Historiography of Czech psychology.

The paper is aimed at presenting the development of the Czech historiography of psychology, which was strongly influenced by the political changes in Central and Eastern Europe. The authors deal with the historiography of psychology at the three universities offering an undergraduate program in psychology, located in Prague, Brno, and Olomouc, and at the Institute of Psychology of the Czech Academy of Sciences. Recent research, teaching, textbooks, and journal articles published in Czech and in foreign languages are showcased. The historiography of Czech psychotherapy is mentioned as a special thematic development. Contemporary problems and perspectives in the field of the history of psychology in the Czech Republic are discussed, sources of information are given. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Schools of Psychology: A Symposium.

Reviews the book, Schools of Psychology: A Symposium edited by David L. Krantz (1969). This volume contains five papers which were delivered at a symposium held on September 4, 1967 at the seventy-fifth anniversary meetings of the American Psychological Association. The participants and their topics were E. G. Boring (Titchener, Meaning and Behaviorism), Edna Heidbreder (Functionalism), R. J. Herrnstein (Behaviorism), Wolfgang Kohler (Gestalt psychology), and David Shakow (Psychoanalysis). In addition there is a discussion by Gardner Murphy and an additional paper, by the editor, on the Baldwin-Titchener controversy. An index is provided. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of A History of Western Psychology.

Reviews the book, A History of Western Psychology by David Murray (No Year Specified). According to Marshall, this book is intended as a text for a full-year course on history, systems, and twentieth century developments in psychology. The 400-page book covers psychological ideas "from Plato through NATO," and it does so briskly. Two chapters are devoted to ancient and medieval ideas, two to subsequent events until the nineteenth century, and four to nineteenth century developments; Gestalt, behaviourism, and psychoanalysis are given separate chapters; and two terminal chapters are devoted, respectively, to new directions until 1940 and eclectic psychological developments up to 1980. There are two salient features which distinguish the book in addition to its attention to both ancient and contemporary psychology. The first is that, throughout, it relies strongly on an interpretation and presentation of primary sources rather than on a gathering of already published compendia. Another example is Murray's treatment of Spencer, Lewes, Carpenter, Lubbock, and Romanes. Murray's work and frequent quotations from original sources leave the reader with the lively sense of being in touch with the original authors' intents and styles. A shortcoming which stems from this same insistence on original interpretation of primary sources is that the reader sometimes does not benefit from the work of other recent and more detailed scholarly interpretations. The second salient feature of the textbook is that it is unabashedly internalistic. It refers only superficially to the contextual features of the intellectual and sociopolitical cultures which, variously, fostered or retarded psychology, first when it existed only as a bundle of ideas, then later when it emerged as a disciplinary institution. There are no references to historical methodology, and this illustrates the fact that Murray's book is just not methodologically self-conscious at all. Without apology, Murray is interested in showing the succession of psychological ideas, with little concern for explaining how they happened that way. However, Marshall notes that this book also provides some excellent learning and memory aids for students untutored in history and, perhaps, uninterested in history for its own sake. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Functional behaviorism: A plan for unity in psychology.

Functional behaviorism is an evolutionary stimulus-response psychology that applies to all behavior from reflexes to personality. It treats psychological phenomena as compounds of 3 processes--cognition, affect and reaction tendency--which are governed by 3 fundamental operating principles: (a) Behavior is an expression of potentials activated by instigation; (b) behavior is under the simultaneous control of excitation and inhibition; and (c) behavior is a blend of adaptation to events the individual cannot control and coping when control is possible. This view provides an organization that brings unity to the science of psychology. It is an offering of peace to the warring factions in the field. It holds out the hope of creating coherent programs of education in the discipline. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Who's afraid of John B. Watson? Comments on: Behavior: An introduction to comparative psychology.

Reviews the book, Behavior: An Introduction to Comparative Psychology by John B. Watson (Introduction by R. J. Herrnstein) (see record 1967-08039-000). This book, a reprint of the 1914 volume which was Watson's first book, disinters again from its mouldy wrappings the often harrassed spectre of John B. Watson's place in the history of North American psychology. Was he, as Gustav Bergmann (1956) has suggested, second only to Freud as "the most important figure in the history of psychological thought during the first half of the century?" Or was A. A. Roback (1937, 1964) closer to the truth in dismissing Watsonian Behaviorism as a "rah-rah technique" which "made a big noise" which was "not substantiated by deeds?" Or was Watson, as other writers have suggested, simply a footnote to Functionalism? Herrnstein, in his introduction, discusses Watson as the heir of Darwin, Sechenov, and Pavlov, and as the progenitor of Tolman, Hull, and Skinner. The fact of the matter is that Watson's contributions to psychology, however they may be assessed, were not in the field of animal behavior but in the field of methodology. Thorndike's Law of Effect continued to overshadow Watson's frequency principle in learning, Pavlov did more with the reflex in terms of both research and theory, and Lashley began a tradition of revolutionary explorations of the animal nervous system. It is not without good reason that Boring (1950) discusses Watson in a section on Behaviorism '(with the ism)" rather than in sections on Animal Psychology where Romanes, Loeb, Morgan, and Yerkes are included. Indeed, it is to the "history and systems" books one must turn to find consistent reference to Behavior. It would appear that if Behavior is, in fact, a classic, it is a classic in the field of psychological theory and methodology, not in the field of animal behavior or comparative psychology. Perhaps it was this point which Herrnstein was making when he began the first sentence of his introduction with the words, "To find out what behaviorism was, consult this book," rather than with the words, "To find out what comparative psychology was, consult this book." Nevertheless, whether your interest is behaviorism, comparative psychology, or the history and growth of psychological thinking in North America, this book is worth consulting. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The psychology of the altruist.

Some findings from the intensive case studies of five persons devoting their lives to humanitarian concerns are reported. Psychoanalytic interviewing, projective data, and personal material from the subjects suggested similarities in the inferred unconscious sources of their characterological altruism. The subjects' personas were characterized by helpfulness, sociophilia, and positive affect. Their central defenses included compulsivity, identification with the victim, and reversal. Their dynamics included the management of unconscious guilt or shame about hostility and greed. The inferred genetics of these dymanics included good-enough nurturance in the symbiotic phase of development; the loss of availability of the mothering object between the ages of two and three; and the timely intervention of an altruistic substitute figure, in the context of a subculture giving religious expression to the value of benevolence. These observations are related to pertinent studies on altruism in the literatures of psychoanalysis and academic psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Comparative psychology in wildlife conservation.

An area with problems which the comparative psychologist could aid in solving is that of Game and Fisheries Management as conducted by various state agencies and the Federal Government. Topics such as conditioning game farm birds, obtaining a better understanding of stimuli which elicit species' specific behavior, and altering the behavior of wild population are discussed. A greater understanding of animal psychology might aid in predator control, habitat improvement, and the reduction of crop damage. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The logic of clinical psychology.

Comments on D. Bakan's article "Clinical Psychology and Logic" (see record 1958-01108-001). Bakan makes the point lucidly that the ailments of clinical psychology do not flow from a lack of logic but from a lack of appropriate method. The logic is there; what is the method which fits it? However, he defines the logical problem in a way I would dispute. The current author proposes that the clinician's problem is not the inference of experience but the inference of subsequent behavior. A clinical psychology founded upon the logic of social behavior would create a different atmosphere, set of attitudes, and relations to patients than the currently fashionable, fantastic clinical psychology, which appears to fit Bakan's model. Nor would this alternative clinical psychology create the pseudoscientifically cold atmosphere so aptly ridiculed by Bakan. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-psychology as psychology: The revision of Heinz Kohut.

Our contemporary period is marked by what Wallerstein (1982, p. 9) has called "the great metapsychological debate." That is, many of the changes shown today strike at the very heart of psychoanalysis, through a questioning and reformulation of many of its basic assumptions,through creative re-readings, or in some cases transformations in what was thought to be the very essence of analytic work. However diverse these new directions may be from one another, they appear united in one respect: to unhinge psychoanalysis from its classical approach, and provide alternative metapsychological visions more faithful to human psychological life, as that transpires in the theatre of psychoanalytic practice. All this brings us to the new "Self Psychology" of Heinz Kohut. Perhaps more than any other contemporary development, Self Psychology has had the most powerful impact on the previously institutionalized orientations within the psychoanalytic community. Kuhn (1962) has taught us that following a revolution in scientific paradigms, old data are seen in a new light and new discoveries, are included within that vision. In short, the world changes for the scientist after major revolutions in a given discipline. Accordingly, in what follows, I want to take you into Kohut's altered vision of psychoanalysis, with a particular emphasis on his novel discoveries, and the role these played in his revisioning of the clinical relationship. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Current and future advances in physiological and comparative psychology.

"An important current advance in both comparative psychology and physiology during the last ten years has been the development of a very considerable number of laboratories devoted, at least in part, to the use of primates as experimental subjects." During the next twenty-five years a truly comparative psychology will be developed. A number of predictions are made based in part on recent researches which appear to suggest trends for the future; the presentation is semi-whimsical. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of A history of modern experimental psychology: From James and Wundt to cognitive science.

Reviews the book, A history of modern experimental psychology: From James and Wundt to cognitive science by George Mandler (see record 2007-05052-000). George Mandler, a longtime researcher in the area of memory and cognition, has gathered together his notes and selected bits from previous publications to assemble a new book cast as a brief history of the emergence of cognitive psychology. Mandler draws us to the positive impact Behaviourism had on the development of Cognitive Psychology. Mandler's book stands as an outline of the past, not a history. Its value rests with the perspective that comes from someone who has been thinking, researching and writing about topics central to Cognitive Psychology for over 40 years. He has been a witness to change, someone who has even participated in them, so his insights are valuable and directive. I would have enjoyed Mandler's book to a greater extent if, rather than chronologically reporting events, he had attempted to provide a gestalt of the emergence of cognitive psychology, one that would have located the articulate in the inarticulate of research practise and concept development in societies caught in the rift of redefinition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Toward a comparative psychology of learning.

"About 90% of our work on animal learning has been done with the rat." Exploratory work with new animals, especially phylogenetically lower animals, is desirable. The mammalian phenomena which confound contemporary SR theory "are less likely to appear in more primitive species… . Broadening the phylogenetic base of our work will facilitate the broadening of our outlook, and perhaps one day we shall be able to approach even the higher forms in the same spirit of discovery." 5 figures are presented, including apparatus diagrams for studying learning in the crab, the fly, and the earthworm. From Psyc Abstracts 36:02:2EH04B. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Russian women émigrées in psychology: Informal Jewish networks.

This paper uses archival sources and autobiographies to give a fuller account of the lives of three Russian women psychologists, each of whom voluntarily emigrated several years before the Third Reich. As such, their stories contribute to gender history, emigration history, and ethnic history. The characteristics of second-generation women in psychology seem to apply to this sample; they accepted applied or secondary positions in psychology or allied fields and came late to tenure-track positions. Some first-generation characteristics fit them also: choosing career over marriage, accepting the “family claim,” and living “fractured lives.” émigrée history reveals that these women found careers in the United States that could not have happened in the smaller, more restricted higher education networks of Europe. Female friendships and family ties to the Old World sustained them. All struggled with professional networking and had varying success, depending heavily upon the patronage of sympathetic male psychologists. Ethnic history shows that none identified strongly with Judaism, yet all benefited from Jewish mentors and networks of patronage. Evidence of gendered or racial discrimination in hiring practices is sparse, though it surely existed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A brief history of the psychology course in american high schools.

Psychology has been a part of the high school curriculum for the past 170 years in a variety of forms, in classes labeled mental and moral philosophy, mental hygiene, personal adjustment, child development, human relations, and psychology. This abbreviated and selective account traces that history, including the considerable role played by the American Psychological Association. This history focuses on the social and educational contexts that led to changes in the nature of high school psychology classes and concludes with comments about the value of precollege psychology classes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

On the failed institutionalization of German comparative psychology prior to 1940.

Despite an illustrious history marked by the work of Wolfgang K?hler and Mathilde Hertz, among others--the significance of which still resonates in different fields of animal behavior research--and the fact that interesting work in the field continues, comparative psychology has no official status within German psychology. A partial explanation for this lack of official representation might derive from unsuccessful attempts historically to secure institutional status. "Gifted" animals served as much of the impetus for the beginning of a scientific animal psychology in Germany and contributed to its institutionalization by providing the incentive for the establishment of organizations dealing with animal psychology. Although initially serving as a catalyst for an interdisciplinary exchange on animal psychology, the case of Clever Hans was also exploited to help psychology gain institutional status in the field, albeit without lasting success. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Frank A. Beach’s unpublished textbook on comparative psychology.

At his death in 1988, Frank A. Beach left unpublished a textbook in comparative psychology that he had written in the late 1950s. In it, Beach contrasted comparative behavioral science, as he viewed it, with both ethology and classical human-oriented psychology. He provided a solid background of zoological principles and focused on orienting attitudes. Beach emphasized a functionalist approach to behavior, stressing the role of behavior in the natural lives of animals. It is argued that much of comparative psychology has developed along the lines that Beach advocated at that time but that that development may have been much smoother had the textbook been published. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychoanalysis in the undergraduate curriculum: The treatment of psychoanalytic theory in abnormal psychology texts.

Reviews 4 books on the topic of psychoanalytic theory in abnormal psychology texts. The purpose of this review is to encourage this process by evaluating some of the resources available for academic psychologists to teach psychoanalysis to undergraduate psychology students. The reviewer reviews several texts commonly employed in teaching undergraduate abnormal psychology and psychopathology courses, with the aim of evaluating the extent to which they accurately reflect the breadth and complexity of psychoanalytic thought as it applies to these areas of inquiry. The books reviewed here were chosen on the basis of two criteria: (a) They are popular, widely used undergraduate abnormal psychology texts; and (b) they represent a range of perspectives on psychoanalysis, with some books written from a psychodynamic perspective, and others generally opposed to the psychoanalytic view. Each text is reviewed in three general areas. First, the reviewer evaluates the extent to which each thoroughly and accurately discusses basic psychoanalytic theory as it presents various models of mental functioning. Treatment of key psychoanalytic concepts such as ego development and defenses, compromise formation, symptom substitution, fixation and regression, and the psychosexual stages is evaluated, as is the extent to which each work attempts to integrate the object-relations perspective into its discussion. Second, the reviewer reviews each text's presentation of the psychodynamic model for selected areas of psychopathology (e.g., depression, schizophrenia, addiction and addictive behaviors, character pathology, and sexual disorders). Finally, the extent to which each work discusses the relationship of basic psychoanalytic theory to the use of projective tests such as the Rorschach and the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) is considered, as is each text's treatment of psychoanalytic concepts underlying the development of the medical model and the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III, 1980). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Gold medal award for life achievement in the practice of psychology: Herbert J. Freudenberger.

The American Psychological Foundation (APF) Gold Medal Awards recognize distinguished and enduring records of accomplishments in 4 areas of psychology. The 1999 recipient of the Gold Medal Award for Life Achievement in the Practice of Psychology is Herbert J. Freudenberger. Freudenberger is cited for his exemplary professionalism as a psychologist and psychoanalyst dedicated to the alleviation of human suffering; for the sensitivity and conceptual genius that enabled him to establish the clinical construct of burnout; for his dedication to expanding our understanding of human behavior through theoretical contributions, teaching, and voluminous interdisciplinary and international publications; and for his innovative treatment of those afflicted with substance abuse problems. A citation, biography, and selected bibliography of Freudenberger's work are presented. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reexamining the psychoanalytic corpse: From scientific psychology to philosophy.

Historically, psychoanalysis has been marginalized as being pseudoscientific, incoherent, incongruent, and unverifiable and, consequently, has been marginalized from mainstream scientific psychology. Recently, Robert F. Bornstein (2001) added to this criticism by predicting the demise of psychoanalysis unless it jumps on the academic-empirical bandwagon. Throughout this article, the author challenges Bornstein's central arguments and attempts to show how philosophically informed approaches to theory and method provide a viable and equally privileged alternative to substantiating psychoanalytic thought. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychoanalytic theory in the context of contemporary psychology: The Helen Block Lewis memorial address.

This article represents a tribute to the late Helen Block Lewis's commitment to integrating psychology and psychoanalysis. The current status of the formal structure of psychoanalytic theory was reviewed in relation to recent developments in general psychology. Specific attention was paid to the psychodynamic or motivational perspective, the structural perspective, and the genetic or developmental perspective as proposed by Rapaport. Following an examination of current trends in psychoanalysis and of the shift from a drive-, hydraulic energy model toward a relational model, specific proposals were made about the role of emotions as motives, and the implications of the tension between attachment or affiliation versus autonomous or self-esteem needs. In the structural perspective it was proposed that, as in social psychology, emphasis has shifted from the id, ego, superego model to a more specific focus on self schemas and belief systems. The recent emphasis in cognitive and social psychology on out-of-awareness processes suggests a new interest in the so-called topographical model of conscious and unconscious processes. At the developmental level the dominance of the object relations model meshes well with recent child research... (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)