1st Edition

The History and Evolution of Psychology A Philosophical and Biological Perspective

By Brian D. Cox Copyright 2019
    534 Pages 57 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    534 Pages 57 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    This book discusses key figures in history in the context of their time, takes students on a carefully-formulated, chronological journey through the build-up of psychology from ancient times to the present, and seeks to draw students into the way science is done, rather than merely presenting them with historical fact. Students will learn not only the ‘what’, but the ‘why’ of the history of psychology and will acquire the necessary background historical material to fully understand those concepts. Organized around a series of paradigms—a shift from scholasticism to rationalism or empiricism, and a shift from idealism to materialism—the book seeks to portray psychology as an on-going, evolving process, rather than a theory.

    Part I: Introduction 1. The Study of Science and Psychology from a Historical Perspective Part II: The Paradigm Shifts that Created Psychology 2. The Shift from Church Authority to Rationalism: The Times and Philosophy of Rene Descartes Chapter 3. Empiricism, its Legacies and Limitations 4. From Argument by Design to Nature Red in Tooth and Claw: The Development of Evolutionist Thought 5. Idealism to Materialism and Dualism in Germany Part III: Struggling with the New Paradigm 6. Seeing Things Whole: The Gestalt Response to Mental Reductionism 7. William James and Functionalism 8. Behaviorism 9. Psychoanalysis 10. The Developmental Approach

    Biography

    Brian Cox is Associate Professor at Hofstra University, USA.