie originally was intended to deal with »basic facts of conscious and unconscious inner life in regard to person- and collective-psychological aspects«[II., § 2, 2.a]. From then up to the contemporary areas of cognitive psychology changes have taken place which are necessary to be explained here: German Allgemeine Psychologie meanwhile has become a field different from general psychology taught in other countries. Furthermore the subdisciplines of Allgemeine Psychology taught at universities are less integrated than desirable. This is partially due to past reforms in academic education. Also, the rather marginal significance of Theoretical Psychology within the topic of Allgemeine Psychologie, and the rare discussion of the history of Allgemeine Psychologie are seen as deficiencies of the domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]