Description
Book SynopsisThemes, Issues and Debates in Psychology presents an integrated view of Psychology by identifying underlying themes (such as the scientific nature of Psychology, cultural and gender differences), issues (ethical, methodological and conceptual), and debates (such as heredity vs. environment, free will vs. determinism, normality vs. abnormality) which permeate the discipline as a whole.
The text adopts a critical approach to mainstream Psychology', attempting to identify and challenge some of the underlying assumptions that are traditionally made about human nature' and how it can be investigated in ways based on the scientific study of the natural world. What makes Psychology unique is the view of Psychologists as part of their own subject-matter: trying to study other people cannot be done by copying the methods of the physicist or chemist. Psychology draws on and brings together a number of different theories and methodologies from a wide range of other disciplines,
Table of Contents
1 The person as Psychologist
2 Psychology as science
3 The idiographic and nomothetic approaches to the study of behaviour
4 Traits and situations as causes of behaviour
5 What should the subject-matter of Psychology be?
6 Psychology and ethics
7 Consciousness and the mind-brain relationship
8 Free will and determinism
9 Normality and abnormality
10 Positive Psychology
11 Heredity and environment
12 Sex and gender issues in Psychology
13 Cultural issues in Psychology
14 Parapsychology
15 Psychology, religion and spirituality
