A History of Modern Psychology in Context
A History of Modern Psychology in Context presents the history of modern psychology in the richness of its many contexts. The authors resist the traditional storylines of great achievements by eminent people, or schools of thought that rise and fall in the wake of scientific progress. Instead, psychology is portrayed as a network of scientific and professional practices embedded in specific temporal, social, political, and cultural contexts. The narrative is informed by three key concepts—indigenization, reflexivity, and social constructionism—and by the fascinating interplay between disciplinary Psychology and everyday psychology.
The authors complicate the notion of who is at the center and who is at the periphery of the history of psychology by bringing in actors and events that are often overlooked in traditional accounts. They also highlight how the reflexive nature of Psychology—a science produced both by and about humans—accords history a prominent place in understanding the discipline and the theories it generates.
Throughout the text, the authors show how Psychology and psychologists are embedded in cultures that indelibly shape how the discipline is defined and practiced, the kind of knowledge it creates, and how this knowledge is received. The text also moves beyond an exclusive focus on the development of North American and European psychologies to explore the development of psychologies in other indigenous contexts, especially from the mid-20th-century onward.
CHAPTER 1 ORIGINS OF A SCIENCE OF MIND 3
CHAPTER 2 EVERYDAY LIFE AND PSYCHOLOGICAL PRACTICES 24
CHAPTER 3 SUBJECT MATTER, METHODS, AND THE MAKING OF A NEW SCIENCE 42
CHAPTER 4 FROM PERIPHERY TO CENTER: CREATING AN AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGY 71
CHAPTER 5 THE PRACTICE OF PSYCHOLOGY AT THE INTERFACEWITH MEDICINE 94
CHAPTER 6 PSYCHOLOGISTS AS TESTERS: APPLYING PSYCHOLOGY, ORDERING SOCIETY 118
CHAPTER 7 AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE AND PRACTICE BETWEEN THE WORLD WARS 148
CHAPTER 8 PSYCHOLOGY IN EUROPE BETWEEN THE WORLD WARS 178
CHAPTER 9 THE GOLDEN AGE OF AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGY 208
CHAPTER 10 INTERNATIONALIZATION AND INDIGENIZATION OF PSYCHOLOGY AFTERWORLD WAR II 238
CHAPTER 11 FEMINISM AND AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGY: THE SCIENCE AND POLITICS OF GENDER 262
CHAPTER 12 INCLUSIVENESS, IDENTITY, AND CONFLICT IN LATE 20TH-CENTURY AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGY 288
CHAPTER 13 BRAIN, BEHAVIOR, AND COGNITION SINCE 1945 310
Alexandra Rutherford, PhD, is Associate Professor of psychology in the History and Theory of Psychology Graduate Program at York University. She is the official historian of the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues and the Heritage Chair of the Society for the Psychology of Women.
- Only book to present the history of modern psychology in its cultural contexts.
Unique treatment of feminism, race, and indigenous psychologies.
Includes comprehensive coverage of the historical schools of thought (behaviorism, psychoanalysis, Gesalt psychology) which make up the modern discipline
Provides a more detailed and careful treatment of the history of psychology in the last fifty years than competing books, including the emergence of neuroscience (includes a Chapter on Brain and Behavior since 1945)
Accompanied by a test bank for course use