Title and statement of responsibility area
Title proper
Department of Psychology fonds
General material designation
- Textual record
- Photographic material
- Sound recording
Parallel title
Other title information
Title statements of responsibility
Title notes
Level of description
Fonds
Repository
Reference code
Edition area
Edition statement
Edition statement of responsibility
Class of material specific details area
Statement of scale (cartographic)
Statement of projection (cartographic)
Statement of coordinates (cartographic)
Statement of scale (architectural)
Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)
Dates of creation area
Date(s)
-
1945-1990, predominant 1982-1990 (Creation)
Physical description area
Physical description
56 cm of textual records
15 photographs
6 sound recordings
Publisher's series area
Title proper of publisher's series
Parallel titles of publisher's series
Other title information of publisher's series
Statement of responsibility relating to publisher's series
Numbering within publisher's series
Note on publisher's series
Archival description area
Name of creator
Administrative history
The University first offered a psychology course in 1915 through the Department of Philosophy. Professor James Henderson was the sole member of the Department until 1920 when H.T.J. Coleman was appointed Head (as well as Dean of Arts). Only one course in psychology was taught until 1926, but by 1936 enough courses had been added to the curriculum for the Department's name to be changed to Philosophy and Psychology. Coleman was replaced as Head by J.A. Irving in 1940, followed by S.N.F. Chant in 1945. When Chant became Dean of Arts and Sciences in 1948, he remained Department Head, but Barnet Savery acted as chair in his absence; starting that year, separate staff meetings were held for faculty in the philosophy and psychology programs. Beginning in the 1940s, the Department expanded rapidly, and during this period moved from rooms scattered around campus to several Army-surplus huts. In 1951 the Department was authorized to grant a Ph.D. in clinical psychology, although the first degree was not awarded until 1968. The Department of Psychology was established as a separate unit in 1958, with Professor Chant as its Head, Edro Signori as chair and, after 1961, Acting Head. Dr. Douglas T. Kenny was appointed as Head in 1965. That same year the Department moved from its old huts to new facilities in the Angus Building, sharing the building with the Faculty of Commerce. Under Kenny's leadership, the Department continued to grow in faculty, students, and course offerings; its programs became less eclectic and more focused on experimental psychology and research. When he resigned in 1969, Signori served again as Acting Head until Peter Suedfeld was appointed in 1972; he, in turn, was replaced by Richard C. Tees in 1984. In 1984, the Department moved again to the new Kenny Building. Over the years, the Department of Psychology has grown to become one of the largest in the Faculty of Arts.
Custodial history
Scope and content
The fonds consists of correspondence, reports, and minutes of meetings relating to the activities and programs of the Department of Psychology, and photographs of Department Heads and prominent faculty members. Some records date from before the formation of the Department, when the psychology program was still part of the Department of Philosophy and Psychology. Also included are audio recordings of interviews (with typed transcripts) documenting the Department's historical development.
The material is arranged in six series: Administration, Departmental Committees, Departmental Programs, External Correspondence, Historical Files, and Oral History Project. The Historical Files series consists of textual records which document the Department's formative years, and photographs; they had been placed in a box and stored separately from the Department's other records until transferred to the Archives.
Notes area
Physical condition
Immediate source of acquisition
Arrangement
Language of material
Script of material
Location of originals
Audio reels are located in the vault from AT 1057 to AT 1062.
Availability of other formats
Some photographs have been digitized and are available on UBC Library Open Collections series UBC 6.1
Restrictions on access
Fonds consists of institutional records – access requests must be reviewed by the University's FOIPOP Coordinator.
Terms governing use, reproduction, and publication
Finding aids
Online Finding Aid
Please see the finding aid for the file list.
Uploaded finding aid
Associated materials
Accruals
General note
The audio interviews with former staff and typed summaries were produced through an oral history project undertaken in 1982-83 and copied by the Archives in 1983 for its audio-visual holdings.
Alternative identifier(s)
Standard number area
Standard number
Access points
Subject access points
Place access points
Name access points
- Savery, Barnett (Subject)
- Kenny, Douglas T. (Subject)
- Chant, Sperrin (Subject)
- University of British Columbia. Dept. of Psychology (Subject)
- University of British Columbia. Dept. of Philosophy (Subject)