A Source Book in the History of Psychology
Published on 1. January 1965
Book
Hardback
658 pages
978-0-674-82410-2 (ISBN)
Description
This is a source book unique in its scope, clarity, and general interest. Its 116 excerpts range in time from Epicurus (ca. 300 B.C.) to the turn of the twentieth century and sometimes, when continuity requires, a little beyond (as to K. S. Lashley, 1929). It includes excerpts from Kepler (1604) on the inverted retinal image, Descartes (1650) on the soul's interaction with the machine of the body, Newton (1675) on the seven colors of the spectrum, Locke (1700) on association of ideas, Whytt (1751) on the spinal reflex, Weber (1834) on Weber's law, Darwin (1859) on evolution, Sechenov (1863) on reflexology, Hughlings Jackson (1884) on nervous dissolution, William James (1890) on associationism, Thorndike, Pavlov, Wertheimer, Watson, and 70 other great figures in the history of psychology.
Arranged by topic rather than in the usual strict chronological order, each of the first fourteen chapters traces the development of one important subject in experimental and quantitative psychology. The final chapter discusses the history of thinking about the nature of psychology itself. The editors provide an introduction to each chapter and each excerpt, indicating the significance of the content to follow and establishing historical continuity.
Arranged by topic rather than in the usual strict chronological order, each of the first fourteen chapters traces the development of one important subject in experimental and quantitative psychology. The final chapter discusses the history of thinking about the nature of psychology itself. The editors provide an introduction to each chapter and each excerpt, indicating the significance of the content to follow and establishing historical continuity.
Reviews / Votes
More than a quarter of the articles are translated into English for the first time. A fine, well-balanced contribution to the history of psychology. * Scientific American * This is without any question the best, and perhaps the only really good, selection of primary material relevant to the history of experimental psychology... The principal translators, Mollie D. Boring and Don Cantor, should share with the editors the credit for an important job very well done. * Science * The history of psychology contains magic names. Important passages from many of them are reprinted in this book, which is really a compendium of ideas for research; for one has the uncomfortable feeling when reading it that there are hints whose import one does not yet recognize. * British Journal of Psychology * An excellent job of judicious compression has been practised without losing the meaning and the flavour of the original... In each case the passage quoted has had a formative influence on the history of the subject... This is a fascinating book. * Quarterly Journal of Experimental Physiology * This is an exceptional compilation... Not only does it provide students with selections from important sources which they almost certainly would not otherwise read, but it whets the appetite to search further in the early literature of many topics of contemporary psychological interest... This book is an admirable collection which does great credit to the judgment of its editors...this book embodies intellectual standards not always upheld in the subject today. * Times Literary Supplement *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge, Mass
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
46 line illustrations, 23 tables
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Weight
1089 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-674-82410-2 (9780674824102)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Richard J. Herrnstein was Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. Edwin G. Boring was Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology, Emeritus, at Harvard University.
Content
PART I: SENSORY SPECIFICATION * Aristotle on the Five Senses, ca. 350 BCE * Isaac Newton on the Seven Colors of the Spectrum, 1675 * Isaac Newton on the Color Circle, 1704 * Thomas Young on Newton and the Excitation of the Retina by Colors, 1802 * John Locke on Primary and Secondary Qualities, 1690 * Charles Bell on Spinal Nerve Roots, 1811 * Francois Magendie on Spinal Nerve Roots, 1822 * Charles Bell on the Specificity of Sensory Nerves, 1811 * Johannes Muffler on the Specific Energies of Nerves, 1838 * Ernst Heinrich Weber on the Sense of Touch and Common Sensibility, 1846 * Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz on the Three-Color Theory of Vision and Visual Specific Nerve Energies, 1860 * Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz on the Resonance Theory of Hearing and Auditory Specific Nerve Energies, 1863 * Max von Frey on the Four Cutaneous Senses, 1904 * Edward Bradford Titchener on the Number of Sensory Elements, 1896 PART II: PSYCHOPHYSICS AND SENSORY MEASUREMENT * Pierre Bouguer on the Differential Threshold for Illumination, 1760 * Charles Eduard Joseph Delezenne on the Differential Threshold for the Pitch of Tones, 1827 * Ernst Heinrich Weber on Weber's Law, 1834 * Gustav Theodor Fechner on Fechner's Law, 1860 * Joseph Antoine Ferdinand Plateau on the Measurement of Sensation, 1872 * Joseph Remi Leopold Delboeuf on Sensed Contrast as the Measure of Sensation, 1883 * Edward Bradford Titchener on the Sense Distance as the Measure of Sensation, 1905 PART III: THE RETINAL IMAGE AND THE ORIENTATION OF PERCEIVED OBJECTS * Epicurus on Perception of Objects as Mediated by the Images that Emanate from the Objects, ca. 300 BCE * Johannes Kepler on the Crystalline Humor as a Lens and the Inversion of the Retinal Image, 1604 * William Molyneux on the Inverted Retinal Image, 1692 * Johannes Miller on Subjective Visual Size and Position in Relation to the Retinal Image, 1826 * George Malcolm Stratton on Visual Localization and the Inversion of the Retinal Image, 1897 PART IV: THE VISUAL PERCEPTION OF SIZE AND DISTANCE * Rene Descartes on the Visual Perception of Size, Shape, and Distance, 1638 * George Berkeley on the Visual Perception of Distance and Magnitude, 1709 * Charles Wheatstone on Binocular Parallax and the Stereoscopic Perception of Depth, 1838 PART V: NATIVISTIC AND EMPIRISTIC THEORIES OF SPACE PERCEPTION * Immanuel Kant on the A Priori Nature of Space, 1781 * Rudolf Hermann Lotze on Local Signs in Their Relation to the Perception of Space, 1852 * Ernst Heinrich Weber on Sensory Circles and Cutaneous Space Perception, 1852 * Ewald Hering on the Nativistic Theory of Visual Space Perception, 1864 * Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz on Empiricism in Perception, 1866 * Max Wertheimer on the Phi Phenomenon as an Example of Nativism in Perception, 1912 PART VI: OBJECTIVE REFERENCE * George Berkeley on the Role of Association in the Objective Reference of Perception, 1709 * Thomas Reid on the Distinction between Sensation and Perception, 1785 * Thomas Brown on Sensation, Perception, and the Associative Explanation of Objective Reference, 1820 * John Stuart Mill on the Permanent Possibilities of Sensation, 1865 * Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz on Perception and the Unconscious Conclusion, 1866 * Edward Bradford Titchener on the Context Theory of Meaning, 1910 * Edwin Bissell Holt on Response as the Essence of Cognition, 1915 * Max Wertheimer on Objects as Immediately Given to Consciousness, 1923 PART VII: CEREBRAL LOCALIZATION * Rene Descartes on the Interaction of Mind and Brain, 1650 * Franz Joseph Gall on Phrenology, the Localization of the Functions of the Brain, 1825 * Pierre Jean Marie Flourens on the Functions of the Brain, 1824 * Paul Broca on the Speech Center, 1861 * Gustav Fritsch and Eduard Hitzig on Cerebral Motor Centers, 1870 * John Hughlings Jackson on Dissolution of the Nervous System, 1884 * Shepherd Ivory Franz on the Variability of the Motor Centers, 1915 * Karl Spencer Lash!ey on Cerebral Equipotentiality and Mass Action, 1929 * Henry Head on Vigilance, 1926 PART VIII: PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGICAL ISOMORPHISM * Ewald Hering: Anticipation of Psychophysiolgical Isomorphism, 1878 * Georg Elias Muller on the Psychophysical Axioms, 1896 * Max Wertheimer on the Isomorphic Relation between Seen Movement and Cortical Short Circuit, 1912 * Wolfgang Kohler on Isomorphism, 1920 PART IX: THE REFLEX * Rene Descartes on Mechanism in Human Action, 1662 * Julien Offray de la Mettrie on the Extension of Mechanism to the Human Soul, 1748 * David Hart!ey on Voluntary and Involuntary Action, 1749 * Robert Whytt on Empirical Reflexology, 1751 * George Prochaska on the Nervous System, 1784 * Marshall Hall on the Spinal Nervous System, 1843, 1850 * Ivan Miehailovieh Seehenov on Reflexology and Psychology, 1863 * John Dewey against Reflexology, 1896 PART X: ASSOCIATION * Aristotle on the Associative Nature of Memory, ca. 350 BCE * Thomas Hobbes on the Train of Thought, 1651 * John Locke on Disorders of the Mind, 1700 * George Berkeley on Arbitrary Connections among Ideas, 1733 * David Hume on a Psychological Analogue of Gravitation, 1739 * David Hartley on Association: Successive and Simultaneous, Simple and Complex, 1749 * Thomas Brown on the Secondary Laws of Association, 1820 * James Mill on Mental Mechanics, 1829 * John Stuart Mill on Mental Chemistry, 1843 * Herbert Spencer on Intelligence, 1855 * William James on the Limitations of Associationism, 1890 * Wilhelm Wundt on Psychological Analysis and Creative Synthesis, 1896 PART XI: EVOLUTION AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES * Charles Robert Darwin on the Theory of Evolution, 1859 * Francis Galton on the Inheritance of Intelligence, 1869 * Francis Galton on Mental Capacity, 1883 * James McKeen Cattell on Mental Tests, 1890 * Alfred Binet and Victor Henri on the Psychology of Individual Differences, 1895 * Hermann Ebbinghaus on the Completion Test, 1897 * Stella Emily Sharp on a Test of Mental Testing, 1899 * Clark Wissler on the Inadequacy of Mental Tests, 1901 * Charles Edward Spearman on General Intelligence, 1904 * William Stern on the Mental Quotient, 1912 PART XII: COMPARATIVE PSYCHOLOGY * George John Romanes on Comparative Psychology, 1882 * Conwy Lloyd Morgan on Lloyd Morgan's Canon, 1894 * Jacques Loeb on Associative Memory, 1899 * Herbert Spencer Jennings on the Continuity of Psychological Processes, 1906 PART XIII: FUNCTIONALISM * William James on the Function of Consciousness, 1890 * James Mark Baldwin on the Psychology of Children, 1895 * James Rowland Angell on Functionalism, 1906 * John Broadus Watson on Behaviorism, 1913 PART XIV: LEARNING * Hermann Ebbinghaus on the Learning of Nonsense Syllables, 1995 * Mary Whiton Calkins on the Learning of Paired Associates, 1896 * Edward Lee Thorndike on Animal Learning, 1898 * Robert Mearns Yerkes on the Intelligence of the Turtle, 1901 * Willard Stanton Small on the Maze, 1901 * Edward Lee Thorndike and Robert Sessions Woodworth on Transfer of Training, 1901 * Ivan Petrovich Pavlov on Conditioned Reflexes, 1904 * Wolfgang Kohler on the Insight of Apes, 1917 PART XV: