Most comprehensive survey of psychological theories available Covers theories from ancient thinkers through the present time Includes important contributing theories from philosophy and science Defines the boundaries of psychology and other relevant areas such as anthropology, sociology, neurobiology International in topics and contributors
Encyclopedia of the History of Psychological Theories
A new series that focuses on tracing the history of key psychological ideas from their inception to the present day. All volumes willl have similar formats and are designed to be reference works...","issn":["2945-5723","2945-5731"],"editor":["name":"Robert W. Rieber","@type":"Person"],"mainEntity":"itemListElement":["name":"Psychology, Religion, and the Nature of the Soul","url":" ","@type":"ListItem","name":"The Mystery of Personality","url":" ","@type":"ListItem","name":"The Critique of Psychology","url":" ","@type":"ListItem","name":"Perception and Illusion","url":" ","@type":"ListItem","name":"The Bifurcation of the Self","url":" ","@type":"ListItem"],"@type":"ItemList","name":"Book titles in this series","@type":"BookSeries"},"@context":" "} Skip to main content Search Authors & Editors Log in Book series
Developmental psychologists who study children use a number of research methods. For example, they make observations of children in natural settings such as preschools[148] and engage them in experimental tasks.[149] Such tasks often resemble specially designed games and activities that are both enjoyable for the child and scientifically useful. Developmental researchers have even devised clever methods to study the mental processes of infants.[150] In addition to studying children, developmental psychologists also study aging and processes throughout the life span, including old age.[151] These psychologists draw on the full range of psychological theories to inform their research.[146]
Industrial and organizational (I/O) psychology involves research and practices that apply psychological theories and principles to organizations and individuals' work-lives.[183] In the field's beginnings, industrialists brought the nascent field of psychology to bear on the study of scientific management techniques for improving workplace efficiency. The field was at first called economic psychology or business psychology; later, industrial psychology, employment psychology, or psychotechnology.[184] An influential early study examined workers at Western Electric's Hawthorne plant in Cicero, Illinois from 1924 to 1932. Western Electric experimented on factory workers to assess their responses to changes in illumination, breaks, food, and wages. The researchers came to focus on workers' responses to observation itself, and the term Hawthorne effect is now used to describe the fact that people's behavior can change when they think they're being observed.[185] Although the Hawthorne research can be found in psychology textbooks, the research and its findings were weak at best.[186][187]
Qualitative psychological research methods include interviews, first-hand observation, and participant observation. Creswell (2003) identified five main possibilities for qualitative research, including narrative, phenomenology, ethnography, case study, and grounded theory. Qualitative researchers[241] sometimes aim to enrich our understanding of symbols, subjective experiences, or social structures. Sometimes hermeneutic and critical aims can give rise to quantitative research, as in Erich Fromm's application of psychological and sociological theories, in his book Escape from Freedom, to understanding why many ordinary Germans supported Hitler.[242]
Psychology as a field of experimental study began in 1854 in Leipzig, Germany when Gustav Fechner created the first theory of how judgments about sensory experiences are made and how to experiment on them. Fechner's theory, recognized today as Signal Detection Theory foreshadowed the development of statistical theories of comparative judgment and thousands of experiments based on his ideas (Link, S. W. Psychological Science, 1995). Later, 1879, Wilhelm Wundt founded in Leipzig, Germany, the first Psychological laboratory dedicated exclusively to psychological research. Wundt was also the first person to refer to himself as a psychologist. A notable precursor of Wundt was Ferdinand Ueberwasser (1752-1812) who designated himself Professor of Empirical Psychology and Logic in 1783 and gave lectures on empirical psychology at the Old University of Münster, Germany.[2] Other important early contributors to the field include Hermann Ebbinghaus (a pioneer in the study of memory), William James (the American father of pragmatism), and Ivan Pavlov (who developed the procedures associated with classical conditioning).
India had a theory of "the self" in its Vedanta philosophical writings. Additionally, Indians thought about the individual's self as being enclosed by different levels known as koshas.[20] Additionally, the Sankya philosophy said that the mind has 5 components, including manas (lower mind), ahankara (sense of I-ness), chitta (memory bank of mind), buddhi (intellect), and atman (self/soul). Patanjali was one of the founders of the yoga tradition, sometime between 200 and 400 BC (pre-dating Buddhist psychology) and a student of the Vedas. He developed the science of breath and mind and wrote his knowledge in the form of between 194 and 196 aphorisms called the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. He developed modern Yoga for psychological resilience and balance . He is reputed to have used yoga therapeutically for anxiety, depression and mental disorders as common then as now.[21][22] Buddhist philosophies have developed several psychological theories (see Buddhism and psychology), formulating interpretations of the mind and concepts such as aggregates (skandhas), emptiness (sunyata), non-self (anatta), mindfulness and Buddha-nature, which are addressed today by theorists of humanistic and transpersonal psychology.[23][24] Several Buddhist lineages have developed notions analogous to those of modern Western psychology, such as the unconscious, personal development and character improvement,[25][26] the latter being part of the Noble Eightfold Path and expressed, for example, in the Tathagatagarbha Sutra.[27] Hinayana traditions, such as the Theravada, focus more on individual meditation, while Mahayana traditions also emphasize the attainment of a Buddha nature of wisdom (prajña) and compassion (karuṇā) in the realization of the boddhisattva ideal, but affirming it more metaphysically, in which charity and helping sentient beings is cosmically fundamental. Buddhist monk and scholar D. T. Suzuki describes the importance of the individual's inner enlightenment and the self-realization of the mind. Researcher David Germano, in his thesis on Longchenpa, also shows the importance of self-actualization in the dzogchen teaching lineage.[26]
Jules Baillarger founded the Société Médico-Psychologique in 1847, one of the first associations of its kind and which published the Annales Medico-Psychologiques.[32] France already had a pioneering tradition in psychological study, and it was relevant the publication of Précis d'un cours de psychologie ("Summary of a Psychology Course") in 1831 by Adolphe Garnier, who also published theTraité des facultés de l'âme, comprenant l'histoire des principales théories psychologiques ("Treatise of the Faculties of the Soul, comprising the history of major psychological theories") in 1852.[64] Garnier was called "the best monument of psychological science of our time" by Revue des Deux Mondes in 1864.[65][53]
The history of psychology as a scholarly field has grown and diversified since the landmark volumes of E. G. Boring's A History of Experimental Psychology (1929, 1950). It is now a site of scholarly inquiry that attracts practitioners from a range of disciplines. Psychological concepts and practices hold interest for people from all walks of life and from around the globe. The Oxford Encyclopedia of the History of Modern Psychology reflects the range of such interest. The essays explore topics from everyday subjective experiences to deep connections among esoteric laboratory sciences and Enlightenment philosophies. Authors seek to answer difficult questions about how psychology developed, not only in the Western world, but across the globe. Human history has many examples of how people have used knowledge about themselves, others, and their world to try and change or improve their lives. How did these experiences help make possible a science and profession of psychology? In turn, how has scientific and professional psychology shaped or influenced the psychology of everyday life? The reader will find key insights into the profound differences that have marked the growth of Western modernity-race, gender, sexuality among them-and what they reveal about selfhood, identity, and possibilities for human freedom and oppression. In our own time, we see the psychological, economic, and political legacy of past practices and the profound inequities that we now must address. These histories will help readers find or create counter-histories that help us move toward a more equitable world. 2ff7e9595c
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