Philosophical and Theoretical Approaches to Psychology

The course is fully booked! Please sign up at the waiting list. 

For inquiries regarding registration, cancellation or waiting list, please contact the PhD administration, phdcourses@adm.aau.dk.

Welcome to Philosophical and Theoretical Approaches to Psychology 

Description:

This PhD Course invites PhD students from within psychology to engage in a series of theoretical and philosophical reflections upon psychology and psychological phenomena.  

Psychology is a chronically split science, incorporating natural-, social-scientific, as well as humanistic perspectives. While this multiperspective point of departure offers great opportunities to avoid reductionism, it likewise poses challenges in terms of how to connect distinctively different perspectives on the psyche. Historically, psychology has been beset by theoretical and philosophical issues and methodological challenges: What is the psyche and the nature of psychological phenomena? What characterizes human beings, psychologically? Can psychological phenomena be represented quantitatively? How can psychology be a science – and can it be a unified science?  

These questions, crucial though they are, have tended to be less prioritized by much of mainstream psychological research, both quantitative and qualitative. This PhD course will introduce students to different philosophical and theoretical perspectives on psychology (as a practice and science) and on psychological phenomena. Drawing on a variety of theoretical and philosophical approaches and discussions, students will be equipped to reflect upon their own research and how it engages with and may benefit from reflection over these crucial questions.  

Throughout the three course days, we will explore both the nature of the psyche and psychology’s potential to uncover this nature in a dialogical fashion. Ontological questions of what the psyche is, and what it means to be psychic beings, will intersect with epistemological questions of how we approach and investigate the psyche scientifically in a meaningful, sound, and valid manner. Questioning some of the often-taken-for-granted premises of the psychological field, and grappling with some of the fundamental questions of what defines it, can benefit Ph.D. projects in several ways. 

Questions we want to explore include, but are not restricted to: 

• Is there a unified science of psychology, and, if so, in what sense? 
• How can we understand and conceptualize the relationship between the different subdisciplines? 
• What can the history of psychology teach us about the current status of the field? 
• How does one navigate the field of normativity as a psychological researcher? 
• How should psychological phenomena be understood and defined? 
• What is the relationship between culture, society and psychological phenom 
• Can psychological phenomena be meaningfully quantified and if so, under what circumstances?

Teaching methods:

The course will include keynote lectures from prominent researchers within the field, student presentations, group work, and individual writing. 

Organizer: 

Alfred Sköld, Department of Culture and Communication 
Rasmus Birk, Department of Culture and Communication

Programme outline:

Day 1:

9:00 – 09:45 Welcome and round of presentations
09:45 – 10:00: Break
10:00 – 12:00 Keynote 1: Svend Brinkmann – What is psychology about? Exploring the potentials of a science of personhood?
12:00 – 13:00: Lunch
13:00 – 14:30: Student presentations 1–3
14:30 – 15:00: Break  
15:00 – 16:30: Student presentations 4–6
16:30 – 17:00: Wrap up

Day 2:

9:00 – 11:00: Keynote 2: Jaan Valsiner – How Psychology lost its chance to become an integrated science: Lessons from History of Sciences
11:00 – 11:15 Break
11:15 – 12:15: Student presentations 7–8
12:15 – 13:00: Lunch
13:00 – 14:30: Student presentations 9–11
14:30 – 15:00: Break
15:00 – 16:30: Group work/individual writing

Day 3:

9:00 – 9:30 Introduction and follow up from day 1 and 2
9:30 – 11:30 Student presentations 12–14
11:30–12:30: Lunch
12:30–14:00: Student presentations 15–17
14:00–14:30: Break
14:30–16:00: Student presentations 18-20
16:00 – 16:30 Wrap up and goodbye

Lecturers:

Alfred Sköld (AAU)
Rasmus Birk (AAU)
Svend Brinkmann (AAU)
Jaan Valsiner (AAU)

Description of paper requirements:

Two weeks ahead of the course, participating PhD-students are asked to submit a 5-page reflection paper dealing with the philosophical and theoretical underpinnings of their ph.d. project. The paper will highlight at least one specific issue/problem that will be discussed further at the course.

At the course, participating ph.d.-students are asked to present their paper orally (10-15 minutes) followed by a plenum discussion (15 minute/student).

ECTS: 3

Date:  6, 7, 8 October 2026

Place: Rendsburggade 14, room 4.517, Aalborg University

City: Aalborg

Number of seats: 20

Deadline:  6 September 2026

List of readings:

General readings:

-       Bertelsen, P. (2005). Free Will, Consciousness and Self – Antropological Perspectives on Psychology. Berghhan Books.

-       Brinkmann, S. (2017). Persons and their Minds: Towards an Integrative Theory of the Mediated Mind. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315623658 [Intro and Chapter 1]

-       Danziger, K. (1997). Naming the Mind: How Psychology Found Its Language. SAGE Publications. [Chapter 1, 9 & 10] 

-       Danziger, K. (2012). Historical psychology of persons: Categories and practice. In J. Martin & M. H. Bickhard (Eds.), The Psychology of Personhood: Philosophical, Historical, Social-Developmental, and Narrative Perspectives (pp. 59–80). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139086493.006 1 

-       Michell, Joel. “Constructs, Inferences, and Mental Measurement.” New Ideas in Psychology, On defining and interpreting constructs: Ontological and epistemological constraints, vol. 31, no. 1 (2013): 13–21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.newideapsych.2011.02.004. 

-       Smith, R. (2005). The history of psychological categories. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, 36(1), 55–94. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsc.2004.12.006

-       Teymoori, A., & Trappes, R. (2026). The Recurrence of Fundamental Questions: A Historical and Philosophical Analysis of Major Disciplinary Crises in Psychology. Review of General Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1177/10892680261421875

Readings for Svend Brinkmann’s lecture:

-       Brinkmann, S. (2025). Persons in a posthuman world. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 22(3): 596-612. 

-       Brinkmann, S. (2022). Minds, brains, or persons? What is psychology about? In B. Slife, S. Yanchar & F. Richardson (ed.) Routledge International Handbook of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology: Critiques, Problems, and Alternatives to Psychological Ideas. (pp. 13-29). London: Routledge.

-       Brinkmann, S. (2020). Psychology as a science of life. Theory & Psychology, 30(1): 3-17.

Readings for Jaan Valsiner’s lecture: 

-       Lamiell, J. T. (2019). Statisticism in Psychology as a Socio-ethical Problem. In Psychology’s Misuse of Statistics and Persistent Dismissal of Its Critics (pp. 123–145). Springer International Publishing AG. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-12131-0_6 

-       Klempe, S. H. (2020). Subjectivity in Popular Culture. In Tracing the Emergence of Psychology, 1520-⁠1750 (pp. 77–92). Springer International Publishing AG. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-53701-2_6

-       Valsiner, J. (2017). Learning from the Fate of Psychology. In A Guided Science (1st ed., pp. 175–194). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315083544-13

Important information concerning PhD courses:

There is a no-show fee of DKK 3,000 for each course where the student does not show up. Cancellations are accepted no later than 2 weeks before the start of the course. Registered illness is of course an acceptable reason for not showing up on those days. Furthermore, all courses open for registration approximately four months before start of the course.

We cannot ensure any seats before the deadline for enrolment, all participants will be informed after the deadline, approximately 3 weeks before the start of the course.

For inquiries regarding registration, cancellation or waiting list, please contact the PhD administration at phdcourses@adm.aau.dk. When contacting us please state the course title and course period. Thank you.