A History of Modern Psychology

Citation

Schultz, D. P., & Schultz, S. E. (2015). A History of Modern Psychology (11th ed.). Cengage Learning.

Chapter Summary

The book has 15 chapters, a glossary, references and name and subject indexes, and runs to 448 pages. The publisher says its coverage of modern psychology begins with the late nineteenth century and that its method is biographical: it uses information about influential theorists, and about how events in their lives shaped their ideas, approaches and methods. The chapter titles show the organising principle, which is a sequence of schools of thought, each introduced by what preceded it.

Chapter 1: The Study of the History of Psychology

The title indicates a chapter on how the history of psychology is studied, placed ahead of the account itself.

Chapters 2–3: Philosophical Influences on Psychology; Physiological Influences on Psychology

Two chapters on the antecedents of the discipline, one drawing on philosophy and one on physiology. They come before any school of psychology is described, so the book's story starts from what psychology grew out of.

Chapters 4–5: The New Psychology; Structuralism

Chapter 4 is titled "The New Psychology" and Chapter 5 "Structuralism", the first school named in the contents. The publisher says the book's coverage of modern psychology begins with the late nineteenth century, which is where these two chapters sit.

Chapters 6–8: Functionalism: Antecedent Influences; Functionalism: Development and Founding; Applied Psychology: The Legacy of Functionalism

Functionalism receives three chapters: what led up to it, how it developed and was founded, and the applied psychology that grew from it.

Chapters 9–11: Behaviorism: Antecedent Influences; Behaviorism: The Beginnings; Behaviorism: After the Founding

Behaviorism also receives three chapters, following its antecedents, its beginnings and its development after the founding.

Chapter 12: Gestalt Psychology

A single chapter on Gestalt psychology.

Chapters 13–14: Psychoanalysis: The Beginnings; Psychoanalysis: After the Founding

Two chapters on psychoanalysis, the first on its beginnings and the second on what happened after its founding. The publisher's list of changes in this edition mentions the return of Freud's anal personality.

Chapter 15: Continuing Developments in Psychology

The closing chapter brings the account forward under the title "Continuing Developments in Psychology". The publisher lists, among the updates in the eleventh edition, the latest developments in positive psychology and the increasing role of brain science in psychology, without saying which chapters carry them.

Key Concepts

Chapters 1–3: Foundations

• Doing the history of psychology: the questions of method and purpose raised in the opening chapter.
• Philosophical influences: the ideas from philosophy that the book treats as antecedents of psychology.
• Physiological influences: the findings from physiology that the book treats as antecedents of psychology.

Chapters 4–8: From the New Psychology to Functionalism

• The new psychology: the late-nineteenth-century beginning of modern psychology.
• Structuralism: the first school of thought treated in the book.
• Functionalism: a school followed from its antecedents to its founding.
• Applied psychology: presented as the legacy of functionalism.

Chapters 9–15: Behaviorism, Gestalt, Psychoanalysis and After

• Behaviorism: followed across three chapters, from antecedents to beginnings to later development.
• Gestalt psychology: a school with its own chapter.
• Psychoanalysis: covered through its beginnings and its later development.
• Positive psychology and brain science: named by the publisher as areas of updated coverage.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• A clear organising logic. The contents follow one pattern repeatedly: antecedents, founding, later development. This makes the book easy to navigate, and a reader can enter at any school and find its prehistory and aftermath in neighbouring chapters.
• A people-centred method, stated by the publisher. The authors say that they personalise the history by giving biographical information about theorists and showing how events in their lives affected their ideas, approaches and methods. For students who find institutional history abstract, this is a useful way in.
• Room for the discipline's two roots. Two separate chapters, on philosophical and on physiological influences, give both roots of the discipline equal weight before any school appears.
• Manageable length. At 448 pages and 15 chapters, the book allows a pace of about a chapter a week over a semester.

Limitations

• Coverage starts late. By the publisher's own description the account begins in the late nineteenth century, so earlier history survives only as the antecedents in Chapters 2 and 3. A reader who wants a long history from antiquity needs a different book.
• A school-by-school frame. The contents name behaviorism, functionalism, Gestalt psychology and psychoanalysis but do not give cognitive, social, developmental or clinical psychology a chapter of their own. Chapter 8 and Chapter 15 are the only chapters whose titles leave room for them, so a reader should expect the later twentieth century to be treated more briefly than the early schools.
• Dated edition. The eleventh edition appeared in 2015, and developments since then are not included.

Where It Fits in the Course

This is one of several histories of psychology on the list, and they differ in scale and method. A Brief History of Psychology by Wertheimer and Puente is described as a first text on the subject and suits a reader who wants a shorter introduction before this one. Pioneers of Psychology by Fancher and Rutherford also works through the lives and ideas of individual figures, so it is the closest alternative in method; reading both is useful mainly for comparing how two textbooks tell the same stories.

For a wider view, Leahey's A Critical History of Psychology traces ideas from ancient philosophy and sets psychology's arguments beside the social, economic and political forces that shaped them, which is the more demanding option. Danziger's Constructing the Subject is a study of how psychology's research methods came to be, and is best read after a survey like this one. Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams is a primary source that matches the psychoanalysis chapters, so it can be read alongside Chapters 13 and 14.

How to Use This Book

The book suits an undergraduate who has completed an introductory psychology course and is taking a history and systems course; it can also serve as a compact revision text for a student preparing for an examination. The publisher's description presents it as a narrative, which makes it readable straight through.

A practical plan is to read in order, since the schools follow one another and each chapter assumes the one before. Chapters 1 to 5 set up the questions and the beginnings of the discipline, Chapters 6 to 14 cover the major schools, and Chapter 15 brings the account up to the present. Where time is short, read Chapter 1, the two chapters on antecedents, the founding chapter of each school (Chapters 5, 7, 10 and 13) and Chapter 15.

Pair each school with something it produced: for psychoanalysis, a selection from Freud, and for the schools of the early twentieth century, a short original paper. After finishing, write a one-page chart for each school listing what it opposed, what it asserted and what it left behind, which also prepares for essay questions on the history of the discipline.