Psychology Education

a system for training well-rounded psychologists specializing in general and physiological psychology, developmental and educational psychology, industrial psychology, social psychology, and medical psychology.

Planned and systematic education of psychologists began in the first decade of the 20th century, when psychology first acquired practical significance. Moscow University became the center of psychology education in Russia; in 1912 the university organized the Institute of Psychology, which is now the Scientific Research Institute of General and Educational Psychology of the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of the USSR.

Among those who have contributed to the establishment and development of psychology education in the Soviet Union are K. N. Kornilov, L. S. Vygotskii, S. L. Rubinshtein, B. G. Anan’ev, B. M. Teplov, D. N. Uznadze, A. N. Leont’ev, A. R. Luriia, P. Ia. Gal’perin, A. V. Zaporozhets, D. B. El’konin, A. A. Smirnov, N. F. Dobrynin, G. S. Kostiuk, and R. G. Natadze.

Until the mid-1960’s, most psychologists were trained to be teachers in secondary and higher schools, and most instruction was carried out on a small scale in the psychology subdepartments and divisions of a number of universities and pedogogical institutes. In 1966 psychology departments were established at Moscow and Leningrad universities and psychology divisions were created at a number of universities. In the 1974–75 academic year, approximately 2,500 psychologists were being trained at 11 universities: in psychology departments at Moscow and Leningrad universities and in psychology divisions at the universities of Kiev, Tbilisi, Tartu, Vilnius, Rostov, Saratov, Yaroslavl’, Tashkent, and Kharkov. There are both day and evening programs at these institutions, and programs last five or six years. Psychology education consists of specialized preparation in psychology and general scientific training, including instruction in the social sciences, biology, mathematical disciplines, and foreign languages. The specialized training includes special courses, seminars, a practicum, term papers, a final thesis, and practical training. Whatever their specialization, students are trained in general psychology, neuropsychology, pathopsychology, developmental psychology, educational psychology, social psychology, engineering psychology, physiological psychology, and industrial psychology. The training of specialists in engineering psychology was especially stepped up after the 1972 decree of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR On Measures for the Further Improvement of Higher Schools.

Scientific personnel in psychology are being trained in the graduate programs of universities, various pedagogical institutes, the Institute of Psychology of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, the Scientific Research Institute of General and Educational Psychology of the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of the USSR, the Scientific Research Institute of Psychology of the Ukrainian SSR, and the D. N. Uznadze Scientific Research Institute of Psychology of the Academy of Sciences of the Georgian SSR.

The most famous centers of psychology education abroad are at Harvard University, Columbia University, Stanford University (USA), Cambridge University, Oxford University, the University of London (Great Britain), the University of Montreal (Canada), the University of Paris (France), the University of Berlin (German Democratic Republic), Charles University (Czechoslovakia), and Warsaw University (Poland).