| Psychology was
first formally taught at The University of Sydney from the 1880s as
part of Philosophy, and from 1921 in a semi-autonomous department
of Psychology, at that time the only one in Australia. With the creation
of its first chair (the McCaughey Chair), Psychology became a fully
autonomous department in 1929. For the first 70 years, five figures
stand out as having exercised a major shaping influence on the direction
of the Department, each of them, as the dates below indicate, serving
on the staff for at least 20 years. For nearly a quarter of a century
H. T. Lovell and A. H. Martin were the only permanent members of the
Psychology staff. Lovell was succeeded to the Chair in 1945 by his
student W. M. O’Neil, who was in turn succeeded by his student,
R. A. Champion, in 1965. With the expansion of the Department a second
Chair was created and taken up by another of O’Neil’s
students, J. P. Sutcliffe, in 1966. While these five men were all
Sydney graduates, three of them took higher degrees overseas as well.
A pervasive influence upon all five men was the direct realist approach
of Scottish-born John Anderson, Professor of Philosophy at Sydney
from 1927-1958. Direct Realism asserts that knowledge of the world
is direct and not mediated by any form of mental representation, and
its influence came to be associated with a hyper-critical attitude
toward psychological theorising. |
| |
Professor
Lovell with son Bruce. Courtesy of University of Sydney
Archives
|
Henry
Tasman (Tassie) Lovell, MA (Syd.), dr Phil (Jena) 1921-1945
Lovell was the first Professor of Psychology in the Department
(from 1929) and in Australia. He masterminded the establishment
of the first full teaching curriculum at Sydney, ensuring that
experimental psychology and laboratory techniques were there
from the start. His own particular interests included general
theoretical psychology, abnormal psychology and personality
dynamics, and he was an Australian pioneer in the study of psychoanalysis.
|
PSYCHO-ANALYSIS:
OR, THE NEW GAME OF LAYING BARE ONE’S INMOST SOUL.
Punch,
February 16, 1921.
|
|
Alfred
Horatio (Piggy) Martin, MA (Syd.), PhD (Columbia), 1921-1948
Martin was the first Australian to receive an overseas PhD in
psychology. His special teaching areas were psychometrics and
experimental psychology. Australian psychology’s first
venture into private enterprise was initiated by Martin in the
form of The Australian Institute of Industrial Psychology, a
non-profit body set up in Sydney in 1927 to provide vocational
selection and guidance for the benefit of individuals and organizations. |
Courtesy
of University of Sydney Archives |
“According
to the Industrial Psychiatrist’s report, you’re
better fitted temperamentally to swing a pick than to wield
a shovel.”
Punch,
August 18, 1948.
|
|
Courtesy
of University of Sydney Archives
|
William
Matthew (Bill) O’Neil, MA (Syd.), 1945-1965
O’Neil succeeded his teacher Lovell in the chair, becoming
the second Professor of Psychology at Sydney and in 1945 still
the only one in the country. In the post-war era O’Neil
moved swiftly to restructure and expand the Department and a
range of specialists was appointed to teach the subjects previously
covered just by Lovell and Martin. His personal interests were
diverse - individual differences, perception, methodology, conceptual
analysis and, increasingly, the history of psychology. Bill’s
qualities of leadership were remarkable at many levels. His
influence on course structure and content at Sydney was to manifest
itself for at least half a century, and many of his students
went on to occupy chairs in the new psychology departments springing
up across the country. He played a major role in the establishment
of the professional society (now the Australian Psychological
Society) and made Australian psychology much more visible on
the international stage. |
|
|
Courtesy
of Mary-Ann McGill |
Richard
Annells (Dick) Champion, BA (Syd.), MA (Iowa), 1947 - 1987
Champion became McCaughey Professor of Psychology in 1965, having
taught learning theory since his first appointment. A staunch
behaviorist totally opposed to all and any forms of mentalism,
Dick kept this materialist and determinist tradition alive at
Sydney in its strictest form until his retirement, building
up large animal laboratories and encouraging the teaching of
rigorous standards of experimental methodology and interpretation.
In 1965 he became the first chairman of the newly independent
Australian Psychological Society. |
 “Sorry,
I’m a stranger here myself.”
Punch,
November 12, 1980.
|
|
|
Courtesy
of Margaret Sankey |
Punch,
May 13, 1964. |
John
Philip (Phil) Sutcliffe, MA, PhD, DSc (Syd.), 1950-1991
In 1966 Phil Sutcliffe became first occupant of the newly created
second chair of Psychology and alternated with Champion as departmental
head for the next two decades, building up strengths in complementary
areas. In 1959 Phil was awarded the first PhD in the Sydney
Faculty of Arts. Like O’Neil, his interests were diverse,
moving over time across the experimental study of personality,
social psychology (he held MAs in both psychology and anthropology),
statistical analysis, scaling and cognitive psychology. From
the late 1960s he began to introduce courses on cognitive processes
at all levels and was responsible for laying the foundation
for the use of computers in the department. |
|
|
