A History of Modern Psychology provides a thorough account of the philosophical roots and recent history of psychology. Focusing on the ideas, concepts, and research contributions of pioneer psychologists who worked in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Dr. C. James Goodwin helps undergraduate students connect psychology’s present with its rich past.
Now in its sixth edition, A History of Modern Psychology providesexpanded coverage of the history of the applied areas of psychology, philosophical and physiological antecedents, and significant advancements in the field in the twenty-first century.
Table of Contents
Preface xi
Acknowledgments xv
Chapter 1 Introducing Psychology’s History 1
Why Take This Course? 2
Why Study History? 2
Why Study Psychology’s History? 4
Key Issues in Psychology’s History 6
Presentism versus Historicism 7
Internal versus External History 9
Personalistic versus Naturalistic History 10
Close-Up: Edwin G. Boring (1886-1968) 11
This Book’s Point of View 14
Historiography: Doing and Writing History 14
Sources of Historical Data 15
From the Miles Papers: Miles Meets His Academic Grandfather 17
Problems with the Writing of History 18
Data Selection Problems 18
Interpretation Problems 20
Digital History 21
Approaching Historical Truth 22
Summary 23
Chapter 2 The Philosophical Context 25
A Long Past 26
René Descartes (1596-1650): The Beginnings of Modern Philosophy and Science 26
Descartes and the Rationalist Argument 28
The Cartesian System 29
Descartes on the Reflex and Mind-Body Interaction 30
The British Empiricist Argument and the Associationists 33
John Locke (1632-1704): The Origins of British Empiricism 33
Locke on Human Understanding 33
Locke on Education 35
George Berkeley (1685-1753): Applying Empiricism to Vision and Attacking Materialism 36
British Associationism 38
David Hume (1711-1776): The Rules of Association 38
David Hartley (1705-1757): A Physiological Associationism 40
Close-Up: Raising a Philosopher 42
John Stuart Mill (1806-1873): The Pinnacle of British Empiricism/Associationism 43
Mill’s Psychology 44
Mill’s Logic 45
Alexander Bain (1818-1903): On the Verge of Psychological Science 46
Rationalist Responses to British Empiricism/Associationism 48
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) 48
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) 49
In Perspective: Philosophical Foundations 50
Summary 51
Chapter 3 the Scientific Context 53
Heroic Science in the Age of Enlightenment 54
Functioning of the Nervous System 55
Reflex Action 56
The Bell-Magendie Law 58
The Specific Energies of Nerves 59
Helmholtz: The Physiologist’s Physiologist 60
Measuring the Speed of Neural Impulses 62
Helmholtz on Vision and Audition 63
Helmholtz and the Problem of Perception 64
Localization of Brain Function 65
The Phrenology of Gall and Spurzheim 65
Close-Up: The Marketing of Phrenology 69
Flourens and the Method of Ablation 72
The Clinical Method 73
The Remarkable Phineas Gage 73
Broca and the Speech Center 74
Mapping the Brain: Electrical Stimulation 76
Nervous System Structure 77
Neuron Theory 78
Sir Charles Sherrington: The Synapse 79
From the Miles Papers: Miles Visits Sherrington in Oxford 81
In Perspective: The Nervous System and Behavior 81
Summary 82
Chapter 4 Wundt and German Psychology 84
An Education in Germany 85
On the Threshold of Experimental Psychology: Psychophysics 86
Johann Herbart (1776-1841) 87
Ernst Weber (1795-1878) 88
Two-Point Thresholds 88
Weber’s Law 88
Gustav Fechner (1801-1889) 89
Fechner’s Elements of Psychophysics 90
Wundt Establishes a New Psychology at Leipzig 91
Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920): Creating a New Science 92
Wundt’s Conception of the New Psychology 93
Studying Immediate Conscious Experience 94
Studying Higher Mental Processes 95
Inside Wundt’s Laboratory 96
Sensation and Perception 96
Mental Chronometry 96
Close-Up: An American in Leipzig 98
Rewriting History: The New and Improved Wundt 100
The Source of the Problem 100
The Rediscovery of Wundt 101
The Real Wundt 101
The Wundtian Legacy 102
The New Psychology Spreads 103
Hermann Ebbinghaus (1850-1909): The Experimental Study of Memory 103
The Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve 106
Other Contributions by Ebbinghaus 107
G. E. Müller (1850-1934): The Experimentalist Prototype 107
Oswald Külpe (1862-1915): The Würzburg School 108
Mental Sets and Imageless Thoughts 110
In Perspective: A New Science 111
Summary 112
Chapter 5 Darwin’s Century: Evolutionary Thinking 113
The Species Problem 114
Charles Darwin (1809-1882) and the Theory of Evolution 115
The Shaping of a Naturalist 115
The Voyage of the Beagle 117
Darwin the Geologist 118
Darwin the Zoologist 118
The Galapagos Islands 119
The Evolution of Darwin’s Theory 119
Darwin’s Delay 121
Elements of the Theory of Evolution 123
After the Origin of Species 124
Darwin and Psychology’s History 125
The Origins of Comparative Psychology 126
Darwin on the Evolution of Emotional Expressions 126
Close-Up: Douglas Spalding and the Experimental Study of Instinct 129
George Romanes (1848-1894) and the Anecdotal Method 130
Conwy Lloyd Morgan (1852-1936) and his “Canon” 132
Comparative Psychology in America 134
Studying Individual Differences 134
Francis Galton (1822-1911): Jack of All Sciences 134
The Nature of Intelligence 135
The Anthropometric Laboratory 138
Investigating Imagery and Association 138
In Perspective: Darwin’s Century 140
Summary 140
Chapter 6 American Pioneers 142
Psychology in 19th-Century America 143
Faculty Psychology 143
American Psychology’s First Textbook 144
The Modern University 145
Education for Women and Minorities 145
William James (1842-1910): The First of the “New” Psychologists in America 148
The Formative Years 149
A Life at Harvard 150
Creating American Psychology’s Most Famous Textbook 151
On Methodology 152
Consciousness 152
Habit 153
Emotion 153
James’s Later Years 154
Spiritualism and Mind Cures 155
Summing Up William James 156
G. Stanley Hall (1844-1924): Professionalizing the New Psychology 157
Hall’s Early Life and Education 157
From Johns Hopkins to Clark 158
Psychology at Clark 159
Close-Up: Creating Maze Learning 160
Hall and Developmental Psychology 162
Hall and Psychoanalysis 163
From the Miles Papers: Miles and the Invention of the Stylus Maze 165
Mary Whiton Calkins (1863-1930): Challenging the Male Monopoly 166
Calkins’s Life and Work 166
Graduate Education for Females 167
Calkins’s Research on Association 167
From Psychology to Philosophy 168
Other Female Pioneers: Untold Lives 169
Christine Ladd-Franklin (1847-1930) 169
Margaret Floy Washburn (1871-1939) 170
Ethel Puffer (1872-1950) 171
Other Pioneers: Ladd, Baldwin, and Jastrow 172
George Trumbull Ladd (1842-1921) 172
James Mark Baldwin (1861-1934) 173
Joseph Jastrow (1863-1944) 175
In Perspective: The New Psychology at the Millennium 175
Summary 176
Chapter 7 Structural and Functional Psychologies 179
Titchener’s Psychology: Structuralism 180
From Oxford to Leipzig to Ithaca 180
Promoting Experimental Psychology at Cornell 181
The Manuals 183
The Experimentalists 185
Close-Up: Titchener and the Status of Women in Experimental Psychology 186
Titchener’s Structuralist System 187
The Introspective Habit 187
The Structural Elements of Human Conscious Experience 189
Evaluating Titchener’s Contributions to Psychology 189
From the Miles Papers: Miles and the Carlisle Conference 191
America’s Psychology: Functionalism 192
The Chicago Functionalists 193
John Dewey (1859-1952): The Reflex Arc 194
James Angell (1869-1949): The Province of Functional Psychology 196
Harvey Carr (1873-1954): The Maturing of Functionalism 198
The Columbia Functionalists 199
James McKeen Cattell (1860-1944): An American Galton 199
Edward L. Thorndike (1874-1949): Cats in Puzzle Boxes 201
Robert S. Woodworth (1869-1962): A Dynamic Psychology 206
In Perspective: Structural and Functional Psychologies 209
Summary 210
Chapter 8 Applying the New Psychology 212
The Push for Application 213
From the Miles Papers: Miles and Stanford Football 214
The Mental Testing Movement 216
Alfred Binet (1857-1911): The Birth of Modern Intelligence Testing 217
The Binet-Simon Scales 219
Henry Goddard (1866-1957): Binet’s Test Comes to America 220
The Kallikaks 221
Goddard and the Immigrants 224
Lewis Terman (1877-1956): Institutionalizing IQ 226
The Stanford-Binet IQ Test 227
Terman Studies the Gifted 228
Close-Up: Leta Hollingworth: Advocating for Gifted Children and Debunking Myths about Women 229
Robert M. Yerkes (1876-1956): The Army Testing Program 231
Army Alpha and Army Beta 232
The Controversy over Intelligence 235
Psychology Applied to Business 238
Hugo Münsterberg (1863-1916): The Diversity of Applied Psychology 238
Münsterberg and Employee Selection 240
Other Leading Industrial Psychologists in America 243
Walter Van Dyke Bingham (1880-1952) 243
Lillian Moller Gilbreth (1878-1972) 244
Harry Hollingworth (1880-1956) 245
Applied Psychology in Europe - Psychotechnics 246
In Perspective: Applied Psychology 247
Summary 248
Chapter 9 Gestalt Psychology 250
The Origins and Early Development of Gestalt Psychology 251
Max Wertheimer (1880-1943): Founding Gestalt Psychology 252
Koffka (1886-1941) and Köhler (1887-1967): Cofounders 255
Close-Up: A Case of Espionage? 256
Gestalt Psychology and Perception 258
Principles of Perceptual Organization 258
Behavioral versus Geographic Environments 261
The Gestalt Approach to Cognition and Learning 261
Köhler on Insight in Apes 262
Wertheimer on Productive Thinking 263
Other Gestalt Research on Cognition 264
Kurt Lewin (1890-1947): Expanding the Gestalt Vision 266
Early Life and Career 267
From the Miles Papers: Miles Learns about the Nazi Version of Academic Freedom 268
Field Theory 269
The Zeigarnik Effect 270
Lewin as Developmental Psychologist 271
Lewin as Social Psychologist 272
Action Research 273
Evaluating Lewin 274
In Perspective: Gestalt Psychology in America 275
Summary 276
Chapter 10 the Origins of Behaviorism 278
Behaviorism’s Antecedents 279
Ivan Pavlov’s Life and Work 281
The Development of a Physiologist 281
Working in Pavlov’s Laboratory - The Physiology Factory 282
Pavlov’s Classical Conditioning Research 284
Conditioning and Extinction 285
Generalization and Differentiation 285
Experimental Neurosis 286
A Program of Research 286
Pavlov and the Soviets 287
Pavlov and the Americans 288
Close-Up: Misportraying Pavlov’s Apparatus 289
From the Miles Papers: Miles Entertains Pavlov 290
John B. Watson and the Founding of Behaviorism 292
The Young Functionalist at Chicago 292
The Watson-Carr Maze Studies 293
Opportunity Knocks at Johns Hopkins 294
Watson and Animal Behavior 296
Watson’s Behaviorist Manifesto 296
Watson’s APA Presidential Address 298
Studying Emotional Development 298
The Zenith and the Nadir of a Career: Little Albert 299
A New Life in Advertising 302
Popularizing Behaviorism 303
Evaluating Watsonian Behaviorism 304
Beyond the Schools of Psychology 306
In Perspective: Behaviorism’s Origins 307
Summary 308
Chapter 11 From Neobehaviorism To Cognitive Psychology 310
Post-Watsonian Behaviorism 311
Operationism and Positivism 312
Neobehaviorism 313
Edward C. Tolman (1886-1959): A Purposive Behaviorism 314
Tolman’s System 315
Molar versus Molecular Behavior 316
Goal-Directedness 316
Intervening Variables 316
From the Miles Papers: Miles and the Old Boys Network 318
Tolman’s Research Program 319
Latent Learning 319
Cognitive Maps 320
Evaluating Edward Tolman 321
Clark Hull (1884-1952): A Hypothetico-Deductive System 321
Hull’s System 324
Postulate 4: Habit Strength 324
Reaction Potential 325
Evaluating Clark Hull 326
B. F. Skinner (1904-1990): A Radical Behaviorism 327
The Experimental Analysis of Behavior 329
Operant Conditioning: A Primer 330
Skinner and Theory 332
Skinner and the Problem of Explanation 332
A Technology of Behavior 333
Evaluating B. F. Skinner 335
Cognitive Psychology Arrives (Again) 336
The Roots of Modern Cognitive Psychology 337
Jean Piaget (1896-1980): A Genetic Epistemology 337
Frederick C. Bartlett (1886-1969): Constructing Memory 339
A Convergence of Influences 340
Influences within Psychology 340
Influences External to Psychology 341
Close-Up: What Revolution? 343
Magical Numbers and Selective Filters 345
Neisser and the “Naming” of Cognitive Psychology 347
The Evolution of Cognitive Psychology 348
Evaluating Cognitive Psychology 349
In Perspective: Neobehaviorism and Cognitive Psychology 349
Summary 350
Chapter 12 Mental Illness and Its Treatment 353
Early Treatment of the Mentally Ill 354
“Enlightened” Reform: Pinel, Tuke, Rush 354
The 19th-Century Asylum Movement 356
Reforming Asylums: Dix and Beers 359
Close-Up: Diagnosing Mental Illness 360
Mesmerism and Hypnosis 361
Mesmerism and Animal Magnetism 362
From Mesmerism to Hypnosis 363
The Hypnotism Controversies 364
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939): Founding Psychoanalysis 366
Early Life and Education 367
Breuer and the Catharsis Method 368
Creating Psychoanalysis 370
The Importance of Sex 371
Psychoanalysis Enters the 20th Century 372
The Evolution of Psychoanalytic Theory 373
Freud’s Followers: Loyalty and Dissent 375
Psychoanalysis in America 376
Evaluating Freud 378
On the Plus Side. 378
On the Other Hand. 378
In Perspective: Treating Mental Illness 379
Summary 380
Chapter 13 Psychology’s Practitioners 382
The Medical Approach to Mental Illness 383
A Shock to the System: Fever, Insulin, Metrazol, and Electricity 384
Close-Up: Shell Shock 385
No Reversal: Lobotomy, Transorbital and Otherwise 387
Clinical Psychology Before World War II 389
Lightner Witmer (1867-1956): Creating Psychology’s First Clinic 390
Clinical Psychology Between the World Wars 392
The Emergence of Modern Clinical Psychology 394
The Boulder Model 394
The Eysenck Study: Problems for Psychotherapy 395
Behavior Therapy 396
The Humanistic Approach to Psychotherapy 397
Abraham Maslow and the Goal of Self-Actualization 398
Carl Rogers and Client-Centered Therapy 399
Evaluating Humanistic Psychology 401
The Vail Conference and the PsyD Degree 402
Clinical Diagnosis 403
Diagnostic Tests: From the Rorschach to the Mmpi 404
Psychology and the World of Business and Industry 405
The Hawthorne Studies 408
In Perspective: Psychology’s Practitioners 410
Summary 410
Chapter 14 Psychology’s Academic Subdisciplines 413
Academic Psychology After World War II 414
Close-Up: The Uneasy Relationship Between Research and Practice 415
The Brain and Behavior 416
From the Miles Papers: Miles Visits Lashley 416
Donald O. Hebb (1904-1985): Cell Assemblies and Their Implications 417
Roger Sperry (1913-1994): Splitting the Brain 419
The Psychology of Perception 421
James J. Gibson (1904-1979): Ecological Perception 421
Eleanor Gibson (1910-2002): Perceptual Development 423
Social Psychology 424
Leon Festinger (1919-1989): Cognitive Dissonance Theory 425
Stanley Milgram (1933-1984): Obedience to Authority 427
Personality Psychology 430
Gordon Allport (1897-1967): Inventing Personality 430
Walter Mischel (1930-2018): Marshmallows and Delay of Gratification 433
Developmental Psychology 435
Mary Ainsworth (1913-1999): Varieties of Attachment 435
Albert Bandura (1925-2021): Observational Learning 437
In Perspective: Academic Psychology’s Subdisciplines 440
Summary 440
Chapter 15 Psychology in the 21st Century 441
The Growth and Diversity of Psychology 441
Women in Psychology’s History 442
Minorities in Psychology’s History 443
Trends in Modern Psychology 445
The Future: Psychology or Psychologies? 446
Summary 448
References R-1
Glossary G-1
Index I-1
Timelines T-1
