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Building a Library of Psychology
Whether you are a beginning Psychology
student, a new Ph.D.,
or a veteran Professor, building your own library of
Psychology texts
and references is a pleasure all its own. Whether your
library is at
home or in your office, having some of the original works at
your
finger tips allows you the opportunity to see what was actually
said,
not what someone thought they said.
In our home, I have a special reading
spot in a 150 year old over
stuffed rocker. It is a great place to curl up
with the proverbial
good book. Over the years, we have acquired hundreds of
wonderful books, but I am most proud of my little collection
of original
books from some of the greatest thinkers in Psychology.
In addition to
textbooks in most of the fields of Psychology,
I have collected a few of
special interest to me.
"The psychologist Geoff Miller has
called it a 'paradigm shift':
the restoration of human nature into
discussions of human
behaviour, political policy and social
organisation. Where once
the idea of human nature was treated with
suspicion and ridicule,
today there is barely a human activity for
which someone does not
have an evolutionary account....Pinker's
reputation both as one
of the finest science writers of his generation
and as a
swashbuckling champion of evolutionary psychology and the
computational theory of mind."
(exerpts from
Kenan
Malik's review)
Here are more samples from my library:
In Principles of Psychology,
William James discusses
habit,
the nature of emotion, the phenomenology of attention,
the
stream of thought, the perception of space, and the
multiplicity of
self. His conclusions are still widely cited and
incorporated into contemporary
theoretical accounts of these
phenomena.
_________________________________________________
B.F. Skinner
B. F. Skinner's
Behavior of Organisms
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Sigmund Freud
Freud's Interpretation of Dreams
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My William James
Section:
William James' Talks to Teachers on Psychology
-- In my
humble opinion, one of James' most interesting and personal
works.
This is an inexpensive addition to anyone's psychology library.
William James' Human Immortality
William James' The Will to Believe
William James' The Meaning of Truth
-- the sequel to
Pragmatism
William James' Pragmatism --
When we describe someone as
'pragmatic', we are referring to concepts
defined in this work.
William James' Principles of Psychology (~600 pages) nicknamed
the 'Jimmy". As one can imagine, there was a great demand for
an 'Essentials' version of his full length, ground breaking book.
William James' Principles of Psychology 1890 (~1400 pages)
nicknamed the 'James'. This great two volume textbook was the
standard
from the first edition in the US in 1890 (Britain 1891) until
long past
its final edition in the 1930's. If one peruses the table
of contents, the
basic structure is very similar to many of
today's Introductory Psychology
textbooks.
For a revealing look into the life and
times of William James allow
me to recommend:
the
William
James web site
by Frank Pajares of
Emory
University
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George Ladd
What we most often refer to today as
"biological psychology" was
referred to as "physiological psychology" for
over a hundred years.
William James referenced Dr. Ladd's textbook a number of
times in
his pivotal work.
Ladd's Physiological Psychology 1878
Ladd taught
at Yale from 1881 until his retirement in 1906.
Influenced by Hermann Lotze, he worked primarily in experimental
psychology and founded the
psychology laboratory at Yale."
On
to More Of My Library!
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