Special Edition Celebrates A Centenary Of Psychological Research

Main Category: Psychology / Psychiatry
Article Date: 15 Jun 2009 - 2:00 PDT

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The British Journal of Psychology has reached its 100th edition, and the British Psychological Society is celebrating with the publication of a special edition containing some of the seminal papers that have been published within its pages since 1904.

The special edition contains a selection of papers which have proved to be milestones in psychological theory and research, shaping the subject and influencing future psychologists.

'La causalite´ chez l'enfant' or 'Children's understanding of causality' by Jean Piaget was first published in the British Journal of Psychology in 1928, and this is the first English translation of this paper. The theory outlined within shaped developmental psychology, theorising as it did that infants' cognitive development progresses through distinct stages in which they exhibit distinct common patterns of cognition.

The paper 'Personality Structure and Measurement II' by Raymond B. Cattell is also included in this special edition as it was first published in the British Journal of Psychology in 1946. This paper formed part of Cattell's work examining the relationship between traits of ability, motivation and affect.

John Watson's 1920 paper; 'Is thinking merely the actions of language mechanisms?' re-published in this celebratory edition raised the controversial idea that thinking required language, and that the movements of the larynx observed in the production of language were necessary for thought. This paper provides an excellent example of Watson's philosophy of psychology - 'behaviorism'.

The importance of these papers is supported by commentaries from leading lights in psychology today, whose work has been influenced by them.

Commenting on Piaget's paper, Michael J. Chandler, from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver said: "It is impossible - or at least it was impossible for me - to read the translation of 'La causalite´ chez l'enfant' without being charmed, and without wondering anew what gift allowed Piaget to so consistently catch us unaware with previously unheard of 'facts' about childhood - facts that, once brought to light, suddenly seem to snap into focus and to become irrepressibly true."

In his commentary on the paper by Raymond B Cattell, Philip Ackerman from the Georgia Institute of Technology said: "From the time of his first publication in 1928 through the next 60 or so years, one dominant theme emerged from his writings. That theme was to bring together the three major domains of individual differences into a single overarching framework."

In his commentary on the paper by John Watson, Geoffrey Hall from the University of York said; "That Watson's theorizing should be the object of such sustained and serious attention may seem surprising. Of particular derision was his suggestion that thinking consists of subvocal laryngeal activity. However, we can detect what we say and the feedback produced is likely to be influential in determining the next pattern of activity we emit. The view of Watson that 'our whole body does the thinking' contains what may be an important truth."

'Visually controlled locomotion and visual orientation in animals' by James J. Gibson, first published in 1958, and 'Feeling, imaging and thinking' by F. C. Bartlett, first published in 1925 complete the special edition.

Source
The British Psychological Society