Part I: Introduction 1. The Study of Science and Psychology from a Historical Perspective Part II: The Paradigm Shifts that Created Psychology 2. The Shift from Church Authority to Rationalism: The Times and Philosophy of Rene Descartes Chapter 3. Empiricism, its Legacies and Limitations 4. From Argument by Design to Nature Red in Tooth and Claw: The Development of Evolutionist Thought 5. Idealism to Materialism and Dualism in Germany Part III: Struggling with the New Paradigm 6. Seeing Things Whole: The Gestalt Response to Mental Reductionism 7. William James and Functionalism 8. Behaviorism 9. Psychoanalysis 10. The Developmental Approach
This book discusses key figures in history in the context of their time, takes students on a carefully-formulated, chronological journey through the build-up of psychology from ancient times to the present, and seeks to draw students into the way science is done, rather than merely presenting them with historical fact. Students will learn not only the what, but the why of the history of psychology and will acquire the necessary background historical material to fully understand those concepts. Organized around a series of paradigmsa shift from scholasticism to rationalism or empiricism, and a shift from idealism to materialismthe book seeks to portray psychology as an on-going, evolving process, rather than a theory.
