| Description | CDR sound recording of an interview with Professor Colin Robson, CPsychol. University of Huddersfield, for the British Psychological Society 's Oral History project.
The interview was conducted by Julie Perks in 2010.
The following summary is by way of introduction to the full recording held at the British Psychological Society's History of Psychology Centre, London.
Performers:
Colin Robson (CR)
Julie Perks (JP)
Topics covered:
Running order:
JP begins the interview by asking CR to tell us how he was introduced to psychology
CR talks of how he initially took a degree in Physics at Manchester University then a PGCE at Kings' College, London before National Service in the RAF (electronics).
CR continues to speak of his National Service and how he enrolled on a correspondence course (in psychology) then how he taught in London schools whilst attending Birkbeck College in the evenings,
CR speaks of his time and people at Birkbeck viz. C.A.Mace, Thelma Veness,Brian Foss, Harry Hurwitz and Alec Rogers.
CR in response to JR's question speaks of his first research project in signal detection theory and psychophysics before leaving as Head of Science (at school) to take up an assistant lecturer post at Birkbeck College (1965-1970).
CR continues to talk of his time at Birkbeck, his PhD, Arthur Summerfield, his research on pigeons and his article submission to the journal 'Nature'.
CR speaks of how he went as Head of the Education Department at Huddersfield Polytechnic (1971-1974) whilst doing his PhD, his wok with pigeons, and errorless learning.
JP asks CR to speak of his biggest influences
CR talks of Chris Kiernan, of the Thomas Coram Research Unit, Harry Hurwitz and Arthur Summerfield
CR talks of his work in special needs at Huddersfield, setting up courses, new courses in social sciences, change to interdisciplinary courses and work on the social science degree.
CR talks of his 3 year project in special needs, how he became a reader, his admiration for Pavlov, Piaget, Skinner and the limitations of Behaviourism.
CR speaks of his links with other professional bodies including; CNAA, social science, his work with Hester Adrian Research Centre, University of Manchester and David Legge at University College London.
CR talks of his time at Huddersfield, his work at the University of London's summer school in experimental psychology, his Penguin book 'Experiment, Design and Statistics in Psychology', and his students at Huddersfield.
CR speaks of Chris Kiernan, Hester Adrian Research Centre, James Hogg, Peter Mittler, Judy Sabar
CR speaks of his ten year OECD project (with Peter Evans) on special needs in different countries, developing statistics and indicators, ABC categorisation, his views on negative political influences on research (mid 1980s) and Millennium goals.
CR returns to his experiences at secondary school, the influence of Brian Jackson's book 'Education of the Working Class', the setting up of the OU, and CR managing to influence Brian Jackson to return to Huddersfield.
CR talks of his early background including; school experiences, regional accents, austerity, and university grants.
CR talks of his favourite journals , the Journal of Advanced Nursing and the Journal of Community Psychology.
The recording is interrupted for a few seconds from 1hr 01:54 to 1hr 01:54
CR returns to give his opinions of the growth in psychology before moving on to talk of the future for his area of psychology and psychology in general.
CR talks of his work on the third edition of his book ' Real World Research' and the wealth of academic resources found over the internet
CR talks of his contribution to his field of psychology, supervising PhD students, and the influence of his 'Real World Research' book.
JP asks CR for his theoretical allegiances
CR speaks of Skinner's methodology, his admiration of Pavlov and Ernest Rutherford (physics).
CR talks of ethical issues, publication matters in recent years, the wide access to internet journals, before adding for the record his admiration and respect for Birkbeck College.
Ends.
Running time: c 87mins
Summary by Mike Maskill, BPS Archivist. |
| RunTime | On one CDR disk, running time c 87 minutes. |
| AdminHistory | Date of Birth: 27/07/1935
Place of Birth: Huddersfield, UK
University and Professional Training:
BSc Hons. Physics, University of Manchester 1956
PGCE King's College, University of London, 1957
BSc Hons Psychology, Birkbeck College, University of London, 1971
PhD Psychology, Birkbeck College, University of London, 1971
Professional career:
Lecturer in Experimental Psychology, Birkbeck College, University of London 1965-1970
Head of Education Department, Huddersfield Polytechnic 1971-1974
Head of Behavioural Sciences Department (Psychology & Sociology), Huddersfield Polytechnic 1972-1976
Reader (then Professor) and Project Director, Huddersfield Polytechnic (subsequently Huddersfield University) 1976-1990
(concurrently) Research Fellow, Hester Adrian Research Centre, University of Manchester
Director of Postgraduate Programmes, University of Huddersfield, Course Leader MSc (Social Research and Evaluation) 1990-1994
Research and Evaluation Consultant (part-time), School of Human & Health Sciences, University of Huddersfield 1995-2007
Chief Consultant, Special study on Statistics and Indicators for Students with Disabilities,
s, Difficulties and Disadvantages, Centre for Educational Research and Innovation, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Paris, 1996-2007
Emeritus Professor, School of Human & Health Sciences, University of Huddersfield, 2002-
Involvement with BPS and/or other societies and organisations:
Founding Chair of BPS Postgraduate Degrees Committee (nd)
Member of ESRC Postgraduate Training Board (nd)
Vice-chair of Psychology Board, Chair of Educational Research Sub-committee, Chair of Special Educational Needs Panel, The Council for National Academic Awards, CNAA (nd)
Member of National Committee, Standing Conference of the Arts and Social Sciences (nd) |