Conceptual and Historical Issues in Psychology

Brad Piekkola

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781473987951
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: History & Theory in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

This book covers key movements that helped to shape psychology – from the early philosophical debate between rationalism and empiricism or realists and antirealists through to the emergence of psychology as a science and the ongoing debates about 'objectivity' and 'truth' and what a science of psychology should be. Often nuanced and complex, the author examines major conceptual issues in the history of psychology that continue to be debated and influence public policy and lay understanding. The latter stages of the book explore notions of individuality, hereditarianism, critical psychology, and feminist perspectives. While deeply rooted in human history, it is made clear that psychology, how it is conceived and practiced, has a bearing on our understanding of what it is to be human.

Accessible, objective and above all comprehensive, this book will help students locate psychology in the wider field of science and understand the forces that continue to shape and define it.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Publisher Note
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Acknowledgements
• Contents
• Illustration List
• About the Author
• Companion Website
• Preface
• 1 Psychological Inquiry as an Evolving Human Practice
• 2 Historical Conceptual Issues
• 3 Science and Psychology
• 4 Physiology and Phenomenology
• 5 Nature and Nurture
• 6 The Mind–Body Problem
• 7 Philosophy of Science
• 8 Mainstream and its Critics
• 9 Critical Psychology and Feminist Psychology
• 10 Psychological Methods and Practice
• 11 The Cognitive Revolution
• 12 Free Will versus Determinism
• Glossary
• References
• Index