Columbia's psychology department

Columbia University's Department of Psychology is one of the leading psychology departments globally. It integrates research and teaching in cognition, neuroscience, and clinical psychology to advance mental health and behavior science. The history of the psychology department at Columbia is one of vacillation between a broad and a narrow vision of what psychology encompasses. Its inception was in a course first offered in 1867 under the auspices of the Department of Moral and Intellectual Philosophy and English Literature. It was a course, open only to seniors,in which the philosophy of intellect, feelings, and will were discussed. As the field gained momentum and academic stature, the Department of Moral and Intellectual Philosophy and English Literature offered 'The Principles of Philosophy and Psychology' in 1877. This new course was offered, according to the contemporaneous course catalog, with special reference to the results of modern biological research as affecting these sciences. With the separation of the English department from the Department of Philosophy, Ethics, and Psychology in 1881, psychology was en route to independent status.