A History of Psychology: The Emergence of Science and Applications

by William Douglas Woody, Wayne Viney

This seventh edition of A History of The Emergence of Science and Applications traces the history of psychology from antiquity through the early twenty-first century, giving students a thorough look into psychology’s origins and key developments in basic and applied psychology. It presents internal, disciplinary history as well as external contextual history, emphasizing the interactions between psychological ideas and the larger cultural and historical contexts in which psychologists and other thinkers conduct research, teach, and live. It also has a strong scholarly foundation and more than 400 new references. This new edition retains and expands the strengths of previous editions and introduces several important changes. The text features more women, people of color, and others who are historically marginalized as well as new sections about early Black psychology and barriers faced by people who are diverse. It also includes expanded discussions of eugenics and racism in early psychology. There is new content on the history of the biological basis of psychology; the emergence of qualitative methods; and ecopsychology, ecotherapy, and environmental psychology. Recent historical findings about social psychology, including new historical findings about the Stanford Prison Experiment, Milgram’s obedience research, and Sherif’s conformity studies, have also been incorporated. Continuing the tradition of past editions, the text focuses on engaging students and inspiring them to recognize the power of history in their own lives, to connect history to the present and the future, and to think critically and historically.

422 pages, Hardcover

Published July 19, 2023

Reviews

[Giovanni Mahoney · Rating 4 out of 5]

This textbook provides a sufficient and generally fascinating overview of the history of psychology. This text was required by a graduate course I took, PSY 5605 History & Systems of Psychology, and I genuinely enjoyed reading it. The authors describe the evolution of psychology through an interactionist lens, detailing the biographies and influential ideas of major historical figures contributing to psychology.

Transformations in the field are described as a product of the interactions between prominent figures and the influence of culture, established systems of thought, societal reception, (primarily academic) institutions, and other individuals (personal and/or professional relationships). Personal characteristics of historical figures are also clearly explained, and earnestly so. These characteristics range from the innocuous, such as perseverance and extroversion/introversion, to the difficult, such as psychopathology (when present). The authors elucidate the complex, difficulty, and painful journeys that often went into major developments of the field. Such commentary helps to reduce the stigmas associated with psychopathology, efforts which are still desperately needed in the modern world.

Therefore, lacking in a degree of nuance and detail with economic summaries, the authors provide a broad, factual, and fascinating overview of the history of psychology. Accordingly, the text is quite helpful for understanding how we have arrived at the current state of psychology.