History of Psychology最新文献

Adolf Horwicz (1831-1894) was the main public critic of Wilhelm Wundt's election for the chair of philosophy at the Universität Leipzig in 1875. Horwicz's book titled Psychologische Analysen auf physiologischer Grundlage published in 1872 had a great impact on his contemporaries. Two years later, Wundt published Grundzüge der physiologischen Psychologie (1874) and with Horwicz's books were recognized as the most representative books of the emerging physiological psychology. Finally, Horwicz and Wundt had a debate published in Vierteljahrsschrift für wissenschaftliche Philosophie during 1879-1880 in where Wundt affirmed that many of Horwicz's research results were deduced from preconceived ideas without using a clear method. For that reason, Horwicz considered that Wundt's criticisms were aimed at destroying his scientific reputation. The debate is the materialization of a long professional struggle that took place between professional philosophers and physiologists who began to occupy chairs of philosophy in the early 1870s. The debate can be summarized in the following questions: (a) Should psychology have as its main objective the search for a single physical-biological process to which all other psychical processes are reduced? (b) Should psychological research use an inductivist reasoning? (c) What should be the relationship between philosophy and the psychological psychology? (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

This article situates Joseph Nicolosi's first book, Reparative Therapy of Male Homosexuality, in historical context. Nicolosi, a Catholic clinical psychologist, was one of the most vocal practitioners of sexual orientation change efforts (SOCE) from the early 1990s until his death in 2017, and in these decades, the Christian Right became a key supporter of SOCE. In this article, I argue that two features of Nicolosi's book appealed to the Christian Right. First, Nicolosi relied on psychoanalytic thought to pathologize not only same-sex sexual desires but also poor parenting. The use of psychoanalytic thought was of particular interest to conservative Christians who believed that American fathers had forfeited their role as strong patriarchs. Second, Nicolosi's approach to therapy, which included changing one's dress and mannerisms and assertiveness training, stressed that same-sex desires could be eliminated through behavioral reconditioning. Nicolosi's psychological eclecticism, a common feature for mental health practitioners at the end of the twentieth century, has not been emphasized in prior scholarship on reparative therapy. Importantly, the psychological eclecticism practiced by Nicolosi became common within the Christian Right after the publication of Reparative Therapy of Male Homosexuality. By offering a close reading of Reparative Therapy of Male Homosexuality, this article demonstrates the interrelationship between one of the core texts of the ex-gay movement and the psychological and religious thought of the Christian Right at the turn of the twenty-first century. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Willard Stanton Small (1870-1943) was among the earliest scientists to perform psychological research with rats and conducted the first experiment with a rat in a maze. This article represents the first biography devoted to Small and provides highlights from his childhood, undergraduate and graduate work, personal life, and professional career. Special attention is given to the events that led to the first rat maze experiment, which Small performed as a graduate student at Clark University. A detailed analysis of Small's published report of the maze experiment is also provided. His employment history after graduate school is discussed and includes teaching and administrative roles at multiple academic institutions, in addition to his role as a field investigator for the U.S. Bureau of Education. It is shown that Small's work impacted not only comparative psychology, but also U.S. public health, school hygiene, and education. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

In 1851, Wilhelm Wundt embarked on his university journey at the University of Tübingen, initially enrolling as a medical student. This article draws from Wundt's autobiography and supplementary sources to illuminate the motivations behind his choice of Tübingen, shedding light on how this pivotal phase influenced both his scientific trajectory and his personal development. It offers insights into Wundt's perspectives on university and city life in Tübingen, providing a nuanced understanding of his formative years. Wundt's nonlinear entry into the realm of science serves as a source of reassurance and inspiration for contemporary psychology students facing similar initial challenges in their academic pursuits. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Cheiron's Young Scholar Award Committee is pleased to announce that Matthew Soleiman, a PhD candidate in the Department of History and Science Studies Program at the University of California, San Diego, has been chosen to receive the 2023 award for his paper "Recerebrated: The rise of the clinic in the twentieth-century science of pain." Using published and archival sources, Soleiman's paper examines two key developments in early- to mid-20th-century pain research. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

This article critically analyzes the concept of descriptive psychology, which was used by Blaustein as part of his struggles with the Brentanian heritage which shaped the Lvov-Warsaw School. It is argued that because of his studies under the Gestaltists and Husserl, Blaustein was able to redefine the basics of Brentano's and Twardowski's projects of empirical and descriptive psychology. To show the divergent motives present in Blaustein's psychology, the article presents a biography of Blaustein in the context of psychology in the Poland and Europe of his times. Next, it analyzes references to Brentano and to Twardowski. It is argued that because of Twardowski and his reappraisal of Külpe's experimental psychology, Blaustein accepted experiments as a necessary element of scientifically justified psychology. This thesis is also discussed in regard to the Gestaltists' influences on Blaustein. Next, the article explores Blaustein's idea of reforming psychology in the spirit of the humanistic psychology of Dilthey and Spranger. Blaustein's idea that phenomenology should be understood as descriptive psychology is discussed. Finally, his use of psychology to study media is discussed. Against this background, Blaustein's descriptive psychology is presented as an eclectic methodological device which was used by him to explore mental phenomena. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

This study traces the long early history of the visual, auditory, and kinesthetic (VAK) learning style typology. The VAK distinction and vocabulary originated with the psychology of mental imagery and word recall in the 1910s. It was further developed by researchers on remedial reading instruction for students with learning disabilities between the 1920s and 1950s, the teaching of urban youth in the 1960s, and culminated with the construction of formal learning style assessment instruments in the 1970s. By the 1980s, the VAK learning style typology began to get covered in the mainstream media, despite the objections of critics. By the 2000s, the internet made VAK-based assessments available to teachers for free. The author argues the application of the VAK learning style typology from remedial reading to all subject areas was unwarranted and only partially supported by the research. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

This article understands the reception of Soviet psychology in the Federal Republic of Germany as a contribution to a transnational Soviet psychology that is closely linked to a "Western Communist culture," broadly understood, and further elaborates on this term, which is borrowed from Luciano Nicolás García. Critical Psychology (Kritische Psychologie) was developed at the Free University of Berlin starting in the late 1960s by the Marxist psychologist Klaus Holzkamp and others and represents a central focus of this form of appropriating the writings of Soviet psychologists. However, there has also been intense interest in Soviet psychology in West Germany beyond this Communist culture. This article reconstructs several different lines of reception to sketch a more complex picture of Soviet psychology in West Germany than that offered by previous one-sided narratives. In any case, reconstructive efforts in this field of investigation must take the historical situation of the Cold War era and its important influence on the discipline of psychology into account. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

From 1929 until 1972, the Alberta Eugenics Board (the Board) recommended that 4,739 individuals be sterilized. The original 1928 act that legalized eugenic sterilization stipulated that the surgery itself required the consent of the individual or their caregiver; however, in 1937, the Alberta government removed the consent requirement for such cases where the Board determined individual patients to be "mental defectives." By analyzing published reports, case histories, medical journals, and primary sources from the Board, we situate the concept of "mental defective" in a historical context to clarify the Board's diagnostic process. By analyzing how the Board found individuals to be "mental defectives," we challenge a previous historiographic assumption that intelligence tests played a critical or defining role in this diagnostic process. We argue that the notion of the "mental defective" used by the Board had a long history before the advent of intelligence testing and eugenic thought. This history helps to explain how and why the Board relied extensively on the broader examination of behavior, social status, and physical appearance as core evidence in the diagnosis of "mental defect." Intelligence tests were certainly important as they shed light on an individual's academic ability. However, this alone was only one part of "mentality." Defects of mentality were understood to be broad and multifactorial, and included difficult, if not impossible, to measure attributes such as personality, emotionality, and morality. Further research should incorporate the concept of mentality in the history of psychology, testing, and eugenics. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

This article explores how psychological categories linked to the mental level, such as genius, mediocrity, and intellectual superiority, were directly intertwined with political discourse in the early 20th century. To illustrate this, I analyze El Hombre Mediocre (The Mediocre Man) published in 1913 by José Ingenieros, seemingly as a direct critique of the law for free democratic elections in Argentina sanctioned in 1912. The book's main argument drew on psychological categories to explain that democracy was, in fact, a poor choice in government. Ingenieros' main concern was that the population was mostly mediocre and therefore unable to govern or elect a suitable candidate to run the country. One category that stood out in his analysis was the "genius." This term was reserved for men who demonstrated exceptional intelligence and remarkable morals and ideals. The methodology used in this article is based on the qualitative and interpretative analysis of bibliographical sources (which include books of essays, scientific papers, and books aimed at lay audiences) from the perspective of intellectual history and the critical history of psychology. I argue that Ingenieros' book served as a political essay founded on a comprehensive scientific explanation, even if it was aimed at a lay audience. This analysis shows the productivity of psychological categories referring to giftedness, intelligence, and talent, in adulthood for assessing political movements and planning new imagined societies through the history of psychology. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).