Historical and Conceptual Issues in Psychology

Citation

Brysbaert, M., & Rastle, K. (2021). Historical and Conceptual Issues in Psychology (3rd ed.). Pearson.

Chapter Summary

The book has 13 chapters and a short epilogue, followed by notes, a glossary, a bibliography and an index. The chapters move in three stretches. Chapters 1–6 trace the history of psychology from its early origins through the scientific revolution, the nineteenth-century precursors, the founding of the discipline, behaviourism and cognitive psychology, and brain research. Chapters 7–8 take up the mind–brain problem and the history of applied psychology. Chapters 9–13 ask what kind of science psychology is, how it uses research methods, and how it relates to society. The publisher describes a broad range of contemporary and historical issues, excerpts from original texts, profiles of key figures, examples from ancient Greece to modern debates, "myth busting" boxes and discussion questions in every chapter. The third edition adds a chapter on the replication crisis and open science practices.

Chapter 1: The wider picture. Where did it all start?

Opens with the origins of psychological questions, setting the long perspective that runs from the ancient world to the present.

Chapter 2: The scientific revolution of the seventeenth century and its aftermath

Looks at the scientific revolution as the setting for later ideas about mind and method.

Chapter 3: Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century precursors to a scientific psychology

The ideas and developments that preceded psychology as an independent field.

Chapter 4: Establishing psychology as an independent academic discipline

How psychology became a discipline in its own right.

Chapter 5: Strengthening the scientific standing of psychology. Behaviourism and cognitive psychology

Behaviourism and cognitive psychology, the two movements the title names as strengthening the scientific standing of psychology.

Chapter 6: The input from brain research

The contribution of research on the brain to psychology.

Chapter 7: The mind–brain problem, free will and consciousness

The book's first sustained conceptual topic, bringing three long-running philosophical problems to bear on what psychology can say about the mind.

Chapter 8: How did psychology affect everyday life? The history of applied psychology

Moves from the laboratory to practice, tracing how psychology has been applied outside the academy.

Chapters 9–10: What is science?; Is psychology a science?

The philosophy-of-science core. Chapter 9 sets out what science is; Chapter 10 applies the question to psychology itself.

Chapter 11: The contribution of quantitative and qualitative research methods

Compares the two broad families of research method and what each contributes.

Chapter 12: The precarious balance between biological, psychological and social influences

Examines the balance among the biological, psychological and social levels of explanation.

Chapter 13: Psychology and society. The socio-political side

Considers psychology in its socio-political setting. A short Epilogue follows.

Key Concepts

Chapters 1–8: History

• Scientific revolution and its aftermath: the seventeenth-century background of modern ideas about knowledge.
• Independent discipline: the establishment of psychology as an academic field.
• Behaviourism and cognitive psychology: the movements that strengthened psychology's scientific standing.
• Applied psychology: the history of psychology in everyday life.

Chapters 7 and 9–13: Concepts and the nature of science

• Mind–brain problem, free will and consciousness: the philosophical questions behind psychological explanation.
• What is science?: the philosophical question used to assess psychology.
• Quantitative and qualitative methods: two kinds of research and their contributions.
• Biological, psychological and social influences: levels of explanation that need balancing.
• Replication and open science: added in the third edition.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• History and concepts in one book. The contents combine a chronological history (Chapters 1–8) with conceptual chapters on the philosophy of science, methods and the levels of explanation (Chapters 9–13), so that a reader gets the background and the debates together.
• Primary sources and people. The publisher lists excerpts from original texts and profiles of key figures, which give students contact with the sources and people behind the narrative.
• Active learning features. Each chapter has "myth busting" boxes and discussion questions, which turn the book into a basis for seminars and essays.
• Currency on replication. The publisher says every chapter reflects the newest findings, with particular attention to findings that have not stood up to replication tests, and the third edition has a new chapter on the replication crisis and open science.

Limitations

• Breadth over depth. Thirteen chapters span ancient philosophy to present-day debates, so each period or problem gets a chapter, not a monograph; readers who want the detail on one episode will need specialist histories or primary sources.
• Philosophy kept at an introductory level. The conceptual chapters introduce the philosophy of science for psychology students; a reader who wants a technical treatment of explanation or mental representation needs a philosophy text.
• Introductory in intent. The publisher presents the book as an engaging introduction and as essential reading for undergraduate psychology students, so it is not a graduate-level or specialist treatise.
• Edition-dependent. The replication discussion is tied to the third edition (2021), and the field has moved since.

Where It Fits in the Course

In the introductory psychology list, this is the reflective companion to the broad surveys. Psychology 2e from OpenStax is a free survey from history and research methods through biology, learning, memory, development, personality, social behaviour, stress and disorders; Myers and DeWall's Psychology is a comprehensive survey textbook with research methods and critical thinking throughout; Gleitman, Fridlund and Reisberg's Psychology is a broad introduction; and Butler and McManus's Psychology: A Very Short Introduction is a compact tour of psychology as a science. Those books teach what psychologists have found; Brysbaert and Rastle ask where the discipline came from and what kind of knowledge it produces, so they are best read after, or alongside, one of the surveys.

Weiskopf and Adams's An Introduction to the Philosophy of Psychology examines the conceptual foundations of scientific psychology, including what psychological explanation is, how psychology relates to neuroscience, whether the mind is modular, and what concepts and mental representations are. Its themes overlap with Brysbaert and Rastle's chapters on the mind–brain problem and on the balance of levels of explanation, and it is the natural next step for a reader who wants a more philosophical treatment of the conceptual side.

How to Use This Book

The book suits undergraduates who have completed a broad introduction to psychology, and anyone teaching or taking a course in the history and conceptual foundations of the discipline. The publisher describes it as essential reading for undergraduate psychology students.

A practical plan:

• Core: Chapters 4 and 5 for the emergence of psychology as a science and the movements that shaped it, and Chapters 9 and 10 for the central question, what science is and whether psychology is one.
• For the history: read Chapters 1–3 as background, or skim them for a short course and spend time on Chapters 6 and 8.
• For conceptual debates: Chapter 7 (mind, free will, consciousness), then Chapters 11–13, which look at methods, levels of explanation and psychology's place in society.
• Study aids: use the discussion questions as essay or seminar prompts and the myth-busting boxes as a check on common misconceptions. Read the excerpts from original texts closely, since they are the primary sources for the arguments that follow.