History and Systems of Psychology

The scope of this book is summarized in terms of the basic issues that have historically confronted psychology. The five systems of psychology -- psychoanalysis, Gestalt psychology, the third force movement, behaviorism, and cognitive psychology -- have been compared along critical areas of neo-functional applications and extensions of psychology as well as the enduring questions. The result points to the relationship between psychology and science, and in particular, the problems resulting from a reliance on materialistic empiricism. Psychology as a theoretical discipline has suffered from the disagreements and controversies since its formal definition in the 1870s. Yet during this time, psychology has been successful as an applied science.