Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables and Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Boundaries of the Mind
- PART ONE DISCIPLINING THE INDIVIDUAL AND THE MIND
- 1 The Individual in the Fragile Sciences
- 2 Individuals, Psychology, and the Mind
- 3 Nativism on My Mind
- PART TWO INDIVIDUALISM AND EXTERNALISM IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF MIND AND THE COGNITIVE SCIENCES
- PART THREE THINKING THROUGH AND BEYOND THE BODY
- PART FOUR THE COGNITIVE METAPHOR IN THE BIOLOGICAL AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
- Notes
- References
- Index
2 - Individuals, Psychology, and the Mind
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables and Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Boundaries of the Mind
- PART ONE DISCIPLINING THE INDIVIDUAL AND THE MIND
- 1 The Individual in the Fragile Sciences
- 2 Individuals, Psychology, and the Mind
- 3 Nativism on My Mind
- PART TWO INDIVIDUALISM AND EXTERNALISM IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF MIND AND THE COGNITIVE SCIENCES
- PART THREE THINKING THROUGH AND BEYOND THE BODY
- PART FOUR THE COGNITIVE METAPHOR IN THE BIOLOGICAL AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
- Notes
- References
- Index
Summary
PSYCHOLOGY AMONGST THE FRAGILE SCIENCES
In Chapter 1, I identified psychology as one of the fragile sciences. It is the science of the mind. Historically, psychology developed as the institutional home for the scientific study of the mind in a variety of dimensions, including cognitive, biological, and social dimensions. Along with these distinct aspects to the mind, psychology has also encompassed many different organizing theories or paradigms. Consider just those that have structured research within the cognitive dimension to psychology. These range from introspectionism, Gestalt psychology, and behaviorism in the first half of the recent history of psychology, to computationally based paradigms, such as the “rules and representations” approach that began the cognitive revolution in the 1950s, and connectionism and dynamic systems theory that have challenged that approach more recently.
The contemporary discipline of psychology – sprawling, heterogeneous, and perhaps unitary in only the most attenuated of senses – is the result of this ecumenical and paradigm-shifting history. Departments of psychology in major research institutions are characteristically organized into divisions or subfields whose descriptive adjectives – such as cognitive, developmental, social, perceptual, decision making, clinical, quantitative, and personality – correspond to clusters of research interests, publication venues, and professional organizations. These divisions frequently carry with them distinct courses, degree requirements, hiring procedures, graduate admissions policies, and laboratory and seminar meetings.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Boundaries of the MindThe Individual in the Fragile Sciences - Cognition, pp. 27 - 49Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2004