A History of Modern Experimental Psychology: From James and Wundt to Cognitive Science (Bradford Books) [Hardcover]

George Mandler (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 22, 2006 | Series: Bradford Books

Modern psychology began with the adoption of experimental methods at the end of the nineteenth century: Wilhelm Wundt established the first formal laboratory in 1879; universities created independent chairs in psychology shortly thereafter; and William James published the landmark work Principles of Psychology in 1890. In A History of Modern Experimental Psychology, George Mandler traces the evolution of modern experimental and theoretical psychology from these beginnings to the "cognitive revolution" of the late twentieth century. Throughout, he emphasizes the social and cultural context, showing how different theoretical developments reflect the characteristics and values of the society in which they occurred. Thus, Gestalt psychology can be seen to mirror the changes in visual and intellectual culture at the turn of the century, behaviorism to embody the parochial and puritanical concerns of early twentieth-century America, and contemporary cognitive psychology as a product of the postwar revolution in information and communication.After discussing the meaning and history of the concept of mind, Mandler treats the history of the psychology of thought and memory from the late nineteenth century to the end of the twentieth, exploring, among other topics, the discovery of the unconscious, the destruction of psychology in Germany in the 1930s, and the relocation of the field's "center of gravity" to the United States. He then examines a more neglected part of the history of psychology--the emergence of a new and robust cognitive psychology under the umbrella of cognitive science.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

"Mandler's chronicle of psychology's long and arduous march to understand the human mind, from the 19th-century philosopher-psychologists to the problems that engage present-day cognitive scientists, is as valuable for what it highlights and elaborates as for what it omits. Mandler is no mere historian; he is a major contributor to contemporary cognitive psychology, blessed with a European sensitivity to the role of the past in defining the present. Surveying the hard and unyielding terrain our intellectual ancestors tried mightily to conquer, he brings a deep appreciation for their efforts and a sympathetic understanding of the snares and cul-de-sacs that impeded their progress. As a result, this book is easy to read and full of insights that few, if any, historians of this enterprise that has preoccupied psychology from its beginning could impart."--Ellen Berschied, Regents' Professor of Psychology, University of Minnesota

Product Details

• Hardcover: 312 pages
• Publisher: The MIT Press; 1 edition (December 22, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262134756
• ISBN-13: 978-0262134750
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,479,655 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

George Mandler is Distinguished Professor of Psychology Emeritus at the University of California, San Diego. Born in Vienna in 1924, he received the B.S. from New York University and the Ph. D. degree from Yale University in 1953. He served in the Army Military Intelligence Service and studied at the University of Basel, taught at Harvard University and the University of Toronto. In 1965 he became the founding chair of the Department of Psychology at the University of California at San Diego and the founding Director of the Center for Human Information Processing (CHIP). He retired in 1994 and became a Visiting Professor at University College London. In 2004 UCSD named Mandler Hall for his contributions to the university. In 2009 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Vienna.
Mandler was a participant in the so-called cognitive revolution. His work concentrated on cognition and emotion and the importance of autonomic feedback, the use of organization theory for an understanding of memory recall and recognition, and the revival of the functions of consciousness. In the 1950s, with S. B. Sarason, he initiated research on test anxiety. He was a Fellow at the Center for Advanced study in the Behavioral Sciences, received the William James Award from the American Psychological Association, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Society of Experimental Psychologists, the Association for Psychological Science, the American Psychological Association and the Cognitive Science Society.
Mandler was editor of Psychological Review, chair of the Psychonomic Society, president of APA Divisions of Experimental Psychology and General Psychology, chair of the Society for Experimental Psychologists, and founding president of the Federation of Behavioral, Psychological, and Cognitive Sciences.


Books by George Mandler

Mandler, G., and Kessen, W. (1959). The Language of Psychology. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Reprinted in Science Editions, 1964. Reprint edition: Huntington, N.Y.: Krieger, 1975. Italian edition: Il linguaggio della psicologia. Bologna: Il Mulino, 1977.

Mandler, Jean M., and Mandler, G. (1964). Thinking: From Association to Gestalt. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Reprint edition: Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1982.

Mandler, G. (1975). Mind and Emotion. New York: Wiley. Reprint edition: Melbourne, Florida: Krieger, 1982. German edition: Denken und Fühlen. Paderborn: Junfermann, 1980.

Mandler, G. (1984). Mind and body: Psychology of emotion and stress. New York: Norton. Behavioral Sciences Book Club selection, 1985.
Japanese edition: Seishin Shobo Publishers, 1987.

Mandler, G. (1985). Cognitive psychology: An essay in cognitive science. Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Mandler, G. (1997). Human nature explored. New York: Oxford University Press.

Mandler, G. (2002). Interesting times: An encounter with the 20th century. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Mandler, G. (2002). Consciousness recovered: Psychological functions and origins of conscious thought. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

Mandler, G. (2007). A history of modern experimental psychology: From James and Wundt to cognitive science. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Reprint edition: Prentice-Hall.

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Insightful, personal and illuminating history, June 22, 2010

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This review is from: A History of Modern Experimental Psychology: From James and Wundt to Cognitive Science (Bradford Books) (Hardcover)

This is a relatively brief but insightful history of the development of experimental psychology. It sticks somewhat narrowly to the experimental psychologies of perception, cognition and memory, so it does not immediately have the kind of attraction to psychologists in fields which are more exposed to the demands of society, such as the study of social behavior or of psychopathology. But this history, unlike others in the field of academic psychology, does provide many insights into the social factors which affected the development of the theories and the methods of scientific study. The author, for example, provides an account of the disruption of psychology in Germany after the elevation to power of Hitler and the National Socialists in 1933. This not only changed the entire face of the ertswhile powerful force of German psychology, but because of the flight of psychologists from Germany, America became the site of the dominant forces in the intellectual and social influences on the discipline, an effect which has continued to this day. The amalgamation of the traditions of German psychology with the pragmatism of American science and philosophy led to the creation of forms of psychology which have had profound effects upon both the discipline but also the wider society. It is not difficult to see how different the practice of psychology would be today had such events not occurred. (Unmaking the West: "What-If?" Scenarios That Rewrite World HistoryMandler is relatively unusual in giving this kind of broader picture in an understanding of the forces which affect the emergence of a discipline. At the more narrow disciplinary level,he is also able to analyse the developments in scientific psychology since the Second World War, especially those in the rise of cognitive science, as he himself was a leading experimenter and theorist at the time. He is circumspect and modest in alluding to his contributions, but nevertheless he was there and he was a leading member of the strong contributors, so his insights into the development of the field are based upon intellectual analysis enhanced by personal views that clarify and illuminate the accounts.
This is a very useful volume, attractive to psychologists who have lived through the developments and also likely to bo so to students of the field who will be given a qualitative understanding of the issues that they may well not achieve from other, more traditional, treatments.