Emergence of Scientific Psychology in the Nigerian University System and Reflection on the Sixtieth Anniversary of the Department of Psychology, University of Nigeria, Nsukka

Abstract

This paper reflects on the sixtieth anniversary of founding the Department of Psychology at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. The Department is the numero uno academic Department of Psychology in Nigeria and its historicity is usually told together with how scientific psychology emerged in the Nigerian university system. The two accounts are inseparable and are interlinked in a complex way. Sixty years of the emergence of psychology in the Nigerian university system and of the existence of Department of Psychology at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka were historic occasions. This reflection, however, is only on the latter. While the Department of Psychology at the University is believed to have contributed, and in fact, is still contributing to research and development, the Department is faced with many challenges that tend to retard its growth rate. Until the challenges of space, and perhaps funding, are resolved, the Department of Psychology at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka would be operating at a level less than its optimum.