Basic Writings in the History of Psychology [Paperback]

Robert I. Watson (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 22, 1979 | ISBN-10: 0195024443 | ISBN-13: 978-0195024449

Offering readings from 50 of the most eminent contributors to psychology, this text-reader represents the historical development of psychology from the Renaissance to the present. Contributors range from Descartes, Locke, Hume, Kant, and Darwin through Adler, Tolman, Guthrie, Hull, and Skinner. "Far and away the most concise and pedagogically useful book of its kind ever to appear." --Psychological Record

Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (February 22, 1979)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195024443
• ISBN-13: 978-0195024449
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,493,854 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Essential Readings in the History of Psychology (to 1979), April 25, 2000

By 

psychephile - See all my reviews

This review is from: Basic Writings in the History of Psychology (Paperback)

Understanding psychology--or any science--requires knowing its history: What motivates the research questions of today? What answers have been provided? What past mistakes can we avoid? Are we re-inventing the wheel, or have we discovered something new?

Robert Watson's "Basic Writings" is an indispensable tool in answering these questions. By selecting passages from the most influential psychologists, Watson enables the reader to appreciate how psychology came to be what it is. From Galileo's writings on the difference between physics and psychology, to the essential writings of the associationists and rationalists, structuralists and functionalists, ontogeneticists and phylogeneticists, Watson allows the reader to discover what the debates have been all about.

My one criticism of the book, however, is that it stands in sore need of updating. One would never know from this little volume that behaviorism and Freudianism had been buried. Nor do we ever hear from their successors--Piaget, Chomsky, the Gibsons, G. Kelley, Seligman, and Beck. Similarly, the minor variants of psychoanalysis--Adler and Jung--have simply merged in the modern perspective, and they could be usefully excised.

Nevertheless, as an adjunct to a history of *experimental* psychology (such as "Forty Experiments that Changed Psychology"), "Basic Writings" should be included in every history of psychology course.